"Which is Broken, the Government or the People?"

I recently read an excellent article at The New Media Journal. It will give you a lot to consider as the presidential campaigning moves through the coming year. It is my greatest hope that American voters will give serious consideration to what the various candidates are advocating and also seriously consider how this country should operate.

The particular article I refer to is "Which is Broken, the Government or the People?" by J. R. Dieckmann. This piece really resonated with me because I feel that too often, people think the government should be a source of largesse for them. We do not have a government to act as a charity--its purpose is to maintain order and to protect us and our freedoms. We do not have a government to redistribute wealth. People don't seem to understand that if we have wealthy citizens and corporations, they invest and they hire. They fire up the economy and everyone benefits.

The title of the article I refer to came from the opening paragraph:

This is starting out to be a most interesting election year. While Republican candidates are telling us that government is broken and the people need to fix it, Democrat candidates are telling us that the people are broken and need the government to fix it.

I find it rather insulting to be told that I'm broken, don't you? As Mr. Dieckmann says about Hillary Clinton:

Mrs. Clinton thinks it “takes a village to raise a child” because parents alone are incapable of doing the job that parents have done for thousands of years. Those same parents are also incapable of providing healthcare and schooling for those children. Men are sexists and need to be more like women and taxes need to be raised to provide a free ride for the poor and services for the middle class because they just can’t do it on their own. Government should play nanny to the American people because they‘re all just children unable to take care of themselves.

Excuse me. I am not a child. So what if I make mistakes sometimes? I'm a grown-up and I can fix them myself and learn from them. For the occasional person who truly needs help from others, private local charity is the best answer by far. Local charities know the local situation and can actually get to know the person they are helping and see what kind of help that person needs. Family, friends, and neighbors can also help and usually are quite willing to do so. People are willing to donate to local charities to help provide needed items and services. To think that the government has any business confiscating our money and then spending it (or should I say, wasting it) is outrageous. There are a few things the government needs money for (infrastructure, law enforcement, fire protection, military), but the rest is none of government's business. Much should be done by the individual states and not by the federal government. When government is local, people can keep a better eye on what is being done and not done (which is probably a big clue as to why some want everything done by the federal government).

Further down in the article, Mr. Dieckmann points out what the Democrats want:

The point is that these three leading Democrat candidates all intend to use the power of government to change the people rather than to represent the people. In their view, it’s the people who are broken and need to be fixed by government. By some magical transformation when elected, suddenly politicians know more about everything than the industry experts who have devoted their lives to making a better living standard for Americans.

Excuse me again. Government is meant to represent the people, not change them or "fix" them! Then there is this:

That is the big difference between Democrats and Republicans. With self reliance and taking personal responsibility comes freedom and liberty. Conservatives understand this. Liberals want to be taken care of by big government but don’t seem to understand that by doing so, they sacrifice their freedom and liberty and become the wholly owned property of the federal government and the Democrat Party. By their own choice, they become political slaves to their masters in Washington.

For the past 40 years, the Democrat Party has been doing everything it can to dumb down Americans, convince them that they are incapable of taking care of themselves, and make them dependent on big federal government. Unfortunately, they have succeeded enough to the extent that they are still a viable political party.

By controlling the schools, the courts, and the media, they have misled Americans away from the founding principles of democracy and directly into socialism and communism. Most young Americans today don’t even know what liberty means because they have been taught that government is there to take care of them. They don’t realize the freedom that America was founded for because they have been told that Europe is the model that America should strive for.

This trend will continue unless we elect a real conservative to serve as president for the next 8 years. A president who understands the difference between America and Europe; a president who understands the freedom and liberty that has been lost in America; a president who won’t give into wasteful, liberal government spending and nanny state socialist programs; a president who will hold congress responsible for doing the job outlined in the Constitution instead of pandering with taxpayers’ money for reelection; and a president who will enforce a foreign policy that puts American interests and defense first rather than worry so much about what Europe and Islamic countries think of us.

And finally, for your consideration:

Our future and the future of our country depends now on electing the right man for the job in this most critical period in our history. These primary elections and the vote in November will determine whether America again becomes the shining beacon on the hill, or sinks into European style socialism.

It’s up to those of us who understand what kind of country we want to do the right thing and elect the right candidate for president.

Read the article. Think like a grown-up. Vote like a grown-up. We are, after all, grown-ups.