Submitted by ASO member: Jean Card
Here’s a bit of inspiring news for anyone who is feeling a little bit smothered by the big-government creepiness that is Washington, DC these days: many state governments are re-asserting their rights under the 10th amendment! Check out this story, complete with the language of the amendment.
This is a state government’s way of saying, to their counterparts (not bosses) in Washington: “Hey, I know the constitution was written a long time ago, so you may need a little reminder… that you are supposed to have limited powers! The states are sovereign. Got it? Get off of our cloud, man.”
I’m inspired. I hope the feds get off of my cloud soon, too.
Showing posts with label Government. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Government. Show all posts
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Op-Ed: The Republican Problem
Submitted by ASO member: Grant Woods
I am an Arizonan. It used to be easy to be a Republican here. We had Barry Goldwater as our leader and we stood for something. We didn’t need focus groups or campaign consultants. We knew who we were and what we believed in and we had the confidence to stand behind those beliefs.
We believed in freedom. It wasn’t freedom as a slogan or an excuse for military intervention, it was freedom as a way of life. For us, being a Republican meant that you thought people should be free to rise and fall based upon their own individual talents and ambition. The government was there to keep things fair and legal and to provide basic services and defense from those who would harm us. But the government wasn’t there to take care of us from cradle to grave or to decide for us the best ways for us to spend our time or money. We wanted government to be limited in its scope, but efficient in its execution of those limited duties.
It’s not so easy being a Republican here or anywhere else anymore. Republicans really don’t stand for anything anymore. They don’t have big ideas and they don’t seem to have a clue how to run the government. They stood and watched as Democrats sold the idea that everyone should own their own home, regardless of ability to pay for it, and under the folly of deregulation allowed their greedy contributors to put the nation’s economy at risk for the sake of padding their own bank accounts. It was an obviously fatally flawed scenario and very few Republicans said a word to try to stop it.
President Bush violated his campaign promises against nation building and Republicans moved in lockstep behind him. Civil liberties that Republicans once held sacred were unilaterally trampled under the name of national security. Spending for the war and spending for things that the government didn’t need or have any business being involved in escalated at a record pace. Surpluses turned to deficits and finally it all exploded. Now the Democrats see this as an “opportunity” to enact all of the policies that Republicans have traditionally opposed over the years and the Republicans bemoan the fact that they are “leaderless.”
Actually, they are without principles. This crew sold out when they had a chance to stand tall for real conservatism. They pounded social issues that the government should stay away from and allowed their big business contributors to do whatever they wanted.
Frankly, they don’t deserve to be in power. But the Democratic ideas of bigger and bigger government, of class warfare and redistribution of wealth will ultimately change this country so as to make it unrecognizable. We broke away from Europe to form this Union. We should not crawl back now.
So how do the Republicans come back? They need new leaders. The old sell-out crowd should step aside or be pushed there. They need to stand for something and stick to it. But what should that bedrock principle be that guides their stands on policies and the proper role of government? Well, from out here in Arizona one word echoes from the Grand Canyon that Barry Goldwater so loved. Freedom.
We don’t need more government, we need better government. We don’t need government to dictate our morality, we need to be the sort of people who make moral choices on our own. We need a country that allows us the freedom rise up or fall down on our own. If the Republican Party could show that it would create such a climate, through competent governing and a philosophy that respected individual freedom, its future would take care of itself.
Click here to learn more to learn more about Grant Woods, former Arizona Attorney General.
I am an Arizonan. It used to be easy to be a Republican here. We had Barry Goldwater as our leader and we stood for something. We didn’t need focus groups or campaign consultants. We knew who we were and what we believed in and we had the confidence to stand behind those beliefs.
We believed in freedom. It wasn’t freedom as a slogan or an excuse for military intervention, it was freedom as a way of life. For us, being a Republican meant that you thought people should be free to rise and fall based upon their own individual talents and ambition. The government was there to keep things fair and legal and to provide basic services and defense from those who would harm us. But the government wasn’t there to take care of us from cradle to grave or to decide for us the best ways for us to spend our time or money. We wanted government to be limited in its scope, but efficient in its execution of those limited duties.
It’s not so easy being a Republican here or anywhere else anymore. Republicans really don’t stand for anything anymore. They don’t have big ideas and they don’t seem to have a clue how to run the government. They stood and watched as Democrats sold the idea that everyone should own their own home, regardless of ability to pay for it, and under the folly of deregulation allowed their greedy contributors to put the nation’s economy at risk for the sake of padding their own bank accounts. It was an obviously fatally flawed scenario and very few Republicans said a word to try to stop it.
President Bush violated his campaign promises against nation building and Republicans moved in lockstep behind him. Civil liberties that Republicans once held sacred were unilaterally trampled under the name of national security. Spending for the war and spending for things that the government didn’t need or have any business being involved in escalated at a record pace. Surpluses turned to deficits and finally it all exploded. Now the Democrats see this as an “opportunity” to enact all of the policies that Republicans have traditionally opposed over the years and the Republicans bemoan the fact that they are “leaderless.”
Actually, they are without principles. This crew sold out when they had a chance to stand tall for real conservatism. They pounded social issues that the government should stay away from and allowed their big business contributors to do whatever they wanted.
Frankly, they don’t deserve to be in power. But the Democratic ideas of bigger and bigger government, of class warfare and redistribution of wealth will ultimately change this country so as to make it unrecognizable. We broke away from Europe to form this Union. We should not crawl back now.
So how do the Republicans come back? They need new leaders. The old sell-out crowd should step aside or be pushed there. They need to stand for something and stick to it. But what should that bedrock principle be that guides their stands on policies and the proper role of government? Well, from out here in Arizona one word echoes from the Grand Canyon that Barry Goldwater so loved. Freedom.
We don’t need more government, we need better government. We don’t need government to dictate our morality, we need to be the sort of people who make moral choices on our own. We need a country that allows us the freedom rise up or fall down on our own. If the Republican Party could show that it would create such a climate, through competent governing and a philosophy that respected individual freedom, its future would take care of itself.
Click here to learn more to learn more about Grant Woods, former Arizona Attorney General.
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