What is the role of government when it comes to our freedom? Do governments manifest freedom for their people or do people manifest governments once they've achieved freedom? The answers to these questions are the very root of who we are as a country. I was watching Braveheart today and became intrigued with the story of the people fighting to become free men. One quote from William Wallace that I found most telling of their struggle was when he was discussing with the other Scottish nobles why they needed to fight. "You think the people of this country exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom." What a powerful statement on the role of government. Have we lost sight again on what a government is supposed to do? During that day and age, government was a feudal system run by ruthless nobility who had lost sight of the need to allow men to be free. The ruling class pushed peasants to the verge of slavery through overtaxation and subjugation. When peasants tried to fight for their freedom the nobility called them traitors and dealt with them swiftly and brutally. This same series of event has been repeated through human history and is still continuing today. Look at civil wars around the world and they can all be diluted down to this simple formula; governments start forgetting why they exist and the people rebel.
In a webmemo published at the Heritage Foundation, Ryan Messmore asks ten questions regarding the role of government. His answers outline what the role of a government supporting free people should be. Governments created by free people support and defend the rights and freedoms of the people. The rights and freedoms the people have defined, not what the government defined for them. When governments forget this basic fundamental they forget what put them there to begin with. It's like putting the cart before the horse; you just can't get anywhere. In Braveheart the nobility had forgotten what their role was and the people responded.
Today we have a government that has engorged itself into a money sucking behemoth who has a hard time remembering the freedoms we have defined for ourselves. This situation is fed by career politicians that have become comfortable taking a very long drink from the taxpayers teat. Many of them report to Washington at our request and soon become sucked into the corruption and decadence just feed they're own re-election. When are we going to stop this cycle? When are we going to fix the problems in Washington by instilling the corrective actions we know are needed. Corrective actions such as term limits and citizen oversight.
In the Declaration of Independence it states; "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed". In other words people create governments and give them the power to enact laws to protect them. Farther on in the preamble it states; "(W)hen a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
While I don't think we're close to having despots in power, we do have some that take advantage of the role we have given them for their own gain. Many of our politicians have abused the position we have given them and usurped their power limitations of their office. We sent them to Washington to do the business of the people and they end up doing business for themselves. This is what I think is the biggest problem we have in Washington right now and I can only think of one way to correct the problem; TERM LIMITS. Instilling term limits will stop the cycle of corruption we see today. The term "career politician" was never in the Constitution and goes against the intent of the Declaration of Independence. When the founding fathers started our country they did it with the intent of everybody being equal and refused the notion of royalty. Today politicians have successfully reinstalled this concept. Look at the case to put Caroline Kennedy in the Senate. Is she being considered by the voters or being considered because of her lineage? There's already talk of how long she's going to be in office and how easy it will be for her to fund a reelection. Are we making a new career politician? Is she going to be a representative of the people or one thrust upon the people by the government?
What about the mess in Illinois for Barack Obama's seat. Are we seeing a massive corrupt government machine instilling yet another crony to do their bidding? Yes, the appointment of a senator or representative to a vacated seat is a state affair but that doesn't mean that the rules are right. The people of New York and Illinois should be outraged at the total disregard of their rights by their own state. What happened to a government of the people, by the people and for the people?
So what is the role of government in regards to our freedom? It is to protect it, to support it, to defend it, but never to get in the way of it. Let's take back our government. Vote to support term limits. Vote to support new blood in government and not the tired, corrupted people that have long taken advantage of our hospitality. When you see government buffoonery such as the exploits of Governor Blagojevich, the bailing out of failed businesses, or the by appointment people to represent us without consulting the represented, take note of the culprits involved and respond. We still have our ballot boxes to speak for us so take advantage of the voice they give us and vote the idiots out of Washington. We have fought and died for our freedom so lets all do our part maintain it.
