Freedom's friend

Want to know who to support in 2008? Let’s take a look at America first.\nFor those who weren’t paying attention the first time in U.S. history class: America was founded on the principles of economic and personal freedom. In the words of Thomas Jefferson, “Man [is] a rational animal, endowed by nature with rights, and with an innate sense of justice.” Our history of tolerance and respect for personal freedom and personal choices has been a key factor in the prosperity of America. Our founders wrote the Constitution in order to enumerate the powers of government and added amendments to spell out the rights of the people. The Constitution was very careful to limit the power of the federal government, believing that personal liberty was crucial to a prosperous society. The government’s place was to protect the rights of the people.\nUnfortunately, the government has forgotten the principles it was founded on and insists on creating a governmental solution to the problems we face. Democrats want national health care while Republicans want more military. These “solutions” create an even larger bureaucracy that further limits the individual rights of each and every American. Take the National Security Agency, which “protects” us by tapping phone lines without warrants, the CIA, which imprisons people without sufficient explanation and the Department of Homeland Security, which uses a color-coded terror scale to force us to live in fear and submission.\nFew would argue that they need the government to tell them the difference between right and wrong, which job to take, how to raise their children or how to take care of themselves. Everyone knows what is best for him or her, and government dependence to make these choices for us not only bankrupts our country, but allows the government to grow even larger and more dangerous. When the government insists on encroaching on our freedom of choice, a dangerous turn of events begins to happen.\nSo, why are what I would call anti-Constitution candidates so popular? People are scared, and living in fear means clutching to the one who claims he will save you. People start to disregard the cost to personal liberty and freedoms, or to our economy for that matter. \nOne suggestion is to once again use the wisdom of the men who wrote the Constitution. They extolled the virtues of personal and economic freedom and warned that too much government power crumbles a great nation. Our nation became so prosperous because of the common values of freedom and liberty. As our freedoms and rights begin to disappear in the name of our safety, our economy crumbles and our dollar collapses. We’re overly frightened by Islamic terrorist groups, while we ignore the terror that comes from within our own administration.\nI’d invite you to look at the candidates for the 2008 presidential election to see which of them knows history, knows that prosperity and greatness come through personal and economic freedom and will never, ever turn his back on the founding document of our country. The only one I’ve found so far is Ron Paul.