CRAIGforCONGRESS
Missouri's 7th District, U.S. House of Representatives

 

 

 

Congressional Issues 2006
GOVERNMENT
The Nature of Government
What is "Government?"

The word "government" can be used in different ways. We can speak of "self-government." The owner of a business imposes a form of government on his employees. In family, school, neighborhood association, and groups of all kinds, there is "government." But only "the government" ("the State") claims the right to seize the property of others, have those who resist beaten and raped, and kill all those who get in the way.

George Washington is reported to have said,

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence — it is force. Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. . . .

"Trust No One"

Some people criticize libertarians for not having enough trust in government. John Adams wrote in 1772:

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty."

Should libertarians have more confidence in their government? Thomas Jefferson, 1799:

Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power.… In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.

James Madison warned the people of Virginia (1799):

the nation which reposes on the pillow of political confidence, will sooner or later end its political existence in a deadly lethargy.

Madison added in Federalist No. 55,

[T]here is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust. . . .

Trusting government, having "confidence in government," is un-American.

"There Oughta Be a Law!"

Actually there already is a Law. The Declaration of Independence speaks of "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God."

When someone says
"There ought to be a law!"
he really means
"There ought to be government action
 -- there ought to be vengeance --
there ought to be misery and pain inflicted on the person who offended me!"

And when the government says "Mr. Smith has a right to quality health care," that usually means that Mr. Jones better pay for Smith's healthcare, or pain and misery will be inflicted on Jones.

"Government" is force
and threats of violence.

Consider this opinion from the Los Angeles Times in June of 2001:

  Here's what California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer said at a press conference about Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth Lay: "I would love to personally escort Lay to an 8-by-10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says, 'Hi, my name is Spike, honey."'
     Here's why Lockyer should be removed from his office of public trust: First, because as the chief law enforcement officer of the largest state in the nation, he not only has admitted that rape is a regular feature of the state's prison system, but also that he considers rape a part of the punishment he can inflict on others.
     Second, because he has publicly stated that he would like to personally arrange the rape of a Texas businessman who has not even been charged with any illegal behavior.
     Lockyer's remarks reveal him to be an authoritarian thug, someone wholly unsuited to holding an office of public trust.
     But his remarks do have one positive merit: They tell us what criminal penalties really entail.
     Contrary to some depictions of prisons as country clubs, they are violent and terrible places.
Tom G. Palmer, 'Hi, My Name Isn't Justice, Honey,' and Shame on Lockyer, L.A. Times, Wednesday, June 6, 2001

You pay your taxes to finance government projects which you know are unconstitutional, wasteful, and undermine your moral values. You pay because you know if you don't, you will be audited, harassed, and, quite possibly, locked up with carjackers and rapists, brutalized and sodomized in a government prison. If you decide to stand on principle and you're willing to take the risk, your employer will still withhold your taxes from your salary because he knows if he doesn't he might meet "Spike" in a government prison.

Incredibly, millions of Americans still believe that bigger government will bring a better life.

What kind of "government" do we need in order to fully protect "the good life?"

What is "the Good Life?"

America's Founding Fathers believed it was the enjoyment of God-given unalienable rights:

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

 Life, faculties, production

— in other words,  

  individuality, liberty, property

    — this is man. 

And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, 
these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, 
and are superior to it.

—Frederic Bastiat, The Law, p.6

What is Good Government?

It is easier to say what good government is not than what it is. Good Government does not violate our God-given rights to Life, Liberty and Property (also called the Pursuit of Happiness).

"No person shall be . . . deprived of 
life, liberty, or property, 
without due process of law. . . ."
—The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

When it does violate these rights, that government must be altered or abolished.

WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government

—Declaration of Independence

Those who ratified our Constitution believed that "religion, morality and knowledge" were "necessary for good government and the happiness of mankind" (Northwest Ordinance, 1787). They believed that without virtue, the by-product of "religion, morality and knowledge," no government could be powerful enough to maintain social order, that is, protect our Life, Liberty and Property. In fact, the greatest threat to social order is often the government itself.

Life

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Today our government works to destroy our posterity, not secure the blessings of liberty for our posterity.

chbook.gif (22217 bytes)iraqmed.jpg (8977 bytes)Across the globe, for millions, maybe even billions of people, the federal government is a threat to life:

 

Liberty

Libertarian Party Home Page

Property

More on The Pursuit of Happiness

When the 14th amendment guaranteed "life, liberty, and property," it was echoing a basic theme of our Founding Fathers, a secular trinity, each of which is an essential component and guarantee of the others. Life, liberty, and property--they are like three pegs holding up a table. Remove one, and the whole thing comes crashing down. It seems almost old-fashioned to talk about property rights these days, but to our Founding Fathers, property rights were part of the natural law, the self-evident rights granted by God. Governments were instituted among men to guarantee them, not to take them away. A man's home is his castle--that is the foundation of civilized order, an ancient statement of individual rights that comes down to us through English common law. But in the last several decades, it seemed that the Government saw a man's home as simply another source of tax revenue. Marginal income tax rates soared as high as 75 and on up--90 percent. They were, to use another old-fashioned term, "confiscatory."
—President Ronald Reagan, Remarks at a White House Briefing for Minority Business Owners, July 15, 1987, Public Papers of the Presidents, 1987, p. 828.

If they could travel through time into the 21st Century, our Founding Fathers would be shocked at the growth of government power and the assault on Life, Liberty and Property. 

In order to protect "the good life," we must eradicate the entire concept of "the government."

next: First Steps to Restoring the Constitution