The government shutdown has shed light upon our need to return to constitutional, limited government.
But during these times of political chaos, we may start to wonder if it would be such a bad thing if government didn’t exist at all.
Just think. If the federal government completely — not just partially — shut down, we wouldn’t have to worry about the government imposing laws that suppress our freedom, nor would we have to wonder who was spending our redistributed tax dollars and on what they were being spent. And of course, we wouldn’t have to deal with the NSA spying on us.
Alas, abolishing government would be a most unwise decision, because eventually, we’d end up captive to someone else more powerful.
Anarchy is utopia only in our imaginations, and we need laws and authorities to punish injustice and to keep order in society.
If we are accountable only for ourselves, we end up victims to each other. Imagine if people could steal, rape and kill without fear of law or punishment.
One person’s freedom to do as he or she pleases eventually results in another person’s freedom being taken away. Therefore, law and authority are necessary in order to promote equal rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Government, at best, promotes order and justice. But when the government acquires too much power, it restricts freedom instead of protecting it.
Even during the partial government shutdown, the government has continued to lord its power over people and restrict people from exercising their rights. In the name of government shutdown, the U.S. Park Police attempted to bar World War II veterans from viewing the monument that commemorates the war they fought in.
The government also banned priests under contract to the military from ministering on military bases, even on a volunteer basis. Those are only two examples.
But on Tuesday the government did nothing to prevent illegal aliens from having a rally at the closed national mall. Clearly “partial” shutdown means “selective” shutdown.
As I mentioned before, we do need leadership, but apparently our leaders have forgotten that true leadership is about serving, not power.
As the saying goes, “A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”
When we let the government take control over every aspect of our lives, they own us. That’s not freedom.
The 10th Amendment states that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Maybe President Barack Obama should brush up on the Constitution, because I’m pretty sure the power to regulate health care isn’t mentioned.
And speaking of the Affordable Care Act, why in the world would anyone believe that our corrupt, inefficient, irresponsible government could provide us all with quality health care? It makes no sense.
Utopia in anarchy is an impossibility. Big government restrains freedom. We can’t expect any form of government to solve all our problems, but the closest we can get to utopia is constitutional limited government.
Christine Guttery is a 20-year-old English junior from Baton Rouge.