Congress passed the health care reform bill that people plainly said they didn’t want.  The President signed it into law, because he’s smarter than you are.  Proponents of the massive government take-over of health care and public cooption of private scholarship funding are now complaining about the lack of civility directed towards them.  Well the American people owe about as much civility towards Congress and the White House these days as they do to the same mob that stole their property and mugged their kids (same thing only different).  There will also come a time when taxes rise to the level of confiscation, when every American taxpayer must decide for him or herself—how far is enough and how far is too far?  On what basis rests the fealty of citizens to the nation?  Is government always the same thing as the nation, and is the IRS and government bureaucracy the same as good government?  These questions should never come up, if the government were confined to purposes for which it was erected. 

 The average taxpayer is more or less happy to do his part, whenever the government acts constitutionally.  The average taxpayer remains true to his legal obligation to pay for government, if it acts in accordance with enumerated powers and responsibilities delegated to it to perform.  The hypothetical situation should never arise as to what people would do if the government becomes a tyranny, that is, if the government stayed within its constitutional bounds.  Patrick Henry no doubt lacked a certain civility in his day, and so should we.  The hypothetical case, however, is relevant because the health care reform bill just passed will dramatically increase taxes and raise national debt.  If the government takes 30 percent of your income from you, is that okay?  Probably.  If the government takes 50 percent of your income from you, is that okay?  Possibly.  If the government takes 80 percent of your income from you, is that okay?  Nay.  And most people will refuse, unless they are willing to become as slaves or pawns to Big Brother government.  When taxes become confiscatory, people must revolt.  They have a duty to do so. 

 In American political tradition, revolt will take the form of political action first, civil disobedience second.  It may gravitate towards other more extreme forms of resistance, depending upon the action, inaction and counteractions committed by the government.  Don’t be fooled: the government is not the same as the people and never has been.  The government is a representative institution elected and paid for to serve the people.  It is not elected and paid for to be our babysitter or minor guardian or Progressive schoolmarm.  Its legitimate activities are bound by the strictures of the Constitution.  Today unfortunately there is no safe or easy way to resist; and there won’t be, should the government fail to get the message politically speaking in 2010 and 2012.  Hypothetically there will never be a safe way to resist, unless or until there is no safe way for the government to confiscate taxes and litigate its citizens.  The conditional phrase, as it were, is reserved for the moment.  The point is that a spectrum or sliding scale of populist reaction has been entered into, and quite needlessly.  The situation was created, indeed plotted and pulled off by leftist ideologues in the executive branch and morons in Congress. 

 The president will go down as the worst in our history if judged solely by the health care legislation.  Watch closely, however, because his administration plans next to legalize seven million illegal immigrants under so-called comprehensive immigration reform, and this will result in extending health care to them as well.  I say again: how far is enough and how far is too far?  On what basis rests the fealty of citizens to the nation?  Is government always the same thing as the nation, and is the IRS and government bureaucracy the same as good government?  The time to avoid the bait is not when hind legs are caught in the mousetrap.  When confiscatory taxes threaten your livelihood, future, family and dreams, they are as illegitimate as government that would enact such laws as to require them.  Government will make a man do whatever it has the power to coerce.  That’s why the Founders believed so fervently in withholding power from the federal government.  At their urging, states ratified the Constitution and enshrined the principle of limited government, such that, government is illegitimate outside the mandates and allowances of the Constitution. 

 There is quite simply no legitimate power in the Constitution to mandate that private citizens shall purchase any given product or service, including health insurance.  Thus far and no farther, the People must decide and decide quickly!  Ironically the cradle of Western democracy, Athens, Greece was shaken by violent clashes starting in March in response to that country’s financial collapse and government austerity measures.  In that case, the people waited too long to act.  They were reduced moreover to the pitiful state of resorting to violence—not in order to restore their Republic or insist upon natural rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.  No, rather they resorted to violence merely to clutch at those crumbs of tax-supported handouts and dependent privileges purchased at the cost of confiscatory taxation, self-dignity and freedom. 

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Wesley Allen Riddle is a retired military officer with degrees and honors from West Point and Oxford.  Widely published in the academic and opinion press, he ran for U.S. Congress (TX-District 31) in the 2004 Republican Primary.  Email: wes@wesriddle.com.