In the United States, the Libertarianism impulse has beeb on the rise, in full-swing these past few months. With the rise of government power rises the persistence of government overreach. Even liberals who had cheer-leaded for President Obama in 2008 and 2012 now want him to back off. The ACLU and other left-leaning critics are crying out “George W. Obama” because of the massive surveillance programs from the NSA which are going into everyone’s land and cellphone lines. Ranking member of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) can no longer defend the administration’s poor nominations for executive power, so even he has demanded emails about President Obama’s Labor Board nominee. South Boston Congressman John Lynch called out the administration for “scrubbed and inaccurate” talking points on Benghazi.
The Republican Party’s “Tea Party” faction wants to stop the spending, stop the military sprees overseas, and stop the spiraling government surrveillance which has not tapped into the phones of millions. Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), the same junior senator who has opted to leave his phone at home from now on (as should the rest of us) demanded a “full faith and forthcoming†response from the Obama Administration regarding their power to use drones in domestic strikes against American citizens. After eleven hours of “Mr. Rand Goes to Washington†, the Attorney General ceded his answer: “No†. Still, the federal Government is doing a lot more these days, all due to an aggressively progressive President who has envisioned a massive expansion of the federal government in out our lives. The Attorney General’s office seized the phone records of AP reporters for two months. The IRS was targeting conservative groups, and the EPA was frustrating their efforts to expand. From IRS-gate, to AP-gate, to Benghazi-gate, to NSA-gate, the Obama Administration has turned into a “gated community” of corruption, rivaling the sometime stupidity and obstruction of the second-term Nixon Presidency.
The following, liberating “trendy trends” in the states also suggest a growing unrest with the federal government’s overreach. The President’s approval ratings are tumbling, all of which merely mirrors the assault that his presidency has endured, as Obama was one of few Presidents to win reelection by a weaker mandate than his first election. States all around are resisting implementation of ObamaCare’s Medicaid exchanges. Individual doctors are foregoing insurance altogether, demanding cash payments, which cost less for doctors and patients. Midwestern States like Wisconsin and Michigan have pushed back against union power, enacting collective bargaining rights reforms or pushing “right-to-work” laws. More businesses are coming in, and state coffers are getting richer, even as taxpayers keep their money and more people find work. Colorado and Washington have legalized marijuana, and in every other state, limited use for medicinal purposes has grown unchecked, with declining crime rates in surrounding clinical areas to boot. In the Colorful State, the initiative to legalize surpassed President Obama’s reelection margin, according to National Review Columnist Michael Barone. The states are grappling with proper regulations in the face of federal backlash, since marijuana remains illegal at the federal level. Even Los Angeles faces an up-hill battle to the “saving” green crosses which are springing up all over the Southland. Yet crimes are going down, and hopefully the surplus criminal population will also diminish in the wake of draconian drug laws drawing down and vanishing away.
Then there’s “same-sex” marriage”, as if such a truism has any sense or salience. Nevertheless, the radical redefinition of marriage has awakened a long-held respect among religious and limited-government adherents: marriage is a private matter, one in which the government should never have gotten involved. With the rising transformation of the “legal” definition of marriage, a growing consensus among conservatives, including religious leaders, has opted for getting Uncle Sam out of “I Do” entirely in order to retain its “cultural” and “eternal” status. Most gays do not marry, and when they do, they may find that whatever legitimate intimacy they were seeking, they still will not find.
Then there’s the rise of “conceal and carry” gun laws, which even liberal governors from previous administrations refuse to repeal. Despite the tragedy of Aurora, CO and Newtown, Connecticut, individual citizens and legislators are unwilling to pass any reforms or background checks enhancements. The Toomey-Manchin gun control compromise earlier this year faced a massive uprising from Red States with Blue Senators, all of whom voted against the bill. Today the bill lays in a tomb of “compromise for the sake of compromise.” In addition to making pot OK, Colorado voters have launched a recall effort is underway to remove the legislator and repeal the law which has enacted stricter gun provisions in their state (So much for Michael Moore’s crock-umentary “Bowling for Columbine”.)
With the exhaustive expansion of “Big Government†, Libertarian “Limited Government†never looked so lovely. Perhaps adherents of Austrian Economists Murray Rothbard and Friedrich Hayek, along with Free Market economist Milton Friedman and Founding Father James Madison will owe debt of gratitude to the aggressively regressive “Progressive†President Obama for government growth so gargantuan, people long for less, little, and limited government once again.
