#14 FREEDOM IS ITS OWN WORST ENEMY

www.tenurecorrupts.com

John Adams, one of our Founding Fathers and our second president, once said :
'Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.'

The ominous note that John Adams sounded so long ago may appear to have been unnecessarily gloomy, but it may have been vague only in its lack of specific timing. There are now innumerable signs that what he warned about is slowly but inexorably coming to pass.

For example:

A prime example is the direct consequence of the growth of government for the well intentioned purpose of 'protecting the environment'. Presumably because this is such a huge job, Congress created the EPA, and then delegated to this unelected bureaucracy the job of creating laws, usually based on fake science, pushed by fanatical activists, which limit the freedom of citizens to go about their daily lives unencumbered by irresponsible government.

Another example is the fact, that because this is a free country with free speech, any nut, or group af nuts, has the liberty to hound and harass Congress (with the threat of defeating incumbents at the next election) to pass laws which the great unorganized mass of citizens would not agree to if asked. Sometimes these laws are of such importance that the otherwise silent majority gets its dander up and lets Congress know its opposition, but often Congress sneaks the item into a bill without anyone knowing, except the extremists who scared them.

In order to keep a country free, it necessary for its citizens to pay the price of vigilance, by devising and maintaining a constant drumbeat of freedom, to counteract those who dream up false 'crises' which 'require' the passage of ever more laws restricting our freedoms in both subtle and outrageous ways.

Why do I say that 'freedom is its own worst enemy' ?
Because it is the nature of things that, while the vast majority of people are very content to live in peace and freedom, working hard, valuing industriousness, honesty, and integrity, pursuing their particular version of happiness, there always exists a small but significant fraction of the population who, for either strong ideological or predatory reasons, are determined to force their less aggressive fellow humans to live the way they think the people should live, and parasitically living off the people, and despotically running their lives 'for the public good'. And to compound the problem, there is another significant fraction of the public who support this predatory group because they want the subsidies that are promised, rather than work to support themselves.

It is in a free society that people get to freely vote for their 'governors'. But, it is in a free society, in the elections process, where the opportunistic, often duplicitous, disingenuous, and sometimes downright criminal types of people go to make their careers in politics. It is in politics where you can get reelected over and over again as long as you promise to give the people more 'goodies', and make it tougher for opponents to unseat you. It is in politics where you can vote for your own raises, and make the proper connections, doing subtle give and take, to become wealthy without working as hard as an entrepreneur.

Of course , I 'm not saying that all who go into politics are crooked. But I am saying that even the best people, given enough years in the often dirty business of 'you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours' will emerge considerably less than ennobled - an obvious argument for term limits.

By the way, what is this talk about a 'free' society? Not only are we losing our various freedoms (to drill for oil, to smoke, to drive powerful cars, etc), but we are being forced to pay higher and higher taxes for the 'privilege' of having less and less freedom.

I’m Nelson Lee Walker and I believe we need Congressional Term Limits.

www.tenurecorrupts.com