The United States Constitution was the first of its kind, bringing about an entirely different perspective on the role of government.

One of it’s most revolutionary features was the concept of negative rights. It clearly articulates what the government cannot do to citizens. It can’t silence you. It can’t take away your guns. They can’t just show up and search through your home, and you can’t just be put away in jail without a speedy trial (unless you were involved in the “insurrection”).

Though probably the most critical concept is that human rights come from God, or a higher power, and not from government. This completely changed the way citizens of the world viewed the idea of other people taking things away from them or imposing rules that violated their natural human rights.

Given not only the empowering, citizen-friendly construction of the Constitution, but also the absolute and historical success of the United States and its place in the world, I’ve always been amazed at why it hasn’t been adopted across the world. (Similar to how I’m continually amazed at the number of U.S. citizens who want socialism, given its definitively dreadful record across history.)

When I started to look into just how many countries adopted or were inspired by our Constitution. The most powerful example I could find was that in 1811, Venezuela adopted a Constitution directly influenced by the United States.

Why the most powerful? Because for anyone who takes the freedom and liberty we enjoy in the United States for granted, note the current state of Venezuela. They fully embraced socialism and are enjoying the crippling poverty, serious food and power shortages, political prisoners, and massive defection socialism always… always brings with it.

Socialists (or communists, if you prefer… there’s really not that much difference) are actively working to take over the United States and permanently wrest it away from the citizens. Many don’t believe it. They think that couldn’t happen here because it’s so well disguised as a civil rights movement. But even the recommended solutions to whatever legitimacy you see in those causes all contain denial of our Constitutional rights.

Freedom and liberty are things that sadly require a fight each and every day. Venezuela is just one more country that should serve as an alarm bell that while they didn’t last as long as us, we may not be far behind if we don’t start realizing what is going on and what it’s going to take to defeat it.