My response...

First off, I’m not sure where we are registered… but I am inclined to think it is somewhere like Target. We hate Wal-Mart, and don’t know anyone (other than you, probably) that can afford to shop at Sax Fifth Avenue or Tiffany’s. I’ll let you know as soon as I can talk to Liz… but really, just you coming is enough, my friend. Kiss Ang from us and thank her for letting you come out.

Secondly, I did like Ryan’s “responsibility” post. It made me think of something that I have always questioned about today’s Democrats, compared to the Democrats of yester-year.

So many Democrats, and especially the ones running for the ticket now, seem to have forgotten that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are instruments of government that limit the power and authority of GOVERNMENT, and not the power and authority of the PEOPLE.

For an example, let’s use the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights. Whether you view the Amendment as a collective or an individual right (and I view it as the latter, without question), no one can argue the simple fact that the Amendment is not granting a right here… it is guarantying a right inherently understood to exist for all law-abiding Americans. What this Amendment is doing is defining what the GOVERNMENT can and cannot do… and that is infringe on that right. What constitutes “infringement” is what is being debated right now in the Supreme Court. None the less, this is a clear and perfect example of what this “instrument” of government does… it limits the role of Government, NOT the freedoms of the People.

If we are going to discuss what the Government’s responsibility is to the public, then I’d say it is to provide equal opportunity for all, and to protect this opportunity… but it CANNOT provide equal “results”. If all Americans are afforded the same opportunity to succeed in society, however they may define “success”, then the Government has fulfilled its primary function to the public. People like myself and Ryan may argue the need for such actions as taxes and government programs till hell freezes over, but I am sure we both agree that ANY action of the Government that happens outside the above-mentioned responsibility is both illegal and doomed to failure.

Imagine a system of government that DOES try to guaranty equal “results”… equality measured fiscally, politically, physically, mentally and emotionally. NO system of rule has ever even come close to providing this, and those that have tried are seen today as the most tyrannical and hated in history. Soviet Russia, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany all tried to “equalize” the societies they ruled, and all were doomed to failure… either by those societies that recognized the danger they posed or by the very people they were trying to “equalize”.

This nation has forgotten that the ability of the individual to succeed lies with the individual, and NOT with the government. The government may provide incentive and assistance in the effort to succeed, and it MUST protect the individual’s right to work towards that success in a manner equal to anyone else in the land, but it cannot provide the “success” itself. If you doubt that, then ask yourself why Marx, Engels, and Lenin are now simply historical curiosities and not the intellectual icons they were 20 years ago.