The word liberty has quietly slipped out of conversation in American life, and it’s high time that we started talking about it again.

In his inauguration speech, President Trump spoke the words “nation” and “national” 14 times, but he only said “freedom” once, and liberty didn’t get a single mention.

Our leaders in Washington may pay occasional lip service to liberty, but neither the Democratic nor the Republican party is committed to preserving or furthering liberty. Washington has engaged us in a bipartisan war on terror, spied upon us, and taken away our earnings, right to due process, and free speech. Perhaps everyone has forgotten what liberty is all about.

Simply put, liberty means to exercise human rights in any way a person chooses as long as it does not infringe upon the rights of others. Liberty is important because it is the principle that free Western society as we know it is based upon.

Liberty gave birth to the human ingenuity that led to civilization, prosperity, security, the generation of personal wealth, and the sanctity of personal rights. Liberty empowers and protects us, and only liberty has the power to ward off oppression and tyranny.

Our country was established with the greatest ideals and respect for individual freedom ever known. But now we have a foreign policy of violent, military expansionism, uncontrollable debt, a monstrous bureaucracy that regulates our every move, and a complete disregard for privacy, private property, and stable currency. Each election cycle pushes us further and further into the jaws of tyranny. Will we turn and move in the direction of liberty or continue to slide further into authoritarianism?

Only a restoration of personal and societal liberty can restore our nation and turn back the tide of two party tyranny.