Join or Die…Again

Audio By Carbonatix

Don’t tread on me, baby.

Most of you are familiar with the iconic Gadsden Flag–a yellow background with a coiled snake and the words, “Don’t Tread on Me” blazing across the top.

To some it is a patriotic symbol of liberty, to others it is seen as a dog-whistle for “extremists.” You know the kind…outlaws and lunatics who fly a Gadsden (like me), those who want secure borders, safe cities, parental authority, limited government, and to be left alone. Wackos, all of us.

Ironically, most Americans with strong feelings about the flag probably couldn’t tell you why there is a snake on it.

Let’s fix that.

Pronto, Tonto

The snake on the Gadsden is a second appearing, a remix if you will. It hisses back to a snake of old, Benjamin Franklin’s severed serpent meme of pre-revolutionary America.

Its first stateside appearance was in the Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754, Franklin depicted a chopped-up rattlesnake with each segment labeled to represent an American colony.

During the French and Indian War, it was a call to unite the colonies to combat the French and their Native American allies and to convince the British government to support a colonial government and military in America.

Franklin’s persuasive pith and pen didn’t work and may have even backfired across the pond. As England became aware of the trouble a unified America could cause.

Nonetheless, the image and message were understood and embraced.

There is an US, there is a THEM…and it is US against THEM. Whomever “them” may be.

Once Bitten, Twice Shy

To Benjamin Franklin, the rattlesnake was an admirable and uniquely American creature. It never attacked first. It warned before striking. But once threatened, fought fiercely and never surrendered.

For these reasons it was used again a decade later, colonists resurrected the symbol as they protested unfair taxation as Great Britain’s enacted of the Stamp Act.

Paul Revere used it in 1774 as the masthead for The Massachusetts Spy newspaper.

The message? Leave us in peace.

But if you insist on aggression, you will regret it.

Don’t tread on me.

Come Together, Right Now

But unity was the call before liberty.

Unity is necessary before liberty can be or be defended.

Today, America is painfully segmented. Red and blue. Boomers zoomers. Christian and secular. Native and immigrant.

We don’t just disagree, we define ourselves by our disagreements. Chop chop. Hacking away at our common good and goals.

In the meantime, our national debt skyrockets, our cultural norms are erased, government expands, and our enemies are emboldened.

And Franklin’s observation still stands…a snake divided into enough pieces is no longer dangerous to its enemies.

It simply dies.

Join or Die, Again.

Here we are again.

The original colonies didn’t agree on everything. In fact, they argued constantly. About trade. About military might…funding, representation.

Their greatness wasn’t unanimity. It was humility. Recognizing that independence mattered more than winning every internal argument.

And independence against tyrants couldn’t be won alone. It requires other friends at your table.

Could someone please tell that to our conservative punditry?

The same ones hacking each other to bits and pieces.

We have a common enemy and right now they want us captive more than we want to be free. Captive to globalism, nihilism, socialism and communism…every other godless ism that promises peace and prosperity and has never once delivered.

Join or die, mi amigos.