A Heritage Of Freedom

Rand Paul, libertarian? Not quite. - USATODAY.com: "Our current economic crisis, the recent bailouts and the overreach of the one-party rule in Washington have crystallized something for millions of Americans — that something has gone terribly wrong. And it didn't start in 2008. It goes back decades.

More and more power became centralized in Washington, D.C., as the federal government responded to every new crisis — from the Great Depression to the Great Recession of today — by expanding its reach deeper into all of our lives.

Now Washington forces us to buy health insurance while limiting our choices. Programs must fit its bureaucratic standards, effectively putting government in control of what medicines and treatments millions of Americans can get. The bailouts and federal takeovers of the past two years have made the federal government the nation's top mortgage lender and a major player in auto manufacturing, as well as Wall Street's ATM of first and last resort.

This departure from the limited government envisioned by the Founders has encouraged too many Americans to forget their heritage of freedom. When there is a problem, Washington tells us, more government is the solution."

Rand Paul has done a nice job here of summarizing what he calls "constitutional conservatism" and how government has lost its way.

And this rings particularly true:

What the Founders intended, and what many libertarians today want, is something different: a federal system that keeps decision-making close to the people. The federal government should not do what the states can do for themselves, the states should not do what local governments can do for themselves, and local governments should not do what families, faith groups and individuals can do for themselves.

RTWT.