Government is a result of society

Looking for the inherent problem with government? It is society itself. People cannot live together without pushing someone to the top, and the person at the top is never perfect, fails to make good choices, and eventually disenfranchises those beneath him.

When you look around at the people in our community, who do you see receiving the favors, running the town, and dealing out preferential treatment? Is it a surprise to know they are people of power, money, relationships, and influence?

If the people at the top have all the money and receive all the favors and preferential treatment, what is left for everyone else, and how do we live? And by that, I mean how does the middle class live?

Every lobbyist in every state Capitol and in Washington DC is an actual person, are they not? They eat, breathe, walk, talk, and exist the same as we do. They have human parents, live in homes, and drive cars. Yet, in spite of all their apparent similarities with you and me, they have more access to our elected officials than we do!! When were you last treated to a high power lunch in exchange for your vote for a slimy Congressperson?

We know how corrupt they are; we joke about it; and we commiserate about it. We don't ever do anything about it though. Most people reelect the same silver tongued Devils year after year and complain about it just the same.

We are our own worst enemies in that every chance we have to do something, we send the rascals right back to the Capitol to do the same things all over again. We demand corrupt leadership. And we get it.

True Leadership

True leadership is borne of fortitude, strength, and willpower. Reagan was this type, without a teleprompter, with a backbone of iron. There is not an Obama alive capable of such a speech as this, be it Barack, Michelle, or one of his kids. They lack ability, conviction, and forethought. They lack judgement, passion, and principle.

Under Barack Obama, we've taken many steps backward while hope has dwindled and opportunity declined. Obama won't be here forever, but hard working, principled Americans will be. And we will come back swinging. In one flush, Obama will be gone, and his smell will dissipate. At that time, we will rebuild what he broke. Because that's what we do.

Selfishness and the collective

We are told that it takes a village. Takes a village to what? To raise our kids? To live our lives? To make a living? In the mind of a collectivist, the answer is all of the above.

The collectivist believes that each person depends upon the works of the collective to live his or her daily life, that each individual has an impact upon his or her neighbor. In collectivist thought, each person has a responsibility to look out for his or her neighbor.

Hundreds of years ago when our forefathers stepped foot on our country, while it was the land of plenty, they still had to work for everything. Fast forward to today, and the land of plenty busts at the seams. One no longer need to sweat or blister to eat good food, live in a nice home, drive a decent car, own an advanced cell phone, etc. Our society places all these technological developments and more into the hands of consumers through tools such as credit and government programs.

In the beginning, in the wilderness, self sufficiency and self reliance were two qualities that equated to survival, yet time advanced to the point that one no longer needed to depend upon himself or herself to survive or even to have nice things. Most, if not all, amenities are now attainable even to average people, so lack of scarcity in society may be our own downfall.

Advance more changes in society governing politically correct thinking, and it ought no longer surprise anyone to find why we are where we are today. A prevailing wisdom is that selfishness is wrong and that when one thinks of oneself first, that person ought to be ashamed. Selfishness now equates to being miserly. By making people feel guilty for thinking of themselves, collectivists hammer home the thought that society is more important than the individuals who make up the community. The problem with their logic is that self sufficiency gets hammered at the expense of easy living. In a land with no scarcity, how important can it be to do anything oneself? You don't have to work, just let the collective provide it.

If people stop working for themselves, for whom will they work to support and to whom will they turn for the things they want to buy? In the collective, everybody works and everybody receives, right?

The idea that collectives are the best way to exist undercuts the idea that many people crave independence and that subjugation to the collective means forfeiture of total independence. The next question asked ought to be about how much independence must get forfeited? Well, that depends upon those in charge of the collective in that they make the rules.

Little hope for America

This is why there's no hope for America. As long as there exists an active element seeking to force others' burdens upon uninvolved parties, our freedoms will forever be infringed upon.

So much concern for a three month old infant, yet callous disregard for a 20 week fetus with every chance of surviving a premature birth only to be exterminated before fruition.

Mashable: America's 12-week maternity policy has nothing to do with families. http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIw1YvxryA

Self interest

The collective demonizes the self in order to seize individual rights. It calls you selfish for wanting to excel while hoping we believe it. Self interest drives the human to wake up, to get dressed, to walk, to avoid catastrophe, yet the people actually believe that self centered behavior is evil.

It is the greatest obfuscation of our time when we convince ourselves that we are somehow less important than the state in that we are somehow capable, and expected, to take care of others before ourselves. You don't even accomplish that by electing politicians. They do it--out of self interest. So wins the politician.

Christianity, Charity, and Government

It always befuddles me to listen to a Christian chastise me when I state that the government has no responsibility to assist the poor. It is as if the person thinks I'm no Christian at all or better yet that the person thinks himself a better one.

When did I ever state that there is no responsibility to assist the poor at all? I never said such a thing. In fact, I think individuals hold the entire responsibility for serving the indigent and that government usurped that responsibility when the populace grew lazy.

I think Christians who have a progovernment stance ought to consider the foundation of their own argument. Jesus Christ stated that we need to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to give to God what belongs to God. When did Jesus ever tell a beggar to go ask the king for food? Any of the thousands he fed with a few loaves?

If you consider yourself a Christian, don't be lazy. Don't stop helping the poor at the ballot box as that is far from your duty. You are called to serve, not to appoint others to do the dirty work for you--not to pay taxes and consider it done.

We need to wake up. It is not the job of government to serve the needs of the population. It is the job of Christians, so gird up and do it.

My Thoughts on Torture....

I don't know if the torture report from the Senate reports facts or opinion, but I'm going to give mine. People should not be tortured. Period. Anybody who thinks we should has seen too many movies and read too many books. If you grew up when I did, you saw plenty of movies with Chuck Norris in POW camps, and we villainized the North Vietnamese for torturing our prisoners. It isn't wrong for someone to do it to us but right for us to do it to others. Congratulations, if the report is true, we became the enemy.

I also do not approve of the way the report was handled, especially not if the CIA simply followed the orders of the President. It is a great example of what happens when you have weak leadership at the helm, willing to listen to whatever he is told will work. We went through eight years of Bush and now eight years of Obama. Do the math. Sixteen years without a decent leader, and many people actually blame Congress. Blame it for what? If you want to blame Congress, blame it for being too complicit with the plans of a President instead of acting independently as it is able to do within the framework of the Constitution.

The job of Congress is not to work for, or even with, the President, nor is it the President's job to tell Congress what to do. This is a fault of our two party system. When one party controls both branches, you get exactly what I just described: the President becomes the de facto head of Congress, and you get crap like Obamacare. Great job America, way to read your Civics textbooks. The only way you get true government oversight in this pathetic two party system is to have each branch controlled by a different party.

Dear geniuses, the government was designed to be gridlocked with each branch jealously guarding its own authority and privilege. That's what prevents overreach. What's so difficult to understand about that?