"Tragic that was….the terrible American tragedy." He let that evaluation linger between us before he continued. There appeared an acute sadness on his face, nearly a grimace. "In the great 'War between the States,' sir, two ideas contended. On one side was the old idea of an alliance, a confederacy of states giving the central government limited powers in matters that served and preserved the rights, the liberties, of citizens and the equality of commerce, defense, rules of law, sir, in short the 'Bill of Rights'. That was the sacred responsibility of the government of the United States of America as set up by the founding fathers...to protect liberty."
"The idea was an adequate but limited government that protected the individual liberty of citizens and recognized the states as the people's immediate representative government. That idea asserted that the liberty of the people must be protected from concentrations of power, whether money or aristocrats who thought they had the right to exploit and decide what was best for others. The people, sir, may be wrong, but it is their right to be wrong if this be a land of liberty. Majority rule, minority rights is a grand ideal and a most demanding process, sir. Yet, it is critical to the idea of republican democracy and an abiding challenge. Popular government requires acceptance of fair restrains and a special alchemy of visionary leadership and responsible citizenship."
He stopped his presentation and his face showed a troubled uncertainty. "The other idea, early on the Federalist idea, then the Whigs' idea in my salad time, then the Republican Party's later, was that the central government could dictate those measures that protected and promoted individual liberty, especially economic liberty. That, taken to the full extreme-and it will be-means government protects only wealthy interests and their freedom to make more money. Sir, a government shall not take money from me in taxes only to turn around and give it to another or use it to help another accumulate wealth without just benefit to me. That is not equality before the law. It is the tyranny of a hired government for the benefit of the few."
He'd made his points: small government as referee in matters of liberty or big government as tool and agent of immoral accumulated power. It was a most convincing argument. It pushed all sorts of buttons on my fears about politics in the United States. There is a powerful, unaccountable, military-industrial complex that directs economic and international policy. It was identified a half-a-century ago by revered military professional and retiring president, Dwight D. Eisenhower. In that system the individual is both a producer and consumer but not a beneficiary of the excessive profits.