I’m NOT saying that we should do the same (I appreciate that I can vote while not owning land, and am glad all adults can vote, including women). One of the reasons our fathers were wise is: people who are self-reliant (i.e. independent, truly free) can’t be bought, and will usually not vote for bigger government. I suppose this would be like limiting the vote to small business owners today (not saying we should do that).

I think of this in the wake of the Texas storm. Some people want to punish the power companies for high bills, or have government stop price gouging. News flash: a business’ purpose is to make money, not give away free or cheap power. If you limit prices supply will run out very, very quickly. See fuel shortages of 40-50 years ago. If that doesn’t make sense to you please study basic economics, free markets, and supply and demand. Price gouging hurts, but it’s better than giving the government power. We are not, thank God, a (wholly) socialist or communist country. By empowering the government we doom our great-grandchildren. That’s how we got in this mess - people that came before allowed government to take steps towards socialism.

The solution is for ALL of us to become more self-reliant, less dependent on government and big businesses - at least for life’s necessities. The other half to this is for ALL of us to be more charitable. I think we’ve seen that Texans are pretty good at rallying during a disaster and helping each other. Welfare programs are like inefficient, corrupt charities that empower government, not people. Charity is something that happens at the individual level.

That is the power of Western Civilization and Judeo-Christian values: each individual has personal freedom/sovereignty - and personal responsibility for our choices. The two are inextricably linked. If you remove responsibility you remove freedom. Become self-reliant (i.e. free). We win when we don’t need the globalists for necessities - or for their shiny toys (chains). That’s when we can tell them to pound sand.