The Question...

As our national elections heat up and the fight starts to get downright ugly, I keep hearing that the question asked, “Are you better off in your wallet than you were four years ago?”  That is a good question and for most the answer is no.  However I would like to say that a far more important question is, “Do you have more Liberty now than you had?” 

With the addition of hundreds of new “programs” on the federal and even state level I would have to say no.  That can be said of each successive president that has come along since the turn of last century, and even before.  I will say that the seated president has, at least in my opinion, taken the formation of new levels of bureaucracy to an unprecedented high, or maybe I should say a new low.  Each of these programs will have new bureaucrats writing new regulations which are equivalent to law.  Each and every American is responsible to not break any of these laws.

I recently was having coffee with a man who is now retired from the “system.”  His comment was that they were considering passing a regulation that stated, in essence, that “everything is illegal unless we say it is legal in his particular department.”  So if you don’t know, or are not sure, about the exercise of some particular thing, just assume it is illegal until you find out that it is not. 

So my question for the public is, “do you feel more free or less free?”  Do you feel like the government at all levels is preserving your freedoms or taking your freedom?  Does it make you sleep better at night to know the government feels like it is more important to keep a tighter watch on its own Citizens than on the borders, or embassies, or the terrorists?  Do you feel like the best thing the government can do is prevent Americans from owning the means of self defense without the blessing of government?

Personal responsibility and choice remain the hallmarks of Liberty.  These have an element of risk.  When you make a mistake it hurts.  Liberty, it is what has always separated America from the rest of the world.  Will we be able to keep Liberty?  Maybe, but only if we begin to repeal some of the chains that the bureaucrats have wrapped us in.  The new question should be how did we build our country and survive without the Department of Blank?  You fill it in.  God bless.