When I was a teenager in the 1970s, my mother was very politically active. She would always warn us about the occupation of America by the Communists. My other siblings and I use to poke fun at her because we assumed that she meant some sort of military occupation. In recent years I have discovered two things; 1) My mother was talking about an occupation of our government and institutions by a Communist ideology and 2) My mother is a very wise woman. Her supposition was prompted by the awareness of the Communist manifesto from the 1950s. It stated that the United States could not be defeated militarily and would have to be destroyed by tearing down the institutions which made it great, i.e. its family structure and moral underpinnings supported by a vibrant religious community. And for the last 50 years or so that's exactly what has happened.
The Progressive movement, which actually started about 100 years ago with Woodrow Wilson and continued through FDR, Lyndon Johnson and others, has been an antecedent to the current administration. Modern day Liberalism, which is actually an enemy of its root word liberty, is actually nothing more than Wilson's regressive Progressive ideology. The Progressive ideology is based on tearing down the institutions of independence, such as the family, community and faith. The Progressive knows that in order to succeed he must confiscate independence and replace it with an ever-increasing and powerful reliance on government. You can not do this when there are strong families and communities and a strong faith-based society. The Progressive also can't succeed with a strong free market. Free market capitalism necessarily breeds independence and self-reliance, two things which are destructive to the cause of Progressivism.
Which at long last brings us to the Obama administration. The Obama administration has passed 3500 new federal regulations in each of the last three years. Regulations not only have a real cost to businesses (banks now spend 1.2 man-hours being compliant with federal regulations for every man-hour they spend on their core business) but the regulatory beast allows government to control more of the free market, thus making it less free. This breeds more dependence on government. An environment of over-regulation also allows government to pick winners and losers by selectively prosecuting businesses for the expressed purpose of controlling them. The regulations are so voluminous and complicated that in some industries, millions and even billions of dollars must be spent in order to comply. This necessarily excludes the smaller entities from participating. This should never be the case in a free society. Government should exist in the background and allow the markets to operate and self-correct when necessary. Thus creating the most opportunity and prosperity for the greatest number of people. Sadly, we have rushed head-long into a system which is less prosperous because it is more highly regulated by those who don't understand or have any stake in it.
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