Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine

Only those afraid of the truth seek to silence debate, intimidate those with whom they disagree, or slander their ideological counterparts. Those who know they are right have no reason to stifle debate because they realize that all opposing arguments will ultimately be overcome by fact.

You cannot take away freedom to protect it, you cannot destroy the free market to save it, and you cannot uphold freedom of speech by silencing those with whom you disagree. To take rights away to defend them or to spend your way out of debt defies common sense.

After the signing of the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin was asked by a woman on the street, "What have you given us, sir?" Franklin Responded, "A Republic, if you can keep it." A critical moment in history has come; our Republic is in jeopardy. Can we keep it? If the answer to that question, as I fear, is "no," then we have no one to blame but ourselves.

But are we even capable of maintaining a Republic anymore? Are there enough citizens willing to do the hard work that self-rule requires, or have we become a people who would rather be cared for, fed, clothed, housed, and told what's best for us by a parentlike state? Unfortunately, the evidence suggests the latter.

When we support or vote for candidates outside the two major political parties we are immediately lectured about wasting our vote or making it easier for the less desirable of the two major candidates to claim victory. These lies are repeated every election and they must be ignored. You never waste your vote if you vote your conscience.

The result of preventing failure in a country rooted in freedom is a country that is no longer rooted in logic.

We know that our best days aren't behind us. We know that America is the country that freed millions of people in the last hundred years alone. We are the people who changed the world. . . . We are only a simple change of mind-set from being that nation again. . . . Start telling yourself, "I don't need the government to do it for me." . . . The first step in recovery is to admit you have a problem. So say it. . . . Rest assured that others more timid than you will join in the fight, but they wait for you.

We cannot preach tolerance and then practice the opposite. [Benjamin] Franklin once observed that "only a virtuous people are capable of freedom." That's because democracy requires self-regulation, a virtue that those who practice greed and hate are incapable of mastering. But the cause of freedom is too important to let those who are incapable of self-sufficiency destroy it. Remember, to us, slavery and tyranny are far-fetched concepts that history has righted---but to history, the far-fetched concept is the idea that men should be free.

At this time of great need for values such as goodness, virtue, and modesty, religion is increasingly targeted as the barrier instead of being embraced as a savior. This lie needs to be rejected---not by words, but by example.

[Partisan politicians] seek to incite political support or raise money by pitting us against each other on issues . . . because they know that by igniting heated arguments, the issues are less likely to be solved and their careers are more likely to be secure. Every time you vote "against" someone rather than "for" someone the two-party system wins and America loses.

Meanwhile, our politicians, global corporations, and money changers have redefined the American Dream. Many of us grew up not even knowing that we were considered "poor," but now it seems that no one can stand the thought of not being rich. Politicians and the media told us that America is about having the most stuff, the nicest cars, and the biggest homes. Almost everyone, it seemed, was in it for themselves. Compassion, we were told, was a victim of capitalism. We should now see that for the lie it is. Compassion and capitalism go hand in hand, but compassion does not go with what these people are really promoting: greed. . . . In short, politicians promised us a new, easier way to success and happiness---and many of us too eagerly embraced and promoted it. . . . There are no shortcuts in achieving and living the American Dream. It takes hard work, relentless dedication to your core principles and values, and, above all, patience.

America has let thieves into her home and that nagging in your gut is a final warning that our country is about to be stolen. Our Founding Fathers understood that our rights and liberties are gifts from God. They also understood that WE are an intuitive people. If all that is true, then it only makes sense that He would alert us to our impending loss. And now He is---shame on us for ignoring Him for so long.

It is not time to dissolve the bands that connect us to one another, but it is time to dissolve the "political" bands that separate us from one another. . . . Let us start by doing what we've been trained for so long not to do: let us declare the causes that unite us.

It is in no citizen’s best interest to follow politicians who use panic, confusion, and hastily crafted legislation to enact emergency powers that they themselves barely understand. Panic will not lead this ship to a safer port, only farther out to sea, into far deeper and more dangerous waters.

The infighting and the purposeful division promoted by our political parties is a simple ploy to keep us from uniting.

But that slippery slope is already rearing its head . . . .