Inspired to Tyranny…

I often wonder to myself based on the new movement towards Barack Obama what passes as inspiration in today’s world?  Empty rhetoric on the surface of policy ideas that would even make the likes of FDR and LBJ cringe.  When I hear many give their reasons for supporting this man I realize the blatant ignorance of what this country was founded upon amongst these people.  This man proposes some of the biggest nanny state ideas ever proposed in government.  Apparently, he inspires the weak minded.  The weak willed.  The weak in general.  Apparently, he also inspires the selfish whom feel it’s OK to have big brother take from your neighbor and give to you what you didn’t earn.  This is called “inspiration” in today’s world.  Thomas Jefferson refers to this kind of dependency:

“Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition. “

How far we’ve come from the likes of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.  These were men whose works were true inspiration.  Their works inspire the best in us.  Their works inspire morals and principles toward our neighbors.  We have gone from “Give me liberty or give me death!” to “I will give you free health-care!” as a guide to the fire that awakens our spirits.  The founders made no secret of their intentions with this government.  They disputed quite often over the procedures in which this government would operate, but they all had the common goal of protecting individual liberty.  They left no question as to what the role of government needed to be in our lives, but apparently according to many of the masses that has changed.

 Some would argue that the constitution is subject to change because of the changing times.  Many of the laws and lessons of the past no longer apply today.  Well I say they are wrong.  Do the principles of success change with time?  Does the idea of freedom change with time?  Does the desire for absolute power change with time?  Are Christians all of a sudden looking elsewhere besides the Bible for parables, lessons, and morals because those lessons no longer apply to today?  Apparently society in large numbers is demanding that government take care of their needs.  I think this calls for a Thomas Jefferson quote because this as relevant today as it were over 200 years ago.  He says:

“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”

With too much liberty we have the abilities to correct these problems ourselves as to how we see fit.  With too little liberty we have no say in the matter and any outcry we make is interpreted as more big government solution by our leaders.  I’m hoping for a leader to promise me that they will do whatever they can to lessen the scale of government inside the boundaries of the constitution as it was written and ratified by those state representatives of whom had just fought off a tyrannical regime for true freedom.  They offered only one promise to the people.  That they would be free to manage and govern their own lives within the limits of the freedom of others around them.  To them that was the dream for which they were fighting and sacrificing.  There is no confusion in these concepts.  Thomas Jefferson says:

“On every question of construction [of the Constitution], let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”

The founders gave us vast amounts of interpretations and writings for us to understand exactly what their intent was when they created the constitution.  They warned us of the signs of of a tyrannical government.  Yet today many of us seem to ignore the warnings of battle-tested men and rather pay heed to the complacency of indecision.  Our master will take care of those decisions for us even if only the few cry for milk.  At what point did we start looking to one man for answers instead of the wisdom of millions governing their own lives?  With freedom comes responsibility and with responsibility comes the acknowledgement that we were created with abilities that stretch beyond the answers of the imperfect governing the imperfect.