Republican government subjects leadership to severe restriction and limitation as designed to curb the institution's natural tendency to move toward oppression and tyranny. The government is confined to a “prison” and is unable to go forth with actions, regardless of intention, that may deplete the individual liberty that by right belongs to each and every one of us based on the laws of nature. Some say that rights should be derived from government, but government has proven, though the course of history, to be irresponsible. To trust that institution as an origin of the rights of man is to completely miss the concept of civil rights. Because of our natural ability to perceive and reason, it's only logical that we naturally posses the right to exercise our free thought and action so long as we do not harm another individual's free thought or action. Free thought is the basis on which we discover our happiness and free action is the basis for seeking the means to that happiness. Because of man's natural capacity to suffer when the circumstances call for it, human happiness is to not be undermined by government.
Contrary to what others might say, individual liberty need not be limited in order for government to exist. Government can exist and operate under a strict set of guidelines so as to not sacrifice our liberty in the process. Its existence is simply to protect individual liberty. The individuals in society not only deserve, but are morally obliged to be trusted with their destinies without federal help or involvement regardless of whatever intention, or subjecting them to confiscatory taxes that steal the property of one human to give to another. Human happiness is a responsibility that rests on each individual and government should not have the means nor desire to act as if human happiness lies within its hands. The bleeding hearts among us do not grasp republican government and operate under the vague notion of unlimited and unchecked democracy, a system that allows the destruction of natural rights so long as at least 51% of the individuals under that system deem it acceptable. The restrictions and limitations that characterize republican government are ignored and overlooked by the new left, who seek only to make a fair society rather than a free one.
When the United States of America went from being a primarily agricultural nation to an industrial one, our Republican form of government did not need change. But slowly, change came. In a Republican government, the best economic system geared toward individual rights and liberty is capitalism, in which free men interact with one another for their individual self-interest. Because this change is necessary for the development of economies, the most necessary system to go hand in hand with that change is laissez faire capitalism. If the government can be limited and restricted in an agricultural society, it can certainly be in an industrial society. Some might say there are some problems with capitalism, such as trusts. Historically, it makes for a formidable argument. But with hindsight, we can see easily how giving government the ability to break up trusts is destructive and undermines individual rights, forcing business owners to undergo damaging breakups, disregard private property. Giving the government that power is giving it the power to oppress private businesses for no other reason than the companies involved are too successful. Throughout the agonizing history of anti-trust legislation, the government has assaulted companies like Microsoft, subjecting them to McCarthyistic witch trials. In the end, the government has forced countless costly breakups of corporations, whose crime consisted of being as successful and productive as possible. This proves once again that any government not strictly limited to protecting individual rights is government that has become to active for the good of the individual.
Another reason some among us do not support capitalism is the so-called effects it has on the poor; claims that the poor get poorer as the rich get richer and such. This and other Marxist myths are prevalent more so now than ever among the American left. What they refuse to grasp is that capitalism is itself defined by letting the natural order of things run its course, and that natural occurrences are not geared toward supporting one class or another. The economic nature does not dictate that the so-called rich to get richer, or the so-called poor to get poorer. Those who are productive, those with the drive, get richer while those lacking in those areas get poorer. Once again, the Marxist ideal that we are all defined by the group rather then as individuals fails to understand the notion that different people have different work ethic.
Today more than ever, poor people have the opportunity to free themselves from their poverty. So long as you have a drive to work hard and succeed, it is possible to produce a comfortable existence, if not achieve great wealth. The simple truth is that it is destructive toward individualism and free though to start lumping individuals into vague groups such as "rich" or "poor", for individual circumstances vary, and usually people who have little money have nobody to blame but themselves. It was Karl Marx who first thought that all of history was a class struggle. This is its greatest fault. People aren't groups or classes. They are individuals and should be judged by their work ethic and drive to succeed.
Some among us often forget what constitutes a right, like free speech, freedom of travel, or the right to life and property. Contrast those rights with welfare, health insurance, social security, or any other kind of government handouts. These examples do not constitute rights, as they are all forces of government control. Supporters of programs like these claim that the individual exists primarily to be forced into slavery, working for months of the year to pay for somebody else's happiness. This is wrong. The individual exists primarily for his own personal happiness, and no one else's. But how does one measure where individual rights begin and end? The simple truth is that we cannot do anything we want in society. We cannot rape, pillage, kill, steal, or destroy in a civilized society. The answer to this complex question is rather simple; in order for individual rights to exist in society as they do in nature, individual rights must first be protected from other individuals and, more importantly, from government itself. Civil rights no longer exist when force is used to control the individual. If these Republican principles are followed strictly, a society has the best chance of success – a civilization where people are free to create and succeed in the most creative ways. There is no future for altruist collectivism, or tyranny, or despotism. The future belongs to the individual, for all creation, innovation, and happiness is due to him.
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