'There is nothing more pernicious than the illusion of liberty
surviving, or even flourishing, alongside growing government power. It
doesn't work that way, not once you get past the transition from anarchy
to lawful government. Personal liberty does not exist in a state of
anarchy, because individuals can be defrauded, robbed, and killed at
will by lone predators and organized gangs. Some degree of government
power must clearly be exercised to secure liberty.
But when a government the size of America's federal system grows larger, it occurs only at the expense
of liberty, and the contraction of the private sector. Law is
meaningless without the exercise of force to compel obedience. More
government means more laws, more force, more punishment for
disobedience more things you must do, more things you cannot do.
Actually, let me clarify that, to reflect where America really stands
after decades of the debased political culture that eventually coughed
up ObamaCare: expanding the government further means more compulsory
requirements and prohibitions for certain people. The ability
to grant special waivers or selectively enforce our towering mountain of
under-funded law is a source of great power for the ruling class.
Building a vast body of laws, and a gigantic enforcement apparatus to
secure compliance with them, consolidates power; the ability to grant
selective immunity to that system is how political power goes nuclear.
Big Government is often sold to the dupes as a guarantor of personal
freedom. For example, Nancy Pelosi once gushed that ObamaCare would
enhance the freedom of artists by relieving them of the need to worry
about providing for their health care. Presumably, under this line of
thinking, the state of maximum freedom is achieved when the government
feeds, clothes, and houses its child-citizens, who would be liberated to
frolic in the green pastures of self-actualization once they didn't
have to spend so much of their lives working to earn the money it takes
to purchase those necessities through voluntary commerce. Just remove
"voluntary commerce" from the equation, and everyone will be truly free
at last!
Concealed by these glowing promises is the enormous amount of compulsion necessary to secure obedience.
The people who portray voluntary commerce as a frightening,
soul-crushing business of working a thankless job to earn filthy money,
which is then siphoned away by predatory capitalists, want you to forget
about the unpleasantness of political command, which absolutely
requires punishment for disobedience.
As Senator Ted Cruz likes to observe, if ObamaCare is so wonderful,
why do people have to be punished (by the IRS!) for refusing to purchase
its policies? That's how every government program works.
Disobedience must be detected and punished ? a task that becomes
exponentially more complicated (and expensive) when obedience is only
selectively required. You don't need a huge government to safeguard
equality under the law.
But inequality under the law now, that gets you the Leviathan squatting on the banks of the Potomac.
The just and lawful government of a republic should be almost entirely concerned with protecting the universal rights
of its citizens. A right that only certain people are allowed to
exercise in full measure is not universal. The protection of one
citizen's lawful rights does not require any great imposition against
the liberties of another. Relatively little political power flows
through such a system, which is of course why greedy politicians hate
them.'
Great article from Red State.com
Link
surviving, or even flourishing, alongside growing government power. It
doesn't work that way, not once you get past the transition from anarchy
to lawful government. Personal liberty does not exist in a state of
anarchy, because individuals can be defrauded, robbed, and killed at
will by lone predators and organized gangs. Some degree of government
power must clearly be exercised to secure liberty.
But when a government the size of America's federal system grows larger, it occurs only at the expense
of liberty, and the contraction of the private sector. Law is
meaningless without the exercise of force to compel obedience. More
government means more laws, more force, more punishment for
disobedience more things you must do, more things you cannot do.
Actually, let me clarify that, to reflect where America really stands
after decades of the debased political culture that eventually coughed
up ObamaCare: expanding the government further means more compulsory
requirements and prohibitions for certain people. The ability
to grant special waivers or selectively enforce our towering mountain of
under-funded law is a source of great power for the ruling class.
Building a vast body of laws, and a gigantic enforcement apparatus to
secure compliance with them, consolidates power; the ability to grant
selective immunity to that system is how political power goes nuclear.
Big Government is often sold to the dupes as a guarantor of personal
freedom. For example, Nancy Pelosi once gushed that ObamaCare would
enhance the freedom of artists by relieving them of the need to worry
about providing for their health care. Presumably, under this line of
thinking, the state of maximum freedom is achieved when the government
feeds, clothes, and houses its child-citizens, who would be liberated to
frolic in the green pastures of self-actualization once they didn't
have to spend so much of their lives working to earn the money it takes
to purchase those necessities through voluntary commerce. Just remove
"voluntary commerce" from the equation, and everyone will be truly free
at last!
Concealed by these glowing promises is the enormous amount of compulsion necessary to secure obedience.
The people who portray voluntary commerce as a frightening,
soul-crushing business of working a thankless job to earn filthy money,
which is then siphoned away by predatory capitalists, want you to forget
about the unpleasantness of political command, which absolutely
requires punishment for disobedience.
As Senator Ted Cruz likes to observe, if ObamaCare is so wonderful,
why do people have to be punished (by the IRS!) for refusing to purchase
its policies? That's how every government program works.
Disobedience must be detected and punished ? a task that becomes
exponentially more complicated (and expensive) when obedience is only
selectively required. You don't need a huge government to safeguard
equality under the law.
But inequality under the law now, that gets you the Leviathan squatting on the banks of the Potomac.
The just and lawful government of a republic should be almost entirely concerned with protecting the universal rights
of its citizens. A right that only certain people are allowed to
exercise in full measure is not universal. The protection of one
citizen's lawful rights does not require any great imposition against
the liberties of another. Relatively little political power flows
through such a system, which is of course why greedy politicians hate
them.'
Great article from Red State.com
Link
