With our Declaration of Independence, the United States of America became the first country that was founded on the principle that its government be instituted to secure the unalienable rights of its citizens. We have come a long way from a bold statement of principle to the true and practical application of this ideal, overcoming many obstacles. Just when we are able to become most free, we have lost our way. We have lost our way to freedom and liberty, as our truest wish has been to be free of responsibility, at liberty to indulge ourselves at the cost of others. We welcome in a new servant, which in the end will be our master.

Our great country has experienced the institution of slavery first hand. The humiliating degradation and subjugation of our fellow man echoes within our national conscience. The specter of shame still haunts the heirs of America, while the bitter injustice of slavery is passed down through the centuries as an inheritance. Have we unwittingly entered a new era of tyranny with another incarnation of this vile institution?

New slavers come to us today disguised as kind patrons, here to help us in our time of need, breathing sweet lies in our faces that leave us choking on their falsehood. Like the last generation of slave masters, they too are genteel, secure in their great houses where we may enter only to serve or pay homage. They see themselves as a greater sort, from the greatest halls of learning. Though having been given the admiration of many, their actions belie their words. They tell us what we most need to hear, only to slip new chains of law around our wrists and ankles, that they may soon load us onto their ship of fools that sails for Pleasure Island on the next red tide.

So we give up some freedom to our Washington betters, but like kind fathers, we can surely trust that they will keep us safe, can’t we? The wealth they redistribute will save us all, any time now. As we hear more and more about our money being used for the benefit of shadowy others, the truth comes into sharpening focus. We have been caught in a trap! We will not get anything for free, we will not be saved, and worst of all, we will not be the masters of our destiny. We will be subjects – no, we will be less; slaves. Slaves to a socialist vision of America where one is forced to fulfill the dreams of another.

The British economist and author Herbert Spencer said it well back in 1884 "All socialism involves slavery.... That which fundamentally distinguishes the slave is that he labors under coercion to satisfy another's desires..... Oppressive taxation is a form of slavery of the individual, to the community as a whole. The essential question is - How much is he compelled to labor for benefit other than his own, and how much can he labor for his own benefit?"

Our founders considered socialist practices unconstitutional, and rightly so. While masquerading as compassionate, it is in the end parasitic. The list of nations who have learned this bitter truth is long. Webster's dictionary describes socialism as "governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods" - Consider our auto industry, our banking industry, and soon our health care and insurance industries. It is also "a system of society or group living in which there is no private property" - What property exists that will not be taken? and finally, it is "a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism."

Are we slaves yet? We are not! Not to the indolent, and not to the self serving political employees we hired who are even now dismantling this nation, dividing its people, and trampling the Constitution they swore to defend. Welcome to tyranny, and welcome to their vision for America, the very opposite of the dream of liberty our founders died for. But it is never too late. Wake up! Find out what is going on. Learn. Teach. Take action!

For if we do not repair the ramparts of our once free Republic, this usurping horde will surely own our children. -

The Mysterious Ranger - Free Range Patriots