Whatever Happened to Limited Government?
by Justin Darr
For some reason, Republicans are scratching their heads and wondering why their poll numbers are crashing, their public support waning, and the fact they might lose seats in Congress during the mid-term elections
Well, here is a reason or two why: over the last 6 years our Republican controlled government has produced the highest levels of government spending in history, soaring deficits, excessive government regulation that intrudes even further into the lives of regular Americans, the belief that the best way to solve the problems of a massive, government bureaucracy is to make it even larger, and the systematic replacement of the promises made to the Conservative base with lip service.
It might seem like a long time ago, but once, the Republicans were the party of limited government. A party that believed the best way to govern Americans was to let them govern themselves, make their own choices, and decide on their own what was right and wrong, rather than relying on some faceless bureaucrats. A party so bold as to make a “Contract with America,” that challenged the voters to take them at their word, and if they did not live up to it, then elect them out of office.
Those days are just a dim memory today, because the Republican Party has fallen in love with big government.
Republicans have forgotten the obvious. The only thing government is good at doing is spending money and screwing up. And, for the past several years, Republicans have placed their faith in the ability of government agencies and legislation to solve our nation’s problems rather than common sense and personal responsibility.
In the wake of September 11th, when our nation faced the new challenge of protecting itself at home from foreign enemies, the obvious solution to the problem was the mobilization of the American people to assist in their own defense. Our government should have urged us to be vigilant. Stay alert for suspicious activities and report them to the authorities for investigation, cooperate with law enforcement, and show solidarity for the war effort with our friends and neighbors.
However, this common sense approach to Homeland Security was, evidently, not quite politically correct enough for the Republicans. After all, simply acknowledging the fact that every one of the 9/11 terrorists was a young Muslim male of Mid-Eastern descent is now considered hate speech. Taking the next logical step and saying, “If there is ever another 9/11-type attack in America,
its perpetrators will almost definitely come from the exact same demographic,” will get you branded with the Scarlet “I” of “intolerance” faster than you can say G.O.P.
Instead, our government chose to grant Islam “Most Favored Peaceful Religion Status,” spend billions of dollars on the Department of Homeland Security and federalize airport security.
Do not let all those people killed and embassies burned because Mohammad was portrayed in a cartoon, or the fact that every instance of international terrorism over the past five years has been committed by Muslims fool you. Islam is a religion of peace and the best way to combat the subversive elements that seek to distort it is to harass business travelers with and extra carry-on bag, and a color coded threat assessment scale that would stay on yellow if the world was cracking in two.
Who knows, maybe the next Mohammad Atta will be Grandma Maynard with her walker. More than likely, this is not the case, and all the time, money, and resources spent so far on upgrading domestic security with the exclusion of actively profiling likely terrorists has made the entire endeavor a waste of time. But wasting time, money, and resources is what government is good at, so I guess in a perverted sort of way, we have got both our money’s worth, and what we asked for.
The sad truth is the Republicans should have known better. The very fact that they chose this path is indicative of just how far they have moved away from their Conservative base.
Whether it is Republicans proposing nothing but expanding Federal authority and spending to solve the illegal immigration issue, or trying to address of the failures of Hurricane Katrina by making the federal bureaucracy even bigger by adding F.E.M.A. into the Department of Homeland Security, more and more the Republicans are looking like the Democrats they ousted from power over a decade ago. And, if the Republicans continue to act like the Democrats of the past, they will share their fate.
Justin Darr is a freelance writer living in the Philadelphia area with his wife and twin children. He can be read widely on the Internet and in publications across North America and in Europe. He is a staff writer for The New Media Alliance, and proud member of the MoveOff Network.