Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of Freedom's Creed. Today is March the thirtieth, twenty twenty two. Hope you're having a fabulous day and a wonderful week. I'm beginning season two of the podcast. That's right. It's hard to believe that a year has passed, but I'm excited about it, and I'm looking forward to expanding the reach of the podcast, and I think with your help, naturally, that it'll happen. So I'm excited to be here, excited to be doing this. I'm really super not gonna say excited again because I've said that twice already, but I'm really, really happy to talk about American exceptionalism today. That is the primary topic of the podcast today. I'll be talking about a couple of other things to go along with that. So let's do it. What do you think of or what comes to mind when you hear the term American exceptionalism? Oftentimes in our society, because of all of the self-proclaimed wordsmiths out there, and I might just for full disclosure, admit that I'm a bit of a wordsmith myself, and that I have this idea that words mean things, and so we should adhere to that. But I think many terms in our society, in our vocabulary, the the term American exceptionalism, even, is also, I think, been one of those terms that have been somewhat bastardized by our society. So I hope to give to you a little bit of insight into the way I think about American exceptionalism and how I really think that it's a term that applies to everyone who was either born in this country or or who came to this country from another country. Generally, the term speaks to American values, a political system, or its role in the world. The term American exceptionalism doesn't necessarily mean better. It just means different, I think. And of course, one can find a myriad of definitions of American exceptionalism, some of which are not so admirable, but my focus today is going to be on the exceptionalism that is embodied in our founding documents, specifically the Bill of Rights. In his writings on democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville is the one who actually coined the phrase, or at least it's accepted that he is the one that coined the phrase American exceptionalism. And I believe it was around 1831 that he wrote this book called Democracy in America. The term has been around for quite a long time, but as I mentioned earlier, with the passage of time and how much more and I'm putting air quotes here on the word enlightened we have become, the term American exceptionalism has, as I said, been bastardized, and that's my opinion. You may or may not agree with that, and you know what? That's okay. Think about this though. Until the US Constitution, there had never been a set of beliefs relative to self-determination in any other government or constitution, creed or canon until the US Constitution. Think of this, that in all the history of recorded time, there had never been a constitution, something written down that talked about the individuality of rights, and that these rights don't emanate from man, but emanate from God. In talking about American exceptionalism today, I'm not necessarily speaking of our military might, our modern politics, our overabundance or lack thereof, of inherent goodness. Obviously, there are inherently good people the world over. We're not talking about the fact that just because we have a constitution or a bill of rights that somehow that makes us better than other people, that there are not people who really want to do good and who are inherently good, just because they don't have our constitution doesn't make them any less than what we are. I want that to be understood and realized that there are super good people that live all over this world. These are pretty crummy ones too, but we're not talking about those guys today. When I speak of American exceptionalism, I am speaking of the opportunity that is ours to use what has been given to us to do good in our society. Because of the Bill of Rights, we have a unique responsibility that is different from other people throughout the world. And of course, when I mention the Bill of Rights, that stems from the Constitution as well as the Declaration of Independence. They're all the same to me. There are varied meanings to everything that is written in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, of course, but I really want to focus on the Bill of Rights at this point. The following are some actual codified rights and liberties that we enjoy from our Constitution via the first ten amendments to the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, religious liberty, the freedom to speak and even criticize the government, the right to peacefully assemble, the right to petition the government, being secure in our possessions or our property, the presumption of innocence, trial by a jury of our peers, assurance against double jeopardy, no cruel and unusual punishments, and finally the idea that each state has what's known as states' rights. Each of these rights that I've just read pretty much fully encompass the first ten amendments to the Constitution. And again, I want to point this out that up until our Constitution, there was no other country that had such a liberal, codified document that governed opportunity. Think about this. No other constitution had enumerated the rights that were in essence given to us by God in the first place. It's just that there was a collection of people who had come together who essentially expounded, not expounded, but who actually said, yes, individual rights are an important part of life, that those rights were granted by God in the first place, and that in order for a people to be free and have liberty, those rights had to be codified in a document somewhere other than Scripture. The fact that