THE CONSERVATIVE VIEW
BY RUSSELL TURNER
FREEDOM OR FREE STUFF
We humans are for the most part an intelligent species, but we have a bad tendency to also be a gullible species. Too many of our people are so obsessed with getting something for nothing they lose all perspective of what freedom really means. There is a story in the Bible where a young man sold his birthright for a pot of soup because he thought he was getting something for free; throughout the rest of his life that decision cost him dearly. It doesn't help the situation when we have a bunch of power hungry politicians who make it a habit of promising taxpayer monies to any group they think will cast their vote for them in the next election cycle.
This scenario has happened countless times throughout history. The practice of raiding the public treasury has bankrupted empires; the Roman Empire is a classic example. Many politicians have the belief that the majority rules and our system of government is a democracy; they could not be more wrong. Our system of government is a Republic. Thomas Jefferson made the comment that a democracy is the vilest form of government. From history he could see that all democracies eventually destroy themselves from within, they all fail because of bad financial practices. They fail because the citizens learn it is easier to have worthless politicians siphon money from the public treasury instead of working for it.
I am often astonished by how some individuals get elected into public office, I have come to the conclusion there are two main reasons why this is happening. Number 1, people don't want to be bothered with politics; every election cycle I have people calling me at the last moment asking who they should vote for. While some of them are people holding down a job, they fail to understand the importance of voting the right people into office. So many taxes and fees are hidden in the necessities we use every day, one example is your phone or electric bill. By their nature those expenses are rarely the same month to month; it is so easy for another fee or tax to be added because most people rarely take to time to analyze their bill. Number 2, when someone does not have any skin in the game they have a tendency to not care about how government is operated as long as they keep receiving their benefits. From my own personal experience there is nothing that will get my attention quicker than having more of my hard earned money taken from me for programs that only benefit a certain group and have no accountability. Our country would be in a whole lot better condition if more people had skin in the game and were able to see the consequences of ill-informed voting.
Until we Americans get out of the addiction of wanting something for nothing we will never experience true freedom. We become enslaved to a group of politicians and a system that know how to manipulate the voters into voting for them. We Americans are supposed to be a united people; we are dividing our society when we fail to look at the whole picture. The attitude of supporting something or someone if it benefits me and not caring what it does to someone else will be our downfall. The general election is just around the corner, and as for me and my house we will take freedom any day over free stuff.
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