My Political Philosophy

Now that you know my exposure to politics in my 33 years of life, now its time to explain my political worldview. My political philosophy has been shaped by people like my father, certain teachers and friends, and the writings by minds that are greater than mine, but ultimately, I claim my philosophy as my own. If everyone followed my philosophy, the country (and the world) would be a much smoother running place.

In a nutshell, my philosophy is, You cannot give what is not yours to give. There is a hierarchy in life and goes like this: God created the people, the people created our Constitution, the Constitution created government, and government creates corporations. The way a hierarchy works is that what one creates, he controls. That means government does not control the people; people control the government because they created it. The only power government has is the power that was given to it by the people. Keep in mind that the only powers that the people can give to the government are powers that the people can possess in the first place. Let me give you an example. Every year on April 15, you hand over a good portion of your annual income to the government. The government took this money by force. If you don't believe me, then don't pay your taxes and see where you end up. If you tried to escape from where you end up, you would be shot. That means government takes your taxes by force. The government then takes this tax money and hands it to someone else, whether it be in the form of welfare, foodstamps, grants, and through thousands of other wealth redistribution programs the government currently runs. Now ask yourself, where did the government get the power to take money (by force) from one person and hand it to another? You might think that, well of course, the people gave the government that power. Seems simple enough; but the problem is if you as an individual do not have that power, then how can you possibly delegate that very power to the government that YOU created? Think about it - can you walk over to your neighbor's house, hold a gun to your neighbor's head, take money from him and then donate it to your favorite charity? Of course not, you would be arrested and go to jail. The fact that you stole the money for a supposedly good cause is immaterial. So if you cannot do this, how can the government do it either? Because remember, the only power the government has is the power that was delegated to it by the people. People cannot give what is not theirs to give.

In our time, most people just take it for granted that Congress can pass any kind of wealth redistribution legislation, or any other legislation that controls other people's lives, and think it is all perfectly legal. Well, legal it may be, but it isn't lawful. The law is the Constitution, and if you read Article I Section 8 of that august document, you will see the exact areas where Congress may legislate. Redistributing people's income is not on that list, nor is regulating our educational system, nor is paying farmers not to grow crops, nor is paying people to rebuild their homes after a hurricane, no is regulating how much water our toilets may use to flush. Again, can you put a gun to your neighbor's head and tell him how much water his toilet is going to use? Apply that standard to every law Congress passes, and see if it works.

I will continue this post because I have more to say about all this, but that is all for now.

Good Day to You, Sir