By Armstrong Williams
Sunday, May 20, 2013
Scandals are nothing new in Washington. Just about every
president has faced an accusation of misconduct, whether moral or criminal. It
should be no surprise that the Obama Administration would find itself in the midst
of one, well actually 3 at present.
Many Republicans have been quick to declare this the end
of Obama, even calling for impeachment. However, these scandals are not the
personal failings of the President himself, rather they are the failings of the
liberal philosophy which he and his entire administration espouse.
In case you were out camping without a cell phone for the
past week, here is a brief recap in order of appearance:
Benghazi: the White House has been accused of failure to
act and misleading the public about the events surrounding the 9/11/12 attack
on the US consulate resulting in the death of Ambassador Stevens.
IRS: Conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status
were targeted for extra scrutiny, beginning shortly after Scott Brown special
election victory in 2010 through the 2012 presidential campaign. Also,
confidential tax documents of prominent conservatives were leaked to the media.
Associated Press (AP) wiretapping: the Department of
Justice tapped the phones of AP reporters and offices for two months in an
effort to locate an administration leak.
APgate is troubling, but the problem for Republicans is
that it’s legal and part of the Patriot Act. Any attempts to role this
particular part of the legislation back has been convincingly voted down by
both parties. Suddenly, the Republicans realize that an overreaching Patriot
Act may not have been a good thing, but it feels politically rather than
ideologically driven.
The IRS scandal is the most relatable and represents the
most immediate problem for our country. Only a fool would believe that 2-4
field workers took it upon themselves to single-handedly institute a policy of
red taping conservative groups. It rises higher, but I seriously doubt the
President directed such actions.
Finally, we have Benghazi. It was a tragedy; of that
there is no doubt. Was there negligence involved? Yes. Was there a poor attempt
at PR misdirection? Most definitely. Were different department figure pointing
at each other? AS sure as the sun shines. Is anything that happened
impeachable? No. More than anything Benghazi is another example of an
administration getting caught flat footed and stumbling to fudge the facts for
fear that the American people could not handle the truth, especially so close to
the elections.
And that, my dear readers, gets to the heart of what the
week was really about: the competence of a government ruled by a party that
believe the solution to every problem is more government.
This is not about Obama the man, or even about Obama the
president. This is not even about Republicans and Democrats. This is about the
fundamental failure of progressive liberal ideology.
Logistics alone make it impossible for a government to
solve every citizen’s problem. Yet, a bigger government is expected to do just
that.
Big government is inflexible; it cannot respond to
priorities because, over time, there are too many competing priorities. The
greater the bureaucracy grows the more it becomes impersonal, wasteful,
over-stretched, and difficult to reign in.
Furthermore, big government does not trust you to know
how best to run your life, yet other imperfect beings are somehow capable of
properly directing your life as soon as they are employed by the government.
People are fallible, and so is the state.
If liberals are right about the role of government, then
how did these scandals happen? Do we truly need more government to stop these
things from happening?
In Benghazi, should even more officials debated whether
to send troops to save our people? Should there have been more security?
Perhaps there should not have been a consulate in a hot
zone in the first place, especially one so ill protected. How effective can an
isolated diplomatic post on lock down really be? It seems more prudent to have
a smaller footprint in the middle extreme conflict areas (esp. when our
military is not in the field), which would save more lives and treasure.
Regarding the IRS, do auditors need more laws and
supervisors to prevent such abuse? What happened is already illegal.
Then again, maybe a simpler tax code would solve the
issue. If the law is so simple even a caveman can do it, then less IRS agents
are needed, or conversely, it would free up existing agents to more quickly
process paperwork.
And finally, regarding the DOJ wiretapping the AP--do we
need more Patriot Act provisions to protect the US by suspecting every citizen
and stopping potential whistle blowers? Does the government need more power to
track everyone’s movements and communications now that modern technology gives
them the ability to do so?
I think we need to take a serious look at the Patriot Act
and begin rolling it back. Our government was founded on the belief that we are
all “innocent until proven guilty” and should be afforded due process. In order
for our Republic to function, we must be able to trust the government to
faithfully protect our rights and privacy. However, treating everyone like a
suspected criminal only weakens our confidence in the government’s willingness
to safeguard our liberties. A government dedicated to civil rights is more
trusting and less invasive, which compels it to be smaller.
Sometimes, no matter how sound an idea is, both
rationally and emotionally, no amount of debate will convince an opponent of
the inherent fallacy of his position. In such cases, it is sometimes better to
let our adversaries have their way so they can inadvertently hang themselves
with their own errant ideas. This week is a perfect example of that. More
government would never have solved these issues, nor many others faced by
administrations past and present.
This is not the end of the Obama Presidency (unless a
bombshell drops), and cries of impeachment by certain Republicans only hurt
conservatives who are focused on winning the wars of ideas, not scoring short
term political points against a man that will not be on the ballot in 3 years.
As Americans, we all want our country to be the shining
city on the hill, but once again events prove that big government liberal
ideology is not the right path.
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