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Tweet this storyAround election time there is much talk about the responsibility to vote. The popular objective is to register as many people as possible. But not a word is said about the ethics of voting intelligently, or how a thoughtless vote by one citizen cancels a smart vote by another.
American voters have three principle responsibilities. First, there are the long term interests of our families. Second, there are the long term interests of the country. And third, the long term health of the businesses upon which we depend for our livelihood. Long term measuring requires intelligence. Voting for short term benefits without regard for long term consequences requires only emotion and reflex, a non-thinking act like, say, scratching an itch.
The long view requires that we understand what living in America actually means. Most people do not realize that we live under a dictatorship. As citizens, it is our ethical duty to be obedient to and protect our dictator, the Constitution. The Oath of Allegiance to the United States says: “ that I will support and defend the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same” This is not a burden since the Constitution is the ideal benevolent dictator. It guarantees what all people want: freedom and the right to pursue happiness.
Our right to vote is for one primary purpose, to protect the Constitution. We are not a majority rule (plebiscite) nation in which we can change government by whim. Democracy does not mean 51% of the people could vote to imprison the other 49%.
Unfortunately, people lose sight of their duty to the Constitution and come to think of voting as just a way to get as many benefits and as much free stuff from government as possible. Politicians, who need votes, end up pandering to these selfish and short sighted interests.
But someone has to pay for the freebies and the increased government to dole them out. Since government earns no money to accomplish this, it must tax the productive citizens. One of those taxes is the income tax. In effect, the government takes the most from those who often are working the hardest, and then redistributes that money through gifts to those who often are working the least. The income tax is about as fair and makes about as much sense as having the cashier at the grocery ask you how much you make so they can tally your bill accordingly. (The best alternative proposed so far is FairTax.org, which does not tax earnings, only purchases.)
Taking from one “class” of citizens and giving to another is called socialism, a close cousin to communism/Marxism. In every country where this form of government has been tried, economies fail and people suffer. That’s because people lose incentive to work hard if the fruits of their labor are stripped from them and they can get their needs met by the government whether or not they work. As people lose motivation to take risks, invest, and work hard, businesses falter, jobs are lost, and governments run out of money. Then, in order to keep people’s noses to the grindstone and quell discontent, such swollen governments become very oppressive. Not only is the freedom to pursue happiness lost, but freedom itself becomes a thing of the past.
Our American ancestors fought the War of Independence, both World Wars, and numerous conflicts through our history to protect our and others’ freedom from unfair taxation and tyrannical governments. When we vote we should respect this sacrifice by protecting the Constitution and nipping socialism in the bud.
But over the past several decades, people have lost sight of their duty to the Constitution and are repeatedly voting into office socialists (although these politicians hide under the name of more respectable parties). The promise of something for nothing from the government is myopic and will be our ruin.
The present economic crisis (Sept. 08) began, for example, with a socialist program granting loans to people who could not really afford them. This was all done using emotionally appealing, vote getting mottos such as “affordable housing” for the “middle class,” and “helping the poor.” Yes, there has been outrageous graft and greed of housing and credit industry executives in this debacle, but these are effects. The true cause was socialistic politicians attempting to engineer society and playing to the short sighted greed (the something-for-nothing mentality) of voting citizens. Taxes are meant to generate revenue for necessary government functions, not mete out socialistic “fairness.”
Other examples of socialism, are free medical care, free medications, free college tuition, free day care, and free anything that an individual should actually be earning. Yes, there should be safety nets for true victims in our society, but socialism goes way beyond that. Each freebie program has the same potential for stressing our economy as the present housing/credit disaster. String several of them together and it could be our ruin.
This is because nothing is free. Somebody has to pay. A favorite target is business. But nobody stops to think that if businesses are taxed more, they must increase the price of the products they make to pay for the increased tax. Who pays this increased cost? The same citizens who think they are getting something for nothing. Thinking people do not vote to cut through the branch they and their families are sitting on.
Another example is raising the “minimum wage.” That is always a good way to harvest votes. But if companies are forced to pay higher wages, they will either stop doing business, move out of the country, or increase the price of their products. So who eventually ends up paying for the increased minimum wage or the loss of jobs? The very citizens who got the pay increase.
Obviously, a thinking voter must look beyond any immediate benefit they think they are going to get from a socialist politician. They must perceive the future consequences to their children as the something-for-nothing socialism runs out of steam and the piper needs to be paid. They must think about safeguarding the Constitution that guarantees equality of OPPORTUNITY, not equality of RESULTS. Efforts by government to make all people economically equal are as unrealistic as trying to make all people finish a foot race at the same time.
Voting intelligently and responsibly is not about trying to get something for nothing from the government, or about a politician’s star power. It’s about putting in place those who show (not just by talk) that they respect Constitutional free enterprise, the right of each of us to “pursue happiness’ and keep what we earn, and freedom from the tyranny of a bloated government sucking the economic life blood out of America.
Democracy is a wonderful thing in that each of us has a voice. But it is ruinous if people vote without long-view intelligence. Vote to protect the Constitution, and with that your family, country, and livelihood.
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Dr. Wysong is author of thirteen books on health, nutrition, self improvement, philosophy, and the origin of life. He is a pioneer in the natural health and nutrition movement, and is the first to put the creation-evolution debate on rational footings. His blog, books, updates, mind-stimulating content, and interactive forums can be found at: asifthinkingmatters.com. To contact Dr. Wysong email:
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