True Americanism
True Americanism
Fulfilling the Promise of the Founders
The principles of True Americanism are not historical curiosities. They are living, breathing ideals that demand constant vigilance and active defense. We face a choice: accept oligarchy dressed as democracy, or reclaim the revolutionary promise that power serves the people—not rules them.
From conservative roots to a new understanding of American principles
I am a child of the Bicentennial, born in 1776's shadow. I was forged in a household where "conservative" was an understatement; my father proudly called himself a "Radical Right-Wing Extremist."
I've sat in militia meetings. I marched with the Patriot movement in Indianapolis. I have owned "assault rifles," carried an NRA card, and voted for Pat Buchanan. I don't just understand the Second Amendment; I lived the culture that defines it.
Judge those roots as you will.
Through it all, the Founders were our silent houseguests. While other teenagers were reading novels, I was immersed in the Federalist Papers, John Locke, and Blackstone's Common Law. I was raised to believe that the founding of this country wasn't just history—it was a blueprint for how a people should live.
For years, I drifted away from those old books. But as the world began to fracture, I found myself drawn back. I returned to the Declaration, to Thomas Paine, and eventually to John Adams' Thoughts on Government.
What I found there shook me.
I had memorized the Declaration at age sixteen, but I realized I had been glossing over its most revolutionary concept: the "Pursuit of Happiness." I was wrong about what it meant. The Founders weren't being vague.
"We ought to consider what is the end of government, before we determine which is the best form… the form of government which communicates ease, comfort, security, or, in one word, happiness, to the greatest number of persons, and in the greatest degree, is the best."— John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776
Adams was the man who championed Jefferson as the author of our Great Declaration. He was in the room when those words were born. It is impossible to believe he intended any other definition. This isn't a departure from our founding principles. It is the fulfillment of them.
True Liberty isn't just the absence of a master; it is the presence of dignity.
Every person is born equal to every other person. This doesn't mean we are identical in talent or drive, but we are absolutely equal in our humanity. This is the bedrock.
We do not honor the Founders by excusing their failures; we honor them by fulfilling the universal truths they identified but could not complete.
Life: Not just a heartbeat, but the means to sustain it. Liberty: Unobstructed action within limits drawn by the equal rights of others. Happiness: The attainment of ease, comfort, and security.
These rights limit and define each other. If one is missing, the whole thing collapses into ruin.
Thomas Paine observed that when people build communities, "man becomes what he ought. He sees his species, not with the inhuman idea of a natural enemy, but as kindred."
My liberty to succeed cannot come at the cost of your security to live. We are kindred, not enemies.
Thomas Paine wrote: "In America, THE LAW IS KING." Power flows upward from the people. Any concentration of power—whether in a government office or a corporate boardroom—must serve rather than rule.
Our representatives should have calluses on their hands, not their hearts.
Understanding the true nature of value, wealth, and economic justice
Time is money. We've all heard this phrase. But we've never really examined what it means. Let's flip it: Money is crystallized human time and effort. Every dollar represents someone's finite hours of life converted into exchangeable form.
This equation is inescapable. Nothing has economic value without labor creating it first. That labor creates nothing of value without meeting demand.
When you hold a smartphone, you aren't just holding glass and silicon; you are holding thousands of crystallized human hours—the rare-earth miner, the factory worker, the engineer who missed dinners with their family.
When someone has a billion dollars, they haven't "earned more"—they've extracted and crystallized millions of hours of other people's labor. That's entire lifetimes—generations of human effort—controlled by one person.
When excessive wealth accumulates in few hands, Value drops across the economy because Demand cannot match the available Labor. This isn't theory—it's what happened before every major economic collapse.
The "Pursuit of Happiness" isn't a drain on our resources—it is the purpose of our Union.
Social Security is not a gift from the government; it is a practical fulfillment of what Adams defined as happiness. During your working years, you invest your Labor and Time into the Republic. Social Security ensures that after your Time to work has been spent, that Value is returned to you.
It is the most honest contract in America: I contribute my Labor and Time now, and the Republic insures my dignity later. It is the Social Contract in its ultimate form.
The "Pursuit of Happiness" is a cruel joke if a single diagnosis can wipe out your family's entire economic foundation. If we truly believe that "all are created equal," then the right to life must include the right to the care that sustains life.
For-profit insurance companies don't provide the Labor (doctors do); they don't give you back your Time (science does). They simply sit at the junction and siphon off the Value.
Thomas Paine wrote: "All accumulation of personal property, beyond what a man's own hands produce, is derived to him by living in society; and he owes on every principle of justice… a part of that accumulation back again to society."
Providing for the General Welfare isn't a "handout"—it is the payment of a debt to the society that made success possible.
A child whose life is defined by Insecurity is a child whose Labor and Time are being wasted on survival rather than growth. When we provide a school lunch, we are providing the Ease and Security required for them to learn.
If we can find money to bail out a bank, we can ensure no American child spends their Time focused on the ache in their stomach instead of the lesson on the board.
We find ourselves in a time of profound crisis. The very foundations of our Republic are under assault. A new class of oligarchs, protected by the politicians they have bought, has launched an all-out attack on the rule of law.
Make no mistake: this is not normal partisan gamesmanship. This is a direct threat to the soul of our nation. The Founders warned us about the dangers of concentrated power. A tyrant is not just a man in a crown; a tyrant is anyone who puts himself above the law and his bank account above We the People.
The promise of a True America is not a given; it is a choice. It is a challenge to each generation to make real the vision of a nation where all are free and all have the security to pursue a future of dignity.
"A Republic, if you can keep it." — Benjamin Franklin
I do not ascribe to Republican nor Democrat, Left nor Right, liberal nor conservative.
I ascribe to only what is beneficial for a truly American society.
I believe that parties exist to drive us apart.
I believe that all people are equal at birth.
I believe that all people have rights that are inalienable, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
I believe that all people within a society have a responsibility to each other in both political liberty, and economic justice.
I believe that the power inherent within we the people should serve we the people, not rule them.
I believe that economic justice is equally important and necessary for a just and civil society as political liberty.