Whatever Happened to the Hippie Slogan "Question Authority?"

by: Guest blogger Jon Thomas


Well, it's looking more and more like the Democrat party is using any means necessary to pass legislation which will take over anywhere from 18-20% of our increasingly nationalized economy, public opposition be damned. Behind closed doors, (transparency for Democrats,) Senate majority leader Harry Reid, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel, and Obama's 'brain', David Axelrod are busily bypassing the legislative process by essentially reconciling the several health care reform bills into one. These people have only contempt for you and your petty Constitutional protections. Reid, Pelosi, and Democrat stenographers in the press continue to blame Republicans for the difficulties they are having, and are seemingly oblivious to the fact that Republicans are completely powerless to stop any legislation! Remember Obama's admonishment, "We won?"

This is only the most recent contradiction of the radical-lefts promises of "open" and "transparent" governance when they were wresting control of our country from the ravages of the "Republican monopoly on power." But now the shoe is on the other foot and faced with the reality of actually governing the radical left sees no problem with a monopoly of their own. The fact that the Mao-admiring left holds itself to no standard is nothing new and to enumerate their hypocrisy would be a Quixotic endeavor. But I digress.
What I cannot understand, however, is why otherwise intelligent people, with so many examples of government ineptitude on display, are so willing to surrender their personal sovereignty to an incompetent federal government with its unaccountable bureaucrats. All of the greatness enjoyed by this nation are the product of liberty and the free market system and yet we seem indifferent to turning it over to an ever more powerful central government, our grandchildren be damned. Today significant numbers of people cannot get a swine flu vaccine because of the 1993 Clinton-era Vaccines for Children program. This law compelled vaccine producers to sell vast quantities at half price directly to the feds to be distributed to the poor and uninsured. Who could be against that, right? The unintended consequences however, were a dwindling number of producers and routine shortages of all types of vaccines. Oh but it will be different when we get health reform and let the government run it all. Um....right. The dirty little secret is they have got to have government run health care because Medicare/Medicaid is quickly going bankrupt. (See, "A Case Against Government Health Care" http://tinyurl.com/nsa98t)

The Imperial pay czar Ken Feinberg is kneecapping company executive salaries that took TARP funds. On principle, I feel if you get in bed with the government don't complain when you get smothered. However, as a stockholder, is capping salaries in the best interest of the long term prospects of the company? Honestly, put yourself in the position of having your salary cut by 90%. Regardless of whether you make minimum wage or millions, are you willing to stay and take it? If you're honest, you'll admit that you would go looking for work at a non-TARP company. What do you think will happen when all of the talent leaves the government run companies? And when the central planners in White House get slapped in the face with that reality guess what happens next? Well, then the government will be 'forced' to put the same pay restraints on those who did not take the TARP money. It's only fair right? And, maybe, the government will just have to take over the other companies anyway. It's the only way we can get the peoples money back from those greedy Wall Street types, you know?

Our country has lost its skepticism of power and those who seek to obtain it; we notice only the slick packaging and promised results. In granting power to fewer and fewer at the highest levels we must ignore the tyrannical nature of concentrated power and suspend the principles of human nature and economics in order to convince ourselves that the predictable results will be different this time. Isn't that insanity? Are you truly willing to bankrupt your grandchildren for your own personal gain? Are you truly willing to give up liberty, fought for with blood and treasure, for your own comfort, leaving future generations no choice but to expend more blood and treasure to retrieve it? We simply must wrap ourselves in the armor of knowledge. Never leave it to the wolves to assess the danger in the bush.

One of the original hippie idealist, Benjamin Franklin said it best "...it is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority."

Won't you take on your first responsibility?


Minor editing by: Keith D. Rodebush