Refocusing the Republican Party- Part III

The second step in refocusing ourselves and our party is to recognize that the current policies being emphasized in the pursuit of economic well-being threaten our freedom. The Declaration of Independence, our republican form of government and our party stand for the proposition of the equal right of all people to liberty, opportunity, justice and responsibility, not equal economic and materialistic status. "The Democracy of today hold the liberty of one man to be absolutely nothing when in conflict with another man's right of property [economic well-being]. Republicans, on the contrary, are for both the man and the dollar, but in cases of conflict, the man [his right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness] before the dollar." A. Lincoln, Letter to Henry Pierce and others, April 6, 1859, as reprinted in The Essential Lincoln: Speeches and Correspondence (ed. Orville Burton, Hill and Way 2009, p. 63)[emphasis in brackets added by me]. For the principle of "you work, and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it," is a tyrannical, despotic principle, which threatens our country. Lincoln, Speech at Chicago, Illinois, July 10, 1858, as reprinted in The Essential Lincoln: Speeches and Correspondence (ed. Orville Burton, Hill and Way 2009, p. 47). We are surrendering our freedom to the tyranny of equal economic well-being.

As I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, we witnessed the folly of and liberty stifling effects of a collectivist [a central government controlled] economy. For example, the citizens of the Soviet Union [supposedly] had a minimum equal level of economic well-being, but no free choice to do or experience better [unless they were members of the ruling Communist Party]. The government controlled the materialistic [food, cars, clothes] and non-materialistic [ideas in movies, books and music] items of society, all in the name of the "common good." Thus, in 1988, I witnessed first hand the long lines as people patiently waited for their turn at the rare chance to obtain basic commodities (such as sugar or shoes) and being limited to purchasing cars made by government owned automobile manufacturers. I listened as Soviet youth expressed frustration at their limited choices in schooling, careers [the government chose your career for you based on aptitude tests and party affiliation], music, books, movies and travel, to name a few. The great irony of my lifetime is to see once collectivist societies transform to more personal freedom and free market economics while we head in the opposite direction. While it may not be the intent of the President or Congress to permanently adopt collectivism, that is the road we are headed down. Dramatically increased federal debt and intrusion into the economy will have the practical effect of limiting our choices and freedom, setting up a de facto collectivist state.