Yes, we all remember that song sung by Freddie Mercury, performed by the rock group Queen, “Another One Bites the Dust.”
One week ago, the Commonwealth of Virginia went to the polls to elect a new General Assembly. The results of that election are very disconcerting for anyone who believes in our fundamental principles of individual liberty, freedom, over the onerous intrusion of the institution of government.
In this past week, I have had countless calls from my dear friends in Virginia with a simple admonishment — do not allow the progressive socialist left to overtake Texas. Fear not, that ain’t gonna happen on my watch.
However, there is something more interesting about what happened a week ago in Virginia, especially as we reflect on Veterans Day, the day we celebrate all of those who have been willing to make the “last full measure of devotion” to our great Nation, our Constitutional Republic.
And so I am pondering — how would all those Veterans from our Revolutionary War gaze upon this nation today? You know, the one they sacrificed for, pledged their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor to establish, these United States of America.
Consider two of the most integral states in the founding of America, Massachusetts and Virginia, and what they represent today. These are the states that produced profound men and women who dedicated their tireless efforts to gift us with a Nation based upon the ideal that our unalienable individual rights emanate from our Creator God, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (property).
Somehow, we, in just 244 years, have drifted away from those foundational principles to believe now in collective subjugation under the rule of an elitist group who believes that they are the granters and takers of our individual rights.
What would John Adams think of today’s Massachusetts that was his home? What would Abigail Adams tell American women today who believe that the most important freedom there is, is the freedom to murder an unborn baby? What would Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty say to a commonwealth that now has some of the most stringent gun control laws in our country (Massachusetts)?
I suppose today’s elected officials in Massachusetts fail to realize that the British were marching to destroy a weapons and armaments factory in Concord, when brave men, patriots, took to Lexington Green and fired upon them.
Those men then, and some of us still today, realized that armed individuals are citizens, unarmed ones are subjects. So, what the British failed to enact 245 years ago, the progressive socialist left is marching towards today, in our America.
In Virginia, home of the authors of our Declaration of Independence and our U.S. Constitution, both rejected by leftists, Governor Ralph “Blackface” Northam has already declared that his first objective with legislative leftist majorities is gun control. And I am quite sure his next priority will be making Virginia a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants…a violation of the sovereignty of our America, which some fought so hard to attain.
Perhaps Gov. Northam should be reminded of these quotes from some very esteemed Virginians — men of far superior character and intellect than what he has displayed.
“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”
— Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Constitution, Draft 1, 1776
“The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”
— Thomas Jefferson, Commonplace Book (quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria), 1774-1776
“I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers.”
— George Mason, Address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 4, 1788
“The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country.”
— James Madison, I Annals of Congress 434, June 8, 1789
“A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves…and include, according to the past and general usuage of the states, all men capable of bearing arms… “To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.”
— Richard Henry Lee, Federal Farmer No. 18, January 25, 1788
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined…. The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun.”
— Patrick Henry, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1778
Now of course, the response from the progressive socialist left will be that these men were nothing more than old, white slave owners. Aren’t the situational ethics of the left very comical? These men, whose fundamental principles are rejected, are supplanted by today’s real racists who parade around in blackface.
As well, how interesting that these leftists believe that their ideological agenda forms the basis of “individual rights”…right to own a home, free healthcare, free college, murdering unborn babies, and marriage. Yet, those rights enshrined in our Bill of Rights, in our rule of law, the US Constitution, well, those are not really rights if they are not in agreement with the left’s perspectives, views, and yes, tyranny.
On this Veterans Day holiday, think about those original thirteen colonies that took on the greatest might the world knew at that time, the British empire. They did so because they did not want to be ruled, but rather as free individuals, be governed. Now, how many of those original thirteen colonies, States, have fallen to the like tyranny of the progressive socialist left in America…Virginia did last week.
And, as it was then, it is today, King George III wanted our forefathers disarmed. King Ralph Northam is seeking the same, for the same reason…to turn citizens into subjects.
This column was originally published at CNSNews.
The views expressed in CCNS member articles are not necessarily the views or positions of the entire CCNS. They are the views of the authors, who are members of the CCNS.
