“What is the essence of America? Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom 'to' and freedom 'from'.”

A mis-direction anti-American concept. As sovereign, I am free to ... , as long as I don't infringe on the rights of others. That makes me free from.

I don't know if I see it as Anti-American, so much as a concept. Finding a balance is always good. IMHO :) I'm a little tired of everything Anti American...I'm anti socialist though. Freedom for all.

A big so what.

We have never had socialism in America perhaps we should give it a try...

It is so sad that so many feel we are losing are freedoms and yet we go all around the world fighting to defend them. Robert I was told in High School that we have State Capitalism. Pure capitalism would destroy much we hold so dear as would pure statism. Balance now there is the wisdom, and pragmatic genius of America.

How about freedom from intimidation, from coersion, from involuntary servitude? So many of government's 'solutions' merely tighten the noose further.

When government takes everything and pays for nothing, we have slavery. WHY will no one accept my offer of 100 pounds of money for just describing the money that our misleaders spend? They spend nothing and pay for nothing. They just keep writing checks that satisfy rather than pay the slaves. For the checks, banks will give us dollar bills that the IRS said "are not dollars."

I think being free is something people would do to make a living harder for some who are dealing with the governments situations.We are all struggling through rough problems that the government is leading some poor or wealthy people.

I think that "The best pace is a suicide pace, and today is a good day to die"

I think that sammy chelanga has got nothing on me....ohh, wazzup pre!

Robert, if we can agree that socialism is any of various economic and political theories advocating governmental ownership (there being no perfected allodium) and governments ultimate control (by code, ordinances, regulations, rules, statutes, dogmas - legal positivism & legal realism) of the means of production and distribution of goods then, Amerika has long been a socialist state. Socialism's administration and control under communism is through direct ownership in the name of the state. Socialism's administration and control under fascism is through the state and state issued corporations. In Amerika, there is a bifurcation of ownership and privileged operation. Government owns the beneficial substance of all / everything - including the chattel / We The People (by way of extremely terse examples: enforced 2nd plank of the communist manifesto, current enforcement of a demented definition of eminent domain and anti-natural law Keynesian economics - inclusive of funny money). A degree of privileged operation (not true ownership) is witnessed through titles, licenses, corporations and other defined limitations of actions. When communist China went to implement the 2nd plank of the communist manifesto, who did they turn to for help? They went to the experts of all the world. China came to Amerika to implement that portion of socialism's slavery.

Socialism, when acted upon as a sacrosanct object of conscience (an ethic(s), a moral(s), a value (system) or an orientation of correctness / enlightenment) believed sufficiently conventional as to enable an attributable action(s) and becomes a real piety in practice, consisting in the performance of all known duties our fellow men then, socialism further becomes a religion by force and slavery. By way of example; the religious dogma of the government dole; owning and controlling the means of production and the distribution of goods (and services) - i.e., feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, financing the poor, housing the indigent, insuring the masses and warring on everyone that does not genuflect to the carnal gods and their priesthood authority / power, illuminates a fully entrenched socialist state.

Very well said, Mike.

Perhaps the word 'statism' better explains the various forms of totalitarianism -- communism, socialism, fascism, monarchy, dictatorship, feudalism, -- any collective arrangement in which the people are subjects to a 'lord' whether secular or theocratic, by election or by conquest. Capitalism is not a form of government, so to compare socialism with capitalism is inaccurate.

The American Revolution severed the claims of the Crown upon the lands, labors, religion, property, and ALLEGIANCE of the people. The American government that followed was based on the inalienable rights of humankind so that such a despotism as monarchy or dictatorship could never find a hold on the American people.

This was a radical departure from centuries of subservience to monarchy.

The difference between statism and a republican form of government is that a republican government is one of consent -- an agreement between the States to form an alliance without giving up our hard-won sovereignty. The US government's powers are made up ONLY of those granted to them by the States and the People from whom these powers already exist.

A statist government assumes no limit to its power. A statist government makes rules and statutes and calls them 'laws' that the people must obey upon pain of death, imprisonment, and asset seizure (theft). The premise of a statist government is that 'the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one.' Statist governments are in essence police states in which the individual is kept disempowered so that he and others that may harbor dissent cannot be a threat. The government will be heavily armed, and the citizen will be disarmed.

Robert, how much socialism should we try? And once we have surrendered all our power to the State and discover that we are now slaves with little to no power than our teeth, how would we get rid of such a State? Think about Nazi Germany -- Hitler was elected, and the Germans embraced totalitarianism for the benefits of state control.

But I do not know of a single totalitarian state in which the people are happy or better off than having to take one's own chances in life.

Robert, you may think socialism is 'pro-choice' but it is actually 'no-choice.' In Cuba, a woman needs a permit to have a child -- if she gets pregnant without it, the baby is aborted. That's 'progress' for you...

Secular Neutral naturalistic view point. Humanizing of God and dehumanization of man, our current state of industrialized socialism. The sword of knowledge, two edged and well manipulated. Empirical science and the guarding of discovery. Natural law, the key, spoken lest of. Two documents we hold dear, our Declaration of Independence, and our Constitution. An emancipated spirit, enlightened. at liberty, to search and discover hidden treasures. It is the individual who would desire liberty, that will seek it out.

The essence of America and the American, is that bold attempt to respond in the responsible manner.