Why the big worry every four years?

Why do we put ourselves through this?

It’s frightening that during election campaigns I often hear people from every political party who are so fearful that their opponents will win, they think about moving to another state or country. They fear that their opponents, once in power, will destroy everything they believe in.

This is not humorous, this is not the rant of a few radicals, this is not rabid partisanship – these are people who are truly afraid, and they have reason to be.

When you realize that laws that govern your behavior, your level of personal income, how you are allowed to raise your children, and what property you can and can’t own, can be changed every two to four years, it should make you very nervous, too.

To paraphrase an old saying: A government that has the power to give you everything you want also has the power to take away everything you have.

I’m not just talking about the Bush-Kerry election. I am talking about every election that will shift the balance of power in government – whether it is a presidential, senatorial, congressional or gubernatorial election.

Look at how divided our country has become in this last election. Look at how angry people were about the candidates and with each other. Look at the hate in people’s hearts.

Why is that? It’s because with a government so powerful and so intrusive, whoever wins the election can radically change the philosophy of our government, and therefore radically change how we live. So every major election is truly a battle for our different ways of life.

Am I going to have to live under liberal rule, conservative rule, or wishy-washy moderate rule for the next two to four years? Will I have to worry about losing more of my money, my privacy rights, property rights, religious freedom, free speech rights, or gun rights, depending on who is in office?

Are we truly living in a free country when our freedoms can change depending on whose philosophy is in power at the time?

Well, our Founding Fathers created a much smaller government, as well as a mechanism that was supposed to protect us from the shifting whims of the politicians and those that elect them. It’s called the Constitution.

The problem is that the Constitution has been interpreted so loosely by government and the courts that one year it can be used to justify one law, and in the next year, it can be used to justify the opposite.

In addition, state and federal governments have expanded into so many functions that weren’t originally mandated by their constitutions, that government that once was supposed to be small and manageable has now crept into every part of our lives.

Our governments now determine how much money they can take from our paychecks, whether we can spank our children or not, what medicines we are allowed to take for our ailments, and whether or not we will have to give up our homes to the next Wal-Mart that moves into town and wants to build in our front yards.

It’s just like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s movie, “The Terminator,” when computers became so big and so powerful over time that they eventually took over the country and ruled over the people who created them. (Who ever said Schwarzenegger’s movies didn’t contain deep social commentary?)

How did such big government come about? Because conservatives, liberals and moderates have different ways of living their lives and different ideas about how government should be run, and they have all tried to encode those different ideas and ways of living into law. Now we all have to worry every two to four years that the “wrong” people will get into power in our state legislatures, our Congress, our presidency.

Why should conservatives have to worry that when liberals take over they will tax more of our money and give it away to failing schools and welfare cheats? And why should liberals have to worry that when conservatives gain control, they will force their moral values on others?

Instead, people can enforce their lifestyle choices through voluntary associations with churches, families, friends, community groups and clubs. Social conservatives who want to live a higher moral lifestyle can – and do – form communities around their churches and families. Liberals who want more social programs can form their own community groups and clubs and donate their own money to address causes they believe in.

The last time I checked, America was a country built on freedom, and freedom means choices. I may not agree with your choices, and you may not agree with mine, but as long as your choices aren’t hurting me or my property, what business is it of mine?

We have fallen far from the philosophy of limited government that our forefathers created. We need to reclaim our state and federal governments, which have instead claimed us as their subjects!

Through our laziness and our greed, we have allowed our governments to become so big that they do nearly everything for us, instead of us doing for ourselves. But we can turn it around if we work at it. We must stop turning to government to:

• “create” jobs

• pay for our health care

• pay for our retirement

• steal money from our paychecks that we would normally save for our retirement

• use taxes and laws to discourage certain behaviors

• use taxes and laws to encourage certain behaviors

• educate our children “for free”

• ban religion

• promote religion

• right the wrongs of past racial inequality

• make laws against things that offend us

• solve all of our problems

Until we do these things, every election will become “the most important election in our lifetimes,” and every election will only serve to divide us more between liberal and conservative, white and minority, and rich and poor, because every election will continue to be about whose philosophy will be running our lives for the next four years. Personally, I’d like to run my own life.

George Washington sternly warned, “Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is a force, like fire: A dangerous servant and a terrible master.”

The fire is no longer in the fireplace – it’s engulfing your whole house. When are you going to stop staring at it and start throwing some water on it to put it out?