Dear Kirsten Power:
I watch you on Fox and you seem pretty reasonable for a
liberal, so I was surprised about a month ago when Bill O’Reilly asked you and
another commentator if you believe Big Government diminishes personal liberty.
As I recall, you responded with something like: “No, it actually makes you
freer.”
Not to argue with you, but I’m not sure that even Bill
O’Reilly really gets it. From a political science class, the definition of
government – any government – is: “A decision making process with results that
are binding on the population at large.” This works for dictatorships as well
as for democracies and republics. It’s simply a neutral statement, defines
government by its function, not by any particular feature.
Every decision a government makes results in a law and
represents one decision the “population at large” can no longer make on an
individual basis. Big government is extremely suppressive of individual
judgment and individual freedom – the ability to choose and make your own
decisions. It makes those decisions for you, such as how to make and spend
money. Or, in New York City
Of course, the government believes it’s acting to decide
what’s “good” for all of us. But that becomes extremely problematic. The
Founding Fathers relentlessly championed the concept of “living by your own
lights,” or individual liberty, a view of humanity developed by earlier thinkers mainly
in France and England USA
So explain to me, please, Kirsten, how Big Government frees
citizens. Frees them from what? Individual thought and decision making?
Directing their own actions? Frees them from freedom?
Just something to think about. I was truly surprised that
someone as apparently intelligent as you are fails to recognize this one very
fundamental fact about government – any government.
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