America is about can-do, must-do, will-do, individual responsibility for the world around us, not about waiting for government to intercede, making excuses, blaming others, class warfare, or putting off the necessary in favor of convenience—time to get on it.
We are who we are – as Americans, as a free nation, and free individuals – because we consciously chose to act responsibly, elect leaders who are fiscally and morally responsible, understand limited government, are respectful of America’s true history, and honor the intent of our founding generation.
We are who we are because, over 250 years as a nation, we have taken responsibility for our government and lives, choosing to do the hard thing over and over, not the easy.
At some point in life, we each choose to work, learn, and grow, how to get up after stumbling, how to stop admiring the problem, making excuses, and mumbling. We figure out what responsibility means.
Watching power get concentrated across America – the taking of power from individuals by ideologies justifying increased dependence – alarm bells should go off. From Maine and New York City to Minnesota and California, an ideological movement is growing to end individual rights and responsibility, replacing them with the false promise that lockstep conformity and belief that government has godlike powers to solve all problems is the answer to what ails us. It is not.
We too often forget the obvious. World history teaches one thing for certain: More government always translates into less liberty, always and without exception; concentrated power – daily happening in states across America – ends in unchecked abuse.
What used to be called “tyranny” now goes by new names, “lawfare,” “cancelling,” shaming for adhesion to family and tradition, condemnation for grounded ideas, free markets, supply and demand, border security, parental rights, and belief in the Christian and Jewish faiths, “identity politics” (which replaces personal rights with group rights), then blatant and uncontrolled spending, overtaxing, vilification of private-sector job creators, rise (and acceptance) of interpersonal hatred, the “politics of personal destruction” and justifications for political violence.
These are ALL the products of concentrated power, which defends more concentration in order to suppress those who oppose concentration.
This has happened throughout history, as ideologies from the Egyptian pharaohs, Chinese dynasties, and European monarchs ruled by divine right of kings to Marxist, Leninist, Stalinist, and Maoist communism; from autocrats and paternalistic empires to fascists indifferent to citizen rights.
The sleight of hand, the trick, the deception is just this, that power is ever concentrated for ultimate good, except perhaps when a nation seeks to defend itself from foreign or internal threats – such as during America’s Revolutionary, Civil, WWI, and WWII moments – and then only briefly.
Gathering power always means suppressing citizen rights with different types of government coercion, mandates, regulations, restrictions, overspending, overtaxing, indifference to debt, self-justifying decisions, growing lawlessness until the hammer falls – all at the expense of individual rights.
Lesson three: Ignoring the signs of a power vortex, a moment in history when power is being taken in exchange for rights, is like thinking the bathtub will stay forever full as you watch water being whisked into the vortex and down the drain. When you feel the government tugging at you from all directions, seeking to move you off your rights, you are often being robbed of your rights. That can be personal, parental, economic, or may relate to speech, worship, protest, gun ownership, false penalties, failure to enforce laws, or simple free movement.
Only by stepping up to force a stop to the taking is the concentration of power stopped; put a drain plug in, and the power of the vortex is broken.
Our Founding generation – and every generation since – would expect that of us, especially at this 250th anniversary of their early commitment to the individual rights we all enjoy. Time to get on it.
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)!
