Emery: Bring on the new independence, good riddance to Social Security and Medicare

His time in the state legislature is almost over, but in his latest report, Rep. Ed Emery, R-Lamar, eagerly awaits the coming days when those morally crippling ideas like Social Security and Medicare are a thing of the past:

In the months leading up to June of 1776 there must have been small groups of men meeting across the colonies. They would have met quietly if not secretly to revile the “intolerable acts,” discuss British oppressions and share their visions of liberty. These colonists were weary of utter dependency on Britain for everything from military defense to tea. Their vision for liberty was ultimately codified into the Declaration of Independence.


In our day, however, if any such meetings are taking place they are not quiet or secret, neither are they about freedom and independence. Instead, they are more likely to be loud public protests demanding more government and more assistance. Today’s “Declaration” would likely be a Declaration-of-Dependence demanding that government provide more social security, more health care, more job security, more nursing home care, more food stamps, and on and on.

The colonists had discovered that being totally dependent on Britain robbed them of life, liberty, and property; and they threw off dependence with a Declaration of Independence. Coast-to-coast, today’s American is waking up to the American dream described by Ronald Reagan as “the ultimate in individual freedom, consistent with an orderly society.” They are also recognizing that our choice on November 2nd is “…one of up or down” – more dependence on government or greater independence of it.

I believe on Nov. 2nd we will win a major victory for independence because the people are demanding it. The more important question is whether we can keep it. The American colonists knew the price of independence; Britain would no longer assure their security, their staples, or even their tea. With the casting aside of British rule, nothing in their lives would be certain or assured. They, not government, would be masters of their own fate.

No one can have both liberty and dependency – they are mutually exclusive conditions. The prevailing question is will we do what liberty demands – learn to care for ourselves? If so, America may soon be back on the path envisioned by the founders and purchased with their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor. If not, liberty will once again fade. Please cast your vote for independence on Nov. 2nd and resist today’s intolerable acts of government no matter the security they promise.