Willful Ignorance Ive written about this phenomenon before, but I wanted to bring it up again to make the point. Americans live in a society today that sees powermongers in Washington touting political positions which are ridiculous in the face of facts. Despite a tsunami of empirical evidence undercutting their pet project, career politicians will spin (LIE) those facts to obfuscate the issues and avoid admitting failure. The practice has become so routine, that we wound up having a sitting President lying under oath to a grand jury, later claiming to be parsing words based on what the definition of is is (if youre confused, Google those keywords for Bill Clinton and read the ludicrous story). I dare say that the libertarian model of analysis is the philosophy of thought closest to understanding the true nature of the Founders intent when they drafted our Constitution. The key to finding proper libertarian positions in political debates is REASON - LOGIC. I truly believe that the Founders were more brilliant than even they understood at the time (1787). The structure and language of the United States Constitution are breathtaking and nearly divine (for those who believe in that sort of thing). One need not look for long to find small examples of brilliant and prophetic foresight into challenges we face in the modern era that Madison and Franklin and their colleagues anticipated with their Charter. With that backdrop, I am hard-pressed to name any problem facing our country today which cannot be addressed with the elegant and profound provisions of the Constitution. However, that assumes that we are using logic and reason to understand and apply those provisions. For example, a holistic and logical view of the Constitution is that the federal government should be a benign guide for our societys development internally, while providing strong and cooperative defense against threats, both foreign and domestic, to maintain our sovereign and territorial integrity. The document provides express powers to Congress and the President (as well as the Judiciary) to accomplish those goals. But the key is that the government was always intended to only guide - to nudge along and assist in a limited fashion - American society, without being directly and intimately involved in private lives of citizens. Capitalist and free market fundamentals underpinned this concept as much as libertarian ideals. Thus, the government should not be involved in granular and dictatorial regulation of the health insurance markets to ensure redistribution of wealth. Obamacare removes the benign nature of the government intended by our Founders and is inconsistent with libertarian ideals. Its simple logic and reason, applied to the plain language of the Constitution itself. So why, then, are there so many vitriolic and disparate views on what is the proper course for our country to take with respect to political issues of the day? Why cant people come to the same conclusion when the facts are so evident? The answer is simple. Its the complete and utter rejection of logic and reason by one side or the other. Obamacare has always been hated by conservatives and libertarians. And while the extreme left passed the law at a time when they were in majority control of the entire legislative process, the majority of AMERICANS didnt understand the true nature of the law or its inevitable impact on the country. But that didnt stop leftist supporters from their sycophantic browbeating of the entire nation to get the law enacted. And when the wheels fell off, as conservatives predicted all along, the logical and reasonable reaction from the left should have been to admit failure and work to remediate the damage. Instead, more concerned with consolidation of power than with doing their actual job of governing and representing The People, rabid DemoNcrats continued to deny the simple facts before them - the law is failing, it should never have been passed, and they will suffer for it in the ballot box. The last few weeks have seen DemoNcratic Party leaders ignoring and refusing to admit these simple truths. It would be laughable if the stakes werent so high. But RepubliGoons arent innocent of this behavior, either. In the midst of terrible economic conditions several years ago (which they, the RepubliGoons, helped create), they repeatedly demanded tax cuts, when revenues are MANDATORY for any reasonable effort to reduce deficits, let alone the mounting national debt. More recently, they redirected their attention appropriately to spending cuts, instead of tax cuts. But the partys overall view of fiscal practices is still the same - cut taxes and watch the economy grow. That may be true in principle, but it is irrelevant to the damage already done to our countrys budget and solvency. Tax cuts cant be contemplated in a vacuum - we must have income to pay debt already incurred. But most important of all, it is the American voter who is to blame for much of the countrys ills. The majority of Americans today cant be bothered to read enough information to be at least marginally informed and educated on the issues of the day (in fact, I expect many cant make it this far into my comments without clicking away - though that might be due to the poor quality, rather than the readers motivational level). In our larger cities, where communist and DemoNcratic sentiment is strongest, large population centers simply dont understand libertarian concepts at all. Having lived their entire lives in a developed society where all their needs are met by supermarkets and government programs, urban dwellers cannot fathom why rural