Coming to Terms with Limited Government

Washington has a nasty habit of using words with vague definitions. It's part of the “Washington is never wrong” strategy to stay away from anything with solid meanings; it also makes the job of an honest person much more difficult. To tackle this task, some of the articles on this blog will be dedicated to defining terms that will be used throughout the campaign. Honesty and clarity are key aspects of leaderships; “we the people” deserve a blueprint for success, not a blank slate.

Conservatism revolves around a key theme: limited government. Our government has grown beyond its intended purpose, and it needs to be scaled back to preserve our freedom. But, what is a limited government?

The left criticizes the idea of a limited government by equating it to a small government. This is theme of progressive thinking, that problems are bigger than people, groups, and communities; these problems can only be addressed by a bloated central government. Their criticism of conservatism is that a small government wouldn't be able to handle big problems. This is the importance of definitions; a limited government isn't small and powerless.

The founders of our nation established a limited government, not a small government; however, our Federal government has become inefficient, redundant, and comprised of too many unsustainable and unnecessary programs. A small government has too many boundaries to deal with problems, where a limited government respects the boundaries established by the constitution. These boundaries involve the daily decisions of Americans and American businesses, as well as matters reserved for the state and local governments. In short, our federal government should be facilitating the military and enforcing laws that cross state lines, not telling us what kind of cars to drive ,or what to teach our children, or what temperature we should use on our furnaces.

Our founders fled a government that was too big for its own good; they established a government that allowed people to stand up and achieve on their own. “Twice American” means first appreciating the struggles that lead our forefathers to freedom, and second, taking the responsibility and fighting to preserve it. Conservatism's view of a limited government is peeling back the layers of regulation and restriction that go beyond the scope of the constitution. The federal government was indeed given a supreme role in its LIMITED scope, but RESTRICED from interfering with the RESPONSIBILITY of local-government and SECURITY of the individual. It's about having a government that is big enough to handle problems, but only the problems it was designed to handle. Most importantly, it's about remembering the framework, laid by our founders, that led to unprecedented global success.

Regards, Lee Byberg