“Of all the enemies to public liberty, ______ is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.” – James Madison
A. government health care
B. taxation
C. debt
D. war
Now there’s a question you’ll never see in school. Yet as Americans increasingly turn to anger over recent government brazenness, it is one we would all be warranted to answer.
Some of us shout down our lawmakers, stomp our feet, chant “USA!” and feel goose bumps from the pretty girl singing the national anthem. And, in moments of insobriety, we consider buying one of those elephant T-shirts at the market for $9.96 plus tax.
But nothing ever changes. Government continues to devour our freedom. Let’s consider four related icons of government growth: health care, taxation, debt and war. In doing so, perhaps we can better realize which, as James Madison cautioned, is the greatest enemy of our liberty.
Take health care. Medical costs are surging precisely because of government interference. By introducing laws that favor politically influential corporations, government eliminates market forces, inflates prices and hinders patient choice. For example, FTC and FDA regulations enable the powerful pharmaceutical lobby to remain insulated from serious competition. As a result, we stay sick. Nevertheless, we are told, freedom is to blame for our medical mess. We must surrender to more control by our benevolent caretakers – or else.
Most assuredly, health care is not a right. There is no legitimate, tangible right to a physician’s labor, a janitor’s labor, a nurse’s labor or a remedial good. To claim ownership of any of these things is to embrace blatant slavery or theft. Rather, we have a command from our Creator to care for the poor and sick through voluntary health charity. This mandate can only be realized when the state ceases to deprive individuals of nearly half their wealth through taxation.
Government is a monopoly of force. All monopolies must destroy wealth to survive. Instead of confronting this voracious leviathan, we enable it by servicing its debt. This scheme is most apparent when the state claims ownership to one-third of our labor through the income tax. The other more insidious tax is a hidden one: inflation. The phony credit the government injects into the economy serves to monetize government debt (while enticing more personal debt).
Economist Peter Schiff describes the inflation phenomenon succinctly: “Under the guise of ‘price stability,’ generally defined as annual price rises of 2-3 percent, the government robs its citizens of all the benefits of falling prices and uses the loot to buy votes, thereby trading the rising living standards of their constituents for their own re-election.”
There is a common instigator of the exorbitant debt, taxation and health tyranny that has us all so incensed. Unfortunately, we are woefully unprepared to confront it. America, the answer to my introductory question is “D”: “War.”
Madison, like the other constitutional framers, understood that war truly is the gravest threat to our republic. This is a timeless notion. It remains true whether we face muskets, blitzkriegs or airliners.
John Quincy Adams described an America unshackled by war: “She goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.
“She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.
“She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.
“She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example.
“She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.
“The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. …”
War inspired government health care. It gave us the personal income tax. It created much of our debt. As the late Billy Mays would say, “But wait. There’s more!” It denigrates dissent. It penetrates privacy. It steals savings. It destroys families. It abuses faith.
It is the enemy of our liberty.
As we rightly protest the myriad government usurpations of freedom, we must remember that war is chief of all. Many citizens now angry with government have been known to proudly proclaim, “These colors don’t run!”
These colors do run – all over the globe, in fact. But they shouldn’t. For the sake of liberty, we need them right here at home.
David Hanson, 20, has worked as a writer, farmer and entrepreneur. Rooted in a Christian worldview, David’s guiding philosophy is that of classical liberalism. The son of a preacher man, David attempts to reach Americans for a cultural revolution: restoring both beauty and truth. You can listen to his commentary on the nationally syndicated Straight Talk with Jerry Hughes program every Friday 4-5 p.m. ET. He resides in Florida.
