By Robert F. Sanchez, JMI Policy DirectorTags: Holiday, Founding Fathers, LibertyDuring this Independence Day weekend, nobody should begrudge Americans their right to enjoy the picnics, fireworks, ball games, and other summer rituals that have become associated with our nation’s celebration of the Fourth of July. These are but some of the blessings of our liberty.Likewise, nobody should forget the origins of our liberty. We are able to enjoy it today only because of the courage of our nation’s founders. They pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the cause of creating a new nation dedicated to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.This new nation was based on the then-radical idea that the government should serve the people, not vice versa. Indeed, the Revolutionary War that culminated in America’s independence began with a Tea Party revolt against a tyrannical monarch’s arbitrary laws and unfair taxation.Since then countless other brave men and women have fought to preserve and perfect the form of government that our nation’s founders created. Now it’s this generation’s turn. And the challenge may be as great as any our nation has faced because, this time, our liberty and our way of life are threatened less by enemies from abroad than by troubling trends within our own society – trends that sometimes sneak up on us.As James Madison warned, “I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” As usual, he was right.
