Posted on 09/28/2011 4:53:49 AM PDT by Vintage Freeper
This story is the first in a weeklong series on Gallup.com on Americans' views on the role and performance of government.
PRINCETON, NJ -- A record-high 81% of Americans are dissatisfied with the way the country is being governed, adding to negativity that has been building over the past 10 years.
Nearly Half Now Say Government Poses Immediate Threat
Americans' sense that the federal government poses an immediate threat to individuals' rights and freedoms is also at a new high, 49%, since Gallup began asking the question using this wording in 2003. This view is much more pronounced among Republicans (61%) and independents (57%) than among Democrats (28%), although when George W. Bush was president, Democrats and independents were more likely than Republicans to view government as a threat.
(Excerpt) Read more at gallup.com ...
And then the cycle repeats.
Understanding that Ronald Reagan was right, "Government is not the solution; government is the problem," is not rocket science. Nor is it rocket science to learn how to fix this problem once and for all. Government can be caged. The Founders came very close to the solution. Close enough that the United States became the freest and unquestionably the best nation in all of human history with the creation of the highest standards of living ever enjoyed.
How do we fix the United States? These polls provide clues. The article contains additional variations on the same theme.
America can be fixed by improving the model given us by the Founders, combining that model with Austrian economics, and taking the hints that are found in the series of polls today. It is not necessary to reinvent the wheel. A small group of Freepers has already done the heavy lifting and is currently publishing a series of articles here on Free Republic that shows us how we can take our country and our freedom back. The first link below is to the first of what will be a sixteen part series, and the second link is to the most recent article posted. This most recent article is paramount. Putting Austrian economics instead of Keynesian or other economic theories into practice requires defeating the socialists. How do you convince people that taking the power to give people money away from government is the key? It is considerably more difficult that most people can imagine or are willing to admit. It is the reason that governments have grown throughout history until they go broke; and then the cycle starts over again. Our small group of Freepers is on to something. They have found a five part formula that is more easily applied when broken up into its five parts which can be independently or simultaneously applied as conditions permit. When all are applied and working the total effect is much greater than the sum of the parts. These are synergistic methods that exponentially multiply political power at the voting booth.
Please join us in this effort and over the next couple of weeks, Free Republic can take the first step toward freedom and the first step toward taking our country back.
Ping.
“God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” - THOMAS JEFFERSON
But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.
Then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil itself, but also it is a fertile source for further evils because it invites reprisals. If such a law — which may be an isolated case — is not abolished immediately, it will spread, multiply, and develop into a system.
The person who profits from this law will complain bitterly, defending his acquired rights. He will claim that the state is obligated to protect and encourage his particular industry; that this procedure enriches the state because the protected industry is thus able to spend more and to pay higher wages to the poor workingmen.
Do not listen to this sophistry by vested interests. The acceptance of these arguments will build legal plunder into a whole system. In fact, this has already occurred. The present-day delusion is an attempt to enrich everyone at the expense of everyone else; to make plunder universal under the pretense of organizing it.
Now, legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways. Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so on. All these plans as a whole — with their common aim of legal plunder — constitute socialism.
Now, since under this definition socialism is a body of doctrine, what attack can be made against it other than a war of doctrine? If you find this socialistic doctrine to be false, absurd, and evil, then refute it. And the more false, the more absurd, and the more evil it is, the easier it will be to refute. Above all, if you wish to be strong, begin by rooting out every particle of socialism that may have crept into your legislation. This will be no light task.
Bastiat 1801-1850
...That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Declaration of Independence
DEFUND socialist collectives and UNaccountable bureaucracies, foreign and domestic.
“Mr. Wesley Mouch, please pick up the white courtesy phone....”
Yep.
Either we permit the Federal Government to keep expanding and further eroding OUR RIGHTS or we stand up and put a stop to it.
I know which I will go with.
The U. S. Central Socialist Government is dragging all citizens down the bumpy road to hell. This government is evil personified.
When and how? I’m in.
Hate the government, love the country.
Tell me one thing, besides some defense actions and the interstate highway system, that this government has done in the last 50 years that you can say is actually GOOD for the country?
Yes, and its great that American Express, that multinational financial services company, join us in the effort!
You’re asking the wrong guy. I can’t think of a thing that the government has done that is worthwhile or good for the country.
I see the government as the problem rather than the solution.
I’m not sure that I see your point.
Sorry. Thanks very much for your work.
Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much!
Oh! Sorry. Working on my Caffeine Deficit. LOL
Don’t leave home without it.
This is the result of decades of elected officials becoming “professional politicians” who will do ANYTHING to stay in power by buying votes with the public’s treasure!(This applies to both parties with different constituents)
The public is too lazy and too stupid to think for themselves so they “rely” on the political hacks. Everybody is happy until we all run out of $$$!
One term for any politician! Make holding office an honor and a public service obligation versus lining their own personal nest!
“Congress does not draw to it halls those who love liberty. It draws those who love power.” - Judge Andrew Napolitano
When in the course of human events...
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