The Myth of the Middle 3

Many reasonable people may say "your argument about the left and the right are just theoretical.  In reality we can come together and agree on many things - including helping those who need the help."  In other words, all this "Myth of the Middle" is just political theory and theater.  We need to put it behind us and come together, taking the best ideas from both sides.

Except that it's simply not possible.  It's political theory (not to mention a rhetorical tool of the left) to define the middle as a valid idea.  The idea that we can take good ideas about how to help people and preserve liberty is pure theory that doesn't work in practice.

Sure, it might work in practice for a little while and it may even be successful on a limited scale.  But we have human history to show that socialism at any scale doesn't work.  

There are no functional communist countries.  Europe is a complete disaster with birthrates so low that they cannot maintain any fiscal stability with regard to social programs.  The EU must now take money from countries that were more fiscally wise and give it to countries that spent their money without any thought for where (or may be better put, who) it came from.

Even Norway relies on its oil revenues to support it's social programs  - which is only possible due to their relatively small size and increasing oil prices.  It doesn't function because socialism works, but because it has an excess of revenue flowing from outside the country.  If it couldn't rely on oil revenues, it would be in the same mess the rest of Europe is in.

But this isn't the real problem.  The real problem is human nature.  The real problem is the nature of markets and liberty, as we've discussed before.

People who crave power tend to find places to gather power.  It is always simply a matter of time - not an if, but when.

Governments get all revenue from its citizens - even Norway gets its income from its citizens, in the sense that it is selling the oil that belongs to them.  In order to make sure it collects the income it must be able to exercise force - because if it doesn't there will be those who choose not to participate in government redistributionist schemes, no matter how noble they may appear at first glance.

Once government has force on its side, it can then do all sorts of things to its citizens.  This is and has been the pattern throughout history.

Governmental power is a slippery slope that we always slide down - not just a theoretical slippery slope, but a very real one with very real consequences.  We can see how Social Security slid into Social Security Disability.  Medicare slid into Medicaid which is trying hard to slide into Obamacare.  There are very few examples of entitlements that don't grow and expand.

In every case, the growth of government programs takes some liberty.  Social Security keeps people from investing about 15% of their money in ways that may provide a better return or be more in keeping with their own preferences.  Seniors who accept Medicare are limited in where, what and what kinds of treatment they can receive.

If Obamacare survives, we'll all be subject to government mandates of all sorts regarding not only our care, but our diet.  If the government can mandate we buy health insurance, why can't it mandate we only buy food that's "good for us"?  That was exactly the question Judge Roger Vinson asked before he ruled Obamacare unconstitutional.

State paternalism, even when it's intent is benevolent, requires the ability to tell its citizens what they can and cannot do.  Just like parents grant or deny teenagers the right to drive or to go to a party, this kind of government grants us the right to assemble, speak and worship - until we do something it doesn't like.  We're grounded.

Our rights are take from us for our own good by those who are smarter and more wise than we and know better than us what's good for us - or so they think.  Because leftist governments see the state as the granter of all rights, it can be no other way.  It must be smarter and wiser.  A state that exercises power this way is no different than a monarch or dictator, except without the limits of humanity that all but the very worst kings or tyrants have.

Have we ever seen a rollback of rules or regulations?  When have we seen laws repealed?  It simply doesn't happen.

Instead, with every year we suffer under more laws, more rules and more regulations than ever before.  Each session of Congress results in additional rules and regulations piled atop the millions of pages already in existence.  It doesn't seem to end... there seems to be no limit to what can be taxed or regulated.

There is another way.  Understand that the purpose of government is to preserve liberty, not grant it.  In fact, government's sole purpose is to preserve the liberty of the citizen.

Government's purpose is to protect us from those without or within who would take it from us.  We need to understand that each new law that rules or regulates us is an encroachment on our liberty.  We need to realize that for the government to help another, it must take from you - and also to understand that individuals should help each other without coercion, but by the dictates of each individual's own conscience.

We need to understand that the government is not what grants us rights (and this includes those who often say "the Constitution gives is the right to x, y or z).  We have these rights independent of any government.  Governments can either protect them or take them.  There is no middle way.

Socialism is like the small snowball rolling down the slope gathering momentum until it consumes all in it's path.  The only question is "how steep is the slope?"  The Bolshevik revolution was a very steep slope.  The slope in the United States has been gentle but the snowball still grows in size and speed and strength.

To truly be free Americans is to understand what John Adams knew when he uttered his phrase "Liberty, once lost, is lost forever."