Aselin

A few years ago I registered myself as an "Independent." I couldn't see any correlation with the political party platform I subscribed to, and the actions of the elected legislators. While it was a small protest that went largely unnoticed I couldn't be aligned with those who brazenly digressed from their stated philosophy.

Then came the primary elections. In some states "Independents" are allowed to vote in either party's primary elections. Not Arizona. I discovered, mostly because I did no research prior to re-registering, that I now had no voice. It was painful for me, but because I would be allowed to vote in the general election I did not register again. I cast a provisional ballot in the Republican party election and went on my politically alienated way.

Now I'm watching as the federal government embarks on a looting spree of epic proportion. Effectively quashing any motivation toward entrepreneurial efforts and restricting the freedom of small business to grow. Propping up failing businesses on the shoulders of successful business and taxpayers. At some point, the system will implode.

I have long been a fan of the novel "Atlas Shrugged." As I stand at this moment in history the book seems eerily prophetic. Much of the current discourse seems to echo dialogue in the 'fictional' work. I actually tear up at this realization. As the producers, the job creators, the entrepreneurs of our nation ask 'why should we build, create, grow...?' there is a vacuum where there should be incentive. There are no words to encourage or build confidence. Atlas will indeed, eventually shrug.

The reality is we cannot return to prosperity on the backs of each other. We must each bear our portion of the burden. We must return to the spirit which makes America great - the freedom and liberty to succeed. By penalizing productivity we will not only remain in this downward spiral, but guarantee our inability to rise from it.

We have not been good stewards. We have not been good stewards of our environment, of our families, or our classrooms, of our bodies or our liberties. Now our national policy seeks to not look to ourselves and each other to unite and pull up the bootstraps. Rather it seeks to label as many as possible as victims, looking to faceless members of society to support them in their victimhood. To tax the "businesses," to unionize, to have the government save us from ourselves. The fundamental flaw in this is the government only exists to protect. It has no capacity to save.

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"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it." ~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931

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"We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty." - John F. Kennedy


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"If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders - What would you tell him?"

"I…don't know. What…could he do? What would you tell him?"

"To shrug."