Fear Factor

As a Constitutional Conservative I would like to welcome all of the Liberals getting ready to join our calls for a more limited Federal Government this week.  And I'd like to extend a very special "Come on aboard" to those specifically demanding scaled-back Executive Powers starting on Friday.

I bet you never thought you'd be joining those of us who hold the vision of the Founding Fathers dear to our hearts.  It all seemed so good when Big Government was taking over health insurance, energy production, the auto industry, diet and nutrition and public education.  You allowed Uncle Sam to define your gender and your marital status and to turn a blind eye to your citizenship status.  You trusted that those in power could "protect you" from experiencing, seeing or hearing anything that might make you feel bad about yourself.  You bought into the belief that politicians can make all of your problems go away--if you just give them enough control.

But then people who don't share every single tenet of your beliefs went and won a bunch of elections last year.  And now you realize just how much freedom and self-determination you have given away.  Now "scary, white men" control so much of your life--and you are scared.  You never considered that the hand that gives can also take away.  You are learning now that there is no real "safe space"--regardless of how many puppies they put in the room for you to pet.

Now you recognize that the Executive Orders and bureaucratic regulations that you applauded so recently might be used against your personal interests--and you want that stopped.  Well, I would say we really needed your support for our limited government efforts 8, 16 or 24 years ago--but you were young and didn't really know much about how things work back then.  Or maybe you were the frog dropped in the pot and you didn't realize your predicament until the water started boiling.

There's a reason why Americans didn't live in fear when Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore and Dwight Eisenhower moved into the White House--and with a little determination and a return to the limits those that drafted the Constitution intended to have in place--we might be able to experience that sense of real security again.