Oliver Anthony Music's hit single "Rich Men" hits number 1 on the Billboard charts and is the number one song right now in the United States, and once again, the liberal hive mind has exploded into their reliable pearl-clutching outrage. With everything going on in this country right now, one has to mind his or her "p's and q's," lest a liberal woke mob burn them at the stake - so to speak. 

As most of you know by now, I am a combat veteran who served five years in my beloved Corps. I can honestly say that my sole reason for joining the Marine Corps was to pay my country back for the freedoms that I personally enjoy. I wanted to serve my country as a rhetorical thank you, as well as putting down a deposit for the next generation of Americans and their freedoms. I was essentially paying it forward, like 40 million plus Americans did before me. 

Last year, I saw an interview with a World War 2 Marine Veteran, Sergeant Carl Dekle. His words were so incredibly powerful that I began to do some soul-searching as that brave man also did. His words burned into my memory when he said, "We haven't got the country I had when I was raised." I asked myself if he was right. Now, granted, I wasn't born in the 1920s or '30s and didn't fight in the bloodiest and most costly war in our nation's history, with over 1,000,000 casualties, including over 600,000 killed. But I have been alive long enough to know that our republic is not the same as it was when I was growing up in the '80s, and it sure as hell isn't the same as it was in 1945.

This great man was brought to tears by the simple fact that he, along with his brothers, paid a price so severe for the freedoms and rights that we enjoy. And Sgt. Dekle is seeing our once great Republic being brought down to its knees from the inside. His interview hits deep, as it should. The problem is not enough people have seen it yet, and even more, wouldn't bat an eye if they did. And that, ladies and gentlemen — therein lies the problem.

In his 1787 letter to William Stephens Smith, Thomas Jefferson stated, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." I firmly believe that our Republic is at a crossroads in history. We stand before the world as the most powerful, greatest, respected (or feared), and prosperous nation on this Earth. Or are we?

For the past 40 or more years, the "culture wars" have taken their toll on the soul of the nation. In the past 20, they have heated up well beyond the boiling point, and the people we have trusted to fight back have offered mere lip service to the fight. Now, they are at a point where they are breaking up families and friendships. They are gaslighting anyone who disagrees, branding them as tyrants or worse. 

A very close friend of mine, Chuck, told me that we have two political parties that run this country. One stands for big government, and the other stands for bigger government. We all know who those parties are, yet we continue to vote for them because we believe that things will change. We have a crisis, a shortage of men in this country, men who are willing to lead, fight, and bleed for their community and country. We need men who aren't afraid to be men, but instead, we have men who believe they are women. 

From the left coast to the right coast, we see more and more liberal politicians who call for and or sign radical laws that strip away the rights of people to adopt children if they don't believe in transgenderism. Nothing is sacred for the left. They want your kids, they want your gas cars, and now they want your gas stoves, too.

Lithium-ion battery fires have killed 13 people in New York City this year.

Meanwhile, politicians are focused on banning...

• Pizza ovens
• Diving boards
• Gas stoves
• Plastic strawshttps://t.co/EfYdflcHOx

— Stephen Moore (@StephenMoore) August 16, 2023

Let's not forget about the Republican Party, also known as the party that supports big government. It was not long ago that we saw the biggest expansion of the size and power of the federal government when former Republican President George W. Bush created the Department of Homeland Security in November of 2002. It was Republicans (not all, though - looking at you, Ron Paul) that gave the federal government sweeping powers that gave way to warrantless searches by the Feds, the FISA Courts that were abused to spy on former President Trump's presidential campaign in 2016, just to name a few. 

One of the most underrated of our Founding Fathers, Patrick Henry, during his speech at the Second Virginia Convention in 1775, famously said, "Give me liberty or give me death!" People tend to just stop there, giving just that snippet of the elder statesman from Virginia's entire statement. Today, though, we need to be reminded of the entire passage:

Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! 

(To continue in that vein, the next gale that sweeps from the east might bring federal laws that strip any rights parents had for their children’s education! The next gale from the West might bring radical laws that allow schools to hide info about their kids! The next gale from the south could bring more drugs than you could imagine that will poison and kill our youth.) 

Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

What Henry was talking about is the threats that come from all around us. We see it coming from my home state of California all the way to New York. Politics at every level have become corrupted and drunk on power and money. One can even say that local politics have become worse than their state and federal cousins. And the evidence of that is clear. Republican voters are so apathetic at the local level that all they do is hop on social media and hammer away at their keyboard, saying they're ready to fight for liberty and freedom, yet when you ask them to attend a liberty and freedom rally or volunteer for local campaigns, they'll "ghost" you faster than a politician accepting lobbyist money. Organizing Republican voters is like herding cats. In my state assembly district, California's 40th, in one city alone (Santa Clarita), over 30,000 registered Republicans decided not to vote in 2021, and our Republican Assemblywoman lost by less than 500 votes.

The sword of blame cuts both ways, and the quicker Republicans realize this, the sooner we can save our Republic. We have the greatest Constitutional Republic in the history of the world, and we are both witnesses and suspects in its demise. Are you willing to fight for its survival? Our Republic is not dead, but it sure as hell is on life support. Don't let Sergeant Carl Dekle down. Don't let his service and sacrifice, and the service and sacrifice of everyone who came after him, go to waste. That is the ultimate betrayal.