The headline read, "Man sentenced for bilking Nixa." When people hear about a former city employee of Nixa who stole from the people using mail fraud and money-laundering schemes, the people are mad and rightly so.
When another man comes along and creates schemes to "spread the wealth around," many people are elated and jump for joy.
The only difference between the two is that one man's schemes are perpetrated by a minority of people on the majority and the other man's schemes are endorsed by the majority. That is the difference between legal and illegal plunder, but the truth is they are both morally reprehensible.
The sad fact is most politicians over the last hundred years have been and are legally plundering their fellow citizens with the blessings of the majority. The only difference is that today the current administration and Congress are making their predecessors look like pikers.
That was the very reason our Founding Fathers established our nation as a republic, rather than a democracy. They understood the fact that there are limits to what government can do to and for the people.
Unfortunately, this doesn't just happen in Washington, D.C. At our state level, politicians have given tax credits to specific companies and created health insurance mandates that are nothing more than an indirect tax on the people that creates a privatized version of more government welfare.
At this pivotal time in our nation's history, when government is reaching into every area of our lives like never before, it is not only imperative that the people learn to self-govern, but we must choose leaders who understand that their primary duty is to protect our individual rights.
That's why our Founding Fathers said that for a people to be free, they must be moral. In the end, only a moral people can say "no" to immoral behavior in the privacy of their home or the voting booth.
Steve Helms lives in Springfield and is the circuit clerk for Greene County. He speaks here as a private citizen.
