Replies to post #91300 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[wbmw]

Hogsgeteaten, I get it. You're a Libertarian.

The biggest problem with Libertarians is that they think their ideology is wrapped around the Constitution, when in fact you advocate many things that are contrary to it.

Here's one example:

IF you were to take the time to understand what Thomas Jefferson and the others who risked everything to bring Liberty to our nation were saying, you would see that BIG GOVERNMENT was their greatest fear and that which they most ardently tried to protect WE THE PEOPLE FROM!!!

You think that the government is the biggest threat we need protection against, but this is contrary to the intention of the government being "for the people, by the people." You assume that government can be corrupt, and by keeping it small, we as citizens can have limited involvement, and not worry about losing control over it.

The problem is that there are other threats to our freedoms, even besides terrorism - and that we SHOULD be involved with our government. We have to also protect ourselves from the threats of corporatism, fascism, and the eventual Plutocracy.

Today, our lives are completely dependent on certain commodities that are vastly controlled by corporations, where a small number of businessmen make the decisions that affect our lives. We do not have the freedoms to go against these decisions, and here are some examples:

1. The vast majority of our food source comes from 4 or 5 large corporations. No longer do we get food from farms, but rather from large agri-business conglomerates, who get to choose for us how our food is raised, what chemicals are used on them, and even whether they are cloned animals, which may have health risks we won't know about for decades. In order to avoid these things, we have to pay twice as much for "organic" food. That restricts freedom.

2. The vast majority of money in this country is managed by a hand full of "too big to fail" banks, who are free to mix our deposites with their high risk investments, and we do not have the freedom to force them to do otherwise.

3. The vast majority of our energy comes from fossil fuels, which are largely imported from the Middle East, with funding that eventually gets funneled to fund terrorism. We do not have the freedom to choose alternative energy sources, because they are too expensive, and most Americans do not have the free money to choose alternative energies.

So, how do we go up agains these corporations that control our lives, and restrict our freedoms? They are going to make the choices that make them the most profitable, so how is that any better than Big Government?

The only weapon we have as American citizens is to use our Democracy to elect officials that can write legislation that limits the reach of these corporations into our lives. That kind of regulation is good for us, because without it, these corporations restrict our freedoms by making us dependent on their products. There is no other choice, except to enable our government to work in our favor.

Libertarians don't realize this, and they certainly underestimate the threat from these corporations. They are afraid of big government, but for some reason not afraid of singular companies who are in charge of the commodities that we depend on.

Do you not see the contradiction here, and why progressives fight to balance both government and the country's industry? Progressives don't want "Big Government", but we are willing to grow government to the extent that we can be protected from special interests. And that should be important to everyone.