Andrew Nenow is a wine and viticulture sophomore and Mustang Daily conservative columnist.
Welcome back from spring break one and all. I hope wherever you were for the week proved to have suitable weather for spring break away from the trepidations of college.
I don’t mean to bring stress to my readers after a week of relaxation away from studying for finals, but after listening to a speech by Judge Napolitano, I felt it was time to talk about our government.
As a Conservative, the size of our federal government has caused me great concern.
When the Constitution established our federal and state governments, the point of its structure was to inhibit any one branch, or more generally, the government as a whole, from becoming too strong. Fast-forward 225 years, and I am sure the founders of the United States would not find what they had intended to become of the humble nation.
They would find a government that takes a large portion of wealth from its people, suppresses too much of its people’s freedom and does not realize any limitations on its power while it is ever-growing. Many Americans may think this is just the way our government operates, and there is nothing that can be done. The truth is, this was not the way it was intended to run, and it can be changed.
The ability of our government to mold and change through legislation and amendments is one of our constitution’s greatest qualities — so now is the time to employ it.
Since the early 1900’s the government’s influence in an American’s daily life has steadily grown. During the Great Depression, people had no choice but to rely on the government, and eventually, were conditioned to rely on those in Washington, D.C.
At some point in the last century the line between being “progressive” (as Democrats have called it) and stepping out of its realm of power has become very fuzzy. By this, I mean the government has begun to assume powers for itself that were not given to it by the Constitution.
The government apparently can now control what food is worthy of consumption, what salaries employers must pay their workers, what criticism of government is appropriate in public, how U.S. senators are elected, how much of your income you keep and even whether or not you can consume alcoholic beverages.
OK, it can be admitted that some of these, such as food control and minimum wage, are good things, but that’s not the point. The point is that the government assumed these powers to be theirs, which made them more powerful through extended influence.
So, now we come back to present day America with its out of control debt and a deadlocked Congress that is supposed to be finding a solution. The real problem, however, stems from our government’s inefficiency.
Politicians act as if they have the resources to solve any problem, but in reality, they have only what we give them.
It is time people realize the government does not own significant capital; it does not have several sources of income. We are the government’s source of income; we are giving it money out of our own pockets and receiving nothing in return for it.
But politicians aren’t oblivious. They understand the government’s inefficiency and know if people were able to go elsewhere for the services they provide, they would go out of business.
However, the government does not worry about going out of business because it has assumed the power of destroying competition by outlawing anything it fears. It may seem like a lot to take in, but I urge you to read the truths about our government I have written carefully. Understand this great nation is not operating the way it should.
This American believes in what our founding fathers saw in the future of this nation, and no one said it better than Thomas Jefferson. He understood that people fearing the government is detrimental, but the opposite is not.
“When people fear the government, there is tyranny. But when government fear the people, there is liberty,” Jefferson once said.