Jerry Miskulin – 6/12/05

This page was last updated on June 12, 2005.

Why seek out evil?; Jerry Miskulin; Beaver County Times; June 12, 2005.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“If government is the root of all evil, politically speaking, as the Republicans claim, then why are so many running for political office?”

[RWC] I can’t speak for all Republicans, but I don’t know any who believe “government is the root of all evil.” I don’t even know any conservatives who believe this. Believing in limited government is not the same as believing in no government.

Government should provide a civil and criminal legal framework, law enforcement, national security, some elements of infrastructure like roads, et cetera. Government has no business confiscating the fruits of one person’s labor and giving them to another. Programs like Medicare, Socialist Security, farm welfare, et cetera, fall into this latter category. These programs are one aspect of “big government.”

Limited government also means government functions carried out at the appropriate government level. For example, national defense is a federal responsibility but local law enforcement is a local responsibility.

“Seems then they’re the problem and not the solution.”

[RWC] Unfortunately, the only way to change our representative form of government is to become part of it and work from the inside. I’m surprised Mr. Miskulin doesn’t know that. It would be different if the U.S. were a pure democracy instead of a republic.

“I think the jobs would be better served by those who believe, as Graham Nash says, that we can change the world, for it’s dying to get better. Soon we will have to bury our differences or it will all be lies, lies and more lies.”

[RWC] I like to believe conservatives – and Republicans to an extent – believe they can “change the world” by employing conservative economic, political, and social principles. As I noted above, you can’t do that if you are not in office.

Apparently Mr. Miskulin would like it if no Republicans ran for office so Democrats/socialists could do whatever they wanted.