For 250 years, the United States has pulled off what no other empire in human history could: a meteoric rise from a ragtag collection of colonies to a global superpower. But as we approach a historic milestone, a chilling question hangs in the humid air of the 21st century: Is the American experiment coming full circle, back to the very tyranny it was designed to escape?

The battle lines aren’t being drawn with muskets this time, but with words—and the words being thrown around are “Socialism,” “Communism,” and “The Revolution.”

The Billionaire Myth and the “D” in History
At the heart of this modern tug-of-war is Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, now the unmistakable face of a radical progressive movement. In a recent talk at the University of Chicago, she attempted to rewrite the DNA of the American Revolution, claiming the Founding Fathers were actually “revolting against the billionaires of their time.”

It’s a narrative that sounds perfect for a podcast, but as commentator Bill O’Reilly points out, it earns a “D” in any serious history class.

The Reality: There were no billionaires in 1776. There was a King.

The Power: King George didn’t just have wealth; he had totalitarian control. He told the colonists what they could own, where they could live, and how they could speak.

The irony? The farmers and merchants who rose up didn’t do so because they hated success; they did so because they hated government intrusion. They wanted the “pursuit of happiness”—a journey that requires the government to get out of the way, not step in as the ultimate arbiter of who “earns” what.

The “Unearned” Billion: Luck or Liberty?
The rhetoric has shifted from political representation to a fundamental attack on the concept of achievement. The new movement argues that “you can’t earn a billion dollars”—that such wealth is inherently a result of “breaking rules” or “abusing labor.”

But this ignores the very engine of the American dream: The Corporation. Whether it’s the person who finds “diamonds in their backyard” or the visionary who invents a smartphone, the ability to incorporate, market a product to 350 million people, and scale a business is the hallmark of a free market.

To “Democratic Socialists,” the goal is often the overthrow of capitalism itself. But if you remove the ability to accumulate wealth, do you also remove the incentive to innovate?

The Divine Autopilot: Why Humanity is Different
To understand why this political shift feels so jarring, we have to look deeper than economics—all the way back to the foundation of existence.

In the Book of Genesis, God set the universe on “autopilot.”

The Instinct: Fish know how to swim; stars know their orbits; ants instinctively build their colonies. They follow a pre-programmed script.

The Exception: The human being.

According to ancient wisdom, God gave humans a gift denied to every other creature: Free Will. We weren’t pre-programmed. We were given the ability to choose light from darkness, right from wrong, and rags from riches.

The Land of Opportunity vs. The Land of “Isms”
This is the “Secret Sauce” of America. True democracy is the political manifestation of Free Will. It is the only system that allows an individual to think, speak, act, and pray on their own terms.

Communism and Socialism seek to put humanity back on “autopilot,” where the state decides the “fair” distribution of life’s results.

Democracy provides the “Opportunity”—the chance to climb as high as your ambition allows.

As we look toward July 4th, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Millions once kissed the ground of these shores because it was the only place on Earth where a person could go from nothing to everything.

The curiosity remains: If we dismantle the system that allows for “the billionaire,” do we also dismantle the freedom that allows for “the individual”? We are 250 years into the greatest experiment in liberty. Whether we continue to fly or return to the ground of government control is a choice that—fittingly—only we have the free will to make.