They're not Patriots. They're DEGENERATE COWARDS.

Now, all through our lives, we've been conditioned to believe that compliance is some kind of civic duty.

But the founding generation saw submission to arbitrary and unconstitutional power as the ultimate betrayal.

Writing to Arthur Lee in 1775, Samuel Adams explained that failing to defend our rights, refusing to do that doesn't just make us mere cowards, it makes us traitors and the worst kind too.

He said, the people hold the invasion of their rights and liberties the most horrid rebellion and a neglect to defend them against any power whatsoever, the highest treason.

And for the founders, this was really about moral character.

A constitution is totally useless if the people themselves don't have the moral courage to defend it.

And Thomas Jefferson described it like this.

It is the manners and spirit of the people which preserve a republic in vigor.

A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.

Now, that kind of moral rot doesn't come from nowhere.

As Charles Thompson wrote to Benjamin Franklin, the weaker and the more cowardly a people are, the easier it is for people who want to do it to rule over them.

He wrote, the more effeminate and debauched a people are, the more they are fitted for an absolute and tyrannical government.

Now, these days, we all love to complain about government power, about politicians abusing the trust that has been handed to them.

But we rarely actually look in the mirror.

And as Thomas Gordon wrote, to sit by and just complain and tolerate it, that's not being a victim.

That's an enabler.

He wrote that not to resist any man's wickedness is to encourage it.

And what kind of people encourage wickedness? Well, Benjamin Rush had a word for it and wasn't a patriot or a good citizen.

Instead, it was a corrupt person.

He said the more a people are corrupted, the more readily they submit to arbitrary government.

And Samuel Adams recognized that in order for a people to be free, we must reject the worst parts of our human nature because weak, lazy, complacent people They forged their own chains.

And he wrote, be firm, my friends, nor let unmanly sloth twine round your hearts in dissoluble chains.

And here he was channeling the great and widely read poet James Thompson.

His poem, Liberty, published around 1735, was incredibly influential and And he recognized that this kind of thing was nothing new.

He traced it all the way back to ancient Rome and saw that, well, tyrants often step in when they read the room.

Now, all through our lives, we've been conditioned to believe that compliance is some kind of civic duty.

But the founding generation saw submission to arbitrary and unconstitutional power as the ultimate betrayal.

Writing to Arthur Lee in 1775, Samuel Adams explained that failing to defend our rights, refusing to do that doesn't just make us mere cowards, it makes us traitors and the worst kind too.

He said, the people hold the invasion of their rights and liberties the most horrid rebellion and a neglect to defend them against any power whatsoever, the highest treason.

And for the founders, this was really about moral character.

A constitution is totally useless if the people themselves don't have the moral courage to defend it.

And Thomas Jefferson described it like this.

It is the manners and spirit of the people which preserve a republic in vigor.

A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.

Now, that kind of moral rot doesn't come from nowhere.

As Charles Thompson wrote to Benjamin Franklin, the weaker and the more cowardly a people are, the easier it is for people who want to do it to rule over them.

He wrote, the more effeminate and debauched a people are, the more they are fitted for an absolute and tyrannical government.

Now, these days, we all love to complain about government power, about politicians abusing the trust that has been handed to them.

But we rarely actually look in the mirror.

And as Thomas Gordon wrote, to sit by and just complain and tolerate it, that's not being a victim.

That's an enabler.

He wrote that not to resist any man's wickedness is to encourage it.

And what kind of people encourage wickedness? Well, Benjamin Rush had a word for it and wasn't a patriot or a good citizen.

Instead, it was a corrupt person.

He said the more a people are corrupted, the more readily they submit to arbitrary government.

And Samuel Adams recognized that in order for a people to be free, we must reject the worst parts of our human nature because weak, lazy, complacent people They forged their own chains.

And he wrote, be firm, my friends, nor let unmanly sloth twine round your hearts in dissoluble chains.

And here he was channeling the great and widely read poet James Thompson.

His poem, Liberty, published around 1735, was incredibly influential and And he recognized that this kind of thing was nothing new.

He traced it all the way back to ancient Rome and saw that, well, tyrants often step in when they read the room.