By Keith D. Rodebush, Contributor to US Daily Review.
People who have not studied ancient government, philosophy and the founding of America may find themselves asking, “What’s wrong with government?” It’s a legitimate question for the average citizen, busy trying to raise their children and provide for their family; grateful for any help they may perceive is being provided. As an intellectual exercise, we shall take a generic fictional program designed to assist the ‘poor’ and determine if it would be successful. Poor is in single quotes because its definition is the gist of this analysis.
Once a government entity decides that it will assist any demographic group the first thing it must do is to define the group. Who will get assistance and who will not? Now, while this may seem simple on one’s initial thought; people who are in need and cannot provide for themselves, in terms of law and regulation it becomes ever more complicated. Therefore the very first thing that a government must do is to draw an arbitrary line; people making this much, or people with this health affliction or disability. Now the savvy person has already seen the problem. Once a government is allowed to divide the people into categories of those who deserve charity and those who do not, the nexus of corruption has been established. Now it is simply a matter of time and character. There will be politicians who will promise to move that line one way or the other. There will be voters who will trade their votes for largesse. There will be lobbyists that will work to ensure that the line is moved by providing campaign funds to those who will move it. At its inception the failure of the program is a fait accompli.
One may argue that if we kept our eyes on politicians and simply didn’t vote for those who would corrupt the program, it would succeed. Not so much. First, once you establish a program such as this then you set a precedent. Now other groups will be enticed to lobby the government for assistance like say, farmers. Many reasonable arguments can be made as to why farmers should get assistance; unpredictable weather, foreign competition or national importance of adequate food supply. And of course the list would go on and on much as we have witnessed in the last century.
Another viral infection to such programs in our form of government is the judicial system. Under our Constitution the government cannot treat people differently. It is inherent to our system that the government protects individual rights. Therefore the very program that discriminates is antithetical to our form of government. This results in a huge philosophical dichotomy within the court system. Courts have long struggled to balance the pure limits on government power with the will of the people. It is assumed by courts (erroneously) that if the people elect officials who implement these programs then the court must give some deference to the people’s will. This sets into motion a natural split within the judiciary, where one group leans towards government limitations while another leans towards the will of the People. This in turn creates another politically divisive construct related to judicial appointments; again, as we have seen for the last century.
There are more arguments to be made that assistance programs for the poor don’t even actually help the poor but we will leave that for another day. The main point that we have shown here today is that all government programs that divide the populace in any way and provide assistance to one at the cost of the other is not only inherently antithetical to our form of government, but also creates the atmosphere for institutional corruption, divisive politics and competing and non-sensical judicial decisions. Once again despite our attempts to outsmart the Founding Fathers, all that they told us then is still true today. Government is run by Man. Man is inherently fallible. Therefore, government should only have limited powers and the People and local organizations should provide all programs that affect the daily lives of our citizens. This notion produced the most prosperous nation in history. So prosperous, that politicians’ were allowed to seduce the public into believing that we could afford to deviate from this notion. The results have been disastrous and there is only one way home.
Each and every politician that attempts to walk a line between government assistance and enumerated powers is not better than the Marxists who instigated this folly. They are assisting in the destruction of Liberty and bankrupting our progeny. They deserve nothing but your contempt and eternal opposition. To do otherwise is to put you on the side of tyranny as well. Don’t be that person. “Grandpa, what did you do while they were stealing my freedom? Well, I just ignored it Timmy. After all they are all the same right? I’m sorry son. It’s too late for sorry Grandpa; my life is condemned to servitude because of people like you.”
Keith D. Rodebush is a Christian businessman, a writer and an armchair scholar. He has a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Arkansas. Keith is currently working on a novel and periodically writes at his blog “Ignarus Semino Dominatus”.
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