The welfare-warfare state is unconstitutional, immoral, and a gross violation of America's founding principles.
By Murray Sabrin
Murray's Newsletter
November 11, 2026
The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind. Thomas Paine
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. George Bernard Shaw
The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: Initiative, Imagination, Individuality and Independence. Eddie Rickenbacker
I am an immigrant son of Holocaust survivors who arrived in America in August 1949. My family's history is a reminder of what happens when governments acquire unchecked power and individual liberty is extinguished. Many of my relatives perished in the Holocaust, and I grew up understanding that freedom is not something to be taken for granted. America represented something profoundly different: a nation founded on the revolutionary principle that individuals possess unalienable rights and that government exists to protect those rights, not violate them.
That is why I believe America needs another Thomas Paine moment.
In January 1776, an extraordinary pamphlet appeared in the American colonies that would change the course of history. Its title was Common Sense, and its author was Thomas Paine, an English immigrant who understood that the colonists had reached a historic crossroads. His message was bold and revolutionary: Americans had no reason to remain subjects of the British Crown. Independence was essential to securing their liberty.
Until Paine published Common Sense, many colonists still hoped for reconciliation with King George III. Paine shattered that illusion. He exposed the absurdity of hereditary monarchy, challenged the legitimacy of British rule, and made the case for self-government. His pamphlet helped transform public opinion and galvanized support for independence. Six months later, on July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.
Today, 250 years after that historic break with Great Britain, America needs another dose of common sense.
The federal government has become the modern equivalent of the distant, unaccountable authority our Founders rebelled against. Consider our grievances:
· Taxation without meaningful consent: Washington confiscates an enormous share of Americans' earnings to finance programs and activities beyond its constitutional authority.
· The destruction of sound money: The Federal Reserve manipulates interest rates and expands the money supply, debasing the dollar and imposing an inflation tax on every American.
· Government without constitutional limits: Congress spends trillions on entitlements, subsidies, and bureaucracies that cannot be justified by the Constitution's enumerated powers.
· Corporate cronyism: Politically connected corporations receive subsidies, bailouts, and privileges at taxpayers' expense.
· The welfare-warfare state: Washington redistributes wealth at home while financing undeclared wars abroad, often without congressional declarations of war.
· The surveillance state: Federal agencies increasingly intrude into Americans' private lives, threatening the liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
· The regulatory state: Unelected bureaucrats dictate how Americans work, invest, conduct business, and live their lives.
These are not isolated policy failures. They are symptoms of a government that increasingly treats citizens as subjects rather than sovereign individuals.
This is where The Abolition Manifesto enters the picture. (The Preface and the Introduction, and Chapter One are available on my Substack for free. Please become a paid subscriber to help promote the book on social media and other venues.)
My book is intended to be the intellectual equivalent of Paine's Common Sense for the 21st century. It seeks to give Americans the intellectual ammunition to peacefully reject government dependency and coercion and reclaim their individual sovereignty.
The answer is not another election, political party, or promise to reform Washington. It is the abolition of unconstitutional government activities, the end of the Federal Reserve's monopoly over money, the dismantling of the welfare-warfare state, and the restoration of individual liberty and voluntary institutions.
Paine inspired Americans to separate politically from an empire. The Abolition Manifesto seeks to inspire a new generation to secede peacefully, intellectually, economically, and constitutionally from an overreaching federal government.
This is not a call to abandon America. It is a call to reclaim the principles that made America exceptional.
In 1776, Americans declared their independence from King George III. In 2026, as we celebrated the 250th anniversary of that declaration, it is time to declare our independence from the modern political establishment. The question is whether Americans still have the courage to do so.
This article was originally published at Murray's Newsletter.