Getting pushy

Having liberty is a little bit like the joke about guessing where you are when every direction you look is south, it means you're standing on the North Pole. The ideal of America is the maximum liberty available to a physically secure free market society bent on non violent transfer of power at the direction of the electorate. That position of maximum liberty is like being at the top of the mountain, every attack on that liberty, every compromise that is made in the name of bipartisan cooperation is a move away from that pinnacle, that shining city on the hill. The only direction you can go from the top is down, and the path down is a slippery slope; not only does the direction suck, the descent is messy and the destination is unpredictable.

What is an assault on liberty? Any time the forces of government choose to tax an activity which used to be free, that is an assault on liberty. Any time a transaction incurs fees beyond those which pay for the necessary related services performed by the government, that is an assault on liberty. Any time a law is passed which creates a hurdle to the pursuit of an action which is not strictly illegal, that is an assault on liberty.

Liberty is a type of order. Like the second law of thermodynamics, if we let loose the control of our liberties, let them be traded to special interests for campaign cash and votes, our condition will tend toward an entropic disolution into societal chaos. Our freemarket energies and self improvement inclination will be disorganized to the point of being unable to improve the quality of our lives.

I have a personal mantra, never risk something you can't afford to replace. Once sacrificed recapturing liberty has never required less than bloodshed. Everytime we give up an iota of liberty we place an IOU in the war chest we will have to empty to get it back.

There is a reason that authoritarian politicians want us in deep debt and without the freedoms to pursue our goals excepting with their permission, it makes us easier to control. Think breadlines in the Soviet Union, even a crust of stale bread is worth selling out your family when you are hungry and the end is inevitable anyway.