This quote below really gets one thinking about who is to blame for the current state of the country. While it may be easy to point fingers at politicians, it’s not so easy to look in the mirror. Fact is, Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, the majority want to be led in varying ways. They don’t want to be left to make every important decision for themselves. This is sad; and it has led to a growing government that is now responsible for almost half the GDP created in America, and even more for many other Western countries. This desire to be led, and avoidance of making tough decisions, is also responsible for the US government collecting a record amount of tax in fiscal 2015 yet still running an approximate $430 billion annual deficit. A heavy desire for a leader often creates an environment ripe for abuse.
From Mark Levin’s latest book ‘Plunder and Deceit’:
In his two-volume masterpiece Democracy in America, French historian and scholar Alexis de Tocqueville, writing about the species of despotism that might afflict America, observed: “Our contemporaries are constantly excited by two conflicting passions: they want to be led, and they wish to remain free. As they cannot destroy either the one or the other of these contrary propensities, they strive to satisfy them both at once. They devise a sole, tutelary, and all-powerful form of government, but elected by the people. They combine the principle of centralization and that of popular sovereignty; this gives them respite; they console themselves for being in tutelage by the reflection that they have put in leading-strings, because he sees that it is not a person or class of persons, but the people at large who hold the end of his chain. By this system the people shake off their state of dependence just long enough to select their master and then relapse into it again.”
The term ‘civil servant’ seems to have vanished from our description of government employees and politicians. That was their original purpose - to serve the people; not master over them and decide how the most minute details of society will look and feel. But perhaps that’s what many want these days. I sincerely hope they understand the cost of this decision.
Anyway, kudos to Mark Levin for presenting this thought in his latest book. You can order your copy by clicking here.
Stay hungry,
Aaron
