Losing is a difficult thing to accept. First you take it in, give a double take, see how things went the way they did, and finally acceptance follows. Losing sucks, but losing was the best thing that could have happened to me.
I remember the rallies, I remember the speeches, living in outside of Washington D.C. meant everything was outside my window. Everyone on the right cried for liberty while playing defense against leftist talking points daily. November 9th, 2012, Republicans essentially shrugged their shoulders while the progressive parade of smugness and elitism was in fashion. I saw the problem, and for a time I thought I knew the solution. With a new campus conservatives club at my high school starting I thought I could easily communicate a return to principles, a return to free markets and free minds, but as decent as I was at trying to sell these ideas, a message can only go as far as those willing to listen.
I ran for president of the club, I lost, and to rub salt in an open wound I was told everything I believed was wrong and our job as “good Republicans” was not to advance freedom, but to simply slow statism. They were right though, I certainly was not meant for the progressive direction they wanted to travel, but I also didn’t fit into the vacant and vague definition of conservatism they felt comfortable perpetrating. I did what any lost teenager trying to find their identity would do after having their worldview shattered…
I looked for the truth.
Part of the truth of the world is that people act selfishly, and there is nothing wrong with that. Liberty allows for free thoughts and free enterprise, it’s color blind and offers nothing more than simply the opportunity to create, trade, and live uninterrupted. Liberty involves responsibility, a promise to yourself and to others that if we behave respectfully and cooperatively towards all, prosperity follows. An understanding of liberty promotes a common virtue, an ethic that turns the lame into movers, slaves into the deciders of their own path, and dreams into reality. Promotion of liberty is the only philosophical truth, the only political premise, and the only theory that has been historically proven to value life and promote individual growth.
The funny thing about a free and voluntary society is that progressives thrive in it as well. The advancement of efforts to enfranchise those in poverty and the fringe of society, often those progressives claim to champion, can still be issues of concern they can work on without the purview of the state. In this voluntary community, the preacher and Imam preach freely, the feminist and the stay at home mother interact happily, and the black sheep of the family doesn’t have to run away for fear of persecution. Social tolerance to some may appear to only mask intrinsic prejudices, but this action promotes interaction that couldn’t otherwise occur.
Liberty cannot fully thrive where markets are inhibited though. The free exchange of goods and services shed light on black markets while turning the sparks of innovation into advancement aflame. Economic liberty allows the fry cook to work to become the CEO, the dreamer working in a garage to change how the world functions, and bicycle salesmen from North Carolina to touch the sky. Free Markets don’t discriminate based on feelings or grievances, but allow an open and healthy competition of talents, skills, and visions to fulfill the needs of today while paving the path to tomorrow.
Thomas Jefferson had always hoped for a “empire of liberty”, and over time we have teetered back and forth between that vision. For so long I saw the game of politics as red vs. blue, as one idea against another, as Candidate A fighting Candidate B. It wasn’t until I began to lose the lie that I worked to free my mind and learn the constant struggle is between advancing freedom in an environment that would consume and control your mind, body, and soul. Liberty gave me the ability to justify my existence instead of allowing others to dictate it for me. The market of ideas and advancement of the ways we communicate has allowed me to touch the minds of others and say that you and only you can decide the outcomes of your life.
* Remso W. Martinez is the host of the Remso Republic podcast. You can learn more at his website, www.remsorepublic.com          Â
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