The problem with this government isn't just its staggering price tag, or continued offenses against liberty. It's also a complete failure. Americans are preparing to vote against something previously found only in Third World hell holes: a failed state.
How else to describe a massive government that demands complete control over the economy, but reels in surprise from each new burst of "unexpected" economic news? The weary joke about "unexpected" downturns in employment and gross domestic product dates back to the early days of this presidency. We're talking about dozens of consecutive "unexpected" developments. It is clear from the shocking ignorance displayed by every member of this Administration that they have no idea how any sector of the economy functions… and yet, they demand absolute control over every transaction that draws their attention. They seek to consume the free market, not manage it.
The signature "achievement" of President Obama's first year was the trillion-dollar failure of his "stimulus" plan, which was nothing more than a theft of money from the future to fund today's bloated government operations. Stimubucks vanished into pork-barrel projects, and settled into a thick sludge at the bottom of political coffers, nourishing fat government payrolls that otherwise might have faced cuts in a time of austerity. Now we've learned millions of dollars in "stimulus" money were sent to imprisoned felons and dead people. If Obama were a private-sector CEO responsible for such a monumental fraud, he wouldn't just be unemployed right now… he'd be sitting in a prison cell, waiting for a stimulus check so he could buy cigarettes.
Obama's political party defaulted on their Congressional duties by adjourning without even passing a budget resolution, despite spending more money than any Congress in history. They didn't even set the tax rates for next year – they scurried out of Washington without voting on extension of the Bush tax cuts. They could have voted those tax cuts into oblivion, and returned to their districts to face honorable judgment for their decision. Instead, they ran from the halls of Congress in disgrace, a dereliction of duty that should serve as Nancy Pelosi's letter of resignation. The same Congress that claims the right to compel your purchase of health insurance, and dictate a thousand aspects of your life according to the ideology of the ruling party, abandoned its essential duty to prepare a budget for this $3 trillion government.
When Congress does pass bills, they are shapeless masses of legislative lard, packed with billions in hidden earmarks. Reasonable-sounding bills turn out to be stuffed with wealth transfers to the constituents of powerful representatives, and massive hidden changes to the social contract. Voters are expected to support their incumbent representatives without having any clear idea of what they've been doing for the past few years. Was your senator voting for defense appropriations, the DREAM act, or the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell last month? It's hard to say which shell the pea is under, when there are a dozen shells, and Harry Reid shuffles them too quickly for the eye to follow.
The consent of the governed, crucial to the maintenance of a lawful and just Republic, has become a sad joke. The most expensive, intrusive, un-Constitutional bill of the past century, ObamaCare, was rammed down the throats of a protesting populace, whose sustained resistance clearly demonstrated they did not vote for any such thing in 2008. The bill was drafted behind closed doors, by ravenous politicians who cared about no details beyond the power and money it would allow them to seize. It's such a colossal failure that Obama is already granting waivers to excuse select companies, and favored unions, from its most crushing provisions. This is a frank admission of ObamaCare's blind ambition and lousy design, a last-ditch attempt to keep the flame of American prosperity – and the electoral fortunes of Democrats – from being extinguished beneath its smothering weight.
This government not only fails to carry out its duties to the public. It declares war on them when they oppose the ideology of the ruling class. The Obama Administration has made it clear that it values the interests of foreign governments, aliens who violate our immigration laws, and businesses hungry for cheap undocumented labor above the lawfully expressed will of Arizona citizens. The federal government is not merely derelict in protecting our borders. It actively punishes local governments and citizens who step forward to take up the slack. Obama and his allies are not trying to build public support for radical changes to our immigration laws. They're imposing their politics above the law, and then trying to rally enough support to hang on to their seats.
In its zeal to transform the public, this government has consistently failed its duty to them. It is concerned with agenda and ambition, not responsibility and restraint. The failure of the State has been building for many years, through many previous Administrations. It has become too obvious to conceal from even casual observers, which explains the inexorable tide of resistance rushing toward the polls.
The failed State must be questioned and challenged in every particular. Not a dollar it spends, or law it passes, can be held sacred. Happily, our political tradition is one of creative destruction, carried out with ballots instead of bullets… but this crumbing system must be destroyed, and replaced with something smaller, more accountable, and aware of American liberty as an absolute barrier to its ambitions, rather than an obstacle to be removed.
There is a plan afoot for the Democrats to seize our retirement plans during the lame-duck session of Congress, and use the money to bail out their union allies. That's the kind of economic plan Robert Mugabe would understand. Because this is not a banana republic, there is no need for us to follow the acolytes of the total State into the cold future of diminished opportunity they promise as our inevitable fate. In November, let us withdraw our consent from this government and dissolve it, so that we may commission one more suitable for a nation that does not accept failure.
Cross-posted at Hot Air.
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