Thugs, Bugs
and Slugs
Charlie Earl
“We was
robbed,” echoed through some halls and chambers where one might find the elite
leaders of the GOP. Maybe. So what? Why not? When you’re complicit in expanding
the reach and power of government, you inherently raise the stakes. More power,
more force and more benefits are intoxicating for the type of people who
gravitate to politics. When such glittering goodies are spread on the table,
you can expect a mad dash toward the buffet when the dinner bell rings. You, the
GOP power structure, helped to load that table with delectable morsels… each of
which cost the people money or freedom…or both. So…. Don’t feign outrage when
some precincts deliver more votes than their populations for Democrats who wish
to control the federal ATM machine.
It is the
nature of elites to use any available mechanism to protect their power.
Likewise… the “outs” lust to manipulate the levers of coercion to achieve their
goals. When the two join together, as in Democrats and unions, the combination
is nearly impossible to overcome. The best solution for restraining them is to
limit the available power so that it is not so appealing. But no, Republicans,
you had to join in the “can you top this” race to the Nanny State without
realizing that you were waving a juicy ribeye before the noses of your hungry
adversaries. When you give an inch, you will surrender a mile. It’s an old
cliché, but it appropriately describes your complicity in the growth of the
federal government, and more tragically, your failure to cut it back when you
had control of the Capitol and the White House. One of the great fallacies of
politics and governing is that massive power is “OK” if the “right people” are
in control.
Well,
Lambchop, the right people are not always in control, and sometimes the aroma
of power corrupts the right people when they acquire the reins of power. Lord
Acton’s pithy observation about the corrosive effects of wielding power was on
target. Our only defense against a misguided Nanny State is to maintain it in
the embryonic state. Any growth beyond that point transforms the government
into a tasty morsel of power….ready for the plucking and consuming. In your
brain and your heart…. you already know this. So…why am I repeating the
obvious?
If you believe
that big government is contradictory and counter-productive to individual
liberty, then you should never, ever settle for “almost.” A little larger
government, a slightly larger budget or another insignificant program erodes
your personal liberty, and over time, those elements of government will metastasize
until they consume it. We have moved beyond the point of crèmes and potions. It
is time for radical surgery. Half measures merely delay the inevitable… the
loss of our freedom. With that sober outcome comes the disappearance of
prosperity, the loss of hope and the will to achieve. If or when we support or
encourage rhetorical or incomplete efforts for freedom, we undermine the real…the
authentic. Reality bites and it’s beyond the time to bite back.
Charlie Earl
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