Our Entitled Descent Began Long Before Obamacare
May 05
Politics attracts sleazy characters.
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Power corrupts. Yielding expanded power to the sort of ambitious souls who venture into the political sphere supplies the gravitational pull. Health reform is but the latest example.
Bill Flax, in Real Clear Markets, recognizes the lust for power by politicians, and the resulting loss of freedom to the citizens. The process and mandates of the health care legislation are a continuation of corruption and accretion of power by the federal government. Over many years Republicans and Democrats have abused their Constitutional powers at the expense of Americans’ personal liberty and economic prosperity.
Flax writes:
… Politics attracts sleazy characters. What else would anyone expect when the rule of politicians trumps the rule of law? Precedents abound even if this usurpation of liberty was particularly brazen in its accomplishment and dire in its impact.
If the government can interfere with our hiring practices, our business practices, our associations and our property why shouldn’t they also dictate our purchasing habits? The whole pretense of legal positivism is that those in Washington know better than we how to live our lives. Why wouldn’t they mandate the purchase of insurance?
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Power corrupts. Yielding expanded power to the sort of ambitious souls who venture into the political sphere supplies the gravitational pull. Health reform is but the latest example.
Flax appreciates and accepts every person’s natural right to life, liberty and the rewards’ of their intellect and labor. Flax knows that a government tax and mandate reduces the overall freedom of the citizens. Flax abhors the perversion of the United States Constitution and the rule of law, which has given way to the rule of political power.
Obamacare merely reflects another milestone in our descent. Last weekend’s political machinations were only a turning point if they motivate Americans to defend their rights against government encroachment. We’ve been falling off this cliff for decades and will continue falling until we either re-establish the rule of law over the imminently corruptible rule of men or we hit bottom. The logical endpoint is totalitarian oppression.
Obamacare wasn’t a turning point, but let’s hope it triggers one.
James Madison feared the corruptible rule of politicians. Read Democracy and Power and especially:
Democracy and Power 101: Government is power
The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
-James Madison, Speech in the Virginia State Convention of 1829-1830
Government, in its last analysis, is organized force. – Woodrow Wilson
Government within its jurisdiction has a monopoly on power. Government has the power to tax and enforce the collection of taxes, the power to regulate, the power to incarcerate and even take the life of a person.
Every act of government has an element of power, which is executed by force or coercion. Every government rule and regulation involves compliance with the power of government. For example, public education is overwhelmingly accepted as a public good. However, all aspects of public education are enforced by the power of government: taxation, compulsory attendance, jurisdiction, and curriculum.
Democracy and Power 114: The Power Players
Who actually controls the force of government? The politicians and interest groups control the American political process. As stated, the politician seeks power. Special interest groups – big business, small business, unions, education, seniors, and a multitude of others – seek favors: tax breaks, subsidies, exclusive legislation, etc. Interest groups give enormous money to political campaigns, and receive gigantic benefits in return.
Benjamin Franklin understood the relationship between special interests and the rulers, and their danger inherent to all forms of government. Franklin warned his fellow delegates to the Constitutional Convention:
There will always be a party for giving more to the rulers, that the rulers may be able in return to give more to them. Hence as all history informs us, there has been in every State & Kingdom, a constant kind of warfare between the governing & governed: the one striving to obtain more for its support, and the other to pay less. And this has alone occasioned great convulsions, actual civil wars, ending either in dethroning of the Princes, or enslaving of the people. Generally indeed the ruling power carries its point, the revenues of princes constantly increasing, and we see that they are never satisfied, but always in want of more.
In Federalist Paper Number 10, James Madison addressed the universal problem of groups seeking the power of government versus the best interest of all the citizens.
By a faction (interest group), I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.
Madison, seeking to stop the menace of factions, proffered that representative government, because of the diverse interest of professions and regions would prevent coalescence from being a force in the federal government. Madison opined that America’s elected representatives would “discern the true interest of their country.”
Unfortunately, Madison was ultimately wrong, special interest politics prevails in America. Politicians and special interests in their quest for power naturally coalesced and traded their votes for money and power. Special interest legislation becomes law, and government confers benefits to a special few at the expense of all citizens, resulting in an ever-expanding government and an entrenched interest group.
Bill Flax works in the banking industry. This column reflects his views and not those of his employer. Please contact him at billflax2@yahoo.com.
