The Left has embarked on a full-scale assault on our freedoms. Leftists have hijacked the Democratic Party and turned it into the Anti-Freedom Party over the past half-century, ramping up their efforts over the past decade.

This country was founded on individual liberty and freedom. As long as the individual does not infringe on the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and property of his counterparts, he is free to be left to his own devices. No man has the right to rule over any part of another man's life without consent. The bedrock of our republic is laid on the premise that we, as individuals, are ends in ourselves with the liberty to shape our own lives.

Individual freedom and liberty are something all Americans should agree on regardless of political affiliation. It is our "birthright" as Americans — to be free individuals charting our own course, expressing our free will, and pursuing the betterment of our condition without arbitrary obstacles. Unfortunately, leftists cloaking their anti-freedom agenda in emotional pleas for the "greater good" and "safety of society" have unleashed their attacks on basic freedoms, which the majority of individuals in both major political parties have always agreed on, with startling success. Many of us likely know well intentioned Democrats who value individual freedom and liberty but have been hoodwinked by alluring policy objectives that might just be worth forfeiting freedoms for, or they might have prioritized other political attributes over their own freedom without realizing it. This is a testament to leftists having taken root in the arenas that build and sway public opinion most: schools, media, and the workplace.

We've seen a plethora of attacks on freedom of speech all across the spectrum over the past half-century. From the initial FECA Act of 1971 that aimed to set limits on individual contributions to political candidates of their choice, but was ultimately struck down by the Supreme Court, to media censure, to the entirely ridiculous notion of "hate speech," which is a purely subjective term. Let's not forget the tagline of the anti–free speech crowd: "no free speech for fascists." (Might I add "said the fascist" to the end of that; the cognitive dissonance of that remark is quite amazing.) Free speech has warped into "free speech that is agreeable and doesn't upset anybody."

There are no subjective qualities to free speech. Americans are free to speak their mind — end of story. Microaggressions and safe spaces do not exist in a free society. Regrettably, there is no end in sight as resentment and suppression of free speech have laid siege to college campuses across America; they've become the headquarters for suppressive leftist ideology.

Apart from the attacks on religion through the smearing of those professing and living out their faith, we've experienced unconstitutional legislation being put forward to force free people to act against their religious convictions — specifically, California legislators putting forth bills targeting Christian employers, colleges, and the basic expressions of traditional Christian morality. Americans are free to practice their religion and adhere to their religious convictions whether others agree with them or not.

Perhaps the longest ongoing assault on one of our freedoms has been the ugly dismemberment of the freedom of our labor and property. Free individuals have much of what they produce forcibly taken from them to be distributed to others at the whim of government officials. The bureaucracy is said to know how to administer charity better than the individual. The government elites profess to know how to save for retirement better than the individual; however, to accept that premise, one must be okay with half the average return on an already depleted dollar on the back end. Bureaucrats are supposed to be equipped to make the health care decision for the patient. A paternalistic government foisted on us has eroded our right to our own property. These are wholly immoral concepts. Who knows better than the individual how to distribute his own property if he desires to do so? More importantly, who has the right to take that decision away from the individual? Our Founders did not believe in a moral code that justifies the confiscation of what individuals produced.

Our basic individual freedoms as Americans should be above the political fray and off the debate table. As Americans, we are free to speak our minds, free to practice our religion, free to use our labor and property at our own discretion, and free to exert free will that does not infringe on other individual's similar rights. These are fundamentally American principles and values. Regardless of one's political party affiliation, we should, we must, agree on these tenets of freedom if we want the American experiment to endure and if we want to defeat the Anti-Freedom coalition who have hijacked the Democratic Party.