Not a day goes by without someone asking why politicians of the two major parties cannot lay aside their different affiliations and “work together for the good of the country.” But anyone who must ask that question, might never understand why that is impossible, and probably just as well. Because the problem involves the kind of society we want to build and live in. In blunt fact, the members of one side want to steal from some for the unpaid benefit of others. And until they abandon this desire for organized stealing and covetousness, America will not have harmony in politics.

Parties v. ideas

Most people think party differences are all about who can do favors for people. The Presidency becomes a plum for this reason. Under the Constitution, Presidents

appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law.

Cartoon showing statue of Andrew Jackson on a pig, which is over “fraud,” “bribery,” and “spoils,” eating “plunder.”Illus. in: Harper’s weekly, 1877 April 28, p. 325. Artist: Thomas Nast.

Before Senator Orrin G. Hatch gave us Civil Service, Presidents also appointed lower-ranking persons in government. Presidents often filled government with “their own people.” President Andrew Jackson brazenly said,

To the victor belongs the spoils.

And for Cabinet and sub-Cabinet positions, and the judiciary, that still goes.

In the realm of ideas, that maxim applies with double strength. For the size and scope of government allow it to steal – yes, steal – large amounts of money to give to a favored class of either:

1. Voters,
2. Campaign contributors, or
3. Both.

Gary DeMar put it starkly today.

Consider this example. If John has a financial need, would it be right for him to rob his neighbors to supply that need? Most people would say no. Would it be right for John to get some of his friends to steal for him? Again, most people would say no. What if John convinces enough people to create a civil government that takes money from his neighbors to pay for things John and others need? Now the picture has changed, and I suspect that a lot of people would not call it theft because elected government officials are doing the taking.

But stealing is stealing. The common garden-variety thief, who steals by stealth (burglary) or by threat of violence (robbery), is an unauthorized wealth-redistribution agent. But in an infamous interview, Barack Obama said the Constitution had a fault because it does not authorize anyone to redistribute wealth. Which means, to steal.

Thou shalt not steal or covet

Exodus chapter 20 holds the Ten Commandments. Just to quote two of them will show why secularists really object to them. Because they show an authority that invalidates their entire political system.

The Eighth Commandment reads:

You shall not steal.

The Tenth Commandment reads:

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

DeMar points out the basis of property is a Divine grant to human beings. God made it, so God owns it all.

Most leftists today deny the concept of God. So they can deny the prior ownership of land or any other resource, natural or otherwise. This next position logically follows: no one person has the right to own anything. Anyone who dares claim to own anything, steals from the whole body of human beings. All wealth is commonwealth. “Property” does not justly exist.

True enough, the kings of Europe of the Renaissance era made a major mistake in their thinking. They held that to them, as kings, God gave ownership of whatever parcels of the earth their domains included.  The Bible does not support that. But neither does it support the notion that all humanity holds all things in common.

In fact the Bible illustrates a totalitarian system brilliantly. it describes the way Pharaoh Djoser (Third Dynasty) “bought out” all the property in Egypt, through the efforts of his grand vizier, Joseph. (Genesis 47:20-26)

Of wolves and lambs

A democracy is two wolves and a small lamb voting on what to have for dinner. Freedom under a constitutional republic is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.

Benjamin Franklin

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