The World We Live In vs. The World We Want



The World We Live In vs. The World We Want.  It occurred to me this morning while reading about AG Holder and gun control and tracking bracelets, that he (AG Holder) is the perfect example of liberal philosophy in government.  Now to anyone who is paying attention to the world today, this comes as no surprise.  But my point is that his department represents a microcosm of the greater government and his exercise of this liberal philosophy is much easier to see in that narrow context.

I think it boils down to a simple point: Liberals in government…true liberals, not moderate Democrats, who I believe remain increasingly uneasy (even though they still won’t admit it) with the direction that liberals are taking this nation…are so enthralled about being in a position of effective authority that they focus almost all of their resource on making the world a vision of what they think it should be, at the expense of not doing their job and dealing with the reality of the way the world actually is.  Now if it was possible to put this country on cruise control while full attention was given to rhetoric, gamesmanship, and visionary bloviating, then it might even be beneficial to have the full-time debate about which philosophy (conservative or liberal) is best for this nation’s government.  But the fact is that government has a function.  That function is to administer the laws that exist; to maintain the justice system in our nation; to do our part in a global effort towards peace and prosperity for all; and to improve our government by addressing areas of failing and areas of new need that evolve with the times.  To ignore these primary functions of government runs the risk of our nation sliding into disarray; losing sight of exactly who we are as a nation, what our ideals are, and exactly what our place in the world is.  You know…that pretty well describes where we are right now, doesn’t it?

It can be argued that conservatives, in their quest for smaller government, are sometimes guilty of insufficient bureaucratic ambition.  There are absolutely some things that the federal government is best suited to do and it needs to step up in those instances.  On the other hand, the liberal quest for the nanny state where mother nation provides all things to all people is certainly not the nation our founders envisioned.  The certitude that today’s governing liberals hold in excess blinds them to the damage they are doing by ignoring the atrophy of governmental competence under their watch.  They are so anxious to move on to their ideal model that they ignore the pressing need to take care of today’s business.  I think it fair to state that when judging the methods used by liberals and conservatives, conservatives tend to take a more piecemeal approach while liberals take a more sweeping one.  I think it also fair to say that each side could improve their methods by taking a small dose of their opponent’s philosophy and using it to season their own.