[clue-talk] Wow, Card's a little political...

[Jed S. Baer]

On Sat, 01 Nov 2008 01:34:09 -0400
Angelo Bertolli wrote:

> What roles do you think government should take in society, and how can 
> it enforce them?

>From the Declaration of Independence:

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men ...

Mind you, the men who wrote, and in many cases died, for these words,
would not consider health care to be a right. Or a job, or a big
flat-screen TV. I'm all for equality of opportunity. But there's no way
anyone can guarantee equality of outcome.

I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who stated, "That government which
governs least, governs best." And that's my philosophy. I'm not a
libertarian, I'm a minarchist. Just because someone can form a majority,
doesn't mean that majority can decide what's best for everyone. That's
why we have a Constitution of limited, enumerated powers for government,
and a Bill of Rights setting forth specific restrictions. (Which the
authors recognized as not being a complete list, but many people today
think is all-inclusive, except for the 2nd amendment, which doesn't
count. Oh, and the 4th and 5th too, when they get in the way of the war
on drugs or terrorism, or universal health care, or whatever their pet
project is.)

We, the people, temporarily accede power to the state for the purposes of
having it do the job of protecting our rights. Sadly, it has been
overstepping that mandate for a very long long time.

jed