Pete Hendrickson (@LostHorizons)

Other Voices (followed by an important afterword) Republicans And The Growth Of Government by Andrew P. Napolitano As I write this on Election Day, I obviously don’t know the outcomes of the U.S. midterm elections. As you read this, you probably do. Most of my libertarian friends with whom I have spoken recently are hoping for a Republican victory. I am not so sure I agree with them. Former Rep. Ron Paul, the living American I admire most, is not so sure either. He opined recently in an essay arguing that with the exception of blind opposition to all things Joe Biden — thus slowing the pace of increased federal spending — the Republicans are not much better than the Democrats. This argument is in line with my own, which is that we don’t have a two-party system in America. We really have one political party — the Big Government Party. It has a Republican wing that likes war, corporate welfare, tax increases and borrowing, and a Democratic wing that likes war, individual welfare, tax increases and borrowing. Both wings enacted legislation to frustrate political competition, and both want more than anything just to stay in power. In Congress, both wings of Big Government believe that they can right any wrong, regulate any behavior, tax any event and interfere in any process, whether the Constitution authorizes their legislation or not. Yet, Congress is a creature of the Constitution. The Constitution gives Congress only 16 discrete powers and one catch-all — to make all laws necessary and proper to effectuate the 16. The Constitution came about when the 13 American colonies seceded from England in 1776 by violence and became 13 independent countries that referred to themselves as states. Those 13 states formed the current central government in 1789 by ceding away the 16 discrete areas of governance — having to do with nationhood, not central planning — to the new federal government. Through the course of wars — the War of 1812, the wars against Native Americans, Lincoln’s War Between the States, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — the federal government not only exported violence abroad; it sapped liberty at home and grew exponentially. Continued: https://losthorizons.com/N/218.htm#4