Photo by Robert Scoble
And I’ll promise you this: I’ll work every day to make Washington, D.C. as inconsequential in your life as I can. And at the same time, we’ll be freeing our families and small businesses and states from the burdensome and costly federal government so those groups can create, innovate and succeed. — From Rick Perry’s speech announcing his run for the presidency.
That is the pledge of a person who deeply respects the Constitution. It is the sentiment of a person who understands the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution.
Rick Perry believes as the Founding Fathers did that the purpose of the national government is to do those few things that are best handled as a single nation, but then leave everything else to the states and the people. For the most part Washington should be inconsequential to our lives. Instead the leviathan has become anything but inconsequential reaching deeper into our lives and with every law, every rule, every regulation, we lose more and more of our liberties.
Washington should be responsible, first and foremost, for our common defense and yet our borders are unprotected and those who come here illegally are shielded, and given benefits. Our president travels the world apologizing to those who would cause us harm, emboldening them. Of the enumerated powers granted to the federal government in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, seven of them pertain to national defense; more than any other category. But in our daily lives we should not have to think about national defense.
Other powers granted to Congress to act as one government concern naturalization, bankruptcies, the coining (not printing) of money, standards of weights and measures, to punish counterfeiting, establishment of the post office, patents and copyrights, and providing for a federal court system. Are any of these things something we should worry about each day as we get out of bed? The areas that are a concern are taxes and borrowing. However, if Washington stuck to what the Founders envisioned, taxes and debt would be an inconsequential concern.
But they are a concern because of the explosive growth of government brought to you by the Progressive movement. Many of their programs have failed to deliver on their promise and have saddled us and future generations with enormous debts. We are in the midst of an economic malaise because the tentacles of government have choked the life out of small and medium businesses, the very engines of job creation. Instead of Washington being inconsequential, there is hardly a day that goes by that a business owner does not worry about what regulation he is not following, what penalty is lurking around the corner, how quickly the crushing weight of our national government may come crashing down around him.
Private businesses don’t want to go public, a step they might need to grow, because of the burden of Sarbanes Oxley regulation. Banks have to find new ways to make money because Dodd-Frank has impacted their credit and debit card lines of business. Power companies and in turn manufacturing businesses that need affordable power are trying to calculate the cost of EPA regulations that will kill ten percent of our electric generating capacity. The National Labor Relations Board is dictating to businesses where they can or cannot open factories. Hardly inconsequential. Rick Perry is the first presidential politician who has spoken out strongly about where to draw the line between what the federal government can do and what they cannot.
Freedom
Rick Perry also understands the meaning of the First Amendment and the words, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Saying a prayer before a meeting or asking for a blessing to play your best football game without getting hurt is not the same as passing a law through Congress establishing the Church of the United States of America. I fully support the right of atheists to stick their fingers in their ears and holler “LA, LA, LA, LA, LA…” until the prayer is over. But I do not accept their marching into court to prohibit the free exercise of religion by anyone else. If you don’t understand the difference then you need to go back to grammar school and learn, once again, how a law is made. As Ann Coulter points out in her book Demonic, when the term “a wall of separation between church and state” was written by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to the Danbury Baptists, said Baptists were living in Connecticut where the state religion, you read that right, the state religion was Congregationalism. You see, the First Amendment restricts Congress, not the states.
Mitt Romney has taken a veiled swipe at Perry by talking about career politicians having gotten us into this mess and they don’t understand how to get us out of it. But Romney also had a spell in government as a one term governor of Massachusetts and while he turned that states finances around quickly he also left behind RomneyCare. He still seems to claim that that universal health care worked while ObamaCare doesn’t. It is not a strong argument. Romney has also changed his stripes on a number of issues and there is no reason to think that he won’t change them back. After all, he has not given a reason for why he changed in the first place, other than for political expediency.
Perry, on the other hand was elected governor in Texas three times. Job growth in Texas has been strong, he was able to put curbs on personal injury lawyers and their runaway lawsuits, which has resulted in malpractice insurance premiums on doctors dropping and the number of doctors applying for licenses in Texas to soar.
We can expect the main stream media to attack Perry mercilessly to try to reach a point where Barack Obama’s odious job as president might be palatable for another four years. But the media and Obama may just find out that Perry knows how to counter-punch, and Obama has a lot more vulnerabilities to protect than Perry. It is not a lock and there is a long way to go, but right now, Rick Perry is someone I can support.
That’s my opinion; I’d like to know yours. Please comment below.
