© 2008 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D.
“Government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advance auction in stolen goods.” – H.L. Mencken
Super Tuesday is upon us. As soon as we have the two major-party presidential nominees, we will get a war of words between them daily until the election in November. It will be like going to the dentist every day for eight months to have the same tooth filled.
That does not distress me as much as the promises each candidate makes to plunder from some Americans to buy the votes of others. Each is selling what they can do for you with someone else’s money. Worse, they blithely promise to plunder the wealth of the next couple of American generations. They spend today while obligating the next generations to pay. These next generations have no say in their wealth being spent today.
Both Republicans and Democrats engage in this. Why? It works in getting votes.
Unfortunately, many people think they can pay less than they owe, at the expense of someone else. They think government can take from the rich and give to them. Government takes from all of us and gives it to all of us, with a large handling fee.
Political theorist Frederic Bastiat wrote, “Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state lives at the expense of everyone.”
When politicians promise to give you something, the government has no money of its own, so everything it “gives” to one citizen must be taken from another citizen. Candidates who promise to make government bigger and more intrusive will not answer, how much is enough?
If the plundering of Americans was not awful enough, we have both parties dragging racial identity into the election. These candidates are treated like rock stars by the media while their minions lay the latest spin on us. The spin is always fear-based and mean-spirited.
I do not like nor respect making the contest racial. Winning such a contest divides our nation, rather than uniting it, and it is personally offensive to me. I think the most powerful public statement made in the last century was that of Martin Luther King Jr. – “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
It should be about character
This national election should be about content of character, not color of skin. Those Democrats who point to Obama’s race sicken me as much as Republicans who want Condi on the ticket because she is black. Maybe we can get James Carville to write in big letters for both political parties: IT’S THE CHARACTER, STUPID!
What do I, as a voter, want? Foremost, I want to see evidence that those who would be our rulers will foster liberty and rein in coercive government behavior.
There are plenty of places to start reining in coercive and idiotic behavior. More to the point, I would like a national consensus that government should never ever make things worse than they have to be. Yes, at times things in our life can be icky. But those in the halls of government should not make bad situations worse.
Example: Most Americans standing in unnecessarily long lines with their shoes and belts off know in their hearts that the Transportation Security Administration couldn’t find its butt with both hands. The TSA is using political solutions for security problems.
It is the current quintessential American experience to be going through an airport watching the TSA in action and thinking, “There’s a whole lot of stupid at work and mightily little smart.”
P. J. O’Rourke wrote, “The mystery of government is not how
Milton Friedman pointed out, “The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.” Perhaps it is worse. After spending several years every day running for president, what do these nominees really think about anything? We must vote for one. How do we choose?
I believe we have to look for character, like Dr. King wrote. The secret most people who do not study presidents miss is that every president elected so far has either grown into the job or not. On Lincoln’s first day in office he was nothing compared to what events and his character later developed in him. This was the same with Truman and Kennedy and, in fact, all American presidents. Some newly elected presidents turned into great presidents while others either did not grow usefully or the presidency brought out the worst in them.
My personal litmus is whether they will meaningfully rein in the growth and the coercive nature of government intrusion. I know for a government to last and our nation to prosper,
Swickard is a weekly columnist for this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com.