Jim Cardoza

The constant gnawing by government on individual freedom has led many Americans to accept lost liberty with the same inevitability as lost hair. This dynamic is most noticeable in California, where the state, having succeeded in dictating smoking policies in private automobiles, now seeks to control thermostats in private homes.

It is astounding to contemplate just how quickly power-craving politicians, in all three branches of government, have twisted and bent our founding principle of a limited federal government. What’s limited about a government that consumes more than $3,000,000,000,000 of taxpayer wealth each year, then dictates which cars we may drive, which light bulbs we must use, and soon, which comforts we will be allowed?

The concept of limited government is far more than just an idea with which one can agree or disagree. It is enshrined in the Tenth Amendment, which Thomas Jefferson called “the cornerstone of the Constitution.”

The Framers devised a brilliant plan to insulate individuals from the power-consuming nature of government. Unfortunately, they could not make the pillars of their plan termite-proof. Over the years, big government politicians and their activist judge allies have relentlessly nibbled away at our liberties, transferring power to themselves in the process.

The bad news is that individual liberty has taken a constant battering since our nation’s founding. The good news is that we need not stand for it. As a product of the Constitution, the principles of limited government carry every bit as much legal authority as does the federal court system itself.

We, the people, have the power to take our country back and leave future generations with the birthright of liberty our Founders intended. However, this can only happen if we rescue our liberties from the trash heap and preserve them in the recycle bin.

Here is a five-step plan to do just that:

Pass the Enumerated Powers Act

This act, which has been introduced into Congress several times in the past, deserves an outpouring of public support. It provides that all federal spending legislation contains reference to the provision of the Constitution that authorizes such spending. Since powers not specifically granted to the federal government belong to the states and the people, the means exploited by politicians to act as our self-appointed conservators would greatly diminish.

Establish the Principle of Self-Ownership

This may sound like a no-brainer; but if initiated, would have profound implications. Many laws are designed to protect citizens from themselves. This makes sense only if the individual is owned by the state. The simplest test for ownership is, “Who has the legal right to destroy the property in question?” You are allowed to put a brick through your television, bust your alarm clock into a million pieces or even burn down your fully paid-off house, providing of course, you are not doing it for insurance purposes and it is not a no-burn day. Yet, government will not let you hire Dr. Kevorkian, neglect wearing a seat belt, sell your internal organs, etc., even though none of those actions endanger the personal, property, or civil rights of anyone else. This is not to suggest that any of those actions are advisable, but rather to point out that by law, the state professes to own you in very significant ways.

Simplify Tax Collection; Minimize IRS Intrusions

The Fair Tax is a huge liberty-producing idea, primarily because it dissolves the IRS and, along with it, a primary source of federal government intrusion. Sadly, because it requires an unrealistic political sequence, it simply won’t happen. First, politicians would have to give away power to manipulate the tax code, a prime means of handing out political favors. Then, a Constitutional Amendment banning the income tax would need to be passed to keep it from creeping back, otherwise, over time we wind up with both. What is possible is the Flat Tax--a single tax rate beginning above the poverty level and featuring no deductions. The IRS stays; but with greatly simplified, less intrusive tax reporting, they lose much of their sting.

Issue School Vouchers

No Constitutional provision grants the federal government authority over matters of education. But, that didn’t stop Jimmy Carter from establishing the Department of Education in 1980, a move that transferred power from parents to bureaucrats. Schools that once were the reflection of community values degraded into laboratories for group thinking and politically correct indoctrination. Many children, whose parents are unable to pay for both government schools (through taxes) and private schooling, are stuck in schools that fail to educate them or disrespect their family values. Shouldn't their parents be allowed to select a better alternative for them--especially, when it costs less? After all, what is the purpose of government: to serve the people or herd the people?

Legalize Drugs

That’s right, all of them. Let’s be honest. The War on Drugs has been around since the seventies and has accomplished less than nothing--it has made matters worse. Initially, it drove up the price of cocaine, which spawned a far worse alternative, methamphetamine. With meth readily available, cocaine became more affordable than ever.

Before the emergence of terrorism, the Drug War was government’s number one pretense to wiretap, no-knock, and otherwise assault basic liberties. Despite an expenditure of more than $50 billion a year, drugs are prevalent in virtually every middle school and prison in the country. So much money; so much lost liberty--for so little in return! Shouldn’t criminality be about behavior rather than the political status of an ingested substance? Keep in mind, if all drugs were legalized today, every behavior which violates the personal, civil or property rights of another would still be against the law.

These measures would reduce government to its Constitutionally prescribed size, establish the most basic of human rights--that of self ownership, minimize government’s ability to snoop into the personal affairs of its citizens, allow parents alternatives when government schools fail to educate, and confine the government’s ability to imprison to those citizens who violate the rights of others. Thomas Jefferson just might endorse this message.

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