As the political campaigns enter their final week I would urge my
fellow citizens to consider just what is at stake in this election. The
campaign messages waged in the mass media have consisted largely of bluster,
distortions of opponents’ positions, and the reminder of benefits and goodies
bestowed, or protected by the incumbents. But the sorry facts of the
matter are that both federal incumbents and the state majority in their
never-ending quest for our approval and votes have legislated us to the
doorstep of bankruptcy in both Washington and Hartford. Anyone that can
do the math knows that our current fiscal situation cannot be sustained on either
the national or state level. Our current national leadership continues
trying to seduce us into thinking it can. Our state leadership largely
ignores the severity of the problem, even as the state’s bond rating declines.
Meanwhile federal legislation is coming at us like a fire
hose. For the skeptics among us the federal government is most certainly
reducing our freedom in an insidious drip by drip fashion. Each new
swell-sounding law or regulation packaged to appear as safety-focused or good
for us often comes with a financial cost, but always with a reduction of
personal choice and responsibility, and yes a loss of individual freedom.
As these add up the picture becomes clear and inescapable – government at all levels
is inexorable in its march to rule as many aspects of our lives as
possible. That is the nature of government. The only question for
discussion is when to join the effort to reclaim our choices and freedoms for
ourselves. Millions of Americans in tens of thousands of towns and cities
across the country have seen enough, realize the time is now, and have taken to
the public square to be counted.
These good, patriotic fellow citizens realize that continual and
increased government regulation and control infantilizes us. It removes
financial responsibility and most importantly mental responsibility for our own
lives; we look to government to pay for our needs and solve our problems –
needs and problems free American citizens have always solved for ourselves.
It erodes personal character and makes us a nation of government
dependents. This is not the American spirit which built our country, but
it is a civic attitude which will most assuredly usher our country into
decline. In the extreme we saw where it led the Soviet Union. Today, we see where it’s leading Greece , France , Germany and Great
Britain . Europe clearly is trying to reverse the catastrophic financial
effects of the social welfare state. France this very week has been
throwing a temper tantrum in the streets at the very suggestion that the
retirement age merely be raised two years because there’s simply no more
money. This is what dependency does to a citizenry – we in the U.S. must
see this as a lesson and cautionary tale.
America was built on a foundation of limited government,
individual liberty, free markets, and fiscal restraint. The Constitution
is a limiting and restraining force on federal power, and designed that way by
our founders so we would remain a free people. Please come out on
Election Day to cast your votes against those who would extend governmental
power and for those who commit to go to Washington and Hartford to constrain
it. And if you have any doubt about making your stand today, ask yourself
– do you really think that if our founding fathers are calling out to us from
their graves they are calling for more government involvement in our
lives?
Bob MacGuffie
Fairfield
No comments:
Post a Comment