Nearly one hundred years ago my great grandfather was incarcerated in a Japanese concentration camp by the United States government, he was never found guilty of a single crime. He was a US citizen and had a right to be left to his own device just like any other man, but the government feared he was a threat to national security and thus he, along with 120,000 others, were indefinitely detained and forced into concentration camps. Those with 1/16th Japanese ancestry or more were targeted based on their race and nothing more, quarantined for fear that they would rebel against their own government without any proof or trial. This was all legislated by executive order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in response to Imperial Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor during the height of World War II. The incarcerated suffered the dehumanizing and mundane nature of camp life, subjected to years of sub-par living conditions and underfunded camps, children were robbed of a normal childhood, and most lost their homes, careers and possessions beyond the camps perimeter.

Rights were violated and the camps stayed open for over four years until its inhabitants were set free and reparations were made in the form of lump cash sums, but the experience would remain vivid with those who lived it forever and no amount of money could erase what was done. The government openly stated that the concentration camps were a failure of leadership and a racially motivated misuse of power. This is not a hiccup in American exceptionalism or Western Democracy, this is the system working exactly as it was designed. The problem is not with those in charge or having the wrong people in power, that only exacerbates the problem, the problem is the nature of power itself. What occurred is what happens when we give up our rights to government. We are giving up our individual power to a group that has ultimate authority. Now that US history has set precedent for a racially motivated forced detention and incarceration of mass populations of peaceful citizens, by a liberal Democrat, what can we learn about the misuse of power?

Today, the echoes of resentment can be constantly heard by the left who label Trump supporters as “Nazi’s” and claim Trump himself to be the next Hitler. I am more worried Trump will be the next Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the liberal icon that changed the nation in innumerable ways. The Democrats often applaud FDR as a hero, he has done much in ways of moving collectivist policy (for the better or the worse). They, however, often completely ignore the darker side of human suffering caused by his administration. Perhaps it is because of the fact that leftists use violence as a Machiavellian means to all ends in the enforcement of their policies, but I digress. Democrats are furiously upset about Trump, a Republican, who lost against Hillary Clinton in the elections.

It is highly ironic that the Democratic Party, an organization whose sole purpose is increasing the power and influence of government until it is an omnipotent force with dominion over all, would be upset about a President who takes advantage of those powers. While completely ignoring their own sins and those of their candidates, they choose instead to blindly support them as long as they are a part of the same team and if it moves them towards the same vague end; this can be said for just about any political structure in the world over. As long as one group holds power they will expand that power, while remaining myopic with how to deal with those powers when they are not in control. Many of the powers that Trump now has have been given to him by the prior 44 presidents including Franklin Delano Roosevelt and other Democratic rulers.

The problem is not then, getting the right groups in power, the problem is the power structure itself. By taking away power from the government, those who seek to control it will either fail in their attempt to implement policy or choose to abandon the scheme in its entirety. A government which can violate the rights of the individual must be muzzled or euthanized with steps taken to subvert or abolish its authority. The idea of a benevolent state is as asinine as the idea of a benevolent dictator, even under a Democracy power is still influenced by the mob or group, and more than often those influential groups are swayed by small groups of men.

A government which can violate the rights of the individual must be muzzled or euthanized with steps taken to subvert or abolish its authority.

With the governments current level of power it can get away with doing things that the average citizen can’t, things that the government currently fines and imprisons people for. Why should such a double standard exist when government does these same things? It should not. The answer then is to take away power from the state. Without power, government will not be able to take the wealth and property of one group and transfer it to another, doing so is legalized theft. Without power, government will not be able to legislate an increase in the money supply to which we are beholden, devaluing our currency to pay for government schemes, doing so is legalized counterfeiting. Without power, government will not be able to say that one mans life is worth more than another based on race, lineage or creed, doing so legally violates the rights of the minority. Without power, government will not be able to drop bombs on foreigners unprovoked with no imminent threat present to our homeland, creating enemies the world over, doing so is legalized murder.

It is the ever expansion of government and the existence of so called turn-key-tyranny which makes government so dangerous and destructive and attractive to those who seek total control. Those who seek to expand government yet cry at the thought of the wrong men gaining power deserve no sympathy. For the tyrant who was recently defeated may say, although we may not be in power now, in time we shall rise again and there will be more power for the taking. In the United States the Republicans and Democrats are both equally guilty of this cycle of command & expansion on all levels of government. The liberals claim that more government is the answer to more government, and the so called conservatives claim that their version of more government is superior to the latter. Only the individualists, the abolitionists and libertarians, understand the need for freedom and liberty. Without government, the individual is allowed to grow and prosper unperturbed by the heavy hand of the state, and without the ability to rise into a position of unparalleled command and control over his fellow countryman.

For the tyrant who was recently defeated may say, although we may not be in power now, in time we shall rise again and there will be more power for the taking.

The government ought to only be in charge of defending the rights of the individual, the individual is the smallest minority and no other law supersedes him. If another man or group wishes to violate the rights of the individual, the government is chartered to protect him. Rights are both positive and negative, meaning that for a right to be a right it must be able to be expressed or if one wishes can be left unexploited. The government ought to protect these intrinsic rights and apply them equally to all men regardless of race, religion or creed. The governments only rightful functions are to lead the military in times of war and the police and courts to protect the rights of the individual. Protection is the only lawful use of government force, the state is not meant to provide, for if the government provides something it is taking from someone else. It is from these tenants which form the foundation of righteous government, if it is possible for one to exist. Furthermore, a man who wishes to secede from the protection or tyranny of the state should be allowed to do so, as an implicit agreement to be bound to a government by birth is not an agreement at all, as long as that individual does not violate the rights of others. It is with this understanding that all human interactions should be voluntary and that government must not violate the rights of the individual that true peace and prosperity are allowed to flourish.