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Never let government keep us down
T.R Fehrenbach, Express-News columnist : June 22, 2012 : Updated: June 24, 2012 12:52am
I don't like fundamentalist politics because historically it usually devours its own. The French Revolution turned the Rights of Man into the Terror, the Russian morphed Marxist idealism into the Gulag.
In our recent primaries, extreme partisans tried to purge effective and reasonable politicians from both parties. I hope this never succeeds. A third of this nation is conservative, a third liberal, with about the same percentage waiting, like Missouri, to be shown.
The glory of the English-speaking peoples lies not in following leaders to still waters but shooting the rapids by teamwork. Each party should remember that when an accident of history puts it in power.
The current Democratic administration seems to have forgot. I believe it has been more engrossed with achieving partisan goals than solving national problems. Democrats simply may not be capable of controlling government spending due to their preponderance of government-dependent constituencies.
On the other hand, our more fundamentalist conservatives seem enamored with returning to the days of Thomas Jefferson. This serves the nation about as well as 7th-century fundamentalism serves Islam. You can neither go back nor ignore the past's painful lessons in going ahead, without risking real damage to civilization.
We are not the same people, or the same nation, we were in Jefferson's time. America then was rural and agrarian. It was overwhelmingly Protestant and descended from the British Isles. Eighty percent of the free population was self-employed, mostly as farmers. The large, black slave population was privately owned, privately directed, and privately cared for, however well or poorly, at no expense to taxpayers. Education was private. Only property-owning males could vote, though this was not always enforced in the case of property.
Most Americans agreed with Jefferson that the government that governs least governs best (today his least-invoked quotation). The federal government had few direct functions. It financed itself by tariffs and import duties, without direct taxation. Federal money was never spent for purely local purposes.
There was no such thing as a costly medical preservation of life or much need for pensions. As late as 1940, only 1 percent of Americans lived past age 65.
Many things killed this male, white, Jeffersonian republic. Urbanization itself increased the need for more laws, regulations and public expense. Driving down the street today you need more rules, cops and public utilities than the farmer walking to his acres; also, you need streets. Industrialization changed 93 percent of workers into hired hands. Social attitudes grew more tolerant and egalitarian. The growth of huge private corporations led to bigger government and rules to prevent domination by “senators from big steel, soap, and razor blades.” Fantastic medical advances at fantastic cost left many Americans unable to pay for health care. And a nasty world created big government for defense.
I think the size of government means less than its power to oppress. The first 10 Amendments key our exceptional understanding of freedom. To some extent, we have made the rest of the Constitution negotiable. However as society changes, we must never allow rulers to destroy life, liberty, property and our illusion of happiness.
When we can't fight city hall, it's time to take down the symbolic musket from the fireplace.