this is the case, to me, speaks volumes of the fact that there is such a thing as American exceptionalism. It's not an arrogance, it's not something that is used or that is said to diminish any other country. It's simply American exceptionalism, and it's something that we should never have to apologize for. But unfortunately, in our country today, we have some folks that I will refer to as leftists who have an ideology that threatens all of these rights and much, much more. We have a culture that is rampant with canceling other people just because they dislike their way of thinking. That's not American exceptionalism. We have people across the spectrum of government, media, entertainment and sports, of all things, that are willing to sacrifice everything that America stands for just to perpetuate their ideology. That's not American exceptionalism. We have supposed institutions of higher learning that don't allow the free flow of political, cultural, or religious speech at their universities. That's not American exceptionalism. As far as I'm concerned, that's a pattern that I don't want to see repeated. In other words, I don't want to see this pattern of a loss of liberty and freedom at the expense of the Constitution or what we hold dear and what is the document that allows each of us to progress, to excel, to grow in a free society such as the United States of America. I don't want to see this pattern of destruction continued. But it will continue if we're unwilling to do anything about it. We must be willing to defend these precious rights. And they are precious. They really, really are. Many leftists, though, proclaim that they need their so-called safe space. We saw this in its beginnings, I believe, around the election of 2016, and it's only perpetuated since then. And I believe that its inception was that there were leftists or okay, I shouldn't maybe say that term or use that term, but there were people who felt as though they were being encroached upon by other people, that somehow they couldn't express themselves for fear of retribution. Well, they were mostly people who were left leaning politically. So the notion that they needed their safe space, fine. Okay, you need your safe space, that's fine. But what about those of us in our society who are not on the left politically? Don't we also need safe spaces? I have to admit that I'm not really keen on this term safe space, but look at all the people or businesses, for instance, that are canceled because they don't get in lockstep with the woke ideology that is permeating, indeed poisoning our culture. If you don't accept the current wokisms that are going on in our society, you too will be canceled. You too will be ridiculed, and with the power of social media, it won't take long for someone to be completely canceled or a business to be completely canceled. It's really ridiculous, if you ask me. It seems to me that if you have the correct political ideology that you have all the safe space that you need. But many people are simply not afforded their safe space. Why is that? You can answer that in the way that you feel best, but in my opinion and the way I see it, there is no thought, no ideology, no political party, no opinion, no cultural position or religious position or any other position that an individual may espouse that should ever have to worry about a safe space in America. That's not American exceptionalism. Millions of people have come to America for the very ideals that are espoused by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. These are the facts that substantiate the very notion of American exceptionalism and no other. Yet we have a culture that is in many places hellbent on getting rid of anyone who has a thought or ideology or states an opinion or a fact about something that doesn't fit the narrative that they have subscribed to. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I for one, I'm not going to put up with that. I'm not going to allow that. I'm outraged by the people in our society, whether they be in media, government, or just regular Joes and Janes walking the street of America, who think this way. There's no place for this kind of thinking in our society. None. Where there is a place for thinking and for liberty is in the free flow of ideas that are protected or that are supposed to be protected by our constitution, specifically by the Bill of Rights. That's it. We can disagree all day. I disagree with people on social media all the time. It happens on a regular basis. But you see the hatred and you see the downright willingness that some people actually have to wish harm on someone else because they think differently than they do. That's just messed up. When's this going to stop? It has to stop. Well, ladies and gentlemen, the only way that that can end is if good people who support the Constitution, and I don't care what your political party is, I don't care. We need people who support the Constitution who will be willing to defend the Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. And as far as I'm concerned, we have way more enemies to the Constitution that are domestic than we have that are outside the country. It's a sad commentary, but it's true in my humble opinion. I'd like to end this episode today with a quote from none other than Alexis de Tokville in his Democracy in America. Here's what he had to say. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there, in her fertile fields and boundless forests, and it was not there, in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there, in her Democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness, did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great. So, as always, if you can think it, you can plan it. If you can plan it, you can do it.