Here are three of the best lines from President Donald Trump’s Inaugural Address yesterday:
“We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action – constantly complaining but never doing anything about it.”
It’s a shot at Republicans, not Democrats. Democrats always do what they say. Their unequivocal demand is always to expand the reach of government at the expense of the individual. Government health care, government control of the banking industry, government control of energy development, government control of education, government control of college, government control of the Internet, government control of you-name-it. Democrats always deliver, as much as they can. And what they can’t get away with in Congress, they decree via executive order, as Obama repeatedly did.
It’s Republicans who complain and do nothing. They’ve made a living at complaining about “big government” and government interference in the private sector. Yet when it comes time to deliver, they just keep increasing the debt and deficit. The Republican Congress did absolutely nothing to restrain the growth of government under Obama. If they don’t reverse course now, then it’s the end of their party for sure.
In a similar vein, Trump said, “For too long, a small group in our Nation’s Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished – but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered – but the jobs left, and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country.” Exactly right. It’s equally true of Democrats and Republicans. In a way, the Republicans are much worse. Unlike Democrats, they made a mockery and a joke of liberty, private property, capitalism and individual rights. They claimed to be for these things. Democrats never made any such claim. Democrats want some version of Karl Marx’s collectivism imposed on the country, and they mean to do it. Republicans claim the opposite, but once in power proceed to go along to get along and, in the end, always give us some version of the socialism the Democrats want. This cycle has to stop, if America is to go on.
“We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow.”
It’s a beautiful and true sentiment. America started out as the land of liberty. Originally, it was a colonial wilderness with a bright idea: that all men are free, and all should live free. The power of this idea spread like wildfire around the globe and turned the United States into the greatest civilization in human history. Slavery was its greatest blight, but Americans became the first nation ever to overturn and actually outlaw slavery. As we continue to ruminate on how awful slavery was, we forget that we rid ourselves of it, something never achieved before in all of human history. The Constitution and Declaration of Independence made that possible. We eschew them at our peril.
“What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people.”
Exactly right—provided you understand what the purpose of government is. Very important! The purpose of government is not for a majority of the people to rule over the minority. The purpose of government is to protect what Ayn Rand (who wrote Atlas Shrugged) called the smallest minority of all: the individual. Individual rights are the key. Individual rights include the right to one’s own property. The only way to fight big, intrusive government is to say to that government: “It’s not your money. It’s not your property. My life does not belong to you. My life does not belong to my fellow man. My life belongs to me.”
That was what made America great. Nothing less will make America great again.
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