Our discussion forum had a friendly argument going this week about Alexander Hamilton and the Bill of Rights. A well versed scholar was trying to make the point that Hamilton wrote strongly opposing the Bill of Rights, since the very mention of these rights gave some credence to the idea of government control over them. The fact that Hamilton was a supporter of a strong central government was used as an argument against considering anything Hamilton wrote.

Mama stepped in before tempers could get lost, but my questions went unanswered by any of the participants. This is exactly why I asked above if we are wasting our time in the pursuit of liberty.

My questions have been asked in email, in several forums, and in person many times, but I have yet to get a satisfactory answer to any of them... and often I get no answer at all.

1. What do you believe government (fed, state, city, etc.) can do that cannot be done by voluntary action of and between private individuals? We have no proof that a central government does anything better, and ample evidence that they destroy individual liberty in everything they touch. Why do we want to give it another whack at us if we get rid of the current insanity?

2. Is there ever any moral justification for using the force of government (the only thing it has to work with) to impose the will of some people on others? If not, then of what use is government at all?

3. If we can be convinced that a central government is indeed necessary, and given that human nature does not like limitations on their power over others, how can we set it up to prevent the abuse and destruction caused by the governments of the past and present? The original Constitution has proven itself totally incapable of controlling those abuses, so it is no use going back there.

These are questions. Those of us at The Price of Liberty would like to have any and all give serious thought to them. We would like to publish your ideas if you have an answer to them, either in the forum or as a guest editorial.

If you don't think those are the pertinent questions, what are? And why?

Until those questions are answered, to the satisfaction of all of us working toward liberty, I suspect that most of us are spinning our wheels and in a hopeless argument over how many politicians can dance on the head of a pin.

I'd like to see the arguments end, and the work of building a truly free society begin.

Don't be shy. Our liberty depends on answering those questions in some form or another.

Let's hear from you!

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