“A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.”

“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”

“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”

Thomas Jefferson

As I sit here on an airplane flying high above this great country I find myself reflecting on these wise and prophetic words from the author of our Independence and our Third President.  It’s as if Jefferson had been reading the current newspapers and watching the nightly newscasts…and he must be rolling in his grave!

His insight is as valid today as it was two hundred years ago and it makes me wonder if the new President or any current politician, left or right, has ever spent any time considering history to help define the policy of today.  In fact is there anyone in our country considering the lessons learned while we struggle with an economic downturn and escalating conflict in the world?  Or is it all about power and control?

When I first read the last quote listed above, “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not,” it took my breath away because this was shortly after then candidate Obama had his now famous dust-up with “Joe the Plumber” about “spreading the wealth.”  As I compare the wisdom of Jefferson with the current Obama Nation I wonder why we have to go down this same road all over again, suffering all the same pains as the last time this policy of socialism was tried.

Obama campaigned on the promise of “change” and “yes we can” but everything he is currently proposing to solve the economic downturn has been tried and proven ineffective.  Does anyone remember 18-percent mortgages? Double-digit inflation? How about double-digit unemployment?

High taxation, heavy government regulation, social welfare programs, and massive public works projects caused these conditions.  Sound familiar?  So tell me what part of the Obama plan is a change from this failed economic policy of the seventies?  You can’t because it is exactly the same playbook as FDR, Carter or Clinton.  It is the policy of big government and taking from the fortunate and giving to the less fortunate, spreading the wealth regardless of skill or motivation.

President Reagan said it best,

“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.” 

Or maybe we should consider the words of John F. Kennedy,

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country?”

These Presidents understood the founding principles of our nation and what separates this great democratic experiment from the rest of human history.  They recognized that the strength of our nation was in the people and that government must be limited to insure that the people can follow their destiny and create a richer and more vital culture.  Reconsider the words of Jefferson,

“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”

When we cut through the rhetoric of the new President and the Democratic Congress we see that they believe they are the only answer and that THEY must care of us!  This arrogance and the thirst for power will be the death of this nation if left unchallenged by the “consent of the governed” (That would be you and me).  There isn’t one thing that is truly new and different in the Obama/Democratic plan.  It is all about control and power over the lives of the citizens of the United States of America.  And it has all been tried many times before and “We the People” have paid the price.

What disturbs me the most however is that the country seems to have drank the Obama Kool-Aid and believe that whatever he says is gospel and must be followed without question.  I don’t see the new President spreading his own wealth to the less fortunate, including his own relatives.  Where are the tough questions for this man?  But more importantly why do so many people blindly follow this man?

The answer is that the citizens of the United States of America are functionally illiterate with regards to politics, the Constitution and American history.  How else can one explain how Congress can have a single digit approval rating yet still be re-elected year after year?  The harsh reality is that most people don’t know what’s going on in Washington, D.C. and depend on television news and political ads to determine how they feel about candidates, especially presidential candidates.  Have you read a House or Senate Bill lately?  Have you ever read any piece of proposed legislation?  Have you read the U.S. Constitution?  Have you read the Declaration of Independence?

As Thomas Jefferson wrote,

“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”

His words convict us today as we see the Federal government control more and more aspects of our lives.  When are we going to say, “stop” and make the elected officials accountable to the citizens?  We need to start now and we need to make a commitment to become educated about politics and to spread that awareness to our children, our families, our friends, and our co-workers.  It’s not a question of my ideology being better than yours.  It’s about being able to think critically about difficult issues and to develop an informed position that we express through our voting and our communications with our representatives in government.  It’s about asking the “experts” that represent us how and why their policy is going to work.  Demand that they tell us where their approach has been successful and don’t accept platitudes and empty rhetoric for an answer.  Demand the truth.  It’s the only way “We the People” can preserve our liberty!