Mundane Things
What are the “mundane things” that government is allowed to “take care of” and how much do we dare hand over to it?
The Biden regime has done us a favor - it has shown the weakness of a centralized government in a land based on constitutional republicanism.
In a weird way, the pandemic has also shown us the limitations of the federalism necessary to have in a constitutional republic. The harsh lockdowns in blue states, particularly California, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York contrasted with the freedoms in Florida and Texas, bring to the fore the differences necessary to tolerate when really applying the Tenth Amendment.
But that is OK.
It's OK because people can choose. They can stay and vote or they can leave for other states more favorable to their values and futures. Of course, leaving a state and your home is a drastic step to take, but it is something that still is an option.
California represents the worst in both central government and rule by a single party. They voted to keep a tyrannical governor who imposes restrictions on legal citizens, restrictions that the "science" proves are not necessary and may well be making things worse by prolonging the pain.
But that is still OK. That's the way federalism is supposed to work - because the idiocy stops at the state border. If that is how the majority wants to live, have at it.
It is still about choice.
So many on the left are now cheering the demise of our federalist constitutional republic in specific, and Western civilization in general. When I try to discuss with them what that means, it is difficult to get a straight answer of their view of the future. Most of what they claim comes next is an impossibility.
When I mention the demise of Western civilization means the end of freedom, prosperity, independence, and self-governance.
Their rejoinder?
“Well, that’s good because only some people have those things.”
Really?
“So, you would prefer that nobody have them?” I ask.
I either get an unequivocal “yes” or we go back into mumble mode where they cannot seem to express what they are thinking.
It’s almost as if none of them have thought this through.
I’ve posted this before, but these discussions always remind me of something a left-wing acquaintance once said to me a decade ago. He stated:
“… people, and I do include me, want a big brotherly government to take care of mundane matters, such as our health care, our retirement, overseeing the quality of goods and services, so we can concentrate our collective minds on American Idol and the exploding Kardashian population.”
So, what does that mean? What are the “mundane things” that government is allowed to “take care of” and how much do we dare hand over to it?
I have always thought this quote (with the understood American Idol and Kardasian sarcasm notwithstanding) is so telling because it presumes life in a post-Western civilization will consist of the government taking care of everything so people can be set free to indulge in their greatest happiness, even to frolic in the herds of unicorns roaming the skittle-laden plains.
As evidenced in this quote, the root of the issue is that the collectivist defines freedom as “freedom from“, as in freedom from economic risk, from political risk and from social risk. A capitalist defines liberty is as “freedom of“, as in freedom of opportunity, freedom of self-determination, and freedom of liberty.
The former requires maximum regulation and control, the latter requires minimum regulation and control. The collectivist confuses safety, security, and low risk with liberty, but as we have seen with the reactions to the covid pandemic, this “security” comes at a cost. We pay for it by surrendering individual liberty to the collective authority.
In its practical realization, the security of collectivism has been historically represented as the enslavement of national populations. It always begins with noble ideals (caring and protecting the people among them), but it never ends nobly. It usually ends in the oppression of people, then revolution…assuming, of course, the proletariat did not give away too many of their rights in exchange for the safety and security produced by their own enslavement.
The historically proven fact is that the only system that has ever guaranteed the individual liberty and prosperity of all its people has been a capitalist economy combined with a constitutionally constrained government as represented by the Republic of the United States of America.
When he was queried by Dr. James McHenry as to what form of government was established at the close of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Ben Franklin said:
“A Republic, if you can keep it.”
234 years on, whether we can keep it is still a relevant question.
All I know is we left NJ for SC. Breath of fresh air. One year later, with no mask mandates, I would say 50% are wearing them again in grocery, CVS, etc. not in restaurants. People are going to choose here and no one is shaming with respect to masks, at least as far as I can tell.
No doubt, if we can keep it. Today, that is far from a foregone conclusion. It feels as though we're being impelled toward something. what that something is has yet to be defined, but we're rushing headlong just the same.
There are those that wish to slow this hurtle toward God knows what, by clinging to the familiar and proven values that have sustained us = Conservatism.
And those wanting to toss everything out in order to satiate an undefined and inchoate desire, what "feels" good = Progressivism.
During my 60 or so years on this planet, I've watched the pendulum swing from the radicalism of the '60's to the customariness of the Reagan era, the permissiveness of the Clintons, with all its attendant lack of accountability, to the usurpations of Liberty under Bush 43 and the insanity and destruction that was the Soetero era. That alone validated the hysteria we've lived under since 2016 and it's only gotten worse. The momentum of the pendulum now seems enough to break the mechanism entirely.
Strange days indeed.