It is hard to know how many people do, but given that the people are so docile towards the rulers, nowadays, very few Americans show the passion for freedom that our forefathers had.

The remark laments what Bovard portrays as a modern decline in civic vigilance. By contrasting “docile” contemporary citizens with the “passion for freedom” attributed to America’s founders, it frames liberty as something maintained through active resistance to overreach rather than passively enjoyed. The quote also reflects a recurring theme in Bovard’s libertarian-leaning commentary: that government power expands most easily when the public is habituated to compliance, deference, or fear. Its force comes from moral comparison—invoking the founding generation as a standard meant to shame present-day acquiescence and to argue that freedom depends on a populace willing to challenge rulers.