Restrictions increase power

Making people and drugs illegal promotes government power.
 
Demanding that government officials investigate and institute government identification cards for individuals, and building walls to keep people out of the United States gives government officials more power over the populace.
 
This is not exactly what the founders had in mind when they installed a central government under the Constitution.
 
Even when the old Soviet Union, with all its totalitarian power, tried to control the movement of drugs and people, it failed miserably.
 
One of the major reasons the founders created the Constitution was to open the borders between the 13 individual colonies (countries) in order that individuals and goods could cross into Maryland from Virginia, for instance, without limitation. There was no requirement to possess a passport or a national ID card.
 
Laws against murder, rape, theft and fraud all existed and if an individual committed any or all of those types of crimes the purpose of government officials was to prosecute those that committed such transgressions.
 
There was also no government welfare programs, no government health care programs, no government housing, no government schooling, nor the other needed goods and services provided by government officials today for individuals to exist.
 
In other words no American or foreigner was given nor had the availability of government programs being handed out to them in any way, shape or form. Those programs just did not exist, nor were they expected to exist.

The expectations of all government officials were to keep the peace and prosecute those who did not.
 
The reason many individuals today keep demanding government officials to control people and drugs is a result of all of the government programs that government officials are now expected to administer.
 
Now there are even demands that local peacekeepers go after so-called illegals. On top of that private companies and business owners are now being required to police others, making sure they are "legal," just like they are required to be the tax collector for the government.
 
If none of the current government housing, education, health care and welfare programs were available for every individual, Americans and foreigners alike, there would be no need for all of government control being heaped upon everyone.
 
There would be no need for passports and national ID cards and inspections at airports and on the highways. There would also be no need for most of the taxation that exists today that severely hampers individuals' ability to grow economically, especially those on the lower end of the economic ladder.
 
Making drugs illegal promotes more government power and the need for more government officials to enforce even more laws that are also stacked upon the citizenry, making it a greater chance that an innocent individual becomes a criminal.
 
More drug laws result in more crime, which results in more need for government officials to administer more prisons - and the cycle continues. Government officials wind up spending more time and money in areas they are not constitutionally authorized.
 
Having open borders and putting drugs under the control of a free market reduces crime, reduces the need for more prison space, reduces the threat of terrorism and increases the chance for a more peaceful world.
 
Opening borders to people and drugs does not automatically mean terrorists enter the United States. If terrorists are Americans, then those criminals are already here. If they are foreigners, even the most stringent controls do not keep them out, especially walls.
 
If foreigners are suspected terrorists trying to come into the United States, then government officials can use the standard legal means to apprehend them and have them extradited. Besides, government officials, through abandonment of the principles of liberty found in the Constitution, increase the chance of more individuals becoming terrorists.
 
By demanding more from government, American society sinks ever deeper into the quicksand of tyranny. If Americans truly want more freedom and less power aggrandizement by government officials, then Americans must stop turning to government officials to solve every situation that arises.
 
The founders understood this. So can 21st Century Americans.


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Howard J. Blitz is a local libertarian and
president of The Freedom Library Inc.,
2435 S. 8th Ave. His e-mail address is
info@freedomlibrary.org