Reality Check 101

“Government is not reason and it is not eloquence.  It is force.  Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master – Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”  (George Washington)

With the election of Barack Obama and liberal gains in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate,America spoke.  By all accounts, conservatism was given a sound thrashing because of its out-of-touch, naïve, provincial, and backwater ways.

But it wasn’t conservatism that failed, it was Republican leadership in Congress, the White House and, tragically, the top of the 2008 ticket.  Too many conservatives, 20%, became convinced that social issues were passé in D.C. Their political and economic values of limited government, free enterprise solutions, strict constructionist courts, controlled legal-only immigration and common sense environmental stewardship were all compromised to the point of impotency by their supposed standard-bearers.

It seems that the majority of Americans now want to be rescued and then nannied.  Their desire is that, to use George Washington’s terms, government will reason for them and create eloquent ways to remove the trials and uncertaintities of life in a free society.  They are apparently ready to march into socialist class warfare in order to grab a piece of the pie from those who have had the audacity to be more persevering or more resourceful or more educated or more talented and therefore more successful then they.

The new future is expected to include less personal responsibility for the poor, the weak and the infirm.  God clearly did not know what He was doing when He gave that duty to faithful individuals, families, churches, private organizations and communities.  Federal and state governments, with their histories of fiscal wisdom, selfless service and amazing efficiency, are instead be defiantly commissioned by men to minister for them.

But elected office holders do not come in single or double issue packages.  They remain whole people who carry with them opinions and agendas in all areas.  Once in office, the fall-out lasts for decades.  If the past is any indication of the future, what will the new future really look like?

Life itself will become much cheaper.  FOCA (the Freedom of Choice Act) can still be resurrected, parental notification laws can still be gutted, and embryonic stem cell abuses can still prosper.  The number of babies sacrificed on the alters of “choice”, abortion commercialism and scientific experimentation will grow.

Family, the glue of all societies, is in decline.  DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) laws will even yet come under renewed attack.  The pathologies of cavalier sexual lifestyles could, in the nest two and a half years, be visited upon children and adults as the family is remade according to the dictates of newly packed liberal courts.  Hate crimes legislation will silence dissent.

Work environments will also change.  ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) is not dead.  It could still finally clock in.  Under the watchful eyes of government, discrimination against the free expression of one’s conscience, unless it conforms to politically correct standards, would be policy.         Our leisure would be affected.  Broadcast media would be subject to the so-called fairness doctrine.  Radio and television outlets would be forced to include programming which defies their reason for existence and violates what they stand for.

These are but a few examples of legislative proposals that have already been turned back in the past.  But they do not have to be our future.  George Washington was right.  Government can be a dangerous servant and fearful master – but only if we let it be irresponsible.  It is time for Americans to care.  It is time to become vigilant and act creatively in the coming battle to ensure the preservation of life, marriage, children, work and rest.