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Here is the speech from today's episode: What are we doing here? What is all this about? I came home from work last week to find my kids sitting at the table doing homework as they always do. I saw them preparing for their future and for a fleeting moment I allowed myself to question what that future might look like. As I look across the economic and political landscape of America today, to say that I am trouble would be an understatement. We have a government that collects more than 3 trillion dollars a year in taxes from the American people yet still manages spend nearly a billion dollars a day more than it brings in. Yet we are told the government has a revenue problem NOT a spending problem. Congress hasn’t balanced it’s budget in 14 years. Out debt has skyrocketed over the last 16 years, from 5.6 trillion dollars to over 18 trillion. A nearly 234% increase. Over the course of that same time, our country has been in a state of perpetual war. First in Afghanistan, then Iraq, Lybia, Syria, Yemen, and if the current trend continues, Russia, China, and North Korea. Is this what Reagan meant when he said peace through strength? After nearly two decades of war, hundreds of thousands dead, millions displaced and now flooding the borders of Europe I ask you, is this what peace looks like? We’re told that this war is too important. We’re told that we face a tyrannical and relentless enemy who seeks the total destruction of our way of life. We’re told it’s fight them over there or fight them here. We must, we are told, defend our freedom and liberty. But I wonder if we still know and understand the freedom and liberty intended for us by the founding fathers. The founders of this nation pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor on a radical and seemingly impossible idea. That we have a right to be free. That government is beholden to the people, that it has no power except that granted by the people. This idea, predicated on the individual right of self-determination gave birth to the greatest nation the world has ever known. Yet what have we done with this gift? America now finds itself in the throws of another election. On the left, a socialist and a progressive. On the right, a nationalist and populist. Each tells us they know best. We’re told we must accept in this time of trial, a greater infringement on our freedoms and the continued eroding of our constitutional liberty. We have seen this play out over the years. On the streets of our hometowns as police are transformed from peacekeeper to enforcer. Many now look more like a military unit than law enforcement. Roaming the streets in unmarked cars, conducting military style raids in our own back yards, confiscating wealth and property with no evidence of a crime or even an accusation of wrongdoing. We have watched our savings eroded through inflation and bad economic policy by both the federal reserve and our own Congress. We’ve seen time, and again the cycle of boom and bust brought on by poor decisions of a few self-described intellectual elite. We suffer the continued invasion of our privacy and violation of the 4th amendment through data collection approved by our own elected representatives and overseen by secret courts deep inside the government leviathan. Oh, these are the times that try men's souls. How I have waited for a leader. How I have longed for the spirit of our nation to be renewed and for the people to stand up and take their rightful place as captains of their own destiny. Where is our voice? This election we are told we have a choice between left and right. In truth, there’s no such thing as left or right. As Reagan said their is only up or down. Up toward liberty and self determination or down toward totalitarianism. I am tired of waiting for a leader. You ask me why I come here every day. I come to bring a message of liberty to a desperate nation. Thoreau said, “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them.” I started this, risked my business, my future, my children’s future because I was tired of being silent. No longer will I live a life of quiet desperation. This is my song. But my voice is not enough. It requires you. And I know your reservations. You can’t fight city hall. That’s what they say. Our numbers are two small, our armies to weak. Cowards will always talk that way. I prefer the simple, elegant truth of John Adams who said, “It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” Are you angry enough yet? Together we can build a movement, and if you will join me we will stand shoulder to shoulder against the enemies of Liberty and proclaim in one voice that we will not kneel, we will not bow, we will not be silent we will be free. Will you join me? Will you carry that message with me? To your homes, your jobs, To you friend, co-workers, and relatives? Will you teach it to your children? I just recently returned from Washington DC and while I was there, I had the chance to visit the Jefferson Memorial. A beautiful stone monument built to honor one of the greatest men of his time. And as I stood in the middle of the monument I looked up and etched in the stone around the dome were these words. ...I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. Our founders risked everything so that they and their posterity could live a life free from tyranny and oppression. And as I sat across from my little girls that day, watching them prepare for a life not yet lived I asked myself, how could I risk any less. That’s why I’m here. And I hope that’s why you’ll stay.Support the show.