Bartlett D. Cleland Institute for Policy Innovation
Recently we have heard the analogy that the country is a car and the question is who should we trust to drive that car: the GOP which the Democrats claim drove the country into a ditch? Or should we trust Democrats to keep driving the car that well heads us deeper into the same ditch?
We are asked whether we should give the keys back to the kid" (voting Republicans into office) who drove the car poorly or stick with the current drivers (sending Democrats back to DC to continue the current trends).
How horribly can the president his Democrat party or those parroting his rhetoric miss the point of what is going on outside the Beltway?
Enthusiasm right now is not what one might call real high for the governmental message of leave the driving to us" with government or political party control of the wheel. Americas love of the automobile has never ended and we like to take the car for a spin around the block ourselves kids in the backseat and spouse at our side. Some even throw camping equipment in the trunk seeking a little adventure taking some risks and seeking those big rewards for which America has become well known.
In other words America has not yet given up on that spirit of individualism liberty adventure and innovation.
Sure some wards of the welfare state are happy to kick back and allow the big-spending politicians who cater to them to chauffeur them through a bland life planning each step including even the most intimate of decisions about their healthcare. But most prefer their own more steady hand.
There seems to be nothing short of relentless determination to hoodwink America into changing a fundamental philosophical underpinning of our great experiment that the people direct the government not the other way around. Recent attempts to subtly change the explanation and hence the law of the historical function of the Constitution and Bill of Rights are nothing short of breathtaking.
These documents clearly list the limitations on the power and authority of the federal government; Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…" or …the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed" etc. Yet our political leaders consistently speak about government protecting us from other perhaps real perhaps politically manufactured threats.
But the threat from which the Founders were protecting us was government itself.
And there are those who would challenge that the people are the power in the first place. But they are wrong. The Constitution begins with We the People of the United States in Order to form a more perfect Union…" and does not begin with The Government of the United States…"
The Declaration of Independence and other founding writings were also clear that we as individuals and collectively are endowed with certain unalienable rights.
These documents and more importantly the principles that flow from these legal underpinnings protect our rights from being taken away (hence the way the Constitution was written to protect us from government) making clear that all of the power of government resides in us not in marble structures or elegant speeches.
So why a political party or a government feels that it should have the keys to the car" is at best a bit puzzling.
The choice is not between which party has control of the wheel -the choice is who do we put behind the wheel. Government must be told Sit back and leave the driving to us."
Bartlett D. Cleland an attorney is with the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) a national independent nonprofit public policy organization.
Bartlett D. Cleland Institute for Policy Innovation
Recently we have heard the analogy that the country is a car and the question is who should we trust to drive that car: the GOP which the Democrats claim drove the country into a ditch? Or should we trust Democrats to keep driving the car that well heads us deeper into the same ditch?
We are asked whether we should give the keys back to the kid" (voting Republicans into office) who drove the car poorly or stick with the current drivers (sending Democrats back to DC to continue the current trends).
How horribly can the president his Democrat party or those parroting his rhetoric miss the point of what is going on outside the Beltway?
Enthusiasm right now is not what one might call real high for the governmental message of leave the driving to us" with government or political party control of the wheel. Americas love of the automobile has never ended and we like to take the car for a spin around the block ourselves kids in the backseat and spouse at our side. Some even throw camping equipment in the trunk seeking a little adventure taking some risks and seeking those big rewards for which America has become well known.
In other words America has not yet given up on that spirit of individualism liberty adventure and innovation.
Sure some wards of the welfare state are happy to kick back and allow the big-spending politicians who cater to them to chauffeur them through a bland life planning each step including even the most intimate of decisions about their healthcare. But most prefer their own more steady hand.
There seems to be nothing short of relentless determination to hoodwink America into changing a fundamental philosophical underpinning of our great experiment that the people direct the government not the other way around. Recent attempts to subtly change the explanation and hence the law of the historical function of the Constitution and Bill of Rights are nothing short of breathtaking.
These documents clearly list the limitations on the power and authority of the federal government; Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…" or …the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed" etc. Yet our political leaders consistently speak about government protecting us from other perhaps real perhaps politically manufactured threats.
But the threat from which the Founders were protecting us was government itself.
And there are those who would challenge that the people are the power in the first place. But they are wrong. The Constitution begins with We the People of the United States in Order to form a more perfect Union…" and does not begin with The Government of the United States…"
The Declaration of Independence and other founding writings were also clear that we as individuals and collectively are endowed with certain unalienable rights.
These documents and more importantly the principles that flow from these legal underpinnings protect our rights from being taken away (hence the way the Constitution was written to protect us from government) making clear that all of the power of government resides in us not in marble structures or elegant speeches.
So why a political party or a government feels that it should have the keys to the car" is at best a bit puzzling.
The choice is not between which party has control of the wheel -the choice is who do we put behind the wheel. Government must be told Sit back and leave the driving to us."
Bartlett D. Cleland an attorney is with the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) a national independent nonprofit public policy organization.
