In the early days of the newly-formed Union, government was minimal and considered a necessary evil. Our ancestors did not look to government for anything. Far from playing a direct role in every citizen’s life, government instead held close to the tight restrictions placed upon it by the Founding Fathers. There was a respect for the newly written Constitution, and while first generation politicians fretted over large and heady issues, the population remained  far removed on farms, separated by large distances, working long, difficult days just to survive.

It was a wild frontier, filled with brave, hard-working, God-loving people from many countries. They had risked their lives and spent whatever money they had to reach our shores in the hope of a better life. These were not hyphenated Americans. There were no Italian-Americans, no Irish-Americans… Just Americans.

And amid the chaos there was also a raw, frontier logic that dictated a genuinely new kind of marketplace. It was a  fresh idea at the time. A market driven by supply and demand, not a centralized economy based on the whims and forecasts of an elite group of politicians. Free from government involvement, or any centralized planning for that matter, people were able to enter into business agreements only when both sides felt they profited. The snake oil salesmen and hucksters never lasted long, since quality of product, word of mouth, reputation and consistency of service determined winners and losers.

During these early days people were not looking for assistence from the government; indeed the “government” was a distant, vague notion to the early settlers. Nor did these frontier men and woman, who toiled 16 hour days in their fields have neither the time nor inclination to determine if they qualified for victim status.

They were too busy working their fields and trying to feed their families. The whole reason they had come to this country was because they were leaving behind a monarchy or some other oppressive and poorly functioning government that marginalized their ability to pursue their dreams and live the kind of life they so desperately desired. (This innate drive, this passion held inside the souls of men and women to be better, to excel, to out-perform, is the key ingredient fully omitted in the writings of Karl Marx, Engels and others. It is worth noting that given a chance, people would risk their lives to seek a better life rather than be a widget in a centralized grand plan).

It’s important to realize that this land of milk and honey was brutal back then. It was freezing cold in the winter and oppressively hot in the summer and mere survival was a challenge. But it was still far better than the countries these early immigrants had fled. These people were not seeking preferential treatment; they were seeking a chance to work their butts off to bring their dreams to life.

Now contrast those early days and that frontier attitude with our current situation. Government has grown far beyond the constraints placed upon it by the founding documents. Indeed, much of what government does today is, quite literally, unconstitutional. In fact, more and more the constitution is viewed as an historical, naive document, rather than the preeminent guiding principles of personal freedoms and limited government. 

Sadly, our government has never gotten smaller. It only grows. Whether run by Republicans or Democrats, the U.S. government has forsaken its roots and founding documents and morphed from a clear mission statement to unite and protect the colonies from outside invasion and internal power-struggles to a viral infection that brings out the worst in us.

Today one of our greatest threats comes not from a foreign country, but from within our own boarders, a constant refrain from progressives and the left that our country is fundamentally bad, that our way of life is incorrect, that somehow we have exploited, subdued and enslaved the world for our own benefit.

And the attacks continue unabated. Liberals have a laundry list of sins committed by the United States, and they selectively cherry-pick facts, dates and events to paint a picture that provides a horribly skewed version of America.

There was a time when a victim strove to become a non-victim, to rise above the obstacle in their path and prevail. Today victims have become Victocrats, lavishing in their very special color of oppression, and they form groups and assert themselves, not through hard work, but through embracing their victim status and proclaiming rights and reparations for their lack of success.

Consider today’s Victocrats, the disenfranchised, the downtrodden, who suffer with just one color TV, only one car and just one home, who must do their best to survive with but two cell phones and a single air conditioner, and think of our early settlers.

The stark comparison is both enlightening and embarrassing at the same time. We have come a long way, but did we follow the right path?