1-13-25

One week from today folks…..one week from today we get to find out…..we get to

find out if freedom is back on the menu…..Donald J. Trump and his second

administration comes back into office…..some of the old players and a host of new

ones….and I’ll be honest, this one feels far more mission oriented…..and we will

get to watch, and hope, and experience, what happens when all the campaign

rhetoric, the social media postings, the interviews, the rallys, all come together to

become actual actions…..we get to watch as the effort gets underway to right the

ship of state….It’s going to be something to see, and to be honest, there’s nowhere

to go but up…..Freedom took a beating these past few years….it’s hard to believe

that Covid lockdowns, vaccine mandates, 40 year inflation highs, 40 year military

recruiting lows, economic crashes, government spending billions to make the

private sector less private, lawfare, Jan 6 commission, the rise of the transgender

agenda, DEI, ESG, BLM riots, embarrassment on the world stage, war in the

middle east…..all of that happened in just 4 years….and I’m not sure I scratched

the surface…..but my sincere hope is that the new Trump administration will take

everything back in spades….and that once again all things will start and end with

freedom as the goal…..because the only way to end up with freedom is to start

with freedom….

So yeah, I’m a conservative…..I say it every day on this show multiple times:

“solid, conservative, and just plain right!”…..what is that? …. A what?.....you

heard me….a conservative….. what’s that mean? Does that mean I vote

Republican? It’s more than that…..the bottom line is that if the Democrat party

was the one that stood for things like smaller government, less spending, lower

taxes, traditional values, constitutional rights, strong national defense, the rule of

law……Well, then I would be voting Democrat…..but they don’t….but if you just

heard me there you will have caught on to the fact that being a conservative is far

more than just a party, or a vote….its about principle.

My goal in doing this show every single day has always been that each one of you

listening find yourself educated, empowered, enlightened, entertained…..able to

walk away from any given show and have those conversations about life that you

are then even more ready for……able to not only believe what you believe but to

explain it…..it is very common to have a true belief that is rooted deep in your

core…. Like the fact that you know you’re a conservative…..the trick comes in

knowing how to put that in words…. how to express that in a way that makes

sense…..how do you describe what you know you believe in a way you could say

it off the cuff …..at the drop of a hat….and have it make sense to others?

Really ya’ll…..It’s not enough to just think or say “I’m a conservative” and shake

our fists in the air…..we have to be able to give an adequate explanation.

So yes, I’m a conservative…..because I believe in limited government…..and the

strict construction of our US Constitution…..and fiscal conservatism in the form of

lower taxation and govt spending, and all of those things…..but today I’m going to

spend some time unpacking what I believe a conservative position should be on the

question of freedom…..real freedom….the very basis for who we are as a

nation…..

I’ve been to places who didn’t have what we have….where freedom was just a

notion….in the beginning of the war in Afghanistan an Afghan farmer told me

once that for years the Taliban were in charge and it did not rain he said….but

“then the Americans came, and it rained”…..I saw Iraqi men in Baghdad who put

their lives on the line just for the effort to be elected officials trying to bring

freedom to their country……They were heroes in my book….men who simply

wanted freedom for their people. Something they knew little about because they

had never had it.

The concept or notion of freedom is what makes America unique in the history of

the world…..it is a part of the actual character of our nation….intended that way by

the founders who embedded in our founding documents that “in order to form a

more perfect union”…..that we should “secure the blessings of liberty”.

I saw a clip once of an MSNBC commentator who opined that Americans have a

long history of being too “freedom obsessed”……he obviously missed the whole

point….. we are not a nation of individuals some of whom are obsessed with

freedom….. we are a nation because of freedom….. Freedom is both instinctual

and intentional…..it is not just who we are as a nation….it is why we are as a

nation.

Any and all decisions made by govt which have the potential to limit the daily

activities of citizens of this great nation must be reviewed and voted on from the

starting point of freedom first and measured against the guarantees of freedom

enumerated in our Constitution……To be sure there are always restrictions on

personal liberty…..restrictions on freedoms…..part of life…..we cannot commit

murder….we cannot steal property…..drafts of soldiers in war to “provide for the

common defense”…..measured against the constitution those things and some

others will withstand constitutional scrutiny…..But not every attempt to curtail

personal liberty by govt makes sense…..not every good idea by a local school

board….a mayor’s office….a governor…..a president…..can withstand

constitutional scrutiny…..Abraham Lincoln once said : “We the people are the

rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution

but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”…..Lincoln also said:

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our

freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

Why is that so important…..well go ask anyone who has ever lived under tyranny.

There’s many of them here…..they came here….to escape…..to come to a place

that puts value on individual opinions….the right to assemble….the right to

speak….the right to own property…..ask them what they left behind….

Ask the people who came to the US in the mariel boat lift from Cuba…..to escape

a dictatorship…..ask those who escaped the Khmer Rouge killing fields in

Cambodia…..go read one of my favorite books Escape from Camp 14 about life in

North Korea…..

I am a conservative because I place value on freedom….. I could leave this country

any time I wanted to…..but I place value on the concepts that all men are created

equal….I have more than once pledged myself to uphold and defend the

Constitution of these United States….

I am a conservative because I believe that NOT every neat idea had by government

to cure some ill…..force some issue….change some aspect of daily living….is a

good idea…..because of freedom……

I also believe that I am a conservative because I have the freedom to fail…..to live

and to try….to sweat and to toil….to dream and to forge those dreams….to expend

every ounce of who I am and what I have…..and to know what it means to fail and

still know that it is not the end…..because I have freedom.

I am a conservative because I believe that freedom is worth fighting for….speaking

out for…..acting for….defending at every turn and against all enemies….foreign

and domestic…..

I am a conservative because I believe that if we give up a little bit of freedom

without questioning why….. that we have in fact just allowed apathy to override

our responsibility…..

You’ve all heard the speech from Braveheart…..yes, I’m going there….because it

is true…..

“William Wallace’s character asked his fellow Scotsmen:

“What would you do without freedom? Will you fight?

On man replied: Fight? Against that? No, we will run; and we will live.

Wallace : Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you'll live -- at least a while. And

dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the

days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and

tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!

I am a conservative…..not just for freedom…..but because of freedom.

And next week a new administration is sworn in….to work alongside a new

Congress and a new Senate….we have an opportunity here …..we can’t blow

this….but to make it all work the new team in DC needs to always start with

freedom…..

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way