It’S About Liberty, Stupid!: Understanding and Embracing the Forgotten Secret to America’S Success

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Section 1

Chapter 1:   The Allure of Collectivism

Chapter 2:   It’s a Balancing Act

The Vertical Balancing

The Horizontal Balancing

Chapter 3:   Personal Governance

Chapter 4:   Family Governance

Chapter 5:   Church Governance

Chapter 6:   Civil Governance

Chapter 7:   Liberty and Morality: At Odds? Hardly!

Morality is Necessary for Liberty

Can You Legislate Morality?

Liberty is Necessary for Morality

Don’t Get Your Shorts in a Wad

The Takeaways

Section 2

Chapter 8:   The Economy

Chapter 9:   Education

Chapter 10:   Welfare

Chapter 11:   Healthcare

Chapter 12:   Energy

Chapter 13:   Taxes

Chapter 14:   Liberty vs. Tyranny: It’s One Direction or the Other!

Dedicated To The American People:

May our understanding of liberty grow, so its torch never goes out.

Foreword By: C.L. Bryant

Friends remember these words, When the purpose of anything is forgotten...abuse is inevitable.

Americans: We are in the process of losing our memory of how we have been the great defenders of liberty in a world teeming with tyrants. Our purpose, I still believe, is one of being a light to dark places. Yet in our modern politically correct stupor, we have embraced the idea that we must yield personal liberty to appease the less fortunate in our nation and the world. If America adopts this type of attitude we will become as common as all the rest of the formerly great Empires and find a fitful rest on the scrap heap of history.

In this book, It’s About Liberty, Stupid!, my friend and American patriot Seth Morgan extends an impressive challenge to all Americans and once again defines for us what it is to have the blessing of Liberty for ourselves and our posterity.

I created and stared in a movie called Runaway Slave, a Crystal Dove award winner and once #1 on Amazon. I am often asked why I would name a movie something so inflammatory as Runaway Slave. The answer, you will find for yourselves in the pages of this wonderful book. But let me also share with you the answer I give to the masses of people I speak to across our nation, "It took courage to be a Runaway Slave – to say to the master, ‘I don’t want you food. I don’t want your shelter. I just want Liberty! And whatever it may take to have that which is most precious even if it cost my life, I will secure it.’"

The Runaway Slave had no guarantees. And so it was with the Mayflower Pilgrims when they escaped the tyranny of King James to come to these shores. They had no guarantee that they would survive.

And so my fellow countrymen, and all who may read of American Liberty in this great work of Seth Morgan, you may be assured that whether your ancestors came to these shores on the Mayflower or in the hulls of a slave ship, in the DNA of every true American is a thirst for liberty and freedom. And that must NEVER go away!

I have preached the Gospel of Christ for over thirty years. I have pastored three churches. I grew up in the segregated South and was once the President of a now leftist organization (NAACP) in Garland, Texas. I have traveled the USA and the world. I have been married to the same woman, Jane C. Pruitt Bryant, close to forty years. I am the father of four and grandfather to ten. I have seen both sides of the street in America and I can tell all of you that there is a position in this Nation that will steal away our Liberty. Knowing this for the last nineteen years I have embraced the conservative view point for I am convinced that the core values of those principles are the best defense of our American existence.

And now I trust you will join me along with Seth Morgan and share the message to those who may have forgotten…

It’s About Liberty, Stupid!

May God bless and keep you all.

Acknowledgements and Thanks:

To the team at Westbow Press: Thank you for making this work a reality.

To the Liberty Movement: Thank you for breathing life into the national conversation.

To the Morgan Machine (Leslie, Jan, Emery, and Debra): Thank you for making politics both possible and bearable, and for your unending faith and humor. Thank you for your encouragement, consistency, hard work, and efforts.

To my parents, brother, and sister: Thank you for your unconditional love—even for a son and brother who has been difficult as we pursued this path.

To those who edited before the book was edited: Thank you to Allen Lefkovitz, Debra and Terry Morgan, and Thea Shoemake.

To John Acker: Thanks for your great suggestions and edits.

To my children: Brianna, Adam, and Olivia—You make this difficult life brighter. Thank you for your love, your patience, and your hope—in a future worth living.

To my wife Debra: Thank you for your steady encouragement and for never minimizing the dream, when it was just a thought with nothing on paper. Thank you for your support, patience, and loving guidance. Thank you for putting up with the late nights, bad attitudes, and endless editing. I love you little Miss Debra—Just me

To my King and Savior Jesus Christ: Thank you for purchasing me as your slave, and then setting me at liberty!

Introduction

It’s the Economy, Stupid, a slogan coined by James Carville during Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign, will live long in the folklore of American politics. It was simple, powerful, concise, and drove the point of that political season home: stay away from other issues—Bill Clinton was all about the economy.

Today, we seem to lack the level of leadership that can be simple, powerful, and concise. Our political rhetoric is full of double-tongued talk. Worse, it’s full of seemingly meaningless fights and debates compared to the issues we face. You may even think that partisan bickering is all there is to political engagement.

This short book is intended to offer a basic challenge to that way of thinking. If you are anything like me, you were raised with some basic thoughts about public policy. You may have been raised Republican or Democrat, or you may have been raised with certain principles bred into who you are. Certainly our upbringing has much to do with how we think about public policy, but some never get past that point. Their political opinion or identity stops there—they feel largely how Mom and Dad felt, or some variation thereof. Others, like me, developed much deeper opinions than how I was raised.

For almost fifteen years I pushed along, in and out of public office, with relatively solid convictions and well thought-out positions on most topics. But then it happened. I was asked to give a speech on energy policy, and while I reflected on what I needed to say, I re-read Patrick Henry’s famous Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death speech. All of a sudden, it hit me—It’s About Liberty, Stupid!

The title of this book, of course plays on Carville’s infamous slogan. But the idea behind it has a lot more to do with the late Patrick Henry than with Carville.

On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry, a young attorney and Delegate to the Second Virginia Convention, delivered his famous speech at St. John’s Church to the assembled delegation. In his speech, ending with the famous phrase, Give me liberty, or give me death, Henry laid out words which echo through the centuries: speaking over one year before independence was declared by the colonies, he spoke to the heart of the rising call for freedom. His short speech clearly defined the situation the colonies faced as nothing less than a choice between two paths—freedom or slavery.

Many of us remember the mighty ending to his speech, but few have taken the time to actually read his full text. Here it is—well worth the read:

"Mr. President: No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do, opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely, and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfil the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offence, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and