Give Me Liberty

Cheer up. Not even Barack Obama can make socialism work.

As we wake up on Election Day, most of us are probably thinking “Thank goodness, it’s almost over”. But what has happened to us? Throughout history, we have always been threatened by barbarians, people willing to use force to disrupt society, take the property and control the lives of others. To defend ourselves, we formed societies, built defenses, and fought back. At some point, we apparently concluded that we had defeated them. But they are still amongst us. Yes, they have put on expensive suits, and learned to speak eloquently, but they are still barbarians. They still use force take our property and control our lives. And they have completely fooled us. Now we call them “politicians” and “public servants”, “great men and women”, and consider it our civic duty to go out and vote to choose which ones will be our masters. They are still barbarians, and our future looks bleak.

We are voting in the midst of an “economic crisis”, brought on by years of misguided government manipulation of the economy. Yet the chattering classes shout out that it’s a “market failure”, and the barbarians promise to save us with a bailout. I have trouble believing that free markets somehow “failed”, when we haven’t had a free market in this country for at least a hundred years, but we seem to be falling for that nonsense yet again. Already we have narrowed the field to two candidates promising bigger government, more regulation, and less freedom. One candidate is unquestionably a socialist, the other is simply the pot calling the kettle black. (He is, after all, the co-author of the “McCain-Feingold Incumbent Protection Act”.)

So when we awake tomorrow, we will have “chosen” our new masters, but what will we have accomplished? We have already allowed the current administration to nationalize the banks. Is there anything we won’t let the incoming barbarians do to have their ways with us? Will we ever again stand up to them and proclaim that each of us was “created equal”, endowed with the “inalienable rights” of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”? If not, then the barbarians have truly won, and our best days are indeed behind us.

I personally don’t believe that our best days are behind us, but today is a hard day to be optimistic. So skip the lines at the polls, have a second cup of coffee, and think about the things that really matter.

Give Me Liberty

Chicago Tribune readers were treated to a rare commentary on liberty Sunday morning (October 26). John Kass, (who does excellent work exposing Illinois corruption) wrote a great column exposing how we baby boomers, the anti-establishment movement of the ’60s, have fallen hook, line and sinker for the siren song of big government. It’s a great story, read it here. His analogy to wild pigs is entertaining and appropriate, although probably too kind for We the Sheeple. As Benjamin Franklin said, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Global warming is not the problem, and facism is not the solution.