DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DICTATORSHIP

If that question were asked to people around the world they would all give the same basic answer that freedom is allowing choices and dictatorship is restricting or eliminating choices. In almost every instance that totalitarianism or dictatorship has taken over a society, it has done so in the name of liberty. People welcome tyranny in the belief that their liberties are being greatly increased.
It was on September 17, 1787, that the Constitutional Convention agreed to the Constitution of the United States. It was on that afternoon that the story is told about a lady asking Benjamin Franklin what we the people were given. Franklin replied, “A republic if you can keep it.” We were not given a democracy because our founders correctly told us that democracy is dictatorship, and they were giving us a government where the law was the supreme ruler and not the majority of some ruling body that could take the choices from the people. The founders recognized that all people must have the freedom of choice.
Thomas Jefferson later told us that only an interested, informed, and involved people could and would remain free. As people become more and more uninterested, uninformed, and uninvolved, the less free they would become and the more bureaucratic dictatorship there would be. We are learning that once again Jefferson was wise in understanding the difference between freedom and dictatorship.
We are also learning that far too often, those who advocate for freedom surrender to dictatorship believing they are enhancing freedom. This is happening in the United States today. Far too often we are hearing from good intending Freedom Loving Americans that we must have term limits on members of congress. The founders placed term limits on members of congress. The term limit for a house member is two years and for a member of the senate it is six years. An election is held, and an individual is elected for the next term.
If the constitution were amended to restrict the number of consecutive terms one individual could serve, that would be limiting the freedom of the people, that would be enhancing dictatorship under the false premise that it was enhancing liberty. It is not term limits that must be addressed, but the electorate itself. We must concentrate on the real problem, which is that our electorate is becoming more and more uninterested, uninformed, and uninvolved. This is to a large degree because we have a system of education that has become a system of indoctrination, because we no longer have news but propaganda, and because our bureaucracy has become an organization whose purpose is to intimidate any who would oppose their demands.
Likewise, people are calling for an age limit on who can serve as president. This would limit the choice of the people. Any time choice is limited, dictatorship is enhanced. Our problem is not that a person over some age is not capable, but that the electorate is not capable of making wise choices, primarily because so many of the electorate are uninterested, uninformed, and uninvolved.
Do not limit choices with a limit on the number of terms a member of congress can serve, do not limit choices by placing an age limit on the president, but change the electorate by increasing people’s choices. That would mean unlimited school choice, no restrictions on who could speak at any school, media forums not limiting choice on what can be published. It would mean that voters must demonstrate that they are informed, interested, and involved. This could be by having state legislators require all voters have passed the same test that a legal immigrant must pass in order to become a citizen, that all voters be required to prove they actually cast the vote, and that all votes be cast on a legal ballot that can be retained and recounted.
I would suggest to all Freedom Loving Americans that we place our energies on increasing choice and responsibility which enhances freedom as opposed to limiting choice in the name liberty, which enhances dictatorship.