“Poisoned By These Fairy Tales”

John Adams once wrote, “A constitution of government, once changed from freedom, can never be restored; liberty, once lost, is lost forever.” Of course, this is the real danger with Obamacare (or any other such massive government program). As I pointed out in a July column ("Govern The Least"), once the government gets itself established in an additional part of our lives, another piece of our liberty goes out the window—perhaps never to return.

Those in favor of Obamacare, consider this. If government takes over healthcare, what recourse will there be when decisions are made with which you don’t agree? What happens when those in power suddenly turn against you? How can one stand against an institution that has the power of the police, the courts, the military, the Federal Reserve, and so on? As Gerald Ford said, “a government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”

President Obama was swept into office under the banner of “hope and change.” However, as Don Henley sang, “armchair warriors often fail and we’ve been poisoned by these fairy tales.” Sadly, far too many Americans bought into the fairy tale that is Barack Hussein Obama.

The hope for America should never rest upon those who sit in government. Hope in government, of course, seems to be part of the DNA of liberals. However, this is a trap that many conservatives, and even Christian conservatives, have fallen into as well. As I pointed out just prior to President Obama’s election victory, in The Light and the Glory, Peter Marshall and David Manuel note that in seeking to put America on the right path many Christians have “hoped that electing a Christian President would do the job. But as Dwight Eisenhower once said, ‘Never let yourself be persuaded that any one Great Man, any one leader, is necessary to the salvation of America. When America consists of one leader and 158 million followers, it will no longer be America.’”

In other words, replacing Obama with a conservative Christian, however desirable that may be, will not solve all of America’s problems. Certainly there would be benefits to this scenario, the greatest of which would (hopefully) be a retreat of government and an advancement of liberty.

For where liberty is greatest is where humanity is most resplendent. Granted, excessive liberty also can bring out the worst of humanity, but the tyranny of Big Government is far worse than the sins of free men.

God endowed humans with the great gift of free will. Of course this means that people can go right or wrong; they can do good or bad. If people are free, then they must be free to do good or evil. Liberty, therefore, as noted by our founders, is an inalienable right given by our Creator.

From time immemorial people have pondered the problem of evil in the world. The question often goes: If God is good, why must bad things happen? As C.S. Lewis points out, “Free will, though it makes evil possible, is the only thing that makes any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata—of creatures that worked like machines—would hardly be worth creating. The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they must be free.”

Good government allows for this freedom. The problem with government overreaching is not that liberty is taken from all people, but that it is concentrated within a small group of people who are just as fallible as any other human. And when they have that kind of power, they generally want more, and the flow of liberty is slowly squeezed off. Finally, when things go wrong, and they will eventually go wrong, they will likely go terribly wrong and millions will suffer and perish.

It is understandable why liberals seek solace in their government. It is very comforting to know that someone bigger than ourselves is looking out for us. However, there is only One who can truly fulfill that role and there is no king, congress, president, or parliament who can take His place.

Copyright 2009, Trevor Grant Thomas

At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.

Trevor and his wife Michelle are the authors of: Debt Free Living in a Debt Filled World

tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com