dtucker300 wrote:
The way you do that is to limit the power of government (and Politicians) to wreak havoc on our lives. Politicians love to exert power over people. Until we return to the constitutional principles upon which our government was founded things will continue to devolve. There is not enough time and space here to lay out all the things we should and should not be doing. But basically, we are in agreement.
You and I are perhaps about 25% in agreement here. I agree that there has to be a limit or limits on the power of government. That's why there's Separation of Church and State, Checks and Balances, and a law that says public servants must not take bribes, plus a few other checks built into the system.
The part which you (and maybe most Republicans) (whether you're Republican or not) don't seem to understand is that there needs to be a "limit" to "the power of" wealthy people and large business corporations and various criminals, so that they won't be able to "wreak havoc on our lives". Wealthy people and large business corporations, and criminals, "love to exert power over people".
That the power, of powerful people over less powerful people, needs to be limited, is why our government was invented. Our government was invented so that we, through it, could limit what powerful entities could do to us.
Before that there were kings with too much power over poor people. Then some noblemen banded together to write a Magna Carta and then force or influence a king to obey the Magna Carta. This limited the power of the king. The Magna Carta was an improvement upon the government that preceded it. Later, the U.S. Constitution (and, in my view, the U.S. Declaration of Independence as an important factor) was an improvement over the government that had preceded it.
Note that they did not get rid of government altogether.
There was a reason why they still needed a government.
There is a mechanical device called a "governor" which works as follows: a spinning wheel has parts that rise up and outward as the wheel spins faster (as a result of what's commonly called "centrifugal force"). When the wheel spins too fast, those parts rise up high enough or outward far enough to trigger a mechanism that either stops the wheel or slows it down. This "governs" the speed of the wheel. This "governing" prevents the wheel from going too fast.
"Government" (or, at least, good government) has a similar principle: It governs so that things don't spin too far out of control. Government stops (or exists to stop) thieves, thugs, powerful individuals, the mafia, and large business corporations from doing really bad things. It does this by some form of "regulation" (similarly as the mechanical device described above "regulates" or "governs" the speed of the wheel), such as a law against murder or theft, or a law against monopolistic business, and by enforcement of laws, etc. It limits the power of a large business corporation, among other things. And, as you already know, our form of good government (including the Constitution) also has some limits on government itself.