Left? Right? or Balanced! Part 2

Ayn Rand in "Atlas Shrugged" outlines her Utopia - "Galt's Gulch". This is a society where men and women have no moral code other than seeking their own wealth, satisfaction, and existence. They are answerable to nothing but their own moral conscience which includes profit. She identifies the fact that the people who attain this Utopian ideal have decided that never again will they provide their talent, time, and treasure for the use of a population that expects it. They will not empower the "takers" nor will they exist solely as the "givers". But, is this our highest aim? It certainly qualifies as the extreme right - liberty only, no laws - no absolutes, simply MAN and his MIND.

Extreme Right is NOT Conservatism.

The current controversies in the United States seem to center on the same system that Ayn Rand is fighting.

• Health care for everyone: why should a brilliant surgeon, dedicated to his craft, embracing his talent, having invested heavily in his own education allow any entity to dictate the price he should charge and the time he should give? 'Obamacare' would structure such dictates on Health care.
• The unions played an important part in our society at one time, yet today they exist basically by guaranteeing a job for a worker - regardless of performance and value to the company which hired him.
• The government has recently determined that bonuses paid to banking executives were too large.
• The government has engineered the resignations of CEO's, taken a strong hand in housing, education, agriculture, and the utilities industry.

The direction America is heading is a liberal smorgasbord of control. It certainly is heading to the extreme left: no liberties - laws ONLY and EVERY man must serve ALL men.

Current right (the mainstream Republican Party) is NOT Conservatism!

If the final authority for mankind is MAN himself, then the FAR RIGHT is correct. Man should live for himself, provide for himself, and answer to himself. Selfishness would rule, and compassion could not and would not be directed to those in need. If the final authority for mankind is government, then the FAR LEFT is correct. Man should exist only within the framework of laws which require that he live for the collective, provide for the collective and answer to the collective. Laziness would rule, no one's needs would be met because each one in need would be directed only to one in greater need.
However with God as a final authority, Man lives to His glory and depends upon God's provision. What man is given in surplus can be shared with those in need. When answerable to God, man's compassion is commanded and lack thereof is punished, but BY GOD. Laws developed in answer to God, protect mankind and offer order and structure, NOT dictates and demands.

True Conservatism answers to the Creator and is the perfect balance between RIGHT & LEFT.

Socialism in NOT the answer!

Recently our local paper (Lebanon Daily News) published a letter referring to Republicans as naive because we are fighting against government regulation and controls in big business. His ideas were that strong government regulations and controls will protect us from the greedy "robber-barons" that have run the industries of banking, credit, health care, and automobiles. His suggestion was that, like firefighting, police and roadwork, government should take over these industries and thus ensure that we will no longer be victims of these abuses. Just who is naive?
Government has long been the stronghold of the "robber-barons". Ever heard of pork barrel spending? That is a greedy politician more interested in maintaining his office than exercising the common good of the citizenry. Although my friend wished to make this a Republican versus Democrat debate, the fact is that our debate is really "Big Government" versus "Limited Government" and in the eyes of any true patriot, the Republicans are just as guilty as the Democrats in wasteful spending and irresponsible governing. It is not naive to assume that a reduction in government controls and regulation is the true way to resolve our current economic problems.
For instance, consider the banking industry - banking regulations have been used to protect investors for years - that was the goal. The government stepped into private industry to ensure that hardworking people did not lose their hard-earned dollars. Regulation created a bureaucracy and bureaucracy searched for loopholes and loopholes created opportunity for "industrious" individuals to make money while protecting someone else's money. Sounds great, everyone gets a piece of the pie and the investors are happy with some gain knowing that even though others are eating the pie, their capital is sound. Then came further regulation, when BIG GOVERNMENT decided to force the banking industry to make allowances for those with little or no capital to invest. What we now call "bad loans" - wait, we always called them that until Uncle Sam changed the rules. As a result, capital is not being ensured, investors are not being protected and our economic system is collapsing. This may be a simplistic view of the problem but nevertheless it works. So what was the solution? remove the regulation and restore what was working? No. Rather, let's increase regulation, bailout the losers we created and hope it all fixes itself. Is the problem greedy, rich "robber-barons" or elected, greedy, rich "robber-barons"?
This same scenario is being repeated in Environmental Issues, Education Issues,Health care, the Auto Industry, Banking, Real Estate, Wall Street, Utilities, and on, and on, and on. Once again, who is really naive? Socialism and its near relatives, communism and Marxism lead only one direction - TYRANNY. The only ones who are truly naive are those that believe that thousands of years of history will somehow change, that human nature will somehow reverse itself and socialism will finally lead to a Utopian society. Our Founding Fathers had it right the problem is that we have ceased to hear them, see them or know them. Freedom must be the driving force of our society and Liberty must always be bounded by responsibility. Government regulation and socialized ideals will only lead to destruction.