“A nanny state is hostile to liberty. Any attempt to institute or continue it should be opposed, root and branch. Government intervention is never the solution; and always the problem.” – Lane Vance
The origins of the term “nanny state” came from a British member of Parliament, Iain Macleod. In 1965, he penned a column attacking the Minister of Transport who proposed a 70 mph speed limit on all motorways. He wrote: “As a poor man’s Peter Simple I fire salvos at what I call the Nanny State.” He urged “resistance to the British Nanny” paternalism. Macleod was indeed clairvoyant. He predicted the era of European democratic socialism, and insightfully predicted America’s future.
Macleod told the press, “None of us appreciate a Parliament that tries to act like our moms!”
Big government has intruded everywhere, from seat-belt laws, smoking and food bans, to potty parity, free condoms to children, and mandatory face mask.
Americans have a reflexive response to being told what to do. Our founders promised us freedom of choice. In the state of Mississippi, they are fighting back. They passed a bill that bans all bans! This forbids anyone from restricting food or drink of any kind. They claim, people fear one single ban will multiply like rabbits. One day it’s sodas, tomorrow it’s bubblegum or flossing in a public place. Soon you’ll be restricted to using one sheet of toilet tissue in the restroom since it’s more environmentally friendly. Government control makes nothing better. “Thanks to the nanny state we all know what it’s like to live in a state of perpetual government terror.” – Laura Mosley
Recently, a Northern California judge ruled a school could forbid students from wearing clothes adorned with the stars and strips during the school’s celebration of Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday. Officials reportedly feared the display of American flags would incite racial tensions among illegal aliens. In California, a group of students were sent home for wearing MAGA hats on Election Day.
Last election, a Texas man was told to turn his Second Amendment shirt inside-out or he could not vote. Lone Star poll workers claimed he was campaigning at the polls. They justified this by saying this was, “intimidating” students and parents who supported gun control. When one reporter told them they were depriving one man of his right to vote just because someone had complained he was openly supporting the Second Amendment, they said they wanted to be fair to everyone. Yet voter intimidation by Black Panthers is legal according to the U.S. Department of Justice. And the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed to protect everyone; even good ol’ Texas cowboys.
The Nanny state has infected our entire nation. North Carolina threatened to send a blogger to jail for blogging about a remedy for diabetes. In California, if you are caught littering you will be fined $500 and it’s illegal to collect rain water from your roof. You need a permit to hold a Bible study in your home. You get fined for buying raw milk. Smoking at parks and beaches is a crime. Most states have mandatory vaccination laws for all children. In New York, it would take a book larger than “War and Peace” to list all of their nanny laws.
Progressives are intent on micromanaging the basic aspects of how the public buys homes and cars. Their rules are undoubtedly intended to effect change in our society, at the expense of the free market. By forcing the public with good credit to help those with low credit scores they are killing our free market. Demanding car makers to produce electric cars, when gas powered cars have a higher market share, is worse than Prohibition when beer makers were forced to make soda pop.
Once upon a time, the U.S. was considered “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” But progressives believe they must protect us from ourselves. Yet history demonstrates societies that thrived had the highest degree of freedom and liberty until bureaucrats got the upper hand. Then it sucked the life out of their liberty and ruined their economy. Today’s progressives are following the same script that Marx and Engels masterminded when they authored their Communist Manifesto. “Society does not consist of individuals but expresses the sum of interrelations”. -Karl Marx
In the last two decades, the effects of the progressive’s expansion of federal paternalism have inflicted cultural consequences or every American. As government finds more ways to appease progressives and socialists, they inflict more punishment on America. This assertion that “Nanny knows best” is something too many people accept. In the Nanny State, “non-wokes” who value their independence are considered anti-American, cruel, unfair, and un-American. “It’s time to reject the cynical politics of the Nanny State before we lose all liberty”. – Rick Perry
Our founders intended to create a society where liberty and freedom would be maximized. And we grew up with a vision we were free and capable of making all decisions necessary to create a good life. We knew we had control over our destiny. This vision used to fuel our ambitions and make us proud Americans. As long as we lived within the barriers of the Constitution, we were free to live our lives. But over the last few decades, our governments have been confiscating our God-given rights in favor of federalism. They have passed new laws that punish those who believe in capitalism.
Wendell Phillips told us, “Today it is not big business that we have to fear. It is big government.”
Today, federal and many state governments don’t even try to single out and catch the bad guys. They treat everyone they consider anti-woke the same while turning a deaf ear to those they consider friendly to their party. It’s easier to control an entire society by punishing those who you feel are a threat to you than it is to enforce laws equally and put every single law breaker in jail.
It used to be that losers always lose; but in the nanny state, winners always lose also and losers always win. We are being sold a bill of goods under the guise of paternalism. What is billed as protecting us is actually doing more harm to American capitalism and liberty. “In America we were promised freedom of choice. In the progressive world we are promised only to be neutralized from our God-given rights. The right of liberty is God-given and immortal. It cannot be regulated. Or controlled. It cannot be banned. And it must not be restricted.” – Marsha Blackburn
