Maybe I should just move back to my native state of NH, "Live Free or Die", and join that Free State Project.
Yes, that would be very attractive were NH not so darned cold.
I think it would take a huge political earthquake to divert the statism.
Way back when, I thought so. That was before I had lived long enough to realize that the world isn't just one big slippery slope but that things ebb and flow.
Back in the days when I read the dead-tree version of the Post, I would always read the letters to the editor. I became increasingly frustrated with them because they all had the same pattern. First they presented some problem. Then, without passing go or collecting two hundred dollars, they leaped right to their conclusion, which was always that the Feds should do something about it. The pattern was unyielding.
Within a few months after Reagan was elected--I add that I hadn't voted for him--it was gone. It had fizzled out. I was amazed. I don't know whether people stopped writing those letters or the Post just stopped publishing them. I do know that they were quite suddenly gone. And I suddenly found myself with hope that the trend could actually be reversed. Congress did stop creating big new programs, for sure. We were at least holding our own, until Bush, which is why I'm so down on him. We went from calls for the abolition of the Dept. of Education to a huge new Federal education program, one every bit as intrusive and dumb as its predecessors. The man has simply taken away my hope and I grieve for the direction that has now been diverted, very likely permanently given the difficulty of fighting momentum. We had a once in a lifetime opportunity and we blew it. He blew it.
If it's not the feds telling you what to do it's the state gov't, and if not the state gov't it's the local.
I'm a reasonable person. I can tolerate what the state does given that the Constitution does give the states the authority and if we don't like what our state does, we can go to another state. My problem is with the Feds. And with the GOP, on whom I hoped we could rely to stand up for the principle of federalism. I know it was foolish of me to think that principles might prevail...
So, I once again recognize that "it would take a huge politicalearthquake to divert the statism." But I'm still in mourning. |
