This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

What My 'Faction' Stands For

A blogger recently asked what would happen if my "party faction" took over Sacramento. Glad you asked.

“If people agreed with that idle rhetoric, Mr. Webb, you'd have the legislature controlled by your party faction (and I do not mean the GOP), and the mansion led by a member of the same.” 

The above was a comment posted on my recent blog.

This was an excellent observation.  What was left unsaid was what would happen if my faction led the government?  Also left unsaid was who my faction is.

Find out what's happening in Rancho Santa Margaritawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

My faction is people who understand the Constitution. They know history and compare the U.S. experience to other countries. I like the comment by Dr.
Thomas Sowell; “Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past
three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded
good.” 

Reading the history of the world we are reminded how lucky we are to live in a time of the highest wealth, the best health and an amazing standard of living.

Find out what's happening in Rancho Santa Margaritawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Our world history is one of turmoil, wars and conquering armies led by Kings and Dictators. This grand experiment called the United States is the greatest success of mankind.  People who actually choose their leaders, choose where to live, where to work and how to raise their families is recent and most unusual. My faction believes the government belongs to the people.

Golfer Phil Michelson is taking heat because he is balking at paying over 60% of his earnings to the government. How can someone make a case that over 33% of what a person earns belongs to the government? Worse yet, what kind of system tries to intimidate someone for resisting unreasonable taxes? My faction believes in a low, fixed tax rate where each citizen pays an equal share of what they earn. The person making $1,000 a year should still pay taxes. Everybody has skin in the game. My faction believes in equal and low tax rates.

Another Dr. Sowell comment:  “It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer it.” 

My faction believes the private sector can do it better in almost every case. In the guise of making it fair, protecting the uninsured and giving better health care we passed a National Health Care Program. The program is not yet in place and already the prices are rising. Following will be long delays in service, denial of service for the elderly and a system run not by doctors, but by bureaucrats. 

Is my faction against all government? Of course not! But like the Constitution,
we believe most power belongs to the states. The Federal government is limited by specific, enumerated powers. The protection of our borders, the military,
interstate highways and a third party in disputes between the states make a lot
of sense. It is the nature of governments to expand. It takes strong, committed
people who have seen what happens when a government gets too much power, to  understand the value of our Constitution. Our Founders and the authors of the Constitution understood this.

The Founders were so concerned they added a Second Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing the right to keep and bear arms. The Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting, crime or target shooting; it has to do with protection from an over-reaching government. My faction believes in the right to keep and bear arms.

Higher taxes, a more intrusive bureaucracy, and a national health care plan tell me the big government crowd is on a historical high. In the coming months we will see gun control, cap-n-trade and yet higher taxes as the Democrats attempt to mold our future. My faction believes in the individual and not people who want to direct our lives.

The worse thing Conservatives could do at this time is to plan on quitting in the next four years. Our story is compelling. History, economics and human nature is on our side. My faction is for everybody having equal opportunity, not equal outcomes.

What will happen when my faction is in the Governor’s Mansion? California will
start growing at historical rates, businesses will stop leaving and people will be able to stay in their home state without worrying about taxes lowering their
standard of living. That is what my faction stands for.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?