The Party of Freedom—or the New Nanny State?

 

 

Once upon a time, the Republican Party stood as the final barricade against government overreach. It was the party of Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and Ron Paul. It championed limited government, personal responsibility, and individual freedom—not as talking points, but as sacred principles. But something is changing. The party that once railed against the nanny state is now flirting with becoming one.

And it must stop.

In her monumental book The Discovery of Freedom (1943), Rose Wilder Lane—daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder and one of the great thinkers of liberty—traces the long, tragic arc of human history through the lens of one central question: Why have people been poor, hungry, and oppressed for six thousand years, and why did that suddenly begin to change in America?

Her answer is profound: Freedom works. Control kills.

"The plain fact is that human energy operates more effectively in these United States than it has ever operated before... Because it was finally, gloriously free." — Lane, The Situation

Lane demonstrates that every time a government attempts to plan, direct, or "protect morality" through force—be it kings, commissars, or committees—it crushes the very energy that allows people to thrive. America’s miracle wasn’t natural resources or a lucky break—it was the unleashing of individual energy and the refusal to allow government to dictate how we live.

Today, we see a creeping reversal. And not just from the Left.

Some on the Right have begun embracing state power to enforce cultural or moral norms.  Their rationale? “We must save the culture.” But that argument is not new—it is ancient. It is the pagan belief Lane describes, the belief that some authority must control people "for their own good."

Do not get me wrong, we must work to encourage moral behavior, but government is not the social institution for that job.  As Rush Limbaugh used to say, government exists to keep us form killing each other and breaking each other's stuff.  Government does not exist to protect us from ourselves!  

There is a different social institution which is designed to encourage moral behavior and change people from within, to win souls, that institution is religion.  I encourage conservatives to get involved with their church or synagogue (no one of these "liberalized" versions) to do just that, win souls, transform people from within.  This is something government can never do.  

Even the Bible itself warns us of the danger that presents itself when religion seeks to saddle up the beast of government as a tool to enforce itself on mankind.    

This is the theology of tyranny.

"The question is not whether government controls energy. The fact is: every human being controls their own. The only question is whether the state will block it." — Lane, The Living Authorities

Let me be clear: a government that tries to "prevent cultural decay" by wielding power against citizens is not conservative. It is not constitutional. It is not American.

It is just the Left in a different hat.  It is the new Woke Right!  It is a nanny state!

A true constitutional republic is not one that uses the state to impose its values. It is one that defends the space for people to choose their values. That’s the difference between liberty and fascism. And that's what The Discovery of Freedom reminds us.

So to my fellow Republicans, I say: If you are not fighting to get government out of our lives, you are fighting on the wrong side. We don’t need new czars of culture. We need citizens who live free.

“The American Revolution succeeded because it was not a revolution around a new ruler—it was a revolution out of the circle altogether. It was the first time in history that men acted on the belief that they were born free.” — Lane, The Revolution

We are either the party of liberty—or we are building a nanny state.

In these first blogs, I am writing generally.  But in coming days this blog is going to get painfully specific.  There are politicians and organizations that have turned their back on the principles of limited government and personal freedom, in favor of building a nanny state 

 I have been paying attention, and I will be having plenty to say.

 

 I am James Scott Trimm, and I am the Texas Liberty Defender! 

"More Freedom, Less Government!"

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