The Alternative

First in the nation: Whoopee!
     Caucus season is upon us and the second most frequent comment I hear is, “I can’t wait until it is over.”
     I think one of the biggest mistakes of my life was waiting until after an election cycle to dump our land line phone. Believe me, you won’t regret it. But let’s put another angle on what has caused us to dig through the old record collection or even seek silence instead of radio or television.
     I’ve often heard that voting is an essential part of our democracy. Those who know what democracy is understand what terror that statement brings to a lover of freedom and prosperity. Democracy is mob rule. It favors the majority at the expense of the individual. It sorts out good men and promotes people whose chief attribute is electability.
     Look at the presidential campaign in Iowa. Here, we caucus. We don’t primary because we might lose “first in the nation status.” The robbers who get there first get the most loot. Iowans are a proud people.
     I’m wearing out the “off” button on the tractor radio. Every few minutes there is this dialogue with a gal who just got a job in the wind energy industry. They question why some candidates are “against clean energy.” You’d think the voters were smart enough to see what a lie this is.
     Has a candidate promised to ban clean energy? No, they oppose subsidies. If subsidies are offered to one form of energy, that limits the opportunity of competing forms. It makes it impossible for the market to reward those who sell the best form of energy. Most importantly, it supposes that there is some taxpayer out there who doesn’t deserve to keep the fruits of his labor because the voters were tricked into thinking some bureaucrat knew better how his money should be spent. This sad situation has spread to all sectors of our economy.
     State-directed economies divert resources from the most efficient uses. The aggregate demand of real people will always be more real than schemes dreamed up by someone who has no stake in the game and has to convince voters rather than investors. Store shelves would be empty if the most capable people lacked opportunity or were penalized for their success.
     Voting is only critical when the rule of law has been cast aside. It has. Every vote is a distortion of a market that could reflect true value. Every vote will create more waste and poverty than if the law had simply been followed and all our relationships left to be selfish decisions made by willing participants.
     On the federal level, all actions of the government are enumerated (listed) in the Constitution. Nothing else is lawfully allowed. The president is not authorized to make policy decisions, declare war or create regulatory agencies. He is only authorized to execute the laws made by Congress.
     I started to write my opinion of some of the candidates and it just sounded mean, so out it went to what Thomas Sowell calls the author’s most valuable tool – the waste basket.
     The bottom line is, as time passes you will find your vote makes little difference. Recent memory reveals that no principle will go unviolated, government will grow, foreign threats will be used to empower domestic ones, domestic threats will be used to punish success, and personal responsibility will be supplanted with faceless and unaccountable public ones.
     Seeing as little will change with this most important election of our lifetime, we should consider which celebrity would make the best subject for jokes and caricatures. With every candidate promising to trash the document they pledge to “preserve, protect and defend,” I have nowhere to turn but to entertainment value.
     But at least we’ll be first in the nation.
 
     I always welcome comments on these articles, whether through a letter to the editor or directly to 4selfgovernment@gmail.com. The blog contains all manner of diverse entertainment and commentary: www.alternativebyfritz.com.