By Rep. Joe McDonald
I believe it is time to again awake the sleeping giant. America is a great nation, but to remain a great nation we must champion merit rather than privilege.
Abraham Lincoln was right when he said, “You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.”
Our government has grown too massive and is out of control. Its growth is strangling our independence and freedoms. My parents taught my six siblings and me to be eternally vigilant against a big government and to pay attention to our elected officials. Because, if we do not, we WILL lose our independence and be a slave to the state. Our founding fathers knew this to be true.
After they crafted the Constitution, a reporter asked Benjamin Franklin what kind of government they gave us. He retorted: A republic, if they will keep it.
Ask yourself: Are we keeping our republic? I think we are falling further and further away from what our founding fathers, through divine providence, gave us.
It is said that a government big enough to give you everything is big enough to take it away. Remember the saying, the bigger the government, the smaller the individual. Be careful what you ask or wish from your government, the more it gives, the less we will have.
Thomas Jefferson said, “Were it made a question, whether no law, as among the savage Americans, or too much law, as among the civilized Europeans, summits man to the greatest evil, one who has seen both conditions of existence would pronounce it to be the last; and that the sheep are happier of themselves, than under care of the wolves. It will be said, the great societies cannot exist without government. The savages, therefore, break them into small ones.”
We are the land of the free and the home of the brave. Our freedoms do come from our Creator as our founders understood. It is amazing what freedom has brought to the world.
Think about this, for 5,000 years we have conducted ourselves, for the most part, in the same fashion. We were plowing our fields with ox carts at the beginning of our nation and in less than 200 years, we sent a man to the moon. Just think of the advancement of medicine and technology alone in the last 100 years. The creature comforts most enjoy were only dreams of individuals not too long ago. What the human mind can conceive, the human mind can achieve. We must continue to allow Americans to peruse their dreams and allow freedom to prosper without government intervention. We must allow individuals and businesses to keep the fruits of their labor. We are also the most generous nation the world. Although we’re not perfect, we do feed the poor, shelter the homeless and take care of the most vulnerable among us. We are to be good stewards of our land too.
We are strong, resilient, resourceful, giving and inventive just to name a few. We are Americans, and we are exceptional!
Wake this sleeping giant again and see more prosperity and ingenuity than ever before in the history of the civilized world.
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