What if This Isn’t an Accident?

What if it’s all on purpose?

The country’s biggest talkers have unabashedly taken this question into consideration in recent weeks as the state of our nation’s economy continues to worsen. Even Rush Limbaugh, the most listened-to man in America, argued that an economic collapse or a default on our national debt would be “intentional” on the part of the current administration.

Intentionally destroying the economy? Why would our elected officials intentionally bring economic hardship on their own people? Who in our representative government would do such a terrible thing? We could ponder these matters all day, but these are the wrong questions.

Two weeks ago, the Department of Agriculture announced that more Americans than ever, a whopping 45.8 million, are on food stamps (now known as SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Of all Americans with stomachs, nearly 15 percent can’t fill them without the government, uhh, “supplementing” their “nutrition.” These 46 million recipients are only 67 percent of the number eligible to apply. That means that 22%, over one fifth of all Americans, have been determined to be in need of government-distributed money to put food on their tables. This is a tragic development for sure, as the mere thought of families unable to feed themselves is unsettling in this land of prosperity.

But take heart! Our beloved government has overcome hunger, so we need not despair over such an abysmal expansion of the welfare state. According to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, food stamps are just another form of “economic stimulus.” Well, that’s one way to describe it.

Normally, we would have let out a despairing sigh as we pointed to these welfare numbers as a sign of a poor economy. But as our elected leaders keep digging a deeper hole, the excuse makers are running out of alternative explanations, and the American people are beginning to wonder: Could this be more than a poor economy? Could this be an engineered trend? What could the engineers possibly stand to gain by impoverishing their own people?

Over 150 years ago, a French aristocrat named Alexis de Tocqueville wrote of the dangers of a “soft despotism.” Even a century and a half ago, after only a few years in the country, a foreigner was able to warn us of the risk of democratic oppression of the masses by their own selfishness. When people allow themselves to be nestled into the coddling arms of their own government, they forfeit their liberty, their treasure, their dignity, and the very self-reliance that makes them human.

Half of all Americans now receive some form of government aid, and the statists are happy to provide it not because they hope to solve problems, but because they hope to solidify and enslave a permanent base by holding dignified citizens ransom for votes. What more Americans are realizing every day is that we do not simply have a bad batch of politicians in Washington who are trying and failing at their jobs. We are not even governed, as many like to think, by a group of self-interested fat cats apathetic toward their own constituents’ needs. Our country is run by a crop of malevolent, power-hungry aristocrats bent on the aggregation of power at the expense of the people’s liberty.

Despite our oft-repeated national credo that “all men are created equal,” there is a ruling class in the United States, and its interests stand diametrically opposed to those of the American people.

As they sit in their smoke-filled room, this ruling class clambers for more “stimulus” (in the form of food stamps and otherwise). They toss us, the American people, onto the poker table like inherently worthless chips to be gambled away for more votes, more influence, more power, as they sip their brandy, puff on their expensive cigars, and project a chorus of belly laughs that lack even the slightest hint of restraint or remorse for their daily betrayal of the very people who empower them.

And why should they feel any lingering regret? As goes the dependence of the populace on the provision of the government, so goes the electoral security of the statist machine. Why not laugh with gusto as votes flow into the ballot box and treasure pours into the coffers? Sure, they have to face themselves in the mirror as one-fifth of their citizens hold out their hands for a “nutrition supplement,” but in return, they are assured that these government-manufactured Dickensian shells of once capable and driven individuals would never bite the hand that feeds them.

So what would you do in their position? More Americans than ever look to the government to put food on their tables every night. Would you solve the problem, or expand the base and your job security by adding more citizens to the government dole?

Our ruling class has run out of excuses for this abuse of power, and the American people have run out of patience. Our Washingtonian leaders can no longer claim to be even remotely interested in real recovery because we now see that they care only about power, gathered and hoarded on the backs of once-dignified citizens. It is clearer than ever that real recovery must come from somewhere else.