What is the Role of Government?

Can any man disagree with me when I say that the world of politics has become so convoluted that it is hard to discern what is and what is not the role of government? We hear things on the news all the time about regulations and laws that the government implements on a weekly basis. Now, when we hear these things, we usually align ourselves in either a positive or negative position regarding these laws. But have we ever stepped back, looked at what the government is doing, and asked ourselves not if the laws and regulations are right or wrong, but whether the government even has the right to make some of the laws it does?

I had a conversation with a co-worker of mine recently. She is liberal, and if you haven't learned by now, I am very conservative. We often have political talks, but in this one, she said something that resonated with me--and not in a particularly positive way.

I made a little joke about global warming, and this little joke triggered a long debate. And to use an old southern term, we began chasing rabbits. Eventually our conversation landed on how government policy is influenced by so many different interest groups, and how government policy can basically coerce us to do what it wants us to do and refrain from doing what it doesn't.

When she asked me to give her an example, I brought up the recent hike in tobacco taxes that are used as back-door control on tobacco use. Now, she thought this was a good thing. She claims that the government has the right to regulate things such as tobacco because smoking is bad for people, and if the government makes it more difficult to buy tobacco, then more people will quit.

Some people see this as noble and might say the government needs to protect people from their own harmful decisions.

Government, however, is not constituted to make laws that protect us from ourselves. I cannot say emphatically enough how true this is. Laws should be made to protect our rights from being infringed upon by others. Any law that is made that does not reach those ends is a law that oversteps its bounds.

Now, admittedly, in the example I used above, there was no law passed that outlawed smoking. Such a thing would never pass in any form of legislation. Not yet anyway. No, that example is a form of coercive lifestyle direction. The government has the ability--notice that I did not say "the right"--to control the populace's actions through taxation and administrative bureaucracy policies and regulations. This is a way for the government to get the desired results without taking the heat of passing a direct law. It also shields the change under the guise of free will. For instance, in this case, a proponent of tougher smoking regulation can make the argument that former smokers still had the liberty to buy cigarettes, but made an educated decision to quit. When in reality, the only reason these people quit, was because the product became too expensive.

No one is arguing that smoking is harmless. On the contrary, I believe that smoking cigarettes is one of the most unhealthy habits that a man can pick up, but that doesn't give the government the right to tell him he can't. We make self-destructive decisions all the time. But we have the freedom to make those decisions like we have the freedom to make healthy decisions. Some of the most important life lessons that we learn come from bad choices that we make. I'm sure this is just as true with your life as it is with mine.

So. If government doesn't have the right to tell us how we should live, for what purpose do we have government? Why forfeit absolute liberty (i.e. the state of nature/anarchy) for ordered liberty (i.e. limited government)?

Have you ever heard of John Locke? No. Not the bald guy from Lost. I'm talking about the man who influenced our founding documents more than any other man. John Locke wrote about this conundrum at great length in his treatises on government.

According to Locke, man comes out of the State of Nature because he finds it beneficial to live in a society with laws. Laws that protect him and his assets from other men. First, man comes out of the State of Nature into a society, then the society forms a government to protect the society and the people that make up that society. In other words, the society comes first and can survive if the government fails, but this is not an inverse relationship. The government cannot survive without the society. The dissolution of the society spells death for the government because society is the lifeblood of the government.

Now, having said that, let me focus on the second statement in that last paragraph. Man forms government to protect himself, his family, his property, and other innocent life from other men. That is the sole purpose of government. To ensure this protection we understand that the government must be allowed to do certain things, such as form and maintain a military, print money, etc.... In order for these functions to be performed, we grant the government the ability to tax us. But here is where the government's authority stops. The government can tax enough to fund its own maintenance, but any further taxation is superfluous and in most cases leads to reckless spending.

Each step the government takes toward us results in it becoming more intrusive in our lives, and those steps are matched with equal steps backward away from liberty.

What does this mean? It means that government has so far overstepped its bounds, that we have forgotten what government is intended to do. When compared to its form at conception, it has mutated into something that is now unrecognizable.

If you would like to see what our government is supposed to look like, look no further than our own Constitution. It has been laid out so simply in such a short document, but has been violated in so many ways.

Good government is simple and easily understood. If you don't believe me, take just a few short minutes and read the documents that our men and women in the military, our legislators, administrators, and judges swear to protect and uphold--the Constitution.