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No Such Thing as "Compassionate" Government
By Chuck Baldwin
August 21, 2001

Most people today have a completely
different understanding of government's
purpose from that of our Founding Fathers'. Today's Americans believe the purpose of government is to give people things. Whether it is health care, housing, farm subsidies, corporate subsidies, or food stamps, Republicans and Democrats alike have succumbed to the fallacious philosophy that government exists to give people things. Such was not the vision of the Founding Fathers, however.

Our first president, George Washington,
said, "Government is not reason; it is not
eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a
dangerous servant and a fearful master."
This is the understanding of government that birthed the world's freest nation.

America's founders understood that it is the propensity of government to increase power and authority to itself and that this
propensity is in constant competition with
personal freedom and independence; hence, in order for men to live in liberty, government must be limited and local. For this reason, government should always be viewed as a lurking Leviathan, ready to force its will upon anyone foolish enough to give a listening ear to its deceptive calls for comfort and security.

Someone once said, "The problem with
liberals is they never learned to take out
their own trash." How true. When people look to government to do for them what they should be doing for themselves, liberty is lost. As with any temptress, however, government never ceases to entice men to surrender their veracity. This seduction is often intense; only the most stouthearted men can resist her salacious promises. Yet, resist we must!

At every turn and at every opportunity,
freemen must resist government's attempt to accrue more responsibility, and hence, more authority. This means we must oppose every proposed tax increase with all vigor! Every dollar absconded by the burgeoning beast of
government weakens personal freedom and builds the fetters that will eventually
choke the life out of any republic.

Likewise, we must reject every government handout, no matter how appealing it might be. There is no such thing as a free lunch, especially when purchased by government. Remember Washington's warning: government is
force and fire, not reason and eloquence.
Ben Franklin added, "They that would give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Under the pretexts of "safety" and "welfare," governments have stolen
private property, ruined businesses, torn
families apart, forced people into bankruptcy, brought about people's suicides, and trampled over every sacred right and virtue. Washington called it correctly: there is nothing compassionate about government at all, and only the most naïve among us would believe otherwise.

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From the Liberty Committee