Our founders knew the dangers of big government long before Lord Acton uttered the phrase “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
They understood human nature as well as history. They knew that no matter how well-intentioned a benevolent government may start out, its natural course was to grow larger and more powerful over time.
The founders established our nation based on individual liberty and understood that every power delegated to the government represented a limit on the individual liberty of its citizens.
Governments have only one way to restrict the liberties of its citizens, by force. Sometimes, that’s a good thing. For example, as a society based on Judeo-Christian ethics, we believe it’s immoral to steal someone else’s property. We have written laws making such action illegal and have delegated the power to enforce those laws to the government, by force if necessary.
We are a nation built on the belief that our rights do not come from government, but from God. This is what our founders meant in the Declaration of Independence when they refer to “the laws of nature and Nature’s God.” That’s what they were referring to when they wrote “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness –That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
So, what did We The People consent to? Did we consent to give the government unlimited power? Did we consent to give Congress the power to pass any law they felt was appropriate, fair, just or in our best interest? Many in Washington believe they have those powers and much more.
The answer, of course is no. We gave the federal government, through our elected representatives only those powers enumerated in the constitution. Furthermore, just to make sure there would be no misunderstanding, we added the first ten amendments called the Bill of Rights. The tenth amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Did we give the government the power to force us to buy health insurance? Did we give the government the power to take our hard-earned tax dollars in order to “invest” it in a shaky solar panel manufacturer? These are clearly abuses of power by the federal government. The current administration is by no means the first to abuse their power, just the most recent.
Fortunately, We The People, are starting to wake up and just as in the 1976 movie, Network, we’re yelling at the top of our lungs, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
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Right on! Well said!
I believe people are really waking up. Obama’s latest tax the rich scheme is falling largely on deaf ears. People don’t want to hear about more taxes. Not for them, nor their employers. They want Government out of the way so that we can get back to work!