Be Careful What You Wish For - Freedom and Liberty are Not Partisan Issues. Can We Legislate Our Way Back to Freedom?

What if proposed legislation, that conservatives would support for good, is opening the door for it to be used against us for bad?

Have you heard of the Hegelian dialectic? Problem / reaction / solution. Thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis.

Create the problem, knowing how a certain demographic will respond. Then have the solution planned that would appease that demographic that is practically begging for a solution. What if the solution presented was preconceived of a bigger motive that you did not see coming? One that was already set up to fit the planned outcome the “powers that be” were looking for. In other words, you have been duped.

The duality of politics has created division and has made party platforms volley back and forth to get their priorities addressed. Could it be that we are being played and not seeing the long game here?

History repeats itself. So, if you look at the Patriot Act. What came out of that to protect us against terrorists? Long lines at airports, TSA screenings that invades our privacy for the “greater good”. All in the name of peace and safety. Are you feeling safer? Or just infringed upon?

Let’s look at voter ID for example. It is common sense to require a picture ID like your driver’s license for most things, but it has not been enforced for voter integrity. While the US Congress is currently looking to pass the SAVE ACT as a way to address this. We could just require a driver’s license for voter ID, but now we are asking our government to legislate this. Let us not invite a solution that is a government overreach that infringes on law abiding adults that wish to protect their privacy. That is how the “powers that be” have provoked the conservatives to ask for a solution that could turn out to be something they otherwise would probably not accept. And not “if”, but “when” digital ID is put forth as the solution to voter ID, will we be saying “finally a solution”? Then the solution also takes away more liberty from law-abiding citizens like you and me. Did you see that coming?

And then there is the legislation to protect children on the internet.

It started in 2023 with the Online Safety Act in the United Kingdom. Pulling at our heart strings with weaponized empathy. Using our innocent children as pawns in the game.

John Padfield of Business Reform and a speaker at a recent Kentucky Family Association presentation reports, “Online “Age Verification” is the newest excuse to infringe on people’s rights. We started losing banking privacy in the 1970s to crack down on money laundering. We lost more privacy in the 1980s in the name of the “War on Drugs” and in the early 2000s, many more privacy rights were stolen from us in the name of the “War on Terror”. Why is the “solution” to every problem a further loss of our right to privacy? Once the “protecting the children” excuse is worn out, I don’t know what the next global crisis will be but I am certain the “solution” will be even more surveillance”.

Why are we asking government to protect our kids?

Of course we want to protect children, but there are ways to empower parents to protect our children. Where is our power as parents? We need to limit the power of our government as our constitution states. While Age verification to access pornography seems like a good thing, how can you put policies in place without infringing on the privacy and freedom of innocent adults.  There is always a tradeoff. Are we willing to pay that price? We should be empowering parents to set up the parent controls on their children’s devices and in their search engines as guardrails to protect their children. Empower parents! Instead platforms could have to introduce bio-metric face scans to authenticate your identity.

Kentucky has previously proposed the Stop Harms from Addictive Social Media Act. This year, Kentucky is proposing legislation like HB227 which addresses the growing body of evidence that social media is harmful to minors. The bill would prohibit children under the age of 13 from using social media without parental permission and would place the burden of age verification on social media companies. This seems like a reasonable ask at first, but this takes oversight out of the hands of parents and potentially subjects us all to this verification to engage with aspects of the internet.

Kids Off Social Media Act

“Kids Off Social Media Act” Opens the Door to Digital ID by Default. The bill never says “show your ID,” but it quietly demands systems that make anonymous speech impossible.

The Kids Off Social Media Act aims to protect children under 13 from social media and restrict algorithmic content targeting for minors under 17, while enforcing school-based safeguards. You can read the proposed bill here.

The Kids Off Social Media Act (KOSMA), introduced in the 119th Congress by Senator Brian Schatz (DHI) on January 28, 2025, is bipartisan legislation designed to limit children’s exposure to potentially harmful social media content and enhance online safety for minors. The bill has co-sponsors including Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Katie Britt (R-AL), reflecting broad support across party lines. 

Key Provisions     

• Age Restrictions: Social media platforms are prohibited from allowing children under 13 to create or maintain accounts. Existing accounts and associated personal data must be deleted, with minors able to access their data within 90 days of account termination. 

• Algorithmic Limitations: Platforms cannot use personalized recommendation systems to promote content to users under 17. Minors may still access content in chronological feeds or search for content proactively.  

• School Network Protections: Schools receiving E-Rate funding must block social media on school devices and networks, implement filtering technology, and submit internet safety policies to the FCC. Schools failing to comply must reimburse E-Rate support.  

• Enforcement: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforces platform compliance, while state attorneys general may bring civil actions. The FCC oversees school compliance.  

• Definition of Social Media: Applies to public-facing platforms centered on user-generated content, excluding primarily email, videoconferencing, or educational services.  

As “Conservative Ladies of America” states, “Supporters of age‑verification laws rely on five core arguments: child protection, privacy‑preserving technology, third‑party verifiers, constitutional safety, and the promise of an “American‑style” system. But each of these claims collapses under scrutiny. Age verification does not reduce exposure. It requires identity. It centralizes data. It expands government power. And it lays the groundwork for a Digital ID system that can be expanded far beyond pornography. This debate is not about protecting children. It is about who controls identity, access, and speech in the digital age.”

We are a nation that has lived to experience freedom, unlike China. China’s Social credit system works because communism already works. Digital Slavery. Open-air prisons. And when the view by our own administration is that we need to beat China at being the AI power, do we fully understand what that means and where it is taking us?

Be Careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

You say, we live in America - A Free Country. But is it? Have you given up personal freedoms in honor of national safety? Are we legislating away our freedoms? What if that has been by design to erode our freedoms one at a time?

Are we going to take a stand for the liberty that our country was founded on or are we going to wait for someone else to do it? Trump promised to give the power back to the people. We need to step into that power now and stop giving it away.