“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Words matter. Labels matter more
A man once told me that his trick to becoming a great baseball player was to become an umpire. He said he was a decent baseball player at first, who became far better when he also became an umpire.
The same advice applies to citizenship.
How engaged can a citizen be without a basic understanding of the rulebook for Americans – the Unites States Constitution? It is precisely the lack of understanding of the Constitution, specifically the Bill of Rights, that has allowed an erosion of those rights for generation after generation. We need to take responsibility now, before it is too late. The fundamental process of rejecting imposed labels is Step 1 in that fight.
There is a basic confusion about political ideology that presupposes a fallacy. This assumption has the “left” on one side and the “right” on another, with “moderates” in the middle. None of those labels are correct.
The terms “left” and “right” come from the French monarchy. The idea was, if you were with the king (the centralized/statist government), you sat on the right in parliament. If you opposed the king and stood for liberty, you were on the left.
To suggest that those on the “right” (conservatives) favor a powerful king is derisory. This axiom falls apart. Similarly, to suggest that statists who seek ever-expanding government (who include socialists and communists in their ranks) are for liberty, or on the “left,” is also ridiculous. Where then do we put anarchists? And what is a centrist, under this imposed and impaired presumption of labels?
