Government Is The Problem

When faced with a problem, people generally have one of two attitudes: If you’re a conservative, government is the problem. If you’re a liberal, it is the solution. Liberals believe that it is the role of government to make choices for us. They think that government should save for our retirement, pick our health care, tell us how to rear our children, make business decisions for us, and keep us all from failure. Liberals refuse to acknowledge that making decisions for people takes away their freedom to choose – a freedom which is fundamental to ensuring we each have access to the quality of life we deserve.

Regulation Is Not The Solution

Even the most conservative of us understand the need for basic regulations. The problem is that liberals love such regulations and are always going overboard and descend to the level of, if not simply stupid, outright oppressive. I’m a fan of the minimalist approach to regulation. The problem with liberals is that every time someone makes a stupid decision about how to manage their own lives, they clamor for government to take away our right to legitimately make the same decision, regardless of how different our circumstances may be. When someone breaks a law, liberals demand more laws be enacted to keep it from happening again – as if the person didn’t break the law to begin with? What makes sense about limiting an interest rate when I will simply pay off the credit card in three weeks? Sure people are morons who will hang themselves with that line of credit, but that shouldn’t keep me from having access to it. What makes sense about outlawing guns when robbing a store is against the law in the first place – especially when it would prevent the lawful store owner from defending himself?

Government Is Not Free

And every time the government enacts one of those regulations, they have to fund agencies to oversee it, task forces to track down perpetrators, pay for legal expenses in prosecution, get third party oversight to make sure it’s all going smoothly, and figure out all the logistics that go along with it. Sometimes it’s easy. Police are just told the new policy and go out and enforce the new law. Most of the time it’s not. Government has to find auditors or inspectors to regulate business policies. They have to hire accountants and bureaucrats to oversee programs. They have to fund law enforcement to lead nationwide investigations. None of this is free. None of it is even cheep. These programs cost money. Our money. Your money. You are paying for every law congress passes. You pay for every bridge, every program, every committee, every computer, every car, and every square foot of office space. Every dime of government spending is your money. My money. And while I have no problem paying my fair share, I deeply and vehemently object to the notion of government solving all my problems.

Accountability Matters

Even if we could afford to save every poor soul that made bad decisions, that doesn’t mean we should. At some point, responsibility and accountability has to come into play. I cannot stand deficit spending because the government owes that money. The money they spend is not Congressional Fun Bucks. It’s not magic beans. It’s my hard earned money, taken from me by the government in the form of taxes.

And a lack of accountability isn’t limited to government spending. People and businesses need to take responsibility for their own decisions. I have no pity for people who chose to dropout of school. I have no pity for people who smoke their whole lives and “suddenly” develop cancer. I have no pity for companies that dole out billions in bonuses and then post a loss. I have no pity for unions that inflate the cost of production and then act surprised when their companies can’t compete with the cost of other manufacturers.

I absolutely think that people shouldn’t have to fail or be thrust into bad situations, but you can’t ignore that people are responsible for the decisions they make in life. It’s a tragedy when businesses go under, but the bank accounts of innocent people shouldn’t be emptied to cover for the bad decisions of others.

Laws Must Be Followed

The laws mean what they say and should be followed because they are the law. If you have a problem with something, go through the proper channels and change that law. Reinterpretation and the redefining terms is completely unacceptable. If you want to change the rules of the game, the vehicles for doing so are available. Amendments can be made. Laws can be changed. Votes can be had. Changing the rules in retrospect is a disgrace to the entire process, makes a mockery of our rule of law, and makes the creation of such rules pointless. The constitution is not open for interpretation. If you want to change what it means, propose an amendment. If you have a problem with a law, change it. If someone does something wrong, ban it. You can’t go back and change things just because you don’t like it.

We Deserve The Right To Self-Defense

Liberals love to champion the virtues of gun control. Allow me to be blunt for a moment: gun control doesn’t work. It’s not just a violation of my basic rights as a human being to defend myself, or a breach of the rights guaranteed to me by the constitution, or a remnant of the revolution that gave us the freedoms of our republic, it’s also not effective at reducing crime. Criminals are going to break the law, regardless. If a violent person wants money and they can’t get a gun, they can just knife someone, sell drugs, or any number of other things. Murderers can kill someone with just about anything. They don’t need guns. I don’t need to remind anyone that the deadliest attack on American soil since 9/11 wasn’t carried out with bombs, assault riffles, or hand guns. It was done with box cutters. Afterwards, the government put guns on planes to counter the threat. Guns are dangerous, yes, but they’re just as dangerous to criminals as they are to law abiding citizens. Criminals will use weapons in their crimes. Law abiding citizens deserve the right to defend themselves.

The Government Must Defend Its Citizens

If self-defense is the ultimate personal right, then the collective defense is the ultimate responsibility of the government. You can’t be expected to stand up and defend yourself against all threats. Women, children and the elderly cannot be expected to protect themselves from other people. One person cannot stand up against many. Part of the reason we have created a civil society is to band together to prevent the strong from taking advantage of the weak. In this capacity, one of the most important (if not the most important) duty of a government is to see to the safety of its citizens. Being weak on crime, unwilling to enforce laws, unable to back up law enforcement agencies, or deluding yourself into thinking that going easy on criminals will change their behavior is completely unacceptable. You cannot run a government, pass laws, and then refuse to enforce those laws. Doing so is simply outrageous.

The Government Must Defend Its National Interests

Equally outrageous is the notion that a nation should bury its head in the sand and ignore their place in the global community. Threats abroad, left unchecked, will destroy lives and livelihoods just as surely as threats at home. We live in a world where events in one corner of the globe affect us all. Before the War on Terror, there was the Cold War. Before the Cold War, there was not one, but two World Wars. Before the French Revolution, the Ionian Revolt triggered an invasion of Greece by the Persian Empire. We cannot ignore things that threaten us just because they’re far away, or because there isn’t a quick fix for them, or because it’s happening to someone else. The enemy of my enemy is NOT my friend. Governments must pursue diplomacy that advocates their own national interests. They must be willing to use force when diplomacy fails.

Unique Challenges Require Unique Solutions

Different places have different problems that have to be solved with different approaches. States rights are critical to solving many problems facing our country. I head a speech by Obama that had the line, “We can’t keep pushing the burden to the states.” Wait, what? No, as a matter of fact, we can support state’s rights. The economic problems facing Houston, the energy capital of the world, are completely different than the problems facing Idaho, and completely different still from the problems facing New Jersey. I personally oppose a national response to education problems because the foreign language problems facing Houston schools are different from the problems facing schools in Delaware. If a species is overpopulated in one state and endangered in another, national rules on hunting or fishing are ludicrous. Tailoring laws to a specific area doesn’t just make good philosophic sense, it makes more effective policy.

It Takes Action

One of my biggest problems with liberals (and politicians in general, for that matter) is that they spend most of their time complaining about problems and very little time actually dealing with them. Republicans are notorious for make bad decisions, but at least they make decisions. Democrats just whine and cave in to popular demand. Complaining doesn’t solve anything. At the end of the day you have to roll up your sleeves and do something about it. That something is never perfect, uncomplicated, or easy. You can’t wait for the government to step in and take care of things for you. You can’t criticize and criticize and offer no plans of your own to solve the problem. Hard decisions are often a choice between two bad options – and indecision because you don’t like the choices never changes anything. To get things done you have to act. Debate over the best course is certainly a healthy thing – but the goal isn’t to win an argument, it’s to do the most good for the country.