Dan McLaughlin

Voices For Freedom Read Columns Daniel McLaughlin
To Home Page Latest Newsletter Column Archives Click to get these columns for your local paper	© 2006 Daniel J. McLaughlin The Leave Me Alone Party The concept of democracy in the United States is that the voters control the leadership of the country. They have a choice of who they put in office. Ideally, the ballot would offer a real choice. Early in the life of this country, the wisdom of the elders warned against what they called “party spirit”, the overwhelming force of political parties working for their own good, against that of others. Unfortunately, the advice was not heeded, and strong parties developed. As predicted, the parties developed a force of their own, an activist program of their own, and a very divisive tendency. More unfortunate for the people of this country, the two party system that developed is one where the people always have to choose between two unacceptable alternatives. Both parties advocate using the full force of government to do lots of things it shouldn’t. The only differences are the targets of their misdeeds and who gets the booty plundered from unwilling taxpayers. There are a couple of very interesting phenomena that are being noticed recently. The first is an anti-incumbent sentiment. It is apparent to many that party doesn’t make a difference when it comes to corruption and abuse of power. It is quite obvious that both the Republicans and the Democrats are equally capable of abusing their position. While the Republicans seem to be getting a lot of the bad press about scandals these days, the reality is that party doesn’t matter. It goes with the territory. Temptation is extraordinary when the stakes are so high. That is the very reason that the constitution has checks and balances for a limited government. Powerful people will abuse that power. That concept has been known for centuries. When the people of a nation realize they can use political power to fatten their own pocketbooks, they will use every opportunity to buy that power. They will use whatever means necessary to get control and make the other guys pay. It’s disturbing that those checks and balances are constantly circumvented and that the people are in the market for politicians and power. The electoral process is the only way to correct that. Abusers from any party must be removed. A healthy step for this country would be a sweep of all incumbents to send a message and start with a clean slate. Another phenomenon that is noteworthy in these election times is the “leave me alone” vote described in a recent article. This is especially important for the portion of the population known as swing voters, those not wedded to the ideology of either major party. The “leave me alone” voters have had it with bureaucrats telling them how to live. They vote for candidates of either party who are most likely to respect their freedom. For a long time Americans have had to put up with hyperactive government, the leaders of which see their job as regulating every aspect of our lives, for our own good, mind you. Most people don’t realize it, but for nearly everyone, there is hardly a day that goes by that you are not impacted by government in some way or another, whether it be taxes, higher prices from tariffs and protectionist policy, restrictions on freedom, regulation of business, inflated money supply or countless other impositions. Each year, in the federal government alone, there are 78,000 pages of new laws. To get a picture of what that would look like, think of a book shelf 21 feet long. Add to that the many thousands of pages of new law enacted by each of the states and you have a recipe for conflict, corruption, manipulation, power brokering and abuse of citizens. Many people are registering as Independents who used to be affiliated with the Democratic or Republican parties. They are recognizing that Democrat-Republican, blue-red, liberal-conservative, left-right is not much of a choice. The range of ideas is severely restricted. There are other ideological options out there in the universe. It is time that those other options become real choices for American voters. The two party system has failed the people of this country miserably. As the years go by, more Americans seem to be feeling that way. Maybe the next major party should be the Leave Me Alone Party. It’s platform could be the Declaration Of Independence. In place of the “King of Great Britain” they could just insert “The Government Of The United States”. Much of the rest would be a pretty good fit. great. Only that freedom will ensure our leadership in the future.
Contact us Privacy Policy
Daniel Mclaughlin Copyright © 2006 [Daniel McLaughlin]. All rights reserved. Revised: 03/18/08

Voices For Freedom

Read Columns

Daniel McLaughlin

To Home Page

Latest Newsletter

Column Archives

Click to get these columns for your local paper

The Leave Me Alone Party

The concept of democracy in the United States is that the voters control the leadership of the country. They have a choice of who they put in office. Ideally, the ballot would offer a real choice.

Early in the life of this country, the wisdom of the elders warned against what they called “party spirit”, the overwhelming force of political parties working for their own good, against that of others. Unfortunately, the advice was not heeded, and strong parties developed. As predicted, the parties developed a force of their own, an activist program of their own, and a very divisive tendency.

More unfortunate for the people of this country, the two party system that developed is one where the people always have to choose between two unacceptable alternatives. Both parties advocate using the full force of government to do lots of things it shouldn’t. The only differences are the targets of their misdeeds and who gets the booty plundered from unwilling taxpayers.

There are a couple of very interesting phenomena that are being noticed recently. The first is an anti-incumbent sentiment. It is apparent to many that party doesn’t make a difference when it comes to corruption and abuse of power. It is quite obvious that both the Republicans and the Democrats are equally capable of abusing their position. While the Republicans seem to be getting a lot of the bad press about scandals these days, the reality is that party doesn’t matter. It goes with the territory.

Temptation is extraordinary when the stakes are so high. That is the very reason that the constitution has checks and balances for a limited government. Powerful people will abuse that power. That concept has been known for centuries. When the people of a nation realize they can use political power to fatten their own pocketbooks, they will use every opportunity to buy that power. They will use whatever means necessary to get control and make the other guys pay.

It’s disturbing that those checks and balances are constantly circumvented and that the people are in the market for politicians and power. The electoral process is the only way to correct that. Abusers from any party must be removed. A healthy step for this country would be a sweep of all incumbents to send a message and start with a clean slate.

Another phenomenon that is noteworthy in these election times is the “leave me alone” vote described in a recent article. This is especially important for the portion of the population known as swing voters, those not wedded to the ideology of either major party. The “leave me alone” voters have had it with bureaucrats telling them how to live. They vote for candidates of either party who are most likely to respect their freedom.

For a long time Americans have had to put up with hyperactive government, the leaders of which see their job as regulating every aspect of our lives, for our own good, mind you. Most people don’t realize it, but for nearly everyone, there is hardly a day that goes by that you are not impacted by government in some way or another, whether it be taxes, higher prices from tariffs and protectionist policy, restrictions on freedom, regulation of business, inflated money supply or countless other impositions. Each year, in the federal government alone, there are 78,000 pages of new laws. To get a picture of what that would look like, think of a book shelf 21 feet long. Add to that the many thousands of pages of new law enacted by each of the states and you have a recipe for conflict, corruption, manipulation, power brokering and abuse of citizens.

Many people are registering as Independents who used to be affiliated with the Democratic or Republican parties. They are recognizing that Democrat-Republican, blue-red, liberal-conservative, left-right is not much of a choice. The range of ideas is severely restricted. There are other ideological options out there in the universe.

It is time that those other options become real choices for American voters. The two party system has failed the people of this country miserably. As the years go by, more Americans seem to be feeling that way.

Maybe the next major party should be the Leave Me Alone Party. It’s platform could be the Declaration Of Independence. In place of the “King of Great Britain” they could just insert “The Government Of The United States”. Much of the rest would be a pretty good fit.

great. Only that freedom will ensure our leadership in the future.

Hit Counter