When the Constitution was written over 200 years ago, our Founding Fathers were designing a system of government that they believed would be able to guarantee individual freedom. Each institution in that government was to play a specific and very important role. The role of Congress was to represent the will of the people, to insure that our interests are protected. The Founders saw this as an important requirement of freedom; there had to be a way for the common man to make his voice heard.
Congress is no longer serving this purpose. It is not the voice of the people which Congress hears to. Instead Congress listens to the jingling of money in the pockets of special interests and lobbyists. It has turned its back on voters such as you and me to bow down to the wishes of political action committees like those of the savings and loan industry. And Congressmen have become rich doing this; they have been lining their pockets while they have been ignoring our wishes. Such arrogant disregard for the wishes of the voters is dangerous to our freedom.
People ask me why I am running for Congress against Dick Gephardt and that is the answer I give them. I am running because I think Gephardt and Congressmen like him are dangerous, a threat to the very existence of our country and our individual freedom. People might think that is an extreme statement, but I know that if our Founding Fathers were here today they would agree with me. The purpose of government today, just as it was 200 years ago, is to extend freedom; that is the only reason it can exist, to give us greater control over our lives. If government isn't making us free, we have a moral obligation to get rid of it. That's what our Founding Fathers did when they threw off the yoke of British oppression.
Dick Gephardt has forgotten that purpose, if he ever knew it. Instead he is simply costing us our freedom. There are a lot in Congress like him. They tell us they are taking care of us, doing what is in our best interest. But they are not; all they are doing is trying to buy our votes. And all they are really doing is taking care of themselves. They say they have our best interests at heart, and then they give themselves a raise. They say they are trying to do what is best for us, and then they make their pensions sweeter, so that no matter how much they damage the economy, they are protected. They have automatic cost of living increases; what do they care if we have a high inflation rate?
Why do they do these things? Part of it is just greed. But also part of it is a reflection of the values most Democrats in Congress hold. Politics, ultimately, is a question of values, and our values have been under attack for 60 years; individualism has been under attack for 60 years. The culprit is a new value structure called "Societalism." Societalism isn't based on individual freedom or self-determination, it isn't based on the idea that each individual should be responsible for his or her own life. Instead it is based on the idea that our decisions should be made for us by society, that some bureaucrat in Washington should control our lives. Why? Because societalists, the people who believe in societalism, don't believe people are responsible for themselves. They don't think that men and women can be free. So, they have to take care of us. This is the value structure Dick Gephardt and many in Congress are pushing; they are saying government should control our lives, because we as individuals are unable to. Essentially they are telling us "Don't worry about freedom, just let us take care of you", and by doing so they are destroying the moral fabric of our country. They are destroying the values of individualism and the belief that all people should be free.
Think about what it is they are offering us. They say that they will take care of us, but the governments of Eastern Europe have been "taking care" of their citizens, too. Their governments have been "doing what is best for them." This is what it means to lose individualism. It means a government bureaucracy will tell people where to eat, where to sleep, and most importantly what to think. If we lose the belief that all people can be free, we lose the ability to think for ourselves.
I don't believe in societalism; I believe in individualism. I believe individuals should be free to control their own lives. I believe that most of the people of the Third District agree with me. We are a traditional, conservative district which embraces individualism and family values. Dick Gephardt does not uphold these values anymore. Does this mean that Gephardt actually believes in societalism? I don't know. Judging from his long history of flip flops, I really don't think he believes in anything at all. He just says whatever he feels the group he is trying to impress wants to hear. And for the past six years, that group has been the national Democrats. Gephardt wants to be President, and he really doesn't care if he has to double talk on every stand he has ever taken to do it. He doesn't care if he has to make everything he has said in the past a lie. He wants to be President, and he is willing to do whatever that takes. And if it means destroying traditional values and our freedom by pushing the societalism the national Democrats want, he'll do it. If that means turning his back on the Third District, he'll do it. He already has done it. He doesn't care what we believe anymore, just what the east coast liberals believe. And take my word for, they don't believe that the individual should be free.
For 60 years, the liberals have been pushing societalism and trying to tear down individualism. For 60 years they have been trying to take our freedom so they can watch over us like a flock of sheep, so they can control us. As a result, we are facing problems. Sixty years of societalism, of trying to run society like a laboratory to create a utopia, has done immense damage to our government and to our country. Our industries are losing competitiveness. Our schools no longer provide our children a good education. And most of all, our country is now over 3 trillion dollars in debt - that is $12,000 for every man, woman and child alive today. Our children are starting their lives in debt. My two grandchildren, both not yet four years old, already owe $24,000 between them.
This is the practical results of 60 years of societalism and utopianism, the situation into which the Democrats have put our country. We have to deal with these problems, we must correct this situation. If the deficits are allowed to continue, our national debt will be over 4 trillion dollars by the end of the century. Almost a third of our yearly budget will be drained away to pay interest on that debt. We will be sending ourselves into another depression, because a bunch of Congressmen bought our votes with our grandchildren's money.
So it is time to make changes. It is time to end a situation which has gotten far out of hand. And that means returning to our values. Returning to a belief in individualism, individual freedom and individual responsibility. We must remove the influences of societalism from our government, and we have to remove Dick Gephardt from office. We have to replace our the two faced flip flopper. I am running because we have to take back control of Congress, to make it fulfill the function for which it was designed. Getting rid of Gephardt won't change Congress overnight. It won't get rid of all the villains who are trying to destroy individualism and replace it with societalism, but it will send them a message. Dick Gephardt, our midwestern Dick Gephardt, is now one of the main spokesmen for east coast liberalism and the values of societalism. By defeating Dick Gephardt, we can send a message, a loud and clear message to the liberal eastern establishment, that we won't let it destroy our country and our values, and that we are tired of them taking our freedom, bit by bit, bureaucrat by bureaucrat. We just won't put up with it anymore. America does not share the values of the east coast liberals. We can make that clear to them by getting rid of Dick Gephardt.
This book is part of that effort. I wrote it for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I think it is important to examine exactly what we mean by freedom; it is not something we should take for granted. Secondly, it is necessary to trace out the development of the ideas of utopianism and liberalism, individualism and societalism. Where did they come from, how did they develop? Before we can correct our present situation and return to our values, we have to know where we have been, how the ideas of societalism developed and worked their way into our government. Finally, I wrote this book to lay out a plan of action, to say what I think needs to be done. The book describes what I think the role of government should be, how government can play the role the Founders intended for it, increasing our individual freedom. It talks about how we can once again embrace the most fundamental value of our country, individualism. This book talks about how we can win the Battle for America.