Today is Super Tuesday, the biggest day in all the primaries. It also happens to be Fat Tuesday, the end of Marti Gras, and the day before Lent for all you Catholics out there. Since every other political blog out there is deep in the throes of hyping Mitt Romney (Go Mitt, Go) and ripping John McCain and Mike Huckabee, and so on, I figured I'd go a different direction, as the analysis begins to blend together.
Whoever your choice is, remember that it is up to you how much of your freedom you will lose if you choose poorly. My first example comes from a link I discovered in the blog at iLLWiLL PrEss, which led me to this story about a law to punish restaurants for serving obese people in Mississippi. In this case, two Republicans and a Democrat are responsible for this garbage. On Sunday I was bitching about Senator Arlen Specter, another Republican, wasting taxpayer time and money investigating the New England Patriots (the really should have taped the Giants). Then there's the McCain-Feingold rape of freedom of speech. I'll also mention the Patriot Act in here which, although it is a war measure, has the potential to strip freedom from us.
The idea of Government taking away freedom is not new. Back in 1798, President John Adams signed the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts, which included a law allowing people to be jailed for printing articles critical of the Adams administration, labeling this freedom of speech as sedition. This was clearly an assault on the First Amendment, but President Adams signed it as as war measure, as we were fighting an undeclared war with France at the time. This is why I mention the Patriot Act. I understand the need to take measures that curb personal freedom when the survival of the country is at risk. But we have to be careful when restricting freedom. Ask anyone of Japanese descent that had the 'pleasure' of spending time in an internment camp during World War II.
The problem with career politicians, in many cases, is that they begin to believe that it is their duty to watch over us, to take care of us, to protect us from ourselves. In this way, they take away that which makes us free people. This is done through unconstitutional laws (some provisions of McCain-Feingold), through willing relinquishment of freedom (we have a smoking ban of the sort that was passed as an initiative here in Ohio), and most commonly through taxes (beer, liquor, and cigarettes, and probably fatty foods in California).
Why we continue to elect people who want to turn the government into a nanny state confuses me. It has gotten so bad, it almost makes me want to vote for Ron Paul*.
*Note the use of the term 'almost,' omit the term 'want,' and hit me in the head with a brick if I even think of voting for that kookaholic.
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