BETWEEN THE LINES: A house divided against itself

My title comes from a speech Abraham Lincoln made during his senatorial campaign against Stephen Douglas.

Lincoln, an avid Bible reader, took the phrase from Matthew 12:25. The 16th president of the United States used it in reference to the slavery issue, but the words today could certainly describe our political state.

Not only do conservatives and liberals disagree, but conservatives argue among themselves — as do liberals. Never in my lifetime have I witnessed such a divergence of opinions, especially when it comes to the role of our federal government.

Under the current unbending positions it will be virtually impossible to come to a reasonable consensus on how to handle our financial crisis. Gridlock will reign supreme.

If a recent CBS news poll is any indication, approximately two-thirds of voters do not want the debt ceiling raised. The overwhelming rationale of those opposed to raising the debt is quite simple: If one has enormous debt that will be take decades to pay back, why add more to it? A good analogy would be seeing married couples who cannot afford their mortgage payment go out and purchase a swimming pool on credit.

There has long been a divergence of opinion as to the role of the federal government.    In reading the historical literature, there is no question about where the Founding Fathers stood, as they were strong advocates of limited government. They believed the government’s job was principally to protect liberty and uphold the Constitution.

As the Industrial Revolution transformed our country from rural to urban, many felt the government’s role should change. The net result has been the decline of individual rights and an obsession with citizens’ safety, even if it meant giving up liberty in the process.

Often Americans did not ask for this help. When President Franklin Roosevelt and his administration took it upon themselves to establish a Social Security system, there was little demand for such at the time.

President Lyndon B. Johnson continued to enhance safety net programs with the addition of his Medicare legislation. Up until that time, the private sector had been handling that need. More recently, President George W. Bush expanded the government’s protective arm, by adding prescription drug benefits to Medicare, much to the delight of the nation’s pharmaceutical companies.

Now these three entitlement programs constitute a substantial portion of our national debt, and are expected, actuarially speaking, to explode in the years ahead.

Under the guise of safety we now have a Transportation Safety Administration that screens passengers at our nation’s airports at great public cost.  Once again safety prevails over liberty.

Benjamin Franklin had it right when he stated, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

A free-market solution would be to allow airlines that wanted to implement more stringent safety requirements to do so, and let people choose which airline to travel, thus saving the taxpayer millions of dollars and bypassing those notorious body searches or screenings.

The problem is that these powerful bureaucratic agencies sidestep the constitutional consent of the people, but of course the politicians’ rationale is that they have our best interest at heart. It’s just too bad that they never asked for our permission.

God allows his people to make their own choices even if they are poor ones. It is called free will. It’s unfortunate our elected officials won’t give us the option of making our own mistakes and learning to live with them, which, by the way, used to be the American way of life.

Laughlin is a Christian Libertarian. He is an economist, teacher, father, husband and most recently a grandfather. He has written a weekly column for The Tribune for 12 years. He and his wife Gina reside in Meadowlakes. To contact him, e-mail ablaughlin@nctv.com. He is an independent columnist, not a staff member, and his views do not necessarily reflect those of The Tribune or its parent company.