Liberty

It is the 236th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party today. Interestingly enough my day started out with a good conversation on liberty (which started specifically over the liberty of Harley owners to annoy people with their mufflers...it expanded from there). My daughter and I were texting long things to each other while each driving to school/driving to work etc. Not recommended quality time, but it was a good conversation on liberty, morality, and tyranny.

This morning I watched the following video of Lt Col. Allen West. a congressional candidate in Florida, and again had to say, "Yeah! What he said!" In his speech you may note the lack of any teleprompter. Can I get an Amen? A great, great summary of my beliefs on liberty. Keep an eye on candidates like this. They will be popping up a lot I think in the next 3 years. I wish I was in Florida just so I could vote for him. There are videos of followup interviews with him where he expounds on current trends and I like him even more.

"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." ~ Thomas Jefferson



I posted this same video on my Facebook. An aquaintance of mine from high school who is a dyed-in-the-wool liberal responded with this comment:

"Is it because of the delusion that under Obama you are living under tyranny. Laughable. How much a country decides to help its citizens is a matter for debate but to claim that under a (very moderate, yes very moderate) liberal we are now under the same conditions as when we fought the British is ridiculous. The more tyrannical was the path of set forth by the neo-cons to take over the middle east by hook and crook."

My response was as follows:

Tim Niedfeldt
Alas I believe that progressivism is tyranny period, whether it was fostered by liberals or Republicans (note I don't necessarily deem Republicans as conservatives..it's a case by case basis).

Historically, however, the tyranny of the revolution was at worst about a wash to today's climate (taxation, judicial abuse, and economic issues with debt and currency devaluation) and in some instances the threats to Liberty were less than they are now (progressivism was not a threat at that time). It's just at the time, the afronts to liberty tasted so much more evil and actionable than they do now to a modern humanistic country hellbent on having the government step in, save everybody, mitigate all risk to life, and we all go on enjoying our equality of outcomes.

You can keep your equality of outcomes. I'd rather have my equality of opportunity. I can take care of myself. If we were truly free most could take care of themselves too. If we were Christian as well, we would also help those who can't help themselves. However that is nearly impossible when you substitute government for God and pray for the gravy train. If we were in a position in society where those who want the mediocre existance of socialism could go choose that and those who want a more classic version of liberty could just enjoy that I'm sure we could all be happy. I just haven't found that place yet.

Thoughts? Comments?