As we celebrate Independence Day, our republic faces great peril.  We’re not at war.  We don’t face an economic crisis, quite the opposite, the economy was never better.  It’s not a foreign power putting us at risk.  To quote Pogo, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”  Well, maybe not all of us, just some of us, namely progressive Democrats, a/k/a/ Socialists, a/k/a Leftists, a/k/a Commies, I think you get the point.  They don’t see it that way, of course, and therein lies the problem.  Your average, run of the mill, walking around Leftist is untroubled by doubt.  He is perfectly assured that everything he thinks, says, or feels is 100% right, and that, therefore, anything that contradicts his self-assurance is wrong; not only wrong, but, extremist, fascist, racist, and homophobic.  Leftists, in short, suffer from delusions of rectitude.  Ronald Reagan said it best, “It isn’t so much that liberals are ignorant.  It’s just that they know so many things that aren’t so.”  Liberal delusions of rectitude wouldn’t be a problem if they took the advice of Voltaire, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”  The Left has different ideas.  It adheres to the slogan of the hooded bastards of Antifa, “I disapprove of your very existence, and will beat the crap out of you if you even show up.”  Hitler’s Brown Shirts had much the same policy.  This is unhealthy for a nation conceived by the blood of patriots yearning to be free, which long has been a haven for those seeking freedom.  Leftists like to talk about the benefits of diversity, but diversity is more than race and ethnicity.  Benjamin Franklin knew it, “Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom – and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.”  Few presidential candidates were as liberal as Adlai Stevenson, but he understood, “My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.”  Liberals revere Nelson Mandela, and he also had the right perspective, “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”  It’s not that Leftists never considered the benefits of respect for differing opinions.  Case in point – you can’t get further to the Left than Rob Reiner and Aaron Sorkin.  In The American President, here’s what they wrote, “America isn’t easy.  America is advanced citizenship.  You’ve gotta want it bad, cause it’s gonna put up a fight.  It’s gonna say,  You want free speech?  Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.”  I guess they didn’t really mean it, or else, they support freedom of thought and freedom of speech only in the abstract, or, more likely, only when they’re talking.  But we’re at risk because of them.  In the throes of their delusions, they are the real danger to democracy that they keep talking about.  The Left won’t permit conservative speech or thought on college campuses.  It won’t tolerate conservative speech or thought in print.  Amazon deletes positive reviews of conservative books.  It won’t tolerate conservative speech online.  Social media outlets regularly ban conservative contributors.  If the Left gets its way, the America we grew up in will cease to exist.  The new America will have more in common with Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union than the land of the free.  People will live in fear of being overheard criticizing the wrong person, or expressing an un-progressive opinion, for fear of reprisals.  Don’t doubt me it’s already begun.  Liberals decry the anti-Communist Black Lists of the 1950’s, but fail to appreciate that the black-listing of conservative voices is no less an offense.  Think the day will never come in America when a company will be forced to cancel a product because a Leftist agitator disapproves of a U.S. flag on it?  Think again, that happened on Tuesday.  The Left doesn’t want to permit any speech of which it does not approve, and it goes without saying, that it’s unalterably opposed to any speech made by Donald Trump, even if they don’t know what’s in it.  The President chose to speak at the July 4th fireworks event on the National Mall.  Leftists are appalled.  They fumed, “He’s turning it into a military parade,” and lied to the uninformed, “Presidents don’t speak on July 4th.” Prepare to be informed.  Presidents indeed have spoken on July 4th, and many times with a military theme, to include John Adams reviewed  a military parade, Abraham Lincoln reviewed New York Militia regiments, Theodore Roosevelt spoke to 200,000 people in Pittsburgh, Woodrow Wilson spoke at Gettysburg in 1913, and on July 4th 1914 spoke the memorable line, “Our country, right or wrong.”  Imagine if Trump said that!  Other July 4th speakers included Presidents Truman, Kennedy,  Ford, Reagan, Bush 43, and oh yes, one Il Duce Barack Obama, who in 2014 told military families, “Because of you we’re safe, we’re free, and we depend on you for our way of life.” The Marine Corps Band performed.  Nobody complained.  So on this Fourth of July, I say, let freedom ring.  With sincere apologies to Rev. Martin Luther King – let freedom ring from the panhandle of Florida, from the Grand Tetons of Wyoming, and from Utah’s Great Salt Lake.  But not only that.  Let freedom ring from Hollywood California, and from New York City.  Let freedom ring from Berkeley, and Oberlin College.  Let it ring from the pages of the New York Times, and from MSNBC.  And yes, let freedom ring even from Portland Oregon.  For if freedom is to endure it must be nurtured.  Back to Ronald Reagan, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream.  It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”