PEOPLE v GOVERNMENT

Some claim the people and their government are one in the same, as government serves its people. Historically, that is false. Government has always been apart from and the enemy of its own people. Governments have always been wary of outside forces that would conquer it as well as inside forces that would overthrow it. Governments have always taken steps to defend it against outside and inside threats. Who are the inside threats? Those people who would capture the power of government for use by themselves would be one group. Those people who would stop the power of government from oppressing them and overtaxing them are another. This has been the world's experience, except in America.

There are two ways to define what "the people" means. In America, the people are free individuals. In the rest of the world, the people are a community. We would define government as an institution that serves the interests of its people. If the people consist only of free individuals, then legitimate self-interests are the most important interests to serve. If people are communities, then the interests of communities, as shaped and defined by its leaders or government, is most important. This gives us two different views of how government serves the interests of its people, by how people are viewed.

In the campaigns of 2007-2008, candidates express these two distinct views of people. The Democrats openly claim that the interests of community are more important. The conservatives say the interests of the individual are more important. The Democrats support the notion that government's role is to serve community interests. Conservatives support the notion that government should stay out of the way of individual freedom to pursue life, liberty and happiness, as stated in the Declaration of Independence. In the Second Amendment to the Federal Constitution, the Democrats say people as a sanctioned militia may own guns, but not as individuals. In the First Amendment, government assumes the role of protecting community against exposure to religious beliefs in public. As the people live with the idea they are just part of a community, and accept government as its protector, they accept the propositions of the Democrats that they know best how to manage society and its purposes.

America built itself on the idea that legitimate, individual interests are more important that any undefined community interest. As a result, the people democratically

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