Is there any hope for government?

Sens. Hillary Clinton and John Warner are sponsoring legislation that would enact a national seat belt law, requiring states to pass laws mandating the usage of seat belts or obtaining a 90 percent use rate among citizens.

Sounds good, right? The government, along with our good friend Hillary Clinton, is out to require the use of seat belts in order to save lives – particularly children’s. She’s our ally, and she’s looking out for us.

That’s probably how some look at the situation. It’s easy to have such a reaction in a society that passes down, from generation to generation, a perversion of what America is all about.

It’s a deep misunderstanding of the fact that your property is your property; to nearly all extents, you have a right to do anything you want with your own property. This fundamental idea that shaped our nation has been under threat for over a hundred years, but under constant attack in recent years.

If you want to take your chances going down the road without a belt strapping you in, you should be allowed to. If you want to smoke or want to allow smokers in your restaurant, you should be allowed to. If you want to denigrate your body with drugs, you should be allowed to. If you want to kill yourself, go for it. If you want to be a perverted homosexual, you should be allowed to. If you want to profess your religious beliefs in public and private, you should be allowed to.

Maybe seat belts make your ride safer, maybe smoking is awful, maybe drugs are going to kill us all, maybe killing yourself is horrible, maybe being perverted will rip our society apart, and maybe Christians are somehow jamming their beliefs down everyone’s throat, but that’s what personal responsibility is all about.

However, the philosophical idea was brought up and sustained by those who based their lives on personal responsibility and godly standards. Unfortunately, there happen to be a lot of power-hungry people in politics and ignorant voters that have nearly totally destroyed this philosophy.

These days, many choose to rely on government. Capitalizing on that, the Big Daddy government will happily supply the needs, creating a dependent nation. But if the government is daddy and we’re the children, as I’ve said before, there is definitely some child abuse going on – a new era has emerged, causing a few problems.

First, the bureaucracy born out of this Big Daddy government is obvious. Plunging into trillions of dollars of debt that will never be paid off, into a vast and wide-scale misuse of government, and trampling on the rights of the common man – as in the case of Hillary’s seat belt idea – the results are dismal.

In addition, this colossal monster of government has created a venue for politicians, like Hillary Clinton, to leech off. With a large number of parasites in both major parties, national politics has become a big game – the only real struggle is in deciding who will have a job after the upcoming election cycle.

Secondly, another problem that has arisen is the continual frivolous litigation that floods the judicial system. From morbidly obese people suing fast food restaurants and pinheaded lawyers suing the Oreo manufacturer, to chain smokers suing tobacco companies and other random money-seeking lawsuits, the entire shift of responsibility has caused a massive litigation mess.

Sounds like a warm and fuzzy future. Actually, I hate to sound cynical, and there really do need to be watchdogs for national government, but on that federal level, there’s really no point to worrying about politics.

However, in a bit of optimism and hope, it really does count on a state level. In my home state of Oklahoma, I’m witnessing conservative influences affecting the politics of our state. Sure, we have many liberals, sure our government is a massive monster of bureaucracy, but things are changing. And, most importantly, things can change locally.

Hundreds of years ago, many warned that a high, central concentration of power would bring about trouble. They were right; most of our elected officials, affected by the intense political machine, forget about their hometown constituency, and their hometown voters forget about them.

How can you change that sad fact? Look at what’s going on in your state legislature and city council; look at your state and local governments, and do something. Your local politics will change, affecting your state, and your state will affect our national politics.