WHERE DO THEY GET THE RIGHT?

AUTHORITY
1. the power to determine, adjudicate, or otherwise settle issues or disputes; jurisdiction; the right to control, command, or determine.
2. a power or right delegated or given; authorization: Who has the authority to grant permission?
3. a person or body of persons in whom authority is vested, as a governmental agency.
4. Usually, authorities. persons having the legal power to make and enforce the law; government: They finally persuaded the authorities that they were not involved in espionage.
Dictionary.com

Almost every issue facing our country comes down to one thing, authority. Does the authority exist for the government to enforce its will.

Yet, very few seem to address this issue. We argue about whether the healthcare bill will destroy the present system of medical care, or will it make certain procedures unattainable. Will the cost be too high? How about Medicare?

According to the news we all agree that something needs to be done about the problem. Maybe. The medical system may be wonderful, it may be terrible, it may be somewhere in between.

We seem to have bought into the idea that somehow these concerns about the medical system fall within the purview of governmental responsibility. We are tearing each other up arguing about the amount of government involvement when the real question should be whether the government has any authority to be involved at all. We have been distracted, purposefully, from the core issue.

This suits our masters just fine, thank you.

All of the questions, the yelling, the righteous anger being displayed at town hall meetings across the country amount to nothing more than tilting at windmills if we refuse to address the central question of authority. If we accept the premise that the government has the Constitutional authority to control our health care decisions then we have lost the battle because it will take control.

We need to make our elected officials explain, REALLY explain, just where they think this authority to control healthcare and every other facet of our lives comes from. Because I don't think that they have an answer.

They've been conditioned to accept serfdom. By the government, the schools, television, the newspapers and, oh what the hell, I'm sure the Boy Scouts, too. Just as the rest of us have. We don't have the intellectual firepower to challenge this creeping fascism because the system, I believe, has purposefully distracted us from acquiring the necessary tools of citizenship.

We know all about J. Lo and nothing about John Locke. Sam Adams is a damn fine beer (OK, it really is). That whole declaration thing is just so 1770's.

We need to move this revolution down the field a bit, get on their side of the 50 yard line. We can't spend our time arguing around the edges, about this program and that. We need to attack the issue of authority, because if the government is restricted to only the functions it has the authority to perform, most of it will go away.