Americans of all ages, all conditions, all minds constantly unite. Not only do they have commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but they also have a thousand other kinds: religious, moral, grave, futile, very general and very particular, immense and very small.
Americans use associations to give entertainment, to found seminaries, to build inns, to raise churches, to distribute books, to send missionaries to the antipodes. In this manner they create hospitals, prisons, schools.
Finally, if it is a question of bringing to light a truth or developing a sentiment with the support of a great example, they associate. Everywhere that, at the head of a new undertaking, you see the government in France, or a man of rank in England, in the United States you will be sure to find an association.
That’s French ambassador Alexis de Tocqueville writing in the 1830s.
The French government commissioned de Tocqueville to travel to the United States. His job was to study American society and politics. And what he found amazed him…
De Tocqueville discovered a long history of localism in America.
Americans worked together to manage their society and take on important projects. They did this through private associations at the local level.
And everything was self-funded.
The government did not levy taxes to fund the projects de Tocqueville observed. That means nobody was forced to pay for anything against their will.
Instead, those who found the projects useful and necessary came together to complete them. Everything centered around community at the local level.
We talked last week about how the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) push is a pillar of the globalist agenda. It’s all about shifting power and control to institutions aligned with the globalist faction – which appears to be rooted in the old-world European power centers.
But as we discussed, ESG hit a brick wall here in the US. And I think that’s in no small part due to our proud localist tradition in this country.
I’ve done a little bit of research on America’s mutual aid networks of the 19th and early 20th centuries. A great resource for this is David Beito’s From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services.
I don’t think many of us realize just how robust and self-reliant Americans were back then. The mutual aid networks were incredibly comprehensive. These networks:
- Facilitated skills-training and jobs-training programs.
- Matched members up with career and investment opportunities.
- Shared ideas and boots-on-the-ground intelligence with members regarding happenings in the economy and the community.
- Provided educational resources and mentorship programs at the local level.
- Pooled capital to build or repair physical infrastructure.
- Organized health cost-sharing networks that made access to quality medical care cheap and accessible.
- Maintained efficient emergency response systems.
A few of these old mutual aid societies are still around today. The Moose Lodge and the Order of Elks are two examples.
The thing is – these associations are now just watered down versions of their former selves. They do very little to enhance the local community’s resilience.
That’s because the Welfare State crowded out their funding by raising taxes on everybody. This created the administrative state. And it went on to create regulations that made certain mutual aid services illegal.
Still, they were never able to crush the American spirit. I think that’s why they work so hard to perpetuate the narrative that this country has become a clown show.
But from my perspective, there are still plenty of strong communities out there. And I think people are feeling the need to band together with those of like mind more than they have in over a century.
This sets the stage for a localist renaissance in this country. That prospect is what keeps the globalists at the World Economic Forum (WEF) up at night.
The key is, we must build financial security at the household level. That’s how we can power the localist renaissance forward.
And that means we have to avoid the hidden tax they’re set to unleash on us. More on that story – and the solution – right here.
-Joe Withrow