Compulsion and Freedom

Values implicit in American principles continue to be destroyed in service to power.

The source of government funding and thus power is compulsion, the threat of loss of your assets or freedom if you don’t comply.

In an American world this very power to compel carries with it the responsibility to serve for our government is of, by, and for the people. Implicit in serving the people is respect for diversity of beliefs, free markets, ownership, and rule of law.

It is clear, however, that the concept of public service is now corrupted to mean getting elected for the purpose of imposing your will on those who disagree with you.

What world do we live in when our government compels us to financially support people so they can choose not to work, compels us to buy healthcare coverage we don’t want, compels us to accept Medicare as the only healthcare choice when we turn 65, limits the amount of money we can spend speaking, selectively prohibits political speech, maintains a digital history of our personal behavior, and in the case of our current President, unilaterally changes laws to suit a personal agenda?

The world we live in now is definitely not American. It has many of the characteristics of cronyism and fascism. Large businesses, trade groups, and unions seek rents with explicit government approval while the government seeks to control the economy and control political opposition. If you have doubts see the recently passed farm bill, the 2009 stimulus bill, the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd-Frank bill, the Federal Reserve, and the IRS as starting points.

We do not live in America.

Our political leaders have sacrificed our freedoms, our opportunities, and our futures to political expediency of the moment, to getting re-elected at any cost in dollars and principle, to political bribes, to a false promise of human security that can never be purchased and can only be earned.

Where are the leaders who will stand for individual freedom and individual responsibility? Where are the voters who will elect them?

We must apply our time and treasure to the continual pursuit of American leadership if we believe in these principles for, even in America, freedom is never free.

Find candidates for political office who are committed to American principles then work and spend to get them elected.

Regards, Pete Weldon
americanstance.org

One thought on “Compulsion and Freedom

  1. I have long held that anybody who runs for office, Republican or Democrat and spend millions in the process to basically get a 150 k per year job simply want to tell you how to live the way they do. Of course this view probably reveals yet another of my many character flaws…my natural antipathy towards any type of authority. Well written piece.

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