Imagine a freedom clock. Putting freedom at high noon, you have a constitutional republic, the greatest liberty for one consistent with the greatest for all. Put no freedom at the bottom, six o’clock. Go left to communism or right to fascism, you meet at the bottom, with no freedom. America is at high noon. We celebrate liberty, equality of opportunity, and limited government. But watch out: They are coming.
What do you mean, “They are coming?” Just this. Competing ideologies, those that despise individual rights on the left or right, whether communist like China and Venezuela, fascist like Syria, or Islamist like Iran, do not want America to prevail.
They hate individual liberty, as nature abhors a vacuum – because freedom is always a trade-off, the more the individual retains against the government, the less the government has; or the other way around, the more power the government takes, the fewer liberties an individual retains.
You might ask, “Why do they care what liberties we have?” Answer: America embarrasses them. We are a magnet for the world. We traditionally have been able to speak our mind, worship freely, own guns, remain safe in our home (4th Amendment), get “due process” and “equal protection” (5th Amendment), fair trials (6th Amendment), and enjoy relatively free markets, are prosperous.
All this happens because – at our best – we keep government limited, at all levels. It also happens because we appreciate how lucky we are. We work to preserve these liberties against overreaching leaders, whether federal, state, or local. This is, at least, what our Founders intended and expected.
You may ask, “Who cares what these other countries do?” Even if we were not interested in spreading freedom, which we are for many reasons, we need to be alert to anti-liberty ideologies in the US – including communism (often dressed up as socialism), fascism (dressed as mandatory groupthink), and theocracy (religious laws replacing secular ones, like Islamic Sharia law).
These ideologies are all real threats. They are all ways to pull us from high noon, greatest freedom for the individual consistent with everyone else’s freedom, down toward six o’clock, impairment or taking of our freedoms, whether by mandate, legislation, regulation, or other prohibitions on our established rights, including speech, worship, self-protection, safety in homes and papers, due process, equal protection, civil rights, or through lawfare or political show trials.
In short, a republic only keeps its freedoms if – ironically – people assert them. To keep free speech, you have to use it, to keep the right to exercise religion, you have to assert that right, to “keep and bear arms” you have to own and use, to hold due process and equal protection you have to fight for those rights when denied them, whether at a school board meeting or on the national stage.
So, where does all this lead us, and why remind us of all this right now? It leads to a personal responsibility we all have to step up and remember that freedom is not just something we count on our veterans to defend overseas, but something we must fiercely defend here at home, daily.
The recent murder of Charlie Kirk, a devout, dedicated, and cheerful defender of freedom, puts the monkey on our backs, reminds us that the forces of evil are ever present – and requires that we take them seriously, those working to take our rights by violence, fear, chilling, or abuse of government.
They want to take us down from high noon to six o’clock, whether all at once or in gradual theft of our God-given freedoms. The defense of these freedoms, Charlie reminded us, is never done. Our job is to keep stepping up in every venue and asserting the rights we have. Imagine the freedom clock.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!
For starters THANK YOU for finally properly calling us a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC over a democracy. Now thank you for writing an article that hit the nail square on the head. I fully believe that this was all in the planning from day one that Islamic Muslim Terrorist Barrak Hussein Obama came to America and got involved in our politics. I also believe that the United Nations was involved. Why? For their quest to implement their One World Government Order agenda with the U.N. serving as that government. Obama and the liberal far left supported this and they knew that if Trump got back in the White House that agenda would be shot down. Don’t believe me Google search U.N. One World Government Order only ignore the Fact Checkers that didn’t appear until 5 years after appeared because the U.N. is trying to hide a lot. If everyone digs deep enough, they will see that there is a lot more at play with everything the liberal far left have done and continue to push at us.
RBC, great article that is to the point. This nation of ours has become too complacent and the many ideologies that have surfaced wish to take that freedom away so that the population can be controlled by the few. The US Constitution and Bill of Rights protect us as long as the people maintain it. Unfortunately, many people have been brainwashed over the years and really don’t realize what they have been granted with and are about to lose it to the ideologies that are bent in bringing our nation down. The fight is on as the skirmishing is ending and the main battle is about to begin.
Calvin Coolidge: “If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction cannot lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.”
At high noon? Take off your blinders! You’re attacked for being ‘too’ Jewish, or Christian, or for expressing ‘anti-muslim’ opinions. You’re censored – or shot – for expressing too much freedom. Your right to keep and bear arms – at least some arms – rests on the sufferance of illicit city, county, state, and federal regulations and the whims of who’s in power…and despite clear law to the contrary, records are kept of every firearm you own – a clear path to confiscation. You are under constant surveillance. If this is your definition of Freedom, your dictionary must have been printed in 1984.
The Freedom Clock – this is as true as it gets ! Very important ideas here Robert – the metaphor involved and as you stated – “… a Republic only keeps it’s freedoms if – ironically – people assert them.” The 1952 film “High Noon ” came to mind in which the town sheriff Will Kane ( Gary Cooper ) needed deputies because a gang of criminals was threatening the town and planned to kill Sheriff Will Kane specifically as he arrested the gang leader many years before. There were no town residents that wanted to help – just many excuses why they couldn’t. volunteer as deputies
Finally his wife played by Grace Kelly, came to his assistance and shot the gang leader right before he was about to shoot Sheriff Kane. The film was one of President Ronald Reagan ‘s favorites because of the idea of duty and law involved. President Dwight Eisenhower liked it too. The song is very good ” High Noon” has much good spirit to it.The setting for the film was late 1800’s New Mexico.So, the Freedom Clock idea definitely applies to the United States of America now in 2025. The idea of being responsible for maintaining Liberty is the duty of each citizen .
“FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!” THAT’S AN AMERICAN LEADER!!!
Robert Charles I hope you are elected governor of Maine.
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The reason the communists, fascists, and islamists hate America and our freedoms and liberty is because the U.S. and Israel are really the only nations that stands in their way to world domination. Yes, Israel and the U.S. governing systems are a bit different, but both nations believe in personal freedoms. Europe has essentially surrendered to all the leftist ideologies and embrace which ever one exerts to most “power.” How many different governing styles has Europe gone through? Yet none of them were able to sustain for very long. The U.S. has had the same system of government of 250 years, with some minor adjustments along the way. But that is the beauty of having a Constitutional Republic: if one aspect is not working or is deemed to intrusive, the people can encourage a change through elections and through going to our elected officials. The demoncrats on the left don’t like that because they want total control (totalitarianism). They don’t seem to care if it is in the form of communism, socialism or islamism. We The People need to exert our rights every day. Our Declaration of Independence states correctly that our rights come from GOD above, not government below. Our Constitution give clear instructions as to what the government can and cannot do. Corrupt politicians have used unconstitutional means to allow the government control it should not have. Time for real patriotic American citizens to learn what the Constitution actually says so we can hold government accountable. Courses like Biblical Citizenship (by Rick Green) goes through and shows the godly heritage of our nation and clearly explains the Constitution. All Americans need to go through a course like that.
About the controversy with the film ” High Noon” made in 1952 It may have been justifiably considered pro – left wing ( pro- communist ) then but I see it as being a story about courage and responsibility . There are people on the right who do not always do what should be done in support for Conservative values. The fact that President Dwight Eisenhower liked it and President Ronald Reagan liked it because of the way it stood for a sense of Duty and respect for Law says much in the way of good for it. Sometimes things get turned about depending on circumstances that only those directly involved in an issue can see correctly.And the matter of time can change the intentions of the original idea substantially. Courage and Responsibility are principles that do not change .
Very sobering, and so very true.
Well said, Charles. You should a be a governor or something, somewhere!