Posted on 12/19/2008 3:28:49 AM PST by Kaslin
"I ask the three of you, how can we, as symbolically the children of the future president, expect the three of you to meet our needs, the needs in housing and in crime and you name it." -- A question from Denton Walthall AKA "The ponytail guy" at a 1992 presidential debate.
In America, we come from pioneer stock. Our ancestors explored, conquered, and civilized a continent one wagon train and settlement at a time. They crossed hundreds of miles of hostile territory, risked starvation, murder by Indians, and dying alone in the wilderness to try to carve out a decent living for their families.
That same ferociously independent spirit was what inspired our ancestors to throw off Britian's shackles and forge America into the greatest economic and military power the world has ever seen.
These accomplishments were because of the decency, work ethic, and self-reliance of the American people, not because of the greatness of our leadership in Washington, D.C. The Founding Fathers understood that, which was why they considered government to be a necessary evil that was to be hemmed in, contained, and bound at every opportunity.
The idea that the American people are "symbolically the children of the future president" would have not only appalled the Founding Fathers, it would have insulted them.
It should insult us, too. We now live in a country where the government educates us, gives us food stamps and school lunch programs when we're hungry, gives us money when we lose our jobs, frets constantly about differences in free market salaries, orders home loans to be given to people who can't afford them, bails out failing companies, and provides for our retirement.
Are those all bad things? No. Should we immediately roll all those policies back? No. But, what we should do is recognize that it is extremely unhealthy for the country to have the government doing so many things that people used to do for themselves -- for the same reason it's unhealthy to have thirty-year old men still living with their parents.
With adults, we recognize that it's a good idea for people to cut the apron strings, leave the nest, and live their own lives, but no American can get away from the all-smothering love of "mother government."
She's going to hover over you, dictating everything from where you go to school, to how much of your own money she's going to let you keep, to your retirement planning. If you have the temerity to complain about any of this and ask to be left alone, you're told "Mama knows best" and accused of being selfish, foolish, or unrealistic to think you could do a better job of planning your own life than "Mama."
Meanwhile, the list of things "Mama" wants to control seem to be rapidly and endlessly expanding, even down to the minutia. The government wants to choose whether you watch analog or digital TV. They're levying special taxes on downloaded music, movie tickets, soda, and massages. They're even demanding that you get rid of the incandescent lightbulbs in your house, apparently because that's too big of a decision for you to make on your own. They're even thinking about deciding whom you get to listen to on the radio via the Fairness Doctrine, putting a GPS tracker in your car so they can tax you for driving at the "wrong" time of day, and actually controlling the thermostat in your house.
It doesn't matter whether we put Democrats, like Bill "The era of big government is over" Clinton, in office or Republicans, like George "When somebody hurts, government has got to move" Bush, into office -- the players, the party, and the rhetoric may change, but the overweening mothering masquerading as government continues to worsen. We have got to find a way to change that trend or eventually even the descendants of pioneers, revolutionaries, and explorers will become a nation of unambitious, overtaxed loafers living in Mama Government's basement.
She a bad mama. Where’s my dessert?
I once felt that if people saw some folks surviving on their own or even prospering due to their own efforts, it would wake them up enough to at least investigate how, they, too, could benefit from self-reliance. Now, however, I fear that the folks unable to provide for themselves will simply demand that someone with more power take everything away from the survivors and distribute it to those who are victims.
I just don't see how things will change unless the *something* is so intense as to obviate central control. And, even then, the memory will persist of an all-providing State and people will flock to anyone who promises to restore it. I suppose the State can mess things up even worse than they already have and bring enough blame to themselves to make the idea anathema, but look how many times communism and even just centralized government has done this already, without losing the allegiance of the majority.
Yeah! We want pie!
Everbody wants the Government telling us how to live. Just in different ways.
More like "Massa Government Treats Americans Like Slaves"
I like key lime pie oh and chocolate.
for the nanny state ping list
How right you are. For a lot of people, following the promises made by an overbearing government and/or a collectivist ideology that has, throughout history, consistently led to ruin is a more appealing option than trusting themselves to decide how to live their own lives or let others live theirs. Sadly, the days of limited government as our Founders established are gone and, most likely, will never return because too many people would rather have a Leader instead of liberty.
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