What is the Role of Government?
Often, when in the middle of a political discussion or debate, it seems as if I just can’t connect with the other person. We understand each other’s words but they just don’t connect in our brains. I often think that I’ve made a point that will certainly bring them to my side of the issue, yet they still don’t get it, and I’m sure they feel the same about me.
Why do we have such a difficult time connecting and understanding each others point of view?
There may be many reasons, but I have come to the conclusion that one of those reasons is a lack of understanding of the role of government. I don’t think many have really thought of this question. I know for a fact that most of the legislators in Mississippi could not answer this question with any certainty. I also find that many think they have an answer until they begin actually expressing their thoughts.
Without a clear understanding of the role of government, we have no way of making decisions about government and we are left with legislators passing laws, spending public money and leading us in directions we do not want.
What is the role of government?
In a recent debate on the floor of the Idaho House of Representatives, a “Republican” said, “…peeing and pooping, we know the proper role of government is to cover the two Ps” He went on to explain that government should also cover the third P, periods.
Where exactly did someone who calls themselves a Republican get the idea that covering peeing and pooping was a proper role of government?
If we go back to our founders, we find they established a government with a limited role. In Federalist No. 51, James Madison stated, “In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”
When we are determining how we define the role of government, we must be aware of the dangers of giving government too much control. History has proven that expanding the role of government is dangerous to the people being governed.
James Madison also said, “persons and property are the two great subjects on which governments are to act; and that the rights of persons and the rights of property are the objects for the protection of which Government was instituted.”
The Declaration of Independence reads, it is for this reason that governments are established: “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
As I read Madison and other statements made by our Founding Fathers, I’ve developed an answer to the question of the proper role of government. I have used this answer to measure every bill on which I’ve voted in the Mississippi legislature for the past eight years.
The role of government is to protect Life, Liberty and Property. If a proposed law does anything other than this limited role then it is not the proper role of government.
The Preamble to the Declaration of Independence states,
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
God gave us Life and Liberty (Freedom), so no man has any right to deny us what God has given. The government is established to protect life because it is sacred, which is why abortion is something that can not be allowed under any circumstance.
Our creator set us free so no man has any right to enslave us and the government must protect what God has granted.
Property is the right to own, not only our own body but the earthly possession in which God has blessed us. Again, if God has given it, then no man has the right to take it away. The government must protect us from those who would steal from us what God has given us.
So is “covering the three Ps” the proper role of government? I would say the politician from Idaho has no idea why government exists. He is a danger to us all because, as Madison said, “If we tell the government its principal role is to take care of us, there will be no end to the violation of rights.”
The next time you are in a discussion and you just can’t connect with the other person, back up and start with the role of government. Without a clear understanding it is going to be difficult to understand each other.
Federal Government is for the protection of the citizens. It should provide a military so that each state does not have to have it's own force to protect itself from other nations. (not talking about the National Guard Groups here). Federal government should not have departments that are authoritative over the citizens. The Federal government should not be intrusive into the citizen's life. I believe that the second amendment was written to allow citizens to protect their own property, which includes bearing arms to disallow a Federal employee from entering the citizen's property. The Federal Government was not allowed to tax a citizen in the original Constitution, and it should not be allowed today. I believe that the Amendment allowing that is unconstitutional. Federal Income Tax is an abomination to American Citizens and an insult to our founding fathers. I do believe the citizens should pay for the expense of its own government, but the income of the individual citizen is none of the Federal government's business at all. A sales tax is more acceptable because it is based on what we can buy, which we have choice in fact to not buy or to buy. The civil right act approved when Lyndon Johnson was President has validity. What does not have validity is the "tact-on" issues that were added on to the bill that created governmental departments that could make up their owns rules outside the Constitution and that the Federal congress was given oversight power of these departments. (These items should be left up to local and state citizens to decide, not the bureaucracy). The Federal Government needs to add some things to the Constitution immediately: No Federal Congressman, Senator, or President should be allowed to serve more than one term. The lengths of terms should be reconsidered. Our representatives are supposed to be citizen representatives, not career politicians. Basically, no representative should be given the option of making a decision in his/her current position that would affect being re-elected. That defeats the purpose of citizen representation. Also, the Supreme Court is left out of the balance of power until an after the fact issue comes up. Once Congress approves a bill, it should go to the court to determine constitutionality before going to the President's desk to sign. This would not be an addition to their workload because nearly all case coming to them now are to do just that. If the court ruled before a law was enacted, it would prevent most of those cases. It is silly that we have so many split votes in the court now. Their votes should be about the written law without social influences. The law is not a breathing document. That is why the founders included a provision for Amendments. The Federal Government should be a servant to the people, not the authority of the people. The very reason we have a country was to get away from an oppressive government. I firmly believe that nearly all of the agencies of the Federal government are not needed, nor truly constitutional. Why? Companies, Businesses, Churches, and individuals would take care of those that need help more freely and generously than the Federal government does. Look at the operation of Federal government agencies. Most employees are not experienced in the citizen world, they are oriented to enforce agency rules, which means they seek more and more power over the citizen. Of course laws should exist to keep one citizen from mistreating another citizen, but those should mostly be under the local or state governments, NOT the Federal government. Federal government should be something of which we are proud, not the authoritative operation it has become that represents the power hungry, not its citizens. The Republic that the Founding Fathers created is no more. I don't know if we will ever get that back and that is a sad. We had the greatest nation in the world because it was of the people.
I am new to Substack. Good to see this activity.
The actuality of Government is way beyond its purpose. I feel I know the Federal method of financial dis-integrity, but I am not sure the details of how the State governments accomplish their excess. If you can follow the money, you will better understand the end product.
HLB