ROOT AND BRANCH

Could I have been wrong? It seems impossible but I am hoping it may be true. In October of 2006, the opening paragraph in my Record Herald column asserted that: “Each election takes away a bit of our freedom. This paradox of democracy is inherent in the character of politicians and the nature of man. A politician desirous of being elected by the people makes promises to deliver ‘goodies’ exchange for votes. Human nature, being what it is, leads most citizens to cast their votes for the politician promising the most ‘freebies.’ Winston Churchill’s promise of only “blood, toil, tears and sweat” would not work with voters today. We want to hear about bridges, jobs, programs, benefits, protection from annoyance, justice, equality and reprisal against those who offend us; these are the ‘goodies’ the politician promises and the ‘freebies’ we have come to expect. Alas, every ‘goodie’ and each ‘freebie’ comes at the cost of a sliver of our freedom. The cost may be as simple as an increased tax to pay for the ‘freebie’ or it may come as the curtailment of a traditional freedom. The need to surrender freedoms for security is constantly hyped by ambitious politicians.”

Now, in October of 2010, I see hope for the restoration of freedom. The November mid-term elections will be the greatest rejection of government overreach, meddling and sapping of liberties in three generations. Government’s power grab began in the last years of Hoover’s administration, spread like an evil weed during the many years of Roosevelt and continued until this moment. Local governments, with the encouragement and instigation of the federal government, also began sucking up liberties and spitting out regulations to control the populace. At every level, rules, regulation, laws and ‘nudges’ blossomed to protect, control and guide the witless citizenry. In the last years of the Bush administration, creeping regulation turned into a crawl and now in the Obama administration it sprints. Until this moment, only once was their a voice that spoke the truth - Ronald Reagan who warned that government is the problem, rarely the solution.

By now, we have been conditioned to believe that auto companies should be run by the government, banks are best under the government’s wing and Obamacare will help us. We live in a ‘bailout era’ and global warming is a bigger threat than terrorism. States should control trans fats, build high speed railroads to nowhere, and endlessly multiply agencies. Local government rules on salt, potatoes, doughnuts, cell phones, smoking in cars and whatever else gets a crank’s dander up. Government has moved from the founders’ original ideas of defense, safety and order into micro managing of our lives.

Bailout mania struck the government in 2008. As the housing crisis ballooned, President Bush acted more like FDR than Ronald Reagan. Keynesian statist economic ideas, favored by all in Washington, were used to throw tons of taxpayer money at every real or imagined problem. Spontaneously, all over the nation, taxpayer protest rallies popped up. Ordinary people said enough! I know, because I attended the first rally in Columbus Ohio. The rally consisted of regular people, no leaders or bosses, connected through the new electronic media, the Internet, web pages and E-mail. In early 2009, a popular name for all these separate groups was coined TEA Party Movement. TEA means Taxed Enough Already. The common goals of all the local Tea Parties were fiscal responsibility, limited government and free markets. These ideas that most Americans agree upon are scorned by most of the ruling elites in Washington and the Statehouse.

When the November mid-term elections are over, the political elites controlling the Democrat and Republican parties will be overwhelmed with ‘shock and awe’. A movement by the common people is delivering a message: “Govern for the people and within the bounds of the Constitution or go home. In fact, we will send you home.” Some say Barrack Obama should be thanked for enlivening the Tea Party Movement and splashing concerned citizens with cold water. For years creeping statism has been policy of every administration; the people acquiesced in the slow theft of liberty. But Barrack Obama, by seizing auto companies, taking over banks and forcing ObamaCare - an unread 2,200 page law - upon an unwilling people, has awakened the American people from their slumber and galvanized them into action. Now alert, the people are not saying, “Just give a little back.” No, they are saying: “We will remove all government overreach ‘ root and branch’ and return our country to the ways of our founding fathers. You will not give us our freedom, we are taking it!” Topping of the tree of government will not do this time. Roots and Branches must go!