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America became the greatest country in the world by being a nation of individualists who would let no obstacle hinder them from accomplishing their goals. We must become that nation again if we are to restore our economy, culture, and political system.

We have witnessed numerous instances of elites’ unwarranted arrogance in recent weeks. There’s the shameless vulgarity of Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who despite her ignorant incompetence previously sneered that we need illegal aliens to do menial jobs so elites like her can live the high life and grow wealthy off our money without earning it. There’s the raging hypocrisy of Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Rep. Alexandria “Tax the Rich” Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who grew rich and influential off being corrupt and power-hungry politicians, and yet are conducting a “fighting oligarchy” tour. There’s Judge Boasberg and his fellow activist judges, who insanely and illicitly demand the ability to overrule all three branches of government and run the world’s most powerful nation (and for some mystifying reason, the Trump administration is meekly acquiescing). All these politicians and judges and their Marxist ilk could use a dose of reality from the late, great Booker T. Washington.

“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed,” Washington observed. “Character, not circumstances, makes the man.” And again, “If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” Booker T. Washington learned these truths the hard way. Born a slave, he was freed by Union victory and the 13th Amendment while still young, but continued to face aggressive and even abusive racism and stark poverty in his youth. Finally, he became an internationally respected orator and educator, the founder and head of the prestigious Tuskegee Institute, which operated on the brilliant educational model of requiring both a classical education and training in different trades and manual labor. Magnanimous, forgiving, generous, and humble to the point of holiness, Booker T. Washington was truly a model of the best of the American spirit, and the most admirable sort of success.

Indeed, he was therefore very much an individualist. Alexis de Tocqueville noted in the early 19th century that American individualism meant that each man and woman felt a strong sense of responsibility towards his community. Contrary to what Communists and oligarchs will tell you, individualism is actually very beneficial to society as a whole. Booker T. Washington is the perfect example. On the one hand, he worked very hard to become educated and to achieve personal success, both in his career and in his family life. On the other hand, he also made it his business to provide young people with an excellent education, and to encourage citizens across America to support his work and his vision.

“Among a large class, there seemed to be a dependence upon the government for every conceivable thing. The members of this class had little ambition to create a position for themselves, but wanted the federal officials to create one for them. How many times I wished then and have often wished since, that by some power of magic, I might remove the great bulk of these people into the country districts and plant them upon the soil,” Washington exclaimed. And again, he wisely noted of contemporary propagandists, “Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.” What a perfect description that is of Jasmine Crockett, AOC, Barack Obama, Maxine Waters, Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, and numerous other Democrats. Leftists in America, both in government and media, have made grievance and victimhood into the foundation of their own rise to power, and if all Americans were to see through their lies, they would be out of jobs.

Next week, we will also mark the anniversary of traitor General Lee surrendering to the great Union Lt. Gen. U.S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. While it was not the end of the war — another Confederate army had yet to surrender at Bennett Place — it made overall Confederate defeat inevitable. But many Americans don’t know that the Confederates were Democrats who originally launched the Civil War because of the election of anti-slavery Republican Abraham Lincoln. And even those Confederates who professed personal dislike of slavery, like Robert E. Lee, were by the end of the Civil War actively involved in murdering or enslaving every black civilian and soldier they could find, in compliance with Jeff Davis’s Retaliatory Act (read more about Confederate war crimes here). Why is this relevant to my original point? Because the Democrats have never really gotten over losing their slaves. They still fancy themselves as superior aristocrats who own their fellow human beings. And since they cannot shackle and sell us anymore, they try to control our minds. They want us not to be free-thinking, free-acting individuals, but rather mere members of a herd that repeats and does whatever it is told.

That is why it is so vital for us to reject altogether not only the Democrats’ propaganda but even their manipulative language, as for instance substituting “gay” for “homosexual” or “reproductive rights” for “baby killing.” Like Booker T. Washington rising from slavery to a height of political, moral, societal, and educational excellence, let us free our minds from the shackles of leftist ideology and vow to lift up both ourselves and others.

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