What brings someone off the sidelines and into the game?  I have always enjoyed history and politics.  I savor a meaty conversation with both conservatives and liberals.  Up until now those conversations have been private. I generally kept my views concealed from strangers.  As the 2008 Presidential election draws near I have become more concerned about the loss of our liberty.  Both candidates have, to one degree or another, taken liberties with our liberty.

Government has grown enormously and shows no sign of abating.  The larger our government becomes the less liberty we enjoy.  The more complex it becomes the less it is a government of the people, by the people, for the people and more a government of, by, and for the bureaucrats.

One the primary arguments against term limits is that it takes time to understand the complexity of government and if we employ term limits the politicians would be forced out of office just as they were starting to understand it.  Does that scare you?  It certainly scares me.  I see a permanent underclass of bureaucrats who really run the government and we and our representatives are just dragged along for the ride.

Consider the financial emergency we currently face.  When Treasury secretary Hank Paulson came up with his $700 billion rescue plan it was said to consist of three (3)  pages.  When the House of Representatives crafted that into legislation it became 110 pages.  That was voted down and then the Senate produced their version.  That one weighed in at 450 pages.  Think about it.  Suppose you are a Senator and you have to vote on this critical issue and time is perilously short.  Do you have time to sit down and read a 450 page document?  Not only read it but comprehend it and all of its implications?  Or do you rely on staffers and lobbyists telling you what it says and how you should vote?  From 3 pages to 110 pages to 450 pages in about a week and a half, that is simply staggering.

As I watched this debacle unfold, I envisioned Lady Liberty sinking into New York Harbor, struggling to tread water.  The turning point for me was reading that Christopher Buckley, son of the conservative icon, William F. Buckley, Jr., was going to pull the lever for Barack Obama.  Before Lady Liberty slipped beneath the waves I felt compelled to heave a lifeline to the ol’ gal and dive in.

It is my strongly held belief that to a great extent we have forgotten what liberty means.  We have forgotten the principle upon which this nation was founded and the ideal for which hundreds of thousands of Americans shed their blood to protect and defend it.

It is my purpose and intent, in my own meager and humble way, to re-ignite that spark, re-kindle that flame so that Lady Liberty’s torch can continue burning brightly as a beacon for the world rather than a remain on the sidelines, sadly shaking my head as the torch flickers out.