"The Door to Disaster"

There is an old saying “Power Corrupts; Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely”. There is quite a bit of truth in this phrase. We have headlines, on almost a daily basis, with accounts of abuse of power, not only in government, but also the private sector. There are very few people who handle a position of power without, at least, thinking of what that power can do for them or their causes. One of the reasons our government is constructed the way it is, is to prevent one arm of the government to dictate to the other two. Our government is a “Three-legged Stool” where each “leg” holds enough support to prevent abuse by any of the other “legs”. Every time one “leg” forfeits some power to another leg, our government becomes more open to abuse. Sometimes when a proposal or program sounds like a perfectly valid premise and should be adopted, it can open a “can of worms” that can lead to other things that aren’t quite so good.

Let’s take a hypothetical situation of a nation with a fiscal crisis going on; high unemployment, huge national debt and a housing and food crisis. Fortunately, there comes a man who claims he can take this nation in crisis and transform it to its previous solvency; all he needs are a few regulations and constitutional changes to implement his policies. We could call this the “Enabling Act”, to give our leader the latitude to make necessary changes to begin a recovery. This act could enable the government to create decrees and laws beyond the scope of the powers given in the constitution, with no thematic limits, and no house of the congress had the power to abolish these laws or decrees while the emergency situation existed. Let’s say, in this program, individual state representation was suspended for certain programs and the central government took control in those specific instances, and all those states were now totally subject to rule by the central authority, just until the emergency situation was resolved. Do you believe this program could benefit a nation in crisis, to help it move forward and into a new era of plentiful success?

Last week, Barack Obama said he will call on Congress for the power to consolidate certain government agencies. His premise is that he will be able to consolidate agencies, thus cut costs to the taxpayers. On the surface, this sounds like a good idea, but it opens a dangerous door in our government. I’m all for slimming down our government octopus, yet giving this President further expansion of power scares me to death. I remember how his health-care initiative was forced on the American people, even after an overwhelming majority stood against it. I believe more power will corrupt Barack Obama even more than he is already.

Those policies I mentioned in my hypothetical nation were the policies initiated by another man who offered hope and change to his people. They were implemented in 1933 by Adolph Hitler upon the people of Germany. Adolph made this statement in 1932, “I am not a dictator, and I never will be; democracy will be rigorously enforced by National Socialism.” He sounds quite a bit like another guy I know!