Protecting individual liberty from the tyrannical forces of government is the idea our nation was built upon. It is the only way to protect the indiv… - Charlie Kirk

Hanson sees a similar desire to boost national morale while also getting the biggest bang for your cautiously spent buck (or your solidus, in the case of the Byzantine Empire) in many great leaders of the past, including Pericles, Alexander the Great, Justinian’s predecessors Augustus and Constantine, the later Holy Roman Emperors Charlemagne and Joseph II, Queen Elizabeth I and Churchill of England, Catherine the Great of Russia, and Abraham Lincoln. They were important not just because of military victories, argues Hanson. They shared a similar nationalist conviction: “They have a historical sense that decline is not a matter of exhaustion of natural resources, or it’s not predicated on enemies over the next hill. Usually, it’s internal.

Never give up, never surrender, and always go for the win.

Republican senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa put it well in the New York Times when he wrote, “Over the past few months alone, the Defense Department has had to explain why it’s been paying $14,000 for individual 3-D-printed toilet seat lids and purchasing cups for $1,280 each. These are just the latest examples on a long list of unacceptable purchases made by the department, including $436 for hammers in the 1980s, and $117 soap dish covers and $999 pliers in the 1990s.