I read a great post today from Mike Cooper in Winchester, Virginia. <link> in which he used the proposed legislation against use of cell phone while driving as a springboard to rant against the increasing government intrusion into our lives. Thank you, Mike !
The activities of the current administration in the White House have caused me to view government and government intrusiveness much more critically because I disagree with their policies. But I have long been a strict constructionist view of the Constitution. But the fact is that the budget and public debt has reached critical mass on President Obama's watch - although there is plenty of blame to go around for previous Republican and Democrat administrations. The related size of government and the intrusive nature of government regulations now has also reached the boiling point in my view.
Distracted driving has been a problem long before the epidemic of cell phone usage. I have watched women putting on their makeup in the rear view mirror, I have watched drivers eat while driving, and parents turn around to the back seat to discipline children sitting in the back. I have seen drivers try to read the paper in a moving vehicle. I don't see why hands-free conversations on the phone are any worse than talking to a passenger in the vehicle. I agree that texting while driving is stupid - but I don't think we need to have the government try to address that. It would be difficult to enforce and does not require a federal law to address the problems.
I would dial back laws and regulations and reduce the number of agencies that exist now in an attempt to reduce spending and to restore balance to government and freedom to the citizens. The regulatory power of the executive is limited to interpreting the acts of Congress. There is no power in the executive branch to create regulations and policies that the administration doesn't have the votes to pass in Congress or to directly contradict the will of Congress. But, in my view, the administration has violated these separation of powers concepts on a frequent and regular basis.
It is my hope that we make it to the election before our system of government implodes. There is a real difference between the views of the proper role of government by the Obama Democrats and the Independents and Conservatives in the country. The old laugh line from Ronald Reagan is very true today – “Liberals feel that government is the solution to every problem while Conservatives think that Government is the problem.” But we are not playing this one for laughs anymore. The President with his background as a community organizer doesn't have a clue how train somebody as a worker and get him a job. He only knows how to get that person into a federal program to receive benefits from people who worked and paid taxes. I commend the President for his years of concern for those who have been at a disadvantage in our society – but I can't help thinking we would all have been better off if he had tried to find jobs for those he wished to help – then and now.
So we face a choice in November of 2012. There will be those who will take the short term view and vote to continue their benefits. But, I hope, there will be many others who will vote to return our country to the capitalist system and the free market with the view to celebrate the dignity of the freedoms and the rights and responsibilities of the individual that used to drive our nation and our economy.
We were a great nation once and we are still an exceptional people. We have an entrepreneurial and generous heart and we can be a great nation again if we return to the values and traditions that made us great. But time is short. Pay attention and support the candidates you favor. November 6, 2012, is the day that will decide what sort of nation we want to be.
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