Should government be in the business of dictating morals?

The idea of personal liberty is a foreign concept for the majority of Americans on the left and right. The only difference between the two is the direction and the degree that their respective policies use coercion and "laws" to get the chosen agenda's across. The talk on the left of a forced national healthcare system (their calling it insurance now) is one example. Or, the rights "War on Drugs", started by Sean Hannity's messiah Ronald Reagan, is another.

The original intent of the Constitutional Republic,not a democracy (sorry high school civics teachers) in the United States was to ensure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (property). Different people have vastly different ideas on what this right entails. They are different to the extent that each individual has their own opinion on what is moral. So long as this opinion does not interfere with anyone else's life, liberty, or property, no outsiders (politicians included) have a right to dictate whether that person is right or wrong, thru laws or any other means. Included in the right to property are private documents, something President's Bush and Obama forgot (or never knew). Bush had his "patriot act" and Obama now has the personal health records of every American, in a "secure" database of course. When will the "R's" and "D's" learn that the citizens are not to be taken advantage of, even if they claim its for the common good?

This is where a free society trumps any sort of coercive society, because in a free society each individual chooses what he/she views as proper for themselves. There is no need for a person in Washington D.C. to tell them what is good or bad. Decisions have consequences, and in a free society the individual has a right to learn from those consequences. Until American's realize the true nature of a free society we are doomed to repeat the cyclical republican/democrat view of how this nation should be i.e. imposing morality on others.

Paradox of Change

The mantra of change has swept this nation. Terrorist threats are imminent, we need change. People can not afford health-care and other necessities, we need change. The future of the US economy is teetering on the edge of a cliff, we need change. Houses are being foreclosed on, we need change. These, and other, calls for change are far from original. Our own U.S. Constitution has lived its more than 200 year existence with constant change, be it from the legislative, executive, or judicial branches.

 

Logically, any type of change has one of two consequences, a positive change, or a negative change. If there is no change is that a consequence? Anyway, this logic of change seems to slip past our elected officials in Washington D.C. How can an elected official voting for the good of the people ever be wrong? Especially given that the unwritten norm in congress is to do something, anything, regardless of the long term effects, to appear competent and up to the task. When was the last time you heard one admitt they made a mistake, other than for a sex scandal? They forget that individual liberties are trampled on, private businesses intruded upon, property rights thrown out the window, and the Constitution left in shreds on the Capitol steps.

 

It seems the vote itself is what matters, not the consequences resulting from that vote. These officials constantly take legislative steps further intruding into our personal lives under the pretense that only they know how we, the citizen, can best live our lives. Yet, not once do they stop to ponder that maybe they are wrong. Maybe all this change they are pushing is in the wrong direction. Perhaps the unrestrained belief that a small group of individuals in Washington know what is best for the fifty states and 300 million United States citizens is tragically flawed. What if the answer to discrimination and other social issues is not more regulation, rather more individual liberty? What if government intrusion into business operations, not capitalism itself, is what ails the American economy? What if property rights were actually protected and not altered at the whim of some bureaucrat? What if our elected officials actually believed in the U.S. Constitution every one of them swore an oath to uphold?

 

The problems we face today are a compilation of how the U.S. system of government has evolved through time. Changing or altering a system of government that worked for most of this nations history will not fix the problems we face. Rather, it is the fact that our "political others" felt the need to change the constitution to fit their agenda that has caused the problems. The usurpation of power from the states by the federal government has cut-off our federalist branches. The abuse of our Constitutional Republic has caused our once deep roots to wither. It is time for a new rain to fall, new leaves to grow, time to sow new fields. Cultivate America back to her former and original splendor through education of the next generation.