If we lose freedom here, there’s no place to escape to - this is the last stand on Earth

Politicians need Reagan's words

"If we lose freedom here, there's no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth," -- Reagan

Red team v. blue team, right team v. left team, my team v. your team. That is what American politics have become. Politicians elected Tuesday would best serve the public's interests by setting aside party loyalty and fighting for liberty with lower spending and less government.

Both major parties have histories of abusing power, and even some of the strongest and most sincere individuals succumb to the corruption that results from loyalty to party over principle. The principles of freedom don't corrupt; human organizations do.
President Ronald Reagan best described the need for politicians to defend the individual in his speech "A Time for Choosing," first delivered Oct. 27, 1964, at a campaign event for presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.

Reagan warned that the country's prosperity could not continue with government spending $17 million a day more than it took in. Adjusting for inflation, $1 million in 1964 is the same as $7 million today. If things were the same today as they were in 1964, government would spend $119 million each day more than it takes in. But that's not the case. Today, government debt increases by $119 million in less than an hour. The debt grows at $2 million each minute because government is too big Reagan reminded Americans of the threat to freedom posed by a large and oppressive government: "A government can't control the economy without controlling people" by "force and coercion."

Reagan told of a Cuban refugee who escaped communism to enjoy freedom in the United States. The Cuban explained that he was fortunate, perhaps more so than any American, because he had someplace to escape to.

"And in that sentence he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there's no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth," Reagan said.

He advised Americans to decide "whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves."

Politicians, consider those words in the context of a government that spends $2 million more than it has each minute. Consider those words when employers may no longer afford to offer the company's traditional health care plan because of health care reform. Consider the words "force and coercion" when constituents are faced with an order, from President Barack Obama and Congress, that says you must buy health coverage or face a penalty of law.

Think of those words as Congress and the president try to curtail energy consumption, and the ability of Americans to produce wealth, with the force and coercion of oppressive taxes designed to pay for global warming.

Think about how life in America has changed during two terms of a big-spending, big-government elitist Republican president and two years of a bigger-spending, more elitist Democratic president. Ask yourself whether American lives are planned by an "intellectual elite in a far-distant capital."

If alive and lucid today, Reagan would know he had seen the future in 1964. Politicians, honor this great man's legacy by fighting for less government and more freedom.

http://www.oaoa.com/opinion/team-55298-politicians-politics.html