How Statesmen Think

This is from Scott Ott’s post The Contradiction of Being Republican. Any candidate for office who would have my enthusiastic support must naturally think like this:

We’re working to elect politicians, but we believe the ultimate answers don’t lie in government, but rather in private-sector liberty, industry and the resulting dignity…and often prosperity. We need to elect people who are willing to diminish the power of their offices and thus to increase their positive impact on the general welfare.

The politician who does best is the one who directs attention away from himself to the real engines of happiness in our Constitutional Republic — individuals and their voluntary associations.

We don’t need more politicians who want to help people through government programs. We need folks who want to become guardians of freedom by reducing the oppressive, confiscatory power of government.

We need politicians who see a problem and think…

1. How can government diminish its role as the cause of that problem?
2. What will happen if government does nothing about it?
3. How can we remove impediments to private-sector solutions?
4. How can we enhance individual responsibility, and thus, human dignity?