By Jeff Smith

Picayune Item 

There are two groups of people in America, those who want to be left alone and those who won’t leave them alone. The ambitions of the typical person are modest: A steady job, an education for their children and a comfortable standard of living for their family. We simply want to enjoy our unalienable rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, free from government control.

But the government won’t leave us alone. It demands loyalty and blind allegiance from us, and any who oppose government violations of the Constitution have been labeled “domestic terrorists.” The courage of individuality or the desire to be left alone cannot be allowed to grow; it must be destroyed.

The government has legions of agents who will come after your guns, trample your unalienable rights, take your money, private property and place you in a detention facility (even kill you) if you resist, and display an attitude of pride in their success.

Lacking any desire to exercise power over others, it’s difficult for average Americans to believe there are power hungry elitists in America with evil ambitions of seizing unlimited control over the people.  If these power mad maniacs are billionaires, what will prevent them from using our government leaders as tools to satisfy their perverted hunger for power and control?

Certainly not the Constitution! Thanks to the cowards in congress and the Supreme Court, our entire Constitution has been reduced to a giant Commerce and Welfare Clause, and according to congress grants them unlimited control of our lives.

The congress, not likely!  Since most in congress and the upper levels of government believe they were born to rule instead of elected to serve, it’s much easier for the invisible powers behind the throne to achieve their goals. Congress has become nothing but a money-raising, telemarketing millionaires club. Truth and lies are all the same to politicians, just tools they carry in their political tool bag. In the world of politics, hypocrisy is a way of life and truth and morality died years ago. Congress has already been stripped of their power – it’s all a stage show with a hefty pension awarded.

The governor and state legislature, surely you jest!  The American public and the state and local governments are addicted to government grants, subsidies and other hush money and won’t prevent any federal intrusion for fear of losing the funds.  Of course, it’s all justified as necessary and beneficial, despite the fact that no constitutional authority exists for such spending.  Also, change can be politically damaging to the entrenched politicians, because “pulling pigs from the trough causes a lot of squealing.”

Look no further than the planned federal land grab that recently ended (but isn’t over) in Nevada for a validation of the above statements.  Where were the Governor, Attorney General, state legislature and sheriffs when the brave citizens were standing toe to toe with armed federal agents, snarling dogs and hidden snipers with rifles trained on them?  After the situation ended and they realized that the public sided with Bundy and his supporters, those brave state officials came out of hiding and scampered to the nearest news reporter and TV camera to denounce the actions of the feds.

Their blather is comparable to the line uttered by the cowardly town marshal in the 1962 western movie classic, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.”  Like the feds, Liberty Valance and his thugs routinely terrorized the citizens in the frontier town of Shinbone.  After John Wayne eliminated Valance and ran his two thugs out of town, the marshal “bravely” stepped forward and announced, “it was me who ran you out of town and if you return, I’ll do it again.”