Republicrats and Pandora

Daniel O’Connor
Campaign For Liberty

The story of Pandora’s Box derives from ancient Greece and remains very relevant today but is not well understood, and too often neglected. There are various interpretations of the story behind Pandora’s Box yet the most commonly referenced aspect of the story can be summarized as follows:

Pandora was the first woman on Earth. She was created upon the command of Zeus to Hephaestus, the god of craftsmanship. Hephaestus created her using water and earth, while other gods granted her many gifts. . . Pandora was given a jar that she was ordered not to open under any circumstances. Despite this warning, overcome by curiosity Pandora opened the jar. Upon doing so, the evils contained within escaped into the world. Scared, Pandora immediately closed the jar, only to trap Hope inside, as was Zeus’ will.

1 How does this pertain to modern society?

Pandora was warned not to open the jar but she did anyway. The contents of the jar/box represent unforeseen or unpredictable consequences. The story represents the potential evils that can manifest when opening it, or “opening a new can of worms”. Throughout American history, Pandora’s box has been opened countless times by members of our government in their policies, and they often receive public support to do so. Afterwards, a storm of unforeseen and unintended ramifications flow out like a hurricane.

The Constitution was set out as a set of guidelines and a way to restrain the government. It was created as a contract, an agreement between the government and the citizens. Disregard for The Constitution or violating the constitution is an obvious sign of opening up Pandora’s Box. For example, The Constitution clearly states that only The Congress has the authority to declare war; however, the U.S. Government has been involved in numerous military conflicts over the decades, during which Congress did not authorize an official declaration of war.

Deviating from the confines of The Constitution is wreckless and has lead to many unintended consequences, as in the story of Pandora’s Box. Pandora did not intend to release evils into the world. This was not her intention. Similarly, over the decades, the many Americans who support our interventions abroad were unaware of the future ramifications.

Thomas Jefferson urged future generations to maintain “Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations–entangling alliances with none.” He stated “I am not for linking ourselves by new treaties with the quarrels of Europe, entering that field of slaughter to preserve their balance, or joining in the confederacy of Kings to war against the principles of liberty.”

Nowadays, the US military has operations in almost every corner of the globe and spends almost 10% of our GDP in maintaining this military empire. For decades, we have continued an unrestrained military expansion across the globe and are now greater indebted than at any other period in the nation’s history. Moreover, the unintended consequences of our interventions in other nations over the decades have been disastrous.

Bureaucrats of all political affiliations support this unrestrained intervention in the affairs of other nations and can therefore be labeled as Republicrats. Republicrats carrying the labels (R) and (D) are all guilty of constantly opening Pandora’s Box. The Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution is disregarded by virtually all politicians (except for Ron Paul, of course), while the powers of the President and the federal government are constantly expanded.

The continuous opening of Pandora’s Box does not only apply to America’s widespread entanglements abroad but to a myriad of government policies and actions, over many decades.

In the early years of American history, the federal government had few sources of revenue and therefore its ability to spend and expand was limited. Since the introduction of the Federal Reserve and The IRS in 1913, the federal government was granted an unconstitutional authority to tax people’s personal incomes along with the authority to print money and fix interest rates in a very secretive manner. The Federal Reserve’s policy of continuous inflation is a hidden tax and robs the people who save money. Without any fiscal or monetary constraints or strict adherence to The Constitution our government has become more indebted than any other period in history.

The list of instances when government bureaucrats have opened Pandora’s box is endless. The Patriot Act is another example of the government overextending past its constitutional authority and abusing their power. The Patriot Act can extend way beyond the initially stated objectives of the Act.

Part of what makes these government abuses and programs so dangerous and detrimental is: a) they set a precedent for future abuses; b) they become indelible. Ronald Reagan once stated:

“Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth. ”

Programs launched by presidents such as Woodrow Wilson and FDR still burden us today. Wilson advocated a need to spread democracy abroad which has proven to be an impossible task as we are still currently bogged down in numerous failing operations such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Roosevelt set up programs such as Fannie Mae and Social Security which are now beyond bankrupt.

It is a combination of all these wreckless and unrestrained government actions which have brought us to our current state of affairs and are clearly no longer sustainable. Yet, nieve citizens continue to support the agenda of government expansion while disregarding the results of past government failures and military operations across the globe, and the fact that the nation is grossly indebted.

Those Americans who consistently support government programs and maintain a misplaced confidence in abusive bureaucrats often refer to themselves “pragmatists”, while they turn and label freedom-loving libertarians as “radical ideologues”.

Well, we have reached a stage where faith in our government is shrinking by the day, as people are waking up to the Republicrats’ policy of unrestrained spending and abuse of authority. We are approaching a stage where Pandora’s Box has been opened way too many times and we now must revert back to a Constitutionally based government of rules and principles –not “pragmatism” and arbitrary cost-benefit-analysis’.

Thomas Jefferson, who devoted his life to opposing tyranny and big government, stated:
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”

In the story of Pandora’s Box, Pandora was able to close the box (or jar) even after all of the many evils had been released into the world, leaving nothing but “hope” inside. (Ironically, Barack Obama ran for President with a message of “Hope”) It is not too late to reverse the expansion of government that has taken place in this country and move back to a rules-based system, as set forth by The Constitution.