Cell phone laws, seatbelt laws, mandatory insurance coverage, where does it end? The reach and control of the federal government has been steadily growing since the beginning of the twentieth century. America has shifted from capitalism to a welfare state, from small government to big government, and from a country founded on freedom to a country functioning as a police state. How did the United States get to this point? and does the government have the right to interfere in personal, non-criminal behavior?
The Founding Fathers set into motion a government that was to protect the natural rights of its citizens. Freedoms such as religion, press, assemble, speech, and the right to bear arms are treasured rights of the American people. America’s Founding Documents were established to insure the protection of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Bill of Rights guarantees many personal freedoms, limits the federal governments reach into citizen’s lives, and designates specific powers to the states.
Although every civilized society must have rules, must have laws to promote peace and protect freedoms, the legislating of citizen’s every move becomes a violation of the very freedoms the legislation claims to protect. The interference in the personal, non-criminal behavior turns the government into a police state instead of the Republic it was designed to be.
Currently, the federal government violates the civil rights of this country’s citizens in every area of life. Religious liberties are violated through the removal of prayer and Bible reading in public arenas as well as the removal of religious symbols in government stations. The right to bear arms is heavily legislated with the government seeking more legislation. Americans are oppressed financially with mandated insurance laws, both auto and health. The government violates personal liberties with cell phone laws and curfews. Freedom of speech has been under attack for any who speak out against issues like homosexuality or abortion. The press has had to fight sanctions and regulations that are becoming more complex and burdensome in an effort to control its content. Parental rights are being assaulted and revoked in areas such as discipline, disclosure of child’s health, homeschooling, and religious training.
This type of government is not only a violation of the rights of the American people, but it is suffocating the life out of the country. Gun laws do not keep guns out of the hands of criminals. They only serve to punish honest people. Common sense should tell the politicians that criminals are going to break their gun laws and buy guns illegally, hence, they are called criminals. The family is the backbone of society. With every right that is taken away from parents, another area of the family unit is destroyed; therefore, another area of society is destroyed.
As government expands its reach into the personal lives of the American people, we move further from our roots in freedom and natural rights, and back into the tyranny from which the Founders and the colonists of the Revolutionary War fought to free us.