Opinion: We stand at the crossroads of liberty or despotism. The battle to confirm President Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court appointments puts the issues in sharp relief.

Will our representatives in the Senate confirm? Or will some fight against lawful governance in favor of cronyism and special privilege?

Each day the news brings examples of assaults on life and liberty. These include:
• Hospitals and doctors being pushed into following government and third-party payer algorithms and “guidelines” for medical care, rather than what is best for an individual patient;
• Unions siphoning off Medicaid home care funds to pay union dues of members;
• Pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) deciding what medications will be covered by insurance;
• Trump supporters attacked and beaten for wearing MAGA hats and T-shirts;
• Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters, openly calling for harassment and violence against administration leaders and supporters of President Trump;
• Democrats across the country openly defying our Immigration laws with “Sanctuary” Cities, calls for violence against police, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and Border Patrol agents, and judges who enforce our laws;
• Twitter suppressing Republicans running for office, shadow banning, and limiting the full function of conservatives’ accounts;
• Facebook taking down conservative content;
• Pastors pushed into “politically correct” sermons;
• Ivanka Trump forced to close her clothing line as businesses cave to leftist pressure to shut down entrepreneurial opportunities for those with opposing views;
• Persecution of Christians and Jews escalating worldwide;
• Free speech under attack in England, Germany, Australia, Canada. and the U.S.;
• President Trump’s SCOTUS nomination, the respected Judge Kavanaugh, being called “complicit in evil” by Democrat Senator Cory Booker.

The multifaceted assault on individual freedom is by design, as outlined in the teachings of Karl Marx, Saul Alinsky, and other radical leftists whose goal is to tear down the principles and institutions that made America the quantum leap in the history of humankind, based on the exceptional idea that Life and Liberty are natural rights that come from our Creator, not from government.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

America’s Founders held the core Judeo-Christian belief in the sanctity of the individual life. This also is the core belief of the Oath of Hippocrates for physicians. Medical practice based on that Oath focuses on YOU as an individual, not on the “community good” or insurance company bottom line.

Early American settlers were escaping religious intolerance and persecution in England and Europe. Our Founders believed deeply in the rights of all men to worship freely, without persecution. They believed in a higher moral authority that governed us all and serves as the underpinning of our legal system to create just laws protecting all people equally.

Yet today, everywhere we turn, we see radicals leftists, “progressives” and secularists working to tear asunder the fabric that has held us all together for more than 400 years through wars, economic crises, and natural disasters.

The left is determined to reach government-run “Medicare for all” healthcare and destroy the individual patient-physician relationship. Those who claim concern for the “collective good” are attempting to deny the very core of our national life as a country, as well our core right to live our individual lives as we choose.

Marx recognized that to take over a country and enslave the masses required BOTH destruction of individual property rights AND breaking of the psychological and spiritual ties that unite us: family, sense of community, and religion.

Americans have fought against the incursion of Marxist ideas for more than a century. Now, on the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth in 1818, Democrats are now openly running on the platform of socialism, a modern version of government-run slavery.

Americans have forgotten our history, such as the disastrous failure of early socialist ideas in Jamestown in 1609-1611. They have lost their understanding of the fact that when the government controls how you may worship, what medical care you may have, what your income is, what you may say without penalty, what kind of business you may pursue, then the government basically owns you.

Americans also ignore the terrible results of 20th century socialism: 100 million people died in government purges to suppress all dissent, and the disastrous economic failures leading to poverty and death.

Will Americans choose to follow the path to despotism pushed by the left, enticed by promises of “free” education, health care, child care, housing? Will we give up our right to free speech to appease bullies who claim to be offended? Will we continue to appoint judges who make laws, dictate rules, and become unelected despots? Will we continue to allow government and third-party control to dictate our medical care?

Or will we put government back within the proper boundaries of the Constitution?

The battle to confirm President Trumps U.S. Supreme Court appointments puts the issues in sharp relief. Will the people’s representatives in the Senate confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh or will the left successfully block such appointees because the left wants judges who will make laws as needed to accomplish the radical outcome the left seeks to impose?

This SCOTUS decision affects all of us, all our freedoms, and indeed, all aspects of our lives, for generations to come. Let your Senators hear YOUR voice on this crucial confirmation.

About the Author:

• Dr. Vliet has been a leader in patient centered, individualized medical care. Since 1986, she has practiced medicine independent of insurance contracts that interfere with patient-physician relationships and decision-making. Dr. Vliet focus is medical freedom and free market approaches to healthcare. Dr. Vliet is the founder of Vive Life Center and Hormone Health Strategies with medical practices in Tucson AZ and Dallas TX, specializing in preventive and climacteric medicine with an integrated approach to evaluation and treatment of women and men with complex medical and hormonal problems from puberty to late life.
• Dr. Vliet is a 2014 Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipient for her national and international educational efforts in health, wellness, and endocrine aging in men and women, and is recognized in the US as a motivational speaker in health and wellness and a powerful patient advocate, proponent of free market approaches to lower healthcare costs.  Dr. Vliet is the recipient of Voice of Women Award from Arizona Foundation for Women in recognition of her pioneering advocacy for the overlooked hormone connections in women’s health.
• Dr. Vliet’s consumer health books include: It’s My Ovaries, Stupid; Screaming To Be Heard: Hormonal Connections Women Suspect– And Doctors STILL  Ignore; Women, Weight and Hormones; The Savvy Woman’s Guide to PCOS,  The Savvy Woman’s Guide to Great Strength, and Stamina.
• Dr. Vliet is a past Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), a member of the AAPS Editorial Writing Team on healthcare reform, and a member of International Menopause Society and the International Society for The Study of the Aging Male (ISSAM). She received her M.D. degree and internship in Internal Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School, and completed specialty training at Johns Hopkins Hospital.  She earned her B.S. and Master’s degrees from the College of William and Mary in Virginia.
• Dr. Vliet has appeared on FOX NEWS, Cavuto, Stuart Varney Show, Fox and Friends, Sean Hannity and many nationally syndicated radio shows across the country as well as presented hundreds of Healthcare Town Halls addressing the economic and medical impact of the 2010 healthcare law and free market reforms, as well as seminars and radio shows on healthcare reform, Men’s Health and Women’s Health.
• Dr. Vliet speaks as an independent physician, not as an official spokesperson for any organization or political party. Dr. Vliet has no financial ties to any health care system or health insurance plan.  Her allegiance and advocacy is to and for patients.