Life is Good

Once upon a time there was a country founded by people who wanted to enjoy freedom of religion and freedom from unjust taxes. These people framed a document which they called a "Constitution". This document clearly described a system of limited federal government holding together a group of otherwise autonomous states. These states, in turn, were governed by the people from the state. It was a wonderful plan and it lasted over 150 years.

At that time, people who had enjoyed freedom began to get strange ideas. They reasoned that life could be much better if the government could fix things. And so, little by little, the government began to take responsibility for more than diplomacy and defense. The elected leaders were so much smarter than the citizens that they were able to determine how much each should receive for the mere act of breathing. As more and more people were allowed to depend on the government, they implemented a system of taxation which was "progressive" (That means that the larger the income,the larger the percentage of it that the government would confiscate). Now some thought that "progressive" sounded so good they would adopt that terminology, making the word an emotional one.

Once upon a time the government-owns-everything-and-will-only-let you-keep-what-it-thinks-is-fair economies collapsed, but no one noticed. People everywhere liked the sound of "fair". They even applied it to what people could say and called it the "Fairness Doctrine". By that they meant it was not fair to speak the truth about economics or politics. It was only fair to be "progressive.""Liberal" and "progressive" are good, "conservative" and "fundamentalist" (one who wants to return to the fundamentals) and "originalist" are bad - like old stick-in-the-mud fuddy-duddies. Much better to be fun loving liberals. (Funny how those fun loving liberals always seem so angry.)

But I digress. My sad tale continues. Once upon a time there was a political party that believed in freedom and liberty and limited government. They are largely extinct now and the government believes it know the right kind of car for all to drive, and the right kind of fuel to put in that car (depending on where you live, of course). The government also know the right kind of light bulb, toilet and television to put in your house. Life is so much simpler when you don't have to make choices. I will just sit back, quit my job, go on welfare and let my rich Uncle care for me.

Would you like some Kool-aid?