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Enough is enough already. While conservative Americans like me cry out to Washington, we are swept under the rug by the mainstream media. Over a million people were at the 9/12 March in Washington, D.C. this year, and more than 10,000 people showed up for the “House Call on Congress” on a week’s notice.
Although people like me are a minority on campus, conservatives here in the University of Maine bubble are able to step back sometimes and realize what the rest of the world thinks, and it is time for Barack Obama and the Democrat-controlled congress to do the same. The tide of opinion for the president is turning.
A Fox News poll has the job approval for President Obama at 46 percent with an equal disapproval at 46 percent. Other polls are also showing his approval is slipping fast. The fact is that all the rhetoric Obama got elected with is proving to be nothing more than big government.
After years of criticizing the money spent on the war, his administration and Congress have created a record $1.4 trillion deficit with reckless spending. The national debt President Bush was criticized for creating has only been increased by the very people who were criticizing him. The left criticized President Bush for giving tax cuts to the rich, who just happen to be the ones who need money to create jobs, while Barack Obama hid behind campaign promises to only raise taxes on the rich, not the middle class.
Joe the Plumber exposed our president for what his real plan was, and that was to raise taxes on whoever necessary to get money to pay for his health care agenda. In order to cover everyone who can’t afford coverage, middle class folks like you and me will end up paying more in the end. The rich sure don’t have enough money to take care of it for everyone.
Even the United States, one of the richest nations in the world, only has so much money. If we keep spending this much, taxes will have to be increased. More taxation only means less freedom to spend our own hard-earned money the way we see fit, which makes us more dependent on the government to get what we can’t afford to buy because they took our money away.
Big government spending our money for us to live our daily lives was not the vision of the founding fathers, but is instead the vision of power-hungry socialists. All Americans like me want is to be free to live our lives the way we see best. The blood of our ancestors has bought us that freedom, so let’s not give it to power-hungry politicians.
I’m not advocating for anarchy, because the purpose of freedom is not to satisfy our lower nature but to practice justice to maintain our free society. If we simply live virtuous lives in a nation that still has consequences for our actions, where we love our fellow man just as we would ourselves, America will once again prosper.
Our own personal greed got us into this mess, and I believe the motive of our government is greed. They want to tell us what is best for us, not because they want to help those who can’t help themselves, but because they think we do not know what is best for ourselves but they do. We must be a free society, so long as it is a society where we put others first and our selfish desires last.
Jonathan Zappala is a senior psychology student.
