Framing the Debate

Statement

It is often hard to present solutions to our problems in a public debate. The problem is being able to control the dialog. If we are the first to tug at the heartstrings of potential voters, we have framed the debate, and any solutions not in the framework will sound callous or evil. But sometimes the framework itself hides a callousness that must be exposed.

Let's imagine our children and our grandchildren as babies in a stroller, and as loving grandparents, we have deposited money for their college fund into an account in their name. When the state government comes to us and offers us healthcare and retirement security, we feel good that someone wants to take care of us in the same way we want to care for our grandchildren.

But what if we discover that our cute kids have been robbed, even promised into servitude, by that same government? What if we realized that the same people that are robbing from the mouths of babes are buying our votes by giving things to us, the parents and grandparents? This would present a quandary for us, especially if we really want that comfort and security that we think we deserve.

Would you personally force your children and grandchildren to work for years to pay for your comfort? If not, is it any better to allow the government to do it, as long as we don't have to directly see the horrible truth? I think not.

We deserve to be rewarded for years of hard labor and service to our communities. We deserve the good life for the long road we have traveled to our golden years. But that has been stolen from us by state policies, making promises that they can't keep. That has been ruined for us by decades of overspending that ignored the future. We can't get that back. For the most part, we can't even punish the thoughtless politicians that got us into this mess. But we do know that something must be done.

There are very few things left for us to do. One thing we can do is to quit voting for politicians who promise to give you something. You know where the money is coming from and it is blood money from our families' futures. The other is to step outside the traditional framework. We can no longer allow the Big Government parties to set the conditions for us. We must ask the hard questions and learn that a government big enough to give you healthcare and security is big enough to take away the prosperity and freedom of our generation, and the next, and the next.

Source