Imagine a government that did not wage needless wars.
Imagine a government that did not secretly spy on its citizens’ private conversations and actions. Imagine a government that did not tell you who you could and could not marry and spend your life with. Imagine a government that did not tell you what you could do with your body. Imagine a government that was not intrusive, inefficient and violent.
It would be a small government indeed.
Without big government, who would spend $8.7 billion every year on marijuana prohibition as part of a sever drug war?
Without big government, who would take money out of my paycheck to lock my friends and family in jail for lighting up?
Oh yes, but let us thank big government for the wondrous, crumbling, pothole-saturated roads. Because in a world where my four inch cell phone captures a video of my face and transmits it via air-traveling, invisible waves [among other paths] until it eventually reaches another human being thousands of miles away and in an entirely different continent, how could we possibly find the means to construct a road?
This holiday season, I’m thankful for roads and the Internet.
Let us not also forget the wars our generation has had to endure. Loved ones continue to lose their lives with no end of conflict in sight.
Meanwhile, targeted drone strikes continue killing innocent civilians, some of which are American citizens. Big government coincides with an imperialist nation, a nation that imposes its will on others using the guise of creating false security for its citizens.
Big government is violence, force and war.
Big government has slipped into bed with big pharmacy.
With echoes of “If you like your plan, you can keep it,” still ringing in our ears, tens of millions of Americans may lose their current coverage. DMV-esque service is now the norm for the healthcare of our friends. Despite a heaping mountain of promises, big government continues to fail and flop.
Big government is inefficient, detached and irresponsible.
Politics are making us worse. Our government continues to grow while our problems do not go away.
Top-down, unilaterally-planned solutions can never coordinate efficiently enough to solve the troubles of our country — only local communities and private citizens can do that. Politics divides us, pits us against one another and creates conflict where there would otherwise be none.
This is the myth of big government that is heard every election cycle. This is the myth that holds big government as God and savior. As long as we continue to perpetuate this notion, our nation will continue sinking.
Poverty cannot be voted away. Healthcare should not be tied to an election.
Donkeys and elephants struggle for power in a political circus while needless wars, superfluous drug incarcerations and countless other difficulties plague us.
George Washington once famously said, “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master.”
We can no longer rely on government to coddle us. Detached, selfish and irresponsible bureaucrats are either unwilling or unable to assist us. Therefore, we must assist each other —independent of the tainted political process. We are indeed a vast nation with extensive problems, but I am not pessimistic enough to believe it is best left to the hands of the fat cats on Capitol Hill.
The situation requires care, deliberation, understanding, compassion and perseverance. If we stop looking for these out of Washington and begin searching for them in ourselves, I think we will be surprised at just how much we can achieve.
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