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Monday, January 17, 2011

Solutions for America

Solutions for America
The meaning of a word can change over time. Take the word “liberal” for example. In the later part of the nineteenth century, the political term “liberal”, was used to describe a person fearful of concentrated power within a society. Nineteenth century “liberals” were particularly suspicious of the concentration of power in our government as well as the robber barons of the day. 
Nineteenth century liberals believed that individual freedom (embodied by the number of choices available to the individual) was a prerequisite for the development of equality and better welfare for the populace. During the Great Depression liberalism came to be associated with a reliance upon the state for equality and a better general welfare. The new “liberal” put forth the notion that freedom was the result of equality and a better general welfare. The old “liberal” believed just the opposite. The old “liberal” insisted that freedom produced a better general welfare and greater equality.   
The elusive remedy to America’s economic ills can be found in this irony of diction. As the word “liberal” morphed so did the collective American strategy for creating wealth. Bread lines of the 1930s allowed the Roosevelt administration to take responsibility for full employment into the purview of government policy (culminating in the 1946 Employment Act and the Federal Reserve’s new “full employment” mandate in 1977).  No nineteenth century liberal worth his salt would have ever ceded such a role to a central authority.
Not so coincidentally, it was at this time in American history that the majority of our monetary freedoms were usurped by the federal government. Private ownership of gold was outlawed and the underpinnings of American enslavement were set in place. No greater control can a government have over a populace than control of its money.
Today, Republicans and Democrats alike, talk about “creating jobs” as if the phrase were taken directly from their oath of office. To gain a foothold on the road to recovery Americans must internalize the ludicrous, oxymoronic concept of legislation put forth as a  “Jobs Creation Spending Bill”. Rejecting such fatally flawed perceptions and thought is not choosing a right political philosophy, it is to embrace the only tried and true solutions- the free enterprise system and individual freedom!
Freedom, not equality and general welfare, is the wellspring of prosperity. Every authority obtained by government is an erosion of individual freedom. There can be no individual freedom in the absence of economic freedom! Every role assumed by government limits individual choice, and thus individual freedom. Nineteenth century liberals would immediately recognize the economic enslavement that has so gradually robbed the American people of their personal and economic freedom. 
As the vitriol surrounding the shooting in Arizona is endlessly examined by TV talking heads, the purveyors of the status quo smile in silent victory. The blatant attempt by the media to shame the ever-growing cry for American freedom must not dishearten true patriots but embolden them. The pessimism engendered by such a misdirected debate causes an ache in the soul of American freedom lovers that must be turned into greater resolve. The eternal words of Arizona’s favorite son, Barry Goldwater, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vise!” must carry the day for it is in these words that our path to freedom and a new economic prosperity lay.
The American politic must experience a fundamental change in the perception of government’s role in our society. The firm conviction must be that any function of government erodes individual freedom and, therefore, any expansion of government must evoke the same hatred accorded to the institution of slavery itself. While there is a legitimate function of government, the unnecessary expansion of its institutions is morally reprehensible.
America’s solution is clear. We must come to an understanding of the moral turpitude inherent in big government. Without this moral authority, government cannot be reigned in by legislation. America must step up and endure the hardships that result from decades of a licentious economic policy. Americans must be encouraged to save, not spend. The government must cut entitlement spending. Will the economy suffer? Absolutely, but the suffering is unavoidable and the longer we “kick the can down the road” the greater the suffering is going to be. When you’re in a hole the rational first step is to quit digging. It is the only moral course of action: End the enslavement of America now!