By The Dissident Dad: I remember proudly singing this as a child at school, pounding my heart with a closed right fist as we sang that verse. I remember learning about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and about the Sons of Liberty. British colonists who were mad as hell about a distant central government taxing their income between 1% and 2%, plus additional taxes on sugar trade and tea.These Americans wanted liberty. They wanted self-governance.
Not without their flaws, like all of us. They still had slavery, but certainly, during a period of history where everyone was merely a subject to the king, these guys were taking a giant step in the right direction. Unfortunately, that America, the one we are sold on and sing to as school children, is dead.
Today, we live under a regime that wants up to 35% of our income. On what is left of our earnings, we pay taxes on everything from our daily purchases to our real estate holdings. We are even forced to do businesses with private health insurance companies or pay a fine.
President George Washington ran a central government with a population of 4 million people. President Obama runs a central government with a workforce of 4.5 million people (excluding private contractors and consultants), and a population of just under 320 million.
The America of the past is no more. As Jeff Deist, President of the Mises Institute, recently stated, the America we were all taught and told about is a foreign nation.
When teaching my children about American history, I want to be as open and honest as possible. Part of that lesson for myself has been letting it go. All the qualities about America’s old self that I personally enjoy celebrating shouldn’t be confused with the country I live in today. However, I don’t want to simply erase or forget all of those great qualities from our history. Just as the current government is not deserving of being associated with the past, Ben Franklin doesn’t deserve to be lumped in with the sociopaths thieving and pillaging from our capital today.
Making it a point to teach our kids about the old America — as well as the value of liberty generally — is something my wife and I plan to focus on. It’s easy in today’s world to just hate the current system and tie it all to government, which I probably did for a short time. There’s also quite a bit of truth to the notion that “you get the government you deserve.”
As I write this, a headline just came across my screen, “Texas students forced to expose underwear for inspection.” The state clearly believes it is all-powerful, which I believe is its greatest weakness. Hopefully incidences like this one will ultimately be written about in history books as some of the catalysts that lead to such outrage that it ushered in real change.
King George thought he was all-powerful, and the Sons of Liberty faced what seemed an impossible battle, yet they persevered in the end. I hope to teach my children about this previous generation of Americans so that they know with certainty what a small group of determined and courageous people can accomplish.
The state is not all-powerful. That’s what they want us to believe, because this very belief is what gives them their power. If the ideas of liberty can reach a brain like mine, which was pounded for decades with propaganda, a former George W. Bush donor, I can only imagine what it can do for a person who sees the propaganda for what it is on day one of their adult lives.
Good luck to all you parents out there. The current environment is tough, but it is also ripe to teach your kids about liberty. I hope you accept the challenge.
Meanwhile, check out my recent video:
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