Hey, folks. Today is July 4th, Independence Day, and we have some great content coming up for you.

Today's show is sponsored by ExpressVPN. Do you like your web history being seen in sold to advertisers?

No? Me neither. Get ExpressVPN right now at ExpressVPN.com slash Ben. Well, it is Independence Day.

And unfortunately, it seems like the main principles of Independence Day have either fallen out of favor with a large segment of the American population or just a lot of people don't even know what the principles of July 4th are. Joining us on the line to discuss is Ian Rowe, resident fellow at American Enterprise Institute where he focuses on education and upward mobility. He's also a writer for the 1776 Unites campaign. Ian, thanks so much for joining the show. Great to talk to you. Great to see you again, Ben. Happy July 4th. You too. So let's talk about the meaning of July

4th and why it seems to have fallen out of favor. It's very weird that if you look back at the

history of how July 4th has been perceived, even people who were living under the evils of slavery or had escaped the evils of slavery

understood what the principles of July 4th were supposed to be about. They just protested that

those principles had not been properly extended. I'm referring here, particularly to Frederick

Douglas, who made a famous speech about the meaning of July 4th. And yet now we live in 22.

Black Americans have not just the same legal rights as all other Americans.

In some ways, there are policies that actually are deliberately designed to favor black

Americans. And yet we're told that now the Declaration of Independence's principles are not

universal, were not universal. And Frederick Douglass was apparently wrong in seeking to universalize

them. Yeah, that's highly problematic. I mean,

on days like July 4th, this is an annual opportunity to reaffirm the great elements of America,

the values, the institutions around faith, family, hard work, free enterprise, entrepreneurship.

Those are the institutions, those are the pillars of our society that people of all races

have embraced for generations.

And it is true that far back in the past, we had laws that banned certain people from

moving forward.

But embedded in America, I mean, the Tokyo talked about this,

we have the tools of self-betterment, self-renewal,

...