Give Me Freedom or Get Me Outta Here

When asked if I lean Republican or Democrat, I insist that it is neither, which makes me an acknowledged Independent citizen. When it comes to voting for one candidate as opposed to another, I take up no banner for any particular special interest at any time. I always vote for the candidate or initiative that offers the least affront to my personal liberty. Freedom, and as much of it as I can handle, is my only special interest. No candidate ever advocates the cause of liberty enough for me, so I generally am left to choose the one that either wants to take away less or give back more of my freedom. That is the way I vote, short of subscribing to any extreme sort of a wish-washy non-committal form of anarchy.

The one thing I lay claim to with complete certainty is that I own me and you own you. On the basis of self-ownership most of us acknowledge that it is immoral for someone to attempt to take away our lives; it is also immoral for someone to do irreparable physical harm to another person, especially by force or rape. But stealing my property or my time is just as immoral, especially if taken by mandate, even if it is only to give it to someone else. It is up to me to give someone what is mine, and not someone else's choice.

Nearly 70% of Federal spending (about two-and-a-half trillion dollars annually) is a matter of taking the personal property of one person and giving it to another who it does not belong to. The beneficiaries includes Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, food assistance, unemployment and other programs. While I agree to pay my fair share of taxes, I nonetheless condemn the practice of legalized theft of what is mine by government force.

True rights exist simultaneously among all citizens. The exercise of a right by one person should not impose any obligation upon another person. For Congress to guarantee to any person the right to food or health care or anything else is the outright fleecing of another person's earnings. Thomas Sowell is spot on when he asks, "What is your “fair share” of what someone else has worked for?" Since Congress has no income of its own, when it grants one person something he did not earn, it necessarily deprives someone else of something he did earn. I find that contemptible.

So too is the right to free speech these days, especially on college campus. Free speech is easily defended when someone is saying something that everyone is in agreement about. Disagree with some politically correct argument and you'll find yourself under attack on most college campuses across America. College speech codes found on nearly half of American campuses that restrict free speech that is found to be offensive to some is most contemptible of all.

Arbitrary rules and regulations, whether imposed by elected officials or unelected political appointees, that deny each of us our basic right to personal liberty are the largest encumbrance perpetrated upon the American public by government and its minions. My vote goes to the public servant aspirant that aims to downsize government and cut regulation, no matter how good it might be for one special interest or another. Let the cards fall where they may without the contemptible interference of government oversight.