Many Americans have been shocked by recent revelations of the
extent of sexual harassment in Congress. However, no one should be too
surprised that those who spend their lives defending and expanding the
welfare-warfare state engage in immoral personal conduct. It is only natural
that an immoral system, like the welfare-warfare state, tends to attract
individuals likely to practice personal immorality.
The welfare-warfare state is
built on a foundation of taxation and fiat currency controlled by a secretive
central bank. While some type of taxation may be necessary to fund the few
legitimate functions of government, taking people’s money to fund a
redistributive welfare state at home and a global empire abroad is nothing more
than theft. The Federal Reserve’s erosion of purchasing power is also a form of
theft.
The welfare-warfare state
relies on violence. Every law preventing us from living our lives as we choose
— whether forbidding us from working for below minimum wage, preventing us from
smoking marijuana or drinking raw milk, telling private business owners who can
and cannot use what restroom, or requiring us to purchase government-approved
health insurance — rests on the threat of force being used against those who
refuse to obey.
The warfare side of the
welfare-warfare state is obviously rooted in violence. War inevitably leads to
deaths, including the deaths of innocents. A permanent warfare state is also
the quickest way to lose our liberties. This is why the Founding Fathers
counseled against standing armies and foreign entanglements.
The neocons and “humanitarian
interventionists” who control our foreign policy have disregarded the wisdom of
the Founders. They actually promote endless wars not to protect our security
but to promote “democracy” and “universal human rights.” They are impervious to
evidence of the failure of military interventions to achieve these goals and
indifferent to the human and fiscal costs of endless war. They dismiss the loss
of innocent lives — including the deaths of children — as unavoidable
“collateral damage,” while using their influence in the media to spread pro-war
propaganda. They also smear their opponents as aiding America’s enemies and
sympathizing with terrorists.
No
one holding political power wants to admit the system he supports is immoral
and a failure. Therefore, defenders of the welfare-warfare state rely on lies
and deceptions. They ignore all evidence of the failure of big government to
accomplish its ends, instead pretending they can fix the system with a few
reforms. They also work with allies in the media to promulgate the lie that
without the welfare state the masses would remain poor and uneducated, and
without the warfare state we would be overwhelmed by those who hate us for our
freedoms. They never mention that many foreigners hate America because of the
suffering caused by our hyper-interventionist foreign policy.
The welfare-warfare state is built on violence and deceit.
It is thus inevitable that many of those participating in this immoral system
will combine their immoral politics with immoral personal conduct. Hopefully
the revelations of sexual misconduct among the welfare-warfare state’s Capitol
Hill and media defenders will lead more Americans to question the morality and
the wisdom of allowing the federal government to run the world, run the
economy, and run our lives.
Dr. Ron
Paul is a former member of Congress and Distinguished Counselor to the Mises
Institute.
Copyright © 2017 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in
whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are
given.
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