America was once a nation of free-thinking individualists priding themselves on the constitutional idea that God ordained and endowed each person as an end unto himself with rights to think, act, believe, and behave according to personal thoughts, conscience, and individual interest. According to the Declaration of Independence, those “inalienable rights” include life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Therefore, because government’s power is derived from the consent of the free, the job of those running the country is to “secure,” not undermine those rights and freedoms.

Our nation’s Founders knew that the nature of individualism is what stimulates the kind of spirit that brings about the sort of advances America has achieved since its founding. Yet, by trusting humans to think, act, and live according to their beliefs, the framers left the door wide open for enemies of liberty to infiltrate the minds and hearts of the easily influenced.

Brainwashing is defined as “the process of pressuring someone into adopting radically different beliefs by using systematic and often forcible means.” In case you haven’t noticed, that is the kind of pressuring presently threatening the “blessings of liberty.” From smooth-talking Marxists to leftist media outlets to communist legislators, trusting Americans are being forcibly pressured to relinquish political, social, and religious ideals and to embrace the dysfunctional regimentation being imposed on them by those who intrinsically despise this nation. This process is being successfully accomplished through climate panic, collectivism, illegal immigration, lack of election integrity, constitutional disrespect, as well as the demonization of whole swaths of good Americans.

Those who diligently pressure Americans into “adopting radically different beliefs” are slick salesman types who have been elevated to positions of global influence and celebrity status. The loudest voices are those with smooth didactic ability to propagandize regular folks with rhetorical footwork so persuasive that if words were dance steps they would blow away Fred and Ginger on the dance floor.

What would the men who framed our Constitution have to say about an American president calling the document they drafted with much prayer, counsel, and heated debate, “a deeply flawed… charter of negative liberties?” What would Adams, Franklin, Hamilton, John Jay, Jefferson, Madison, and George Washington think about an American president suggesting that the nation that prides itself on freedom is in dire need of having government do things on the individual’s behalf?

Lest we forget, blood was shed to gain what America once deemed sacrosanct. Therefore, what would those who died to protect freedom have say about militant haters being let loose on cities, terrorizing citizens, chanting “death to America,” toppling historic statues, and setting landmarks on fire?

Would the Framers shrink back in shame as current leaders chide victims, justify violence, and mark those who disagree with all things un-American the reason for the insurgency they sanction? Yet, rather than righteous indignation, the national temperament exudes a sense of corporate guilt for crimes none of us committed.

Rather than anger, good people seem to be owning the accusations and in turn acquiescing to abuse like mistreated pets.

Riots are purposely incited by implicit suggestions that retaliation for things like racism is justified. Police are disrespected, shot, and killed. Terrorist states are enriched, and foreign wars financed with tax money siphoned from government coffers. Our border, language, and civilization is being decimated, and Third World diseases infect our citizens. Meanwhile, everyday Americans are portrayed as inherently evil. To ensure voters’ voices are drowned out at the ballot box, instead of forbidding illegal entry, our government presses beaten-down taxpayers to feed, clothe, enrich, and accommodate hordes of illegals that include swindlers, murderers, and rapists. As stunned citizens lick the wounds inflicted by government, progressives support an invasion of military-aged men armed with tactical game plans printed in Chinese.

One amendment at a time, the Constitution is being slowly dismantled by radical activists. In place of resistance to lost freedom, it seems as if Americans dutifully line up in obedience to mandated edicts. And while criminals roam free, we act helplessly as fellow citizens are denied due process and rot in jail, and submissively step aside while squatter’s rights are given precedence over private property ownership.

As Americans yield control, convinced what they’re being told is true and that corrupt perpetrators have their best interests at heart, the national tenor exudes a sense of jaded defeat. Every time reeducation expert Barack Obama applies coercive persuasion tactics to insult Caucasians, prolifers, the First and Second Amendment, non-transgender military, Christians and patriots, rather than rise up in opposition to false accusation, confused Americans retreat into silence and become suspicious of colleagues and friends.

Either Americans sense an air of powerlessness, are distracted, or they don’t understand how fragile freedom really is. Or maybe it’s just that a large portion of the electorate is so enamored with eloquent propagandizing that the ability to distinguish ill intent has been clouded by Al Green tunes, pithy remarks, and political charisma.

Americans appear desensitized; there’s barely a whimper of protest at what would have embarrassed or infuriated us in the past. When a high-ranking military commander or government official shows up at a lectern dressed like woman, there is minimal societal recoil. So too when a sham of a president shows up at the podium with a stack of index cards. Currently that president is at 50% in the national polls. This is a man whose skill set includes licking melting ice-cream off the side of a waffle cone and taking directives from a Marxist puppeteer through a receiver reminiscent of televangelist Peter Popoff? Save thought control or the reality of mind melding, how is that even possible?

Rather than exhibit righteous indignation over the embarrassing spectacle of a president that’s been foisted on us or anger over being portrayed as selfish, extremist, racist, dangerous, and unfair by his mentor, it’s as if a large number of Americans have been “fundamentally transformed” into broken stallions. Instead of the pluck and determination that formerly embodied the American spirit, progressive pundits, politicians, and past presidents have successfully convinced a whole generation of Americans that free speech and patriotism is the biggest threat to democratic ideals. The level of indoctrination is so constant it appears as if many people are open to the idea that founding principles like individual liberty, personal achievement, and love for God, and country must be abolished.

With that in mind, the current mood of restrained capitulation should be of utmost concern. As this trend progresses, where, pray tell, is the spirit that gave a ragtag band of freedom fighters the courage to hide in trees and take shots at the most powerful standing army in the world -- and win? Instead of refusing to submit, Americans like automatons mask up, line up, and take "shots" of a different kind. Like it or not, our nation stands on the precipice of losing all that is sacred. That’s why, those who have enjoyed the “blessings of liberty” must rouse from the fevered dream they’ve been lulled into and refuse to submit to the sort of tyranny our Constitution was drafted to prevent.

Jeannie hosts a blog at www.jeannieology.us

Image: National Archives