by Mark Luedtke
I was tempted to start this column off with a couple of jokes about doing extensive research this weekend at strip clubs. Unfortunately the humor escaped me because losing freedom, a common event in the US, is no laughing matter. Everyday, somewhere in this country, citizens surrender freedom and responsibility for themselves to the government. It's a disease that is destroying America from the inside. This new stripper bill, which will become law in several days, illustrates that Americans no longer care about that most precious of human values, the value that made America the greatest country in history, freedom.
The most effective strategy the 2 parties use to continue to take power from us for themselves is divide and conquer. The left will demonize the right over this bill in attempt to win votes for Democrats even though the left is complicit and the left's assault on freedom is just as dangerous as the assault from the right.
Liberals are already complaining about conservatives passing this bill. That's a self-serving mischaracterization. This bill was passed with bipartisan support in the legislature. Most Republicans and half of Democrats voted for the bill. Governor Ted Strickland, a Democrat, will allow the bill to become law at least partly because the bipartisan support could override his veto.
Liberals will claim that this bill was forced on us by a small, vocal minority of busybodies who want to tell everybody else how to live, and there's some truth to that, but it's not the whole story. The Cincinnati based organization, Citizens for Community Values (CCV), did instigate the law. I doubt the members of this organization spend a lot of time in strip clubs, except for the hypocrites, so in that respect, a small, special interest group is trying to use the power of the state to control the behavior of others.
But a recent poll suggests that 60% of Ohioans support the restrictions. This is further evidence that the greatest danger to our freedom comes from our neighbors and ourselves. The Nazis couldn't take our freedom. The Soviets couldn't take our freedom. But our neighbors can, with the eager assistance of both Republicans and Democrats. They take our freedom very effectively, one un-American law at a time.
Because of popular support for the law, representatives from both parties support it, and it's veto-proof. We have the government we deserve. It honestly reflects our values, and that's the root of our problem. From the big-government Department of Education transforming our schools from institutions of education into liberal indoctrination centers to busybodies all over Ohio telling business owners that they can't allow smoking on their own property to 60% of Ohioans supporting restrictions on strippers, we surrender freedom after freedom and give up our power of self-determination.
Puritans left England to avoid persecution, but in modern America, puritans join the persecutors. This bill is not about fighting crime, as CCV would have us believe. This bill is about shutting down strip clubs and other adult businesses and putting people out of work. It's about punishing workers in the adult entertainment industry. CCV can't spank the strippers (I bet some wish they could) and their costumers, so they're using the power of the government to punish them. This bill is about power.
America was founded as a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy, specifically so that the majority couldn't whimsically, punitively or for any other reason use government to exercise power over the minority. A tyranny of the majority is still a tyranny, and it doesn't matter if 99% of Ohioans supported the stripper law, it should never become law. We enumerate government's powers, regulating strippers isn't one of them, and all other powers are reserved to the people. It's the responsibility of our representatives to defend the Constitution and protect the minorities from the majority, but that's another value that America has cast aside in the name of power.
Both Republicans and Democrats long ago abdicated their responsibility for good government, and we live with the deteriorating consequences every day. We complain that the Iraqi government is too factionalized to govern effectively, but that's exactly what we've allowed to happen in the US. When we chose to surrender our power, freedom, and responsibility for our own lives to government, we removed all checks on the 2 parties. We no longer even pay lip service to wanting good government. We don't vote for good government. We vote against the candidate in the other party, because he's even worse than the candidate from our party. Republicans and Democrats have divided us, and now they're conquering us.
In order to get back control of our government, we have to rediscover love for freedom and self-reliance. We can remake our government, but we have to accept responsibility for ourselves and our government first, not vice-versa. Then we have to take our power back by voting for good, limited government instead of voting for the slightly lesser of the evils of the 2 parties. We have to remember that personal freedom and personal responsibility, the twin values that made America great, are family values.
If you don't like strip clubs, teach that to your children. Convince your friends. Preach at your church. But don't empower government to take freedom from all of us.
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