How Do We Become Misinformed?

There are only three ways any of us ends up believing something that isn't true. Understanding the mechanism is the first step to defending against it.

• Seek original sources — not summaries of summaries
• Verify claims with multiple independent outlets
• Pick one topic and go deep — become a trusted expert on it
• Ask: Does this source cite evidence, or just make assertions?

Is America a Democracy?

The distinction is not word-splitting — it is foundational to why your rights exist at all.

The Bill of Rights exists specifically to prevent majority tyranny. Your right to free speech, your right to bear arms, your right to due process — none of these can be voted away, no matter what the majority wants.

Were the Founders Ignorant Backwoodsmen?

The men who founded this nation stood on the shoulders of 2,000 years of political philosophy. They were polyglots, lawyers, scientists, philosophers, and statesmen.

• Montesquieu — invented the concept of separation of powers that became the three branches of government
• John Locke — natural rights: life, liberty, and property belong to individuals, not governments
• Cicero — republican virtue, civic duty, and the rule of law above any individual

Were the Founders Secular Deists?

While a small number of Founders — including Franklin and Jefferson — held Deist views, they were the minority. The overwhelming majority were practicing Christians. And even the Deists believed rights come from God, not government.

• Congress opened every session with prayer — and appointed an official Congressional Chaplain
• The Supreme Court building features a relief of Moses holding the Ten Commandments
• The Black Robe Regiment: pastors who preached liberty from the pulpit and took up arms
• For generations, the Bible was one of the primary texts used to teach children to read

Were All the Founders Racist Slave Owners?

• The Declaration was changed from "Life, Liberty, and Property" to "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" — specifically to prevent slaveholders from claiming a constitutional right to own people.
• George Washington wrestled deeply with the morality of slavery his entire life. He arranged in his will for all of his slaves to be freed upon his wife Martha's death.
• The Three-Fifths Compromise is widely misunderstood. It was NOT a statement about Black humanity — it was a strategic move by antislavery Founders to reduce the political power of slave states in Congress, making abolition more achievable over time.
• John Adams and Alexander Hamilton were active, outspoken abolitionists throughout their entire lives. Neither ever owned a slave.

• The word "slave" comes from "Slav" — referring to millions of white Eastern Europeans enslaved by the Ottoman Empire
• The Corsairs of North Africa raided coastal villages as far north as Ireland and Scandinavia, taking white Europeans as slaves
• Thomas Jefferson launched the First Barbary War specifically to stop this slave trade — hence "the shores of Tripoli" in the Marines' Hymn
• America built the philosophical and legal framework — through the Declaration and Bill of Rights — that made the worldwide abolition of slavery morally inevitable

This is a thread of history that runs unbroken for over 100 years. It is not taught in most schools.

Source: Official Congressional Record, National Archives. Both parties voted for the Act — but one did so at a significantly higher percentage in every chamber, on every vote.

How Much Government Power Is Too Much?

History offers a clear spectrum. On one end: total government control. On the other: no government at all. America was founded at a unique and deliberate midpoint.

Marx described these ten steps as necessary to destroy a free enterprise society. Ask yourself: how many of these exist in some form in America today?

The Power Funnel — 250 Years of American Government

Here is something no one teaches in school. No matter which party wins — Republican or Democrat, left or right — the size and power of the federal government has only moved in one direction: up. The pendulum swings back and forth, but the funnel keeps widening at the top. Where does it end?

The Numbers Don't Lie — Federal Register Pages vs. Laws Enacted

Here is the smoking gun. As Congress has passed fewer laws, unelected federal agencies have written more rules — rules that carry the full force of law. This is how governing power moved from the people's elected representatives to bureaucrats nobody voted for.

Capitalism vs. Socialism

No economic system is perfect. But the evidence of what works — and what doesn't — is overwhelming.

• Lifted more people out of extreme poverty than any economic system in human history — by a factor that isn't close
• Created upward mobility — the ability to move between economic classes regardless of the family you were born into
• Rewarded innovation: the Forbes 400 has shifted from inherited real estate wealth to self-made entrepreneurs

• 50 states should be 50 laboratories of policy — we can see in real time which approaches work and choose the best
• Warning: We haven't had true capitalism for decades. States, cities, and companies have not been made to deal with the consequences of their poor policies — because government keeps bailing them out
• India's 1.3 billion people still live under a rigid caste system; the idea of class mobility barely exists
• Capitalism without consequences is crony capitalism — not free markets. The failures we see are often the result of government intervention, not free market failure

America Is Special Because America Is Good

Power without goodness is tyranny. America is not just powerful — it has used its power in ways no other empire in history has matched.

Critics say America is selfish. The data says something very different. These are not aspirations — they are documented figures from the UN, OECD, and U.S. government records.

• In 2023, U.S. emergency food programs reached 77 million people across 56 countries, providing direct food assistance, safe drinking water, and medical care. Source: USAID / CGDev.
• The U.S. contributed $2 billion to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria in 2023 — the fund's single largest national contributor. Source: Kaiser Family Foundation.
• Between 2001 and 2023, the U.S. disbursed $677 billion in aid to 213 countries — virtually every nation on earth. Source: ForeignAssistance.gov / OECD.
• The U.S. accounts for nearly half of all UN-coordinated humanitarian aid in any given year — more than all other nations combined in many disasters. Source: UN OCHA / Statista.
• American private overseas giving totals more than $43 billion annually, coming from charities (35%), corporations (26%), religious organizations (14%), and foundations — dwarfing government-to-government aid in most years.
• U.S. total overseas assistance — adding government aid, private charity, remittances, and private investment — reaches an estimated $365 billion per year to developing countries, more than any other nation. Source: The Philanthropy Roundtable.

Voices Worth Knowing

You don't have to take our word for it. Here are credible researchers, commentators, and scholars — some of them Democrats, some Republicans, all of them citing data.

References & Further Reading

Every claim in this exhibit is sourced. Take a photo of this list and explore further. Start with WallBuilders — the largest private collection of original Founding Era documents, letters, and books in existence.

Why Iran Is Different — A Difficult But Necessary Conversation

This panel may be controversial. We present it because the stakes are too high to ignore. The information here comes from the official statements of Iranian leaders and from the scholarship of multiple U.S. presidential administrations.

With virtually every nuclear nation — including the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War — the U.S. operated on MAD: the knowledge that a nuclear attack would result in mutual annihilation deters both sides. This is why we survived the Cold War.

A significant strand of Iranian state theology — the belief in the return of the Twelfth Imam — teaches that chaos and apocalyptic conflict will hasten the return of their messiah. For true believers in this theology, Mutually Assured Destruction is not a deterrent. It may be an incentive.

These are not interpretations or characterizations. These are direct quotes from Iran's supreme leader, published on official Iranian state channels and broadcast on state television, translated by major news organizations and the Middle East Media Research Institute.

This is a critical distinction that must not be lost. When we speak of the Iranian government's threats, we are speaking of a small, unelected ruling class that has held 90 million people hostage for 45 years. The Iranian people — heirs to one of the world's oldest and richest civilizations — have been fighting their own government for decades.

This is not a partisan issue. Every administration since 1979 has identified Iran as a primary state threat. The words differ. The conclusion is the same.

The U.S. government officially classifies Iran as the world's most active state sponsor of terrorism. It has held that designation continuously since 1984. These are documented attacks, sourced from Pentagon reports, FBI investigations, federal court findings, and congressional testimony.

Gift Table — Take Something Home

In the spirit of the Fourth Amendment — your privacy matters. We will use your mailing address only to send your gift, then delete it.