If you asked us what surprises us most about the world we live in, this would be high on the list . . .
* Statists control nearly everything
* Statist arguments dominate the national debate
* And yet, public opinion is still largely anti-Statist
Remember, Statism is the belief that . . .
* Your life needs to be engineered by a select group of people (Congress, the President) from the top down
* People must be threatened with violence in order to make them comply with these designs and dictates
* People who don’t submit to these threats, should actually suffer violence, in the form of imprisonment, the loss of property, and possibly even death, depending on how much they resist
Social engineering, threats, and violence — these are the sordid reality behind all the euphemistic talk we hear from Statists about things like compassion, order, safety, and security. Whenever someone proposes the State must do something, we should ask . . .
* Will the proposal protect your freedom to live your life as you see fit — provided you don’t impinge on the equal freedom of others to do the same? Or . . .
* Will the proposal itself threaten you with violence, instead of protecting you from it? Because . . .
If it protects your freedom, then it’s in keeping with the idea of Constitutional government and human liberty. If threatens you with fines, imprisonment, etc., then you’re talking about Statism.
Sadly, nearly everything discussed in the national debate is Statist. Consider the current so-called healthcare bill. It’s jam-packed with threats of violence . . .
* You must have health insurance of a kind dictated by politicians
* If you don’t buy health insurance then you’ll be fined — your hard earned property will be stolen from you
* If you try to avoid the fine, then minions of the State will find some way to take the money from you
* If you try to hide your money so that it can’t be seized, eventually men with guns will show up at your door to kidnap you, and hold you in confinement
* If you try to resist this kidnapping then the men will draw their guns, and if you continue to resist they will shoot you
This is the grim truth about the healthcare bill, and about nearly everything our government now does. Statism equals violence. And yet . . .
Many people are blind to this reality. They cannot see the gun that’s implicit in what they advocate. And because they can’t see the gun, they can’t see the inherent contradiction in their beliefs.
Threatening and initiating violence against others contradicts compassion, order, safety, and security.
The Statist is inherently hypocritical, wanting to be protected from threats and violence when his own interests and beliefs are at stake, but wanting to use threats and violence to impose his interests and beliefs on others. This is not government, this is thuggery. Statist thuggery.
And yet, everywhere we look we see this thuggery wrapped in the flag, and marching to patriotic music. Statist thuggery is . . .
* Taught in our schools and universities
* Preached by our politicians
* Presented as the only option by the major established news media
* Defended in advertising by every special interest beneficiary of Statist violence
* Invoked nearly every time someone says “there ought to be a law”
These are the things we can know today, about our strategic situation. We are out-gunned . . .
* Statist propaganda is heard all day long by everyone, everywhere, every day
* While the arguments against Statism are rarely heard
The healthcare debate is a case in point . . .
* We’ve seen bunches of TV ads by groups like AARP arguing for more Statist involvement in healthcare
* But I’ve seen only a handful of ads arguing against the healthcare bill, and NONE _advocating_ LESS State involvement
* Likewise, many politicians and media pundits are arguing against the healthcare bill, but very few are saying we ought to have less government involvement overall
So here’s what we can know before Congress even votes . . .
If we end up losing the healthcare fight it will be for these reasons . . .
* Statist propaganda is heard all day long by everyone, everywhere, every day
* While the arguments against Statism are hardly ever heard
And yet, despite all this, most Americans continue to be anti-Statist on most issues most of the time. Just look at the opinion polls about the healthcare bill. This surprising state of affairs leads me to wonder what would happen if the case against Statism could be heard at the same volume, and with the same frequency, as the case for it?
I cannot help but believe that, over time, the Statist mindset would completely vanish. In other words, if our ideas do so well now, with so little exposure, and in the face of so much negative propaganda, then just imagine how well they would do if they had the same hearing that Statism gets?
Surely our ideas would prevail.
So why aren’t our ideas heard as loudly as the Statist propaganda? In part it’s because Statism is spread using stolen money. This shouldn’t be surprising. That’s the nature of Statism. But it’s still our responsibility to fight back, and doing so effectively means we must . . .
* Find and recruit those who already oppose Statism
* Persuade and recruit those who don’t yet agree
And as we grow, we can build the very outreach, marketing, and especially advertising tools necessary to change the national debate.
This is where we are headed. This is what we’re trying to do. Do you want it done? Please help it happen. You can contribute via credit card on our secure server, or access PayPal, or find our mailing address, here: https://secure.downsizedc.org/contribute/
Jim Babka & Perry Willis
President & Vice President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
P.S. Jim Babka is scheduled to be on the radio twice today. Details are available at the DownsizeDC.org blog.