voters dont want government involved in their daily lives. It truly is like looking at the difference between a Labrador retriever and a wolf. The retriever is raised to look to his owner for all his needs - food, water, shelter, MEDICAL CARE, affection - everything. It becomes dependent. If left in the wild, it likely wont live long. The retriever feels happy, owing to all the supplies it receives, but its freedom is an illusion. It cannot leave. It cannot walk away. It doesnt know how. Conversely, the wolf is born and raised to be self-sufficient. It learns to control its own future. The wolf feeds itself. It doesnt depend on handouts for its survival. Sometimes, the wolf may fail - and die. But its truly free and not beholden to any creature. It lives an independent life and is miserable when captured to be cared for by humans. Modern Americans often find themselves identifying either with the retriever or the wolf. Libertarians are the wolf. They understand that true freedom can sometimes result in tragedy for a citizen. A business may fail, putting the owners family in the poorhouse. But a business may succeed wildly, bringing generations of prosperity and wealth to people who came from nothing and had no previous assets. Thats the promise of liberty - equal rules and conditions to give you a fair chance, not equal guaranteed outcomes. Two wolves in the wilderness may have very different fates. But their freedoms were identical, and both had to deal with the same environment. THATS freedom. Many modern Americans are willfully choosing to ignore the true freedoms guaranteed in our Constitution. And as anyone can easily learn from history, when you allow the government overlord to intrude, it will. Generations of Americans permitting - even inviting - the federal government to become more and more involved in our daily lives has chipped away and eroded the liberty our Founders gifted us. And like good Labrador retrievers trained to obey their owners commands, the large population centers in our country are pushing the government to be still more involved, completely ignoring the fact that such involvement merely spreads tyranny and oppression at the expense of liberty. All the while, the wolves withdraw from this folly, refusing to accept the bowl of kibble offered by the humans. True, the wolves may go several days without eating. But when they do get a meal, it is sometimes a big juicy hunk of meat and far better than the filth in the humans bowl. And to make the meal sweeter, the wolf lived free and on his own terms trying to get that meal. Fearful of a world where they would find themselves responsible for their own work ethic, DemoNcratic supporters demand that the federal government continue providing citizens essential needs on equal levels to all, thereby helping Americans to avoid the consequences of their own shortcomings, as well as jealously preventing the success of others who might receive more prosperity in a truly free society. On most domestic federal issues we face today, DemoNcratic ideology willfully ignores the Constitution and the facts. Despite incontrovertible evidence condemning government involvement in private lives, they continue to press forward, knowing the large cities will follow them into the abyss. The reason for this insanity is just that - insanity. Its the willingness of the DemoNcratic Party and its followers to listen to reason - the willingness to reject logic and facts. Its a large percentage of our population plugging its fingers in its ears and yelling loudly so it cant hear the unpopular truth - that socialism and leftist policies fail utterly, and that true freedom likes in conservatism and libertarian principles. The DemoNcratic Party is the voice of cronyism, racism, and envy. It is an agenda completely bankrupt of any logical or moral value. It is willfully ignorant. And it is becoming more and more evident daily that this is true. In the last few weeks, Ive seen several prominent online articles beginning to state openly that the American people are disenchanted with the Obama administrations communist leanings. Supporters from 2008 who were obsessed with seeing a black president elected, regardless of his qualifications (or lack thereof), are now openly condemning the man they lionized unwaveringly, finally acknowledging that opposing a communist president isnt racism just because he happens to be black. There seems to be hope that we, as Americans, are waking up to the reality that these socialist ideas are indefensible and wrong. But then again, we felt a glimmer of hope in 2012, and the nation reelected Obama anyway. I hope that the growing anti-DemoNcratic sentiment is real in our country, and that it can be sustained through the November elections to accomplish good. Im certainly not betting any money on it. But lets all hope that the moderates who were hoodwinked by Obamas Hope and Change and Yes, we can! nonsense have recognized the hollow reality of that administration and its policies. But in a broader sense, I hope that Americans will now finally begin educating themselves and using rational thought to determine whether a policy is consistent with the Constitution. Thats where the power to change this situation lies - in The People. It is high time that Americans quit being willfully ignorant of the facts and logic and begin doing their duties as citizens to participate in enacting legitimate policies consistent with our countrys principles of freedom and liberty. Enough is enough.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 18:01:57 +0000
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