We’re supposed to talk about “maximum freedom and minimum government” in Part 2, but first a clarification from Part 1.

In the first paragraph of Part 1 of this article I stated “I don’t believe in the two-party system because it doesn’t work.”  That’s kind of misleading although true.  The two-party system doesn’t work because it’s not designed to work for We the People.

The Constitution contains no reference to political parties.  In fact, the only use of the word “party” references people, as in the aggrieved party.

The Federalist Papers (in fact, Federalist 10) by James Madison says,

“The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling with which they overburden the inferior number, is a shilling saved to their own pockets.”

Political parties by their very nature create a position (a platform) as determined by their members (or, as is the case today, by the party leaders “thinking for” their members). The politicians who are a member of one party or the other are supposed to adhere to the party line, which means they vote the party platform.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  Neither party truly represents its members because the parties themselves are engaged in a war for power.

The Republicans claim to be the party of fiscal conservatism and limited government, but history shows Republicans are just as prone to excessive spending, pork, earmarks, and all of the other tricks that politicians use to hide the true operation of our federal government from us.

The Democrats claim to be the party of the people.  The problem is to determine which people do the Democrats represent?

The Democrats use minorities, but they’re certainly not the party for minorities.  They give entitlements (read “buy votes”) to minorities with no requirement to work, thus creating a dependent class whose only reason for existence is to vote for the Democrats in order to keep the entitlements.  Democrats did not pass Civil Rights legislation — Republicans did — but they leveraged it, and take credit for it, to keep their base.

Democrats are the party of the unions, but the unions are a minority in the workplace today — except in the federal government, where they’re now the majority.  Unions are actually a special interest group.  They need the federal government to help them pay healthcare and retirement, which they’ve promised but cannot pay, and the government (read “politicians”) need them for campaign contributions and votes.  This doesn’t look like a healthy relationship to me and the majority of citizens don’t get any benefit from it.

So, I’m not a Republican or a Democrat.  I’ve already explained why I’m not an Independent.  And because the Republicans and Democrats are so much alike, the two-party system doesn’t work.

Minimum government and maximum freedom is such a simple idea.  It’s the American cowboy or entrepreneur or inventor.  It’s the ability to have an idea, work hard, and be successful.  It’s the real American Dream.

Minimum government and maximum freedom requires close adherence to the Constitution as written and interpreted in 1789, not as interpreted by Progressives in 2010.  Words mean different things now, and the ability to slowly change the definition of what is “acceptable” legislation means the federal government can do things to us today that would — and did — cause the first American Revolution.

There are so many cases where all you need to do is read the Constitution and compare what you’ve read to how it’s interpreted to see that progressive courts have failed to do their job.  When the federal government is powerful enough to tell you how to live your life, it’s too powerful.

Minimum government is a government that does what the Constitution allows it to do, and by doing so, allows We the People maximum freedom.  This is a closed system, and the more power the federal government has over what we do and how we do it, the less freedom we have.

I believe in minimum government and maximum freedom.  I’ll keep saying it.  The federal government must keep out of our business so that we can continue to live in freedom.  As Benjamin Franklin said, “People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both.”

In Part 3, we will discuss the accumulation of power by the federal government, the reduction of states’ power that results from this, and what it means to your individual freedoms.