By: Chad Kent
CDN
What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating of all cares and power into one body, no matter whether of the autocrats of Russia or France, or the aristocrats of a Venetian senate.”
Thomas Jefferson
It’s just a fact that concentrating power in one area will lead to the destruction of liberty. Government power is a lot like radiation. In small amounts, radiation can cure cancer. But if you concentrate too much of it in one area – like a nuclear bomb – it will destroy everything in its path.
This is why the Founders were so careful about widely distributing power when this nation was formed. Power in this country was divided up not only among the three branches of the federal government, but also throughout many state and local governments.
But over the last 100 years, we have continually transferred more and more power to Washington D.C. – and more specifically, to the executive branch. We’ve gotten to the point where our federal government now has control over our health care and – in some cases – what we eat. As Jefferson points out, history tells us this won’t end well for us.
This isn’t a theory – we know that concentrated power destroys liberty. We can’t continue to disregard the experience of history and expect to keep our freedom. That would be like continually increasing the dose of radiation for a cancer patient and assuming that it wasn’t going to kill him at some point.
So we can either continue on our path of giving more and more power to Washington D.C. or move in the direction of more evenly distributed government. Either way we know what the result will be – it’s up to us to choose freedom or tyranny.
Good TJ quote. With all due respect to Joe, all we need is to read the founders. Just reading a page full of quotes made by Thomas Jefferson is an education in it’s self.
There’s a story out there about JFK…
JFK as President had invited to dinner some of the smartest most powerful men in the country. As they sat at the White House Dinning table and discussing the business of the country, JFK passed a remark.
“There hasn’t been this much intelligence at this table at one time since Thomas Jefferson dinned alone.”
Now I’ll leave you with my permanent email signature.
“In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” –Thomas Jefferson
do not need more than david limbaughs book crimes against liberty