Big Brotherism

Well, boys and girls, it is beginning.

Today, in Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital, thousands of protesters from around the nation marched to the Capitol to demonstrate against the rise in big government’s intrusion into our daily lives.

Look for more of this to take place in the future. People are sick and tired of being taxed out of their homes, their lives turned into a sham of what we call “The American Dream.”  Why, entire families have been reduced to living in tents, or cardboard houses in some of our largest cities.

Every morning in reading the newspaper, you can see where foreclosures are up, unemployment continues to increase, governments are strapped and desperate for more revenue. And we all know the source of that revenue tap.

I recall seeing whole villages of homeless people living in cardboard jungles beneath sprawling interstate bridges  in Thailand and some other Third World countries I visited a few years ago. I thought, well, this could never happen in America.

I was wrong. It is happening. We are witnessing a huge swing in this nation, away from the hand of too much government in our lives. My parents were children of the Great Depression. They loved Franklin Delano Roosevelt, because he was able to get the nation working again, through a series of social programs. They worked then, but set the stage for lasting entitlement programs that have longer shelf life than plutonium.

Said Jim DeMint, a Republican senator from South Carolina at Saturday’s large protest: “I just hope the Congress, the Senate and the president recognizes that people are afraid of what’s going on” (NY Times, Sept. 12, 2009).

The Times reported that the demonstrators, carrying all manner of protest signs, arrived by “bus, car and airplane.” They came from Texas, Tennessee, New Mexico and New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania, the Times reported. There were, says the Times, tens of thousands in the streets.

Many were there to protest the deterioration of the U.S. Constitution.

I support that view. The Constitution gives the right to Congress to levy taxes. It must be equal in all the states. But states also levy taxes on goods. Tennessee’s consumer tax rate reaches almost 10 percent for a product. Tobacco taxes are the poster boy for bad tax habits, and need reforming, not increasing. Trying to legislate moral behavior didn’t work with alcohol prohibition, and it won’t work with tobacco. What will happen is a brisk black market will form. People will find a work-around to continue making private choices.

There are simply too many taxes on too many consumer products today. Rising taxes are bankrupting many a family,  and some of these increased taxes in our lives are not necessary. To operate an efficient business, you have to make cuts, sometimes drastic cuts, in order to keep the doors open. This government merely adds to what it has, and lards on the taxes to pay for some of the entitlements, and charges off the rest to future generations.

All this brings to mind the British author, George Orwell’s scary book, “1984,” in which he wrote about a government of Big Brother, always watching and listening in on the population.

In the opening chapter, Orwell says that the three slogans that defined the Ministry of Truth are: “War is Peace,” “Freedom is Slavery,” and Ignorance is Strength.”

He talks about the “Thought Police.” And nothing else mattered, only the “thought police.”

Published in 1949, the novel is a guide to how government can take complete control of everyday life.

Now, I am not an alarmist. But I think we are experiencing too much government. Don’t get me wrong. As a retiree I like my Social Security income, and my Medicare benefits. I also must supplement my health care from the government.

I, of course, still earn income, and thus pay income taxes.

Hang on. I’ll get to the punch line momentarily.

Now, I do not like the fact that U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, a Republican from South Carolina, shouted “you lie,” to the President of the United States.

I do not disagree that he has the right to speak his mind. Only, he can’t shout “fire” in a crowded theater. Being a lawyer, he should know that.

Wilson is also a colonel in the South Carolina National Guard. He called his commander-in-chief a liar before millions of people viewing on television and in a Joint Session of Congress.

I totally disagree with his time and venue of the “shout out.” But, I still defend his right to have an opposite view from the President, or anyone else for that matter.

He was disrepectful to the office of President. He was letting off steam from the combative debate this nation is having over the future of health care.

Will a portion of our future health care be government operated? Don’t know. We already have government-run systems in Medicare and Medicaid. That, dear friends, is not my idea of socialism. It is my chance to get some of my money back that I pumped into taxes as a working slob for 46 years. If I live long enough.

But this question of Big Brother growing bigger is a problem. Pipe smokers will begin to feel the heat down the road with more taxes, more government-ordered restraints, simply because the self-serving anti-tobacco establishment has a louder voice and a bigger pocketbook than we have.

I will reiterate my view that pipe smokers logically should be allowed to be placed in a different category than cigarette smokers.

I also believe that you should let your local leaders, legislators and U.S. Congressmen know how you feel through letters (snail and email). Letters may not get the attention you think they deserve, but they do let the politicians get a feel for how their constituents are leaning toward a particular issue. And you can also make sure they know you are a person who votes.

If pipe smokers fail to unify, we will be swamped with more Big Brotherism. Ignorance is strength, Orwell wrote.

Think about that. Who gains from our being ignorant? Who becomes more powerful if we are not fully informed and willing to take charge? To come together?

Make no mistake. Big Brother is watching.