America's Frustrations & Who is John Galt?

 “Who is John Galt” is a phrase that we are seeing more and more here in the southeast. In fact you can view a number of billboards espousing the question while traveling Interstate 95 between Florida and Georgia. The question refers to a character by Ann Rand in the book “Atlas Shrugged” and has recently been seen at a number of Tea Party events, but what does it really represent? Most references to the question address it in a literal sense and describe John Galt as the architect of a worldwide strike by the society’s producers against the ever-increasing mantra of collective socialism. But what does it really mean? For many it is a way to express our frustration with the growing intrusion of government into our lives and the political correctness that comes with it. Modern socialism and political correctness has been with us since the early 20^th century and the movement has let to the ever-increasing restriction of individual rights for the collective good.

With the election of President Obama and a Democrat majority in 2008, we saw those rights continue to erode with the passage of the Health Care law. A law, which for the first time in our history, mandated that each and every adult, buy a product, selected by the Federal Government. This is not the first time Congress has extended its reach into our freedoms, in fact during the administration of FDR, the federal government in an effort to raise wheat prices, limited the amount of acreage farmers could plant. Needless to say, one farmer by the name of Roscoe Filburn decided to plant additional acreage for his personal use. Upon learning that Filburn had planted the additional acreage, the Federal government levied a fine and ordered him to destroy the extra wheat. Filburn fought back and the case ended up in the Supreme Court, (Wickard v. Filburn) with the court deciding that the Federal government had the right under the “interstate commerce” clause to regulate what crops individuals could grow within the borders of their own property. This was the same justification that was used when the Health Care law was argued in Federal court in late 2010.

When it comes to individual rights, it is not just the heavy handed tactics of Congress that has frustrated the people of this nation, it is the ever increasing power of bureaucrats and their ability to create new rules and regulations that has gotten people in an uproar. These same bureaucrats can by simply changing the interpretation of a regulation, extend their power to control the way we travel, run our businesses, eat, and provide for ourselves. An example of this would be the sign ordinance in the county in which I live. Under this ordinance, all flags are to hang on a flagpole with no more than three flags on any one pole. So when the local car dealership decided that they wanted to decorate their cars with American flags for the Memorial Day holiday, the code enforcement officers pounced. The dealership was cited under the signs and banners ordinance for failure obtain a permit. After the predictable public uproar, the ordinance was changed and the citations were voided, but no apologies were forthcoming from the local officials. Their interpretation of the ordinance was that as the flags were not mounted on a pole, they were not actually flags, but rather fluttering ribbons intended to promote the business and not a message of support for the Veterans of this nation.

It is this intrusion into our lives by our elected officials and their designates that has frustrated the people ever since the founding of our nation, but it has been in recent times that these intrusions have become such a burden that the we now feel the need to push back in an effort to maintain our freedoms and liberties. That push back has led to the emergence of the “Tea Party” movement and billboards questioning “Who is John Galt? Each and every one of us must remember that as Thomas Jefferson once said, “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance”.

Are you being vigilant?

Enjoy!