At the Grassroot Institute, we spend a lot of time trying to persuade people to try looking at things via an UP vs DOWN analysis–in other words, does a particular action or issue move us all UP toward greater individual liberty or DOWN toward bigger government and tyranny? It’s an old idea, based in our nation’s founding, but the point is to try to persuade people to move past the left/right, Democrat/Republican dynamic that divides us and look . . . really look . . . at the impact of our actions in the long term. It’s easy to fall into political patterns–to trust the analysis to others or simply accept that sacrificing freedom and liberty are a necessary (and seemingly constant) evil. But we are all ultimately responsible for the direction that our country takes, and are therefore also responsible for looking more closely at what our politicians stand for and where their actions are taking us. To that end, we have created the video below to explain the basics of this UP vs. DOWN philosophy. Notice that we do not mention political parties in it. That’s not an accident. While one party may wear the mantle of smaller government, there is no guarantee that their actions actually support the rhetoric. Both Republicans and Democrats have been known to expand or shrink the size of government–they and their actions need to be evaluated on their own merit, not given an automatic pass (or indictment) based on party allegiance.
Let us not ask what our politicians can do for us. Let us ask what they are doing to us.
[display_podcast]