America's big problem is the rapid, unstoppable expansion of government at every level. This isn't just a problem of affordability – as in making sure there are sufficient tax dollars to sustain the growth. It's a problem of liberty. The bigger government gets, the more it extinguishes the choices made by individuals. We all enjoy fewer freedoms as regulation grows, the number of government agents expands, taxes increase, programs grow, wars continue and laws proliferate. It's as simple as that...
For those of us still more concerned about being free rather than coddled, the best advice is to resist all the fear-mongering, regardless of whether it is Republican fear-mongering or Democratic fear-mongering. Both parties are toxic these days, and neither one values liberty as an end in and of itself...
A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have...
Be scared – but of your own government, not of whatever it is officials are selling. Be leery of officials at every level, whether it's a local redevelopment director telling you that it's OK to take someone's property to wipe out "blight" (based on whatever broad and debatable definition the director offers), or a secretary of state telling you that the government needs to suspend habeas corpus to battle terrorists, real or not.
But perhaps H.L. Mencken said it best: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."...
Just remember that government always is about coercion – whether the promises are uttered by a likable and uplifting candidate who offers change or by a crusty old war hero who promises whatever it is he is promising this week. Fear them, but don't let them scare you.
Fear Pols, Don't Let Them Scare You by Steven Greenhut
No comments:
Post a Comment