- The Government of Britney and K-Fed

We call it the Nanny state because it takes over for us and sets us free from the responsibility of tending to the essentials of our own lives. The Democrats are typically called the Mommy party because they are driven by emotion and will bear any expense to end any “suffering” either real or imagined. In a country where the poor are more likely to be obese than hungry, and the richest demographic in the country (the elderly) also get the largest entitlements, the “suffering” is increasingly in Democrat’s heads.

In the meantime, the Republicans are called the Daddy party because they are the much harsher disciplinarians. They are at least accused of focusing on only maintaining law and order, and although an examination of their legislative agenda hardly bares it out, (at the end of the day they are politicians first and partisans second) they claim to place emphasis on developing personal responsibility. In reality, the only difference between the parties is that the Republicans have slightly less active imaginations when it comes to creating new “needs” for government intrusion into the lives of it’s citizens.

And after decades of soaring costs from the increasingly poor performing public schools, the American public is no longer cognizant of the burdens of living in a Republic, and we have finally become the permanently immature children that government always wanted us to be. We have to a great extent grown utterly dependent of the very thing that has hobbled our ability to take care of ourselves in the first place. After years of a bloated Federal, State and Local government being balanced on our shoulders and forcing us to our knees, we suddenly find that we are no longer capable of standing erect and walking.

If the government really was our nanny and the political parties our parents, then by the modern standard they have been singularly abusive. Our mother feeds us only pop-tarts and donuts while we sit mindlessly on the couch and watch reality TV. Every time we twitch she has a new government plan to meet an invented need, and a new mandate for keeping us safe from the dangers of actually having a life of our own. In the meantime, Dad periodically kicks in the door with a no knock warrant, and does his best to remind us that he’s the one who’s responsible for providing us with all those donuts and pop-tarts that Mom keeps serving up.

And like an angry and petulant 14 year old, we’re talking constantly about our new “rights” while never mentioning the responsibilities that are supposed to go with them. According to various (usually more liberal) advocates, we now have a right to free healthcare, and a right to “marry” whoever, or whatever we want. We have a “right” to retire at full pay at a young age and have someone else pick up our bills. (As I’ve said before in this piece about Civil Servants Gone Wild, this is the same as demanding a “right” to stay out late and drink all we want while someone has the hangover for us) We stamp our little feet and claim that it’s our “right” to be protected from virtually everything that might cause us harm in even a small way.

According to the New York Times, some of the various new “rights” should also include:

remunerative jobs; food, clothing and recreation; a decent financial return for farmers; freedom for businessmen from unfair competition and monopolies; decent homes; adequate medical care; economic protection in case of unemployment or old age; good education

Basically all the essentials of life. The very things that we would need to provide for ourselves if we ever expect to be called adults.

And like the abusive parents they are, the government is only too happy to give in to everyone one of our childish demands. For them you see it all works out just fine. The people in government have figured out that the less we rule ourselves, the more we are ruled by others. And ruling others was the whole reason they went into government in the first place. Democrat or Republican, it really makes no difference. Abusive parents sometimes fight with each other too, but they always agree that the children (otherwise known as Taxpayers… or private citizens) need to be excluded form the important decisions of the household.

We are no longer fostering the growth of an independent citizenry of a great nation, but instead are creating a generation of demanding and spoiled children who will never have the self-reliance to leave the nest and tend to themselves. They will remain frozen in time as the obese pimply faced adolescents, firmly anchored in front of the TV, game boy in hand, and constantly complaining that nothing is being done for them. Our governmental parents are not building independence and character, but continual dependence on them as a source of the essentials to survival. And they’re doing it, because it’s in their personal interest to, and because they don’t really give a damn about us.

So what’s the solution? Good question. We don’t dare appeal to some over-arching authority, because the more power a government has, the worse and more corrupting a parent they would make. And frankly, that’s how we ended up living out of the trailer with Britney (The Democrats) and K-Fed (The Republicans) in the first place. But since there is no grownup in the house maybe it’s time for us to simply grow up and become one. Just like it is with most spoiled children, it’s our “parents” which are the real problem here, not us. We just need to have the strength to step up and tell them so. Being an adult without a good example is certainly a tough business, and we’ll no doubt make mistakes. But it would still be better than staying here with parents that we know won’t do the job, and will hurt us more than help us.