My thoughts on the state of government
by Hanly on Aug.22, 2009, under Politics
A friend of mine sent me this video:
and it got me thinking about the reasons why my family came to the United States. Those that know me know that I was born in Cuba, which has had a communist regime in place for 50 years. Like many Cuban children who have never been exposed to other forms of government and have been taught to despise American imperialism, I didn’t think much of the situation. That is, until we moved to the United States in 1995. In Cuba one lives under many restrictions imposed by the government: one is not allowed to kill cows (which inherently means one is not allowed to eat beef…the cattle is the property of the government), people are allotted certain amounts of food (when you turn 7 you are no longer allotted milk), the meat you are allotted is soy based. Living under these conditions, many people choose to turn to the black market to obtain food. My dad often tells the story of people who would kill cows in the middle of the night and cover themselves with a black tarp while butchering the cow. Within an hour, the cow would be butchered and the meat sold. Like the video says, the Cuban people gave up their freedoms and entrusted them to a revolutionary leader who incited anarchy against the established government. Anarchy was the transient state to the communist oligarchy which exists today.
Having experienced another form of government completely different of that in the United States, I understand what the forefathers set out to create in order to protect the rights of the people. I consider myself to be a Libertarian. When it comes to the United States, I believe that government should rule by the constitution and uphold the laws which our forefathers set in place in the creation of our republic. In essence I believe in laissez-faire, where government should only step in to protect the rights of the people by guiding businesses and other institutions in the right direction. Recently it seems that the United States has started trekking down the path to fascism, where the government has set rules in place for businesses to operate under. The government is essentially the majority shareholder in the car industry and possibly the financial industry as well. The government has influenced banks to buy other failing banks. The government has also limited the freedoms of the people, and has set in place the means to monitor citizens’ communications without the need for warrants. It has forced telecommunications companies to create backdoors, and when charges are brought up against them has pardoned them. The government has soiled the constitutions, and the majority of Americans have accepted it without even a peep. They believe that the government has a right to do these things. The truth is that we, the people are the government. We are the ones which gave up or freedoms in the state of nature to form our government to protect our freedoms, not to monitor and control us. We the people have a right to debate, we elect our representatives into congress, we elect our president, we elect our government with the hope that it will represent us justly.
In the post 9/11 fear, we allowed the tables to turn. We allowed our government to control us. We allowed our government to attack a nation which we were told had Weapons of Mass Destruction (which turned out to be a lie our government told us). What have we done about it…nothing. Charges have been brought up against the previous administration, but nothing has happened. We (I voted independent) elected a president which promised us change, and what has he done? Given more money to the rich corporations so that they can shower themselves with lavish bonuses. He has maintained the unconstitutional watch on the people. Organizations such as flickr censor anti-Obama commentary off of their servers.
Us Americans are headed down the wrong path. We have come to appreciate and depend on government handouts (welfare, social security, medicare, and soon to be health care). The more of these social systems we set in place and the more we let the government run things, the closer we get to socialism. We have lost our pride in our country and have left a pack of weasels to run it, and it shows in the legislation that has left Washington these past 9 years.
We must remember why it is that we came to the new world, why we established the form of government we have. We must elect representatives not on the basis of what they can get us, but of how they will protect our freedoms. The government was established to protect our freedoms, not to give us handouts. We must earn our money through work, innovation, and competition. That is the American way which we have forgotten. Many Americans have been adapted to the notion of a bipartisan system and feel compelled to either vote Republican or Democrat, if we want real change, we should stand together and boycott the monopoly these two parties have created. We must stand together and vote for a representative of a 3rd party. We must take back our country!
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