Good government understands that it is best to have the loyalty of a strong, independent, and productive people.  It is an earned loyalty based in large part on trust.  A power intensive government does not trust the people, and eventually enslaves them.  Today's Democrats are seeking to achieve just that.   

In 1789 when our national Constitution was written the authors assumed that it would be sufficient to govern the new nation because they also assumed that the nation would be composed primarily of reasonably educated, involved people who would have a significant independent streak and so would look to take care of themselves. Central to these assumptions was a belief that in serving their own best interests the people would also best serve the national interest; that the people and the nation would prosper when they were strong, aware, and wiling and able to look after themselves. This was the spirit that enabled early Americans to settle the wilderness, cross the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, and create a nation that stretched from coast to coast. They did the vast majority of it without government involvement, other than encouragement, limited law enforcement and occasional military support. It is a far cry from today's America where people would be asking for government handouts to support any such expeditions, if such private based expeditions were not regulated out of existence.

What should go without saying is that the nation prospered under this laissez-faire or largely hands off approach from the government. Certainly, life was not without its ups and downs. Problems developed and were solved. People understood that life was not a bed of roses and when the thorns did appear they pulled them out, bandaged their wounds and continued the fight anew. When they needed help they turned to their families, their friends and neighbors, and local communities. In doing this they strengthened the community its ability to survive future adversities.

It was after the turn of the 20th century that things changed. The rise of science and technology was one key to this. Inventions such as the telephone and powered flight to the automobile changed the way people saw their environment and enabled them to change it. It seemed that there might be no problem that science could not solve. Meanwhile, Marxist theory argued that central planning, presumably on a scientific basis would be superior in performance to unplanned capitalism. It would, according to some, eliminate wasted efforts, and dispense with the need for profit as a motivation. Thus, social engineering became a powerful force in the intellectual community. The only problem is that it doesn't work in practice, as the Soviet Union and China under Mao found out. It merely becomes an excuse for despotism, which is why politicians with a lust for power like it so much.

As the American people turned to politicians and social planning instead of to themselves for answers the nation began to lose what it once had. Instead of digging themselves out of trouble they look for government to do it for them. Witness the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as contrasted with the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. In 1906 there was no federal assistance. The people rebuilt anyway, and did so better than before. Will New Orleans do the same? It is possible that they will not because many there are waiting for someone to do it for them. Then again, there are regulations that will prevent some from doing so, even when they can. Mediocrity is enforced by law rather than success permitted through liberty.

The paradox that exists is that a government can keep itself deliberately weak, while maintaining a strong population, which can fend for itself in most situations. The stronger the government is and the more it controls the people the less powerful and self-reliant they become. In attempting to do good, or in professing to do so, such as by providing handouts instead of opportunities, government saps the ability of the people while gaining power over them. In the end, it creates a situation in which people must abandon hope, or attempt to escape, as those living behind the Iron Curtain learned to do. People didn't try to break into East Germany; they tried to break out.

Good government understands that it is best to have the loyalty of a strong, independent, and productive people. Such loyalty is only found where government is does not hinder or enslave the society it governs. It is an earned loyalty rather than one, which exists due to fear and dependency. It is based, in part, on trust. It exists because the people trust government not to harm them, or to interfere with their potential for success. A successful people equals a successful nation and thereby, a successful government.

However a government based on intense power and social engineering has no trust for the common people. If it did then there would be no need for engineering society, and no need for planning. It creates a relationship of distrust in return. Eventually even those who did not believe it before, come to understand that the bureaucracy will always do them more harm than good, regardless of the stated intent. Thus society will become divided into roughly four groups; the slave masters who run government, their willing accomplices in the bureaucracy, the unwilling slaves who would prefer liberty and the willing slaves who will give up anything and everything to be dependent because they care so little about themselves.

Between 1861 and 1865 the United States was divided, in part over the issue of slavery. Republicans led by Abraham Lincoln championed the right of all people to live free while the Democrats fought to preserve the existing order and the continuation of slavery. Today, the Democrats are fighting to reestablish slavery just as they fought to preserve it in the 1850's and 1860's. However, today they seek to enslave not only people of African descent, but all other American citizens as well. When the government sentences you to involuntary servitude the constitutional prohibition apparently does not apply.

It appears that some Americans have not learned in one hundred and fifty years that slavery is evil, no matter who is holding the whip. So today a few would recreate tha injustice that was outlawed and do so in the name of equality and "social justice." It may be that one war wasn't enough to end the travesty of human bondage in these United States. It would be a shame to have to fight the same war all over again because the lesson was not yet learned.