Political power and the rule of law

Another fine meal of libertarian meat and potatoes by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul.

"With the elections over and the 110th Congress settling in, the media have been reporting ad nauseam about who has assumed new political power in Washington. We're subjected to breathless reports about emerging power brokers in Congress; how so-and-so is now the powerful chair of an important committee; how certain candidates are amassing power for the 2008 elections, and so on. Nobody questions this use of the word 'power,' or considers its connotations. It's simply assumed, in Washington and the mainstream media, that political power is proper and inevitable.

"The problem is that politicians are not supposed to have power over us - we're supposed to be free. We seem to have forgotten that freedom means the absence of government coercion. So when politicians and the media celebrate political power, they really are celebrating the power of certain individuals to use coercive state force.

"Every government edict, policy, regulation, court decision, and law ultimately is backed up by force, in the form of police, guns, and jails. That is why political power must be fiercely constrained by the American people. ..."

Read the whole essay here.