I had a strange dream last week. I was racing down a road on a runaway horse. When I reached for the reins, there were none because the horse was dragging them. This was a strange dream because I don’t ride horses and I never dream about horses. Also, most of my dreams have no rhyme or reason, but when I thought about this dream it suddenly became crystal clear. The horse was our government which is barreling down an unfamiliar road. It is not a road to prosperity but a road where the government is intent on income redistribution and is strangling our free enterprise system with rules and regulations.

Even the missing reins are obvious. Our founding fathers were very concerned about an oppressive government and gave us two protections to prevent this. One was the Constitution which divided the power between the Legislative Branch, the Executive Branch and the Judicial Branch. And even with this separation of powers, there are many other checks and balances. For example the President is the Commander in Chief of the military but only Congress can declare war. The President has the power to make treaties but two thirds of the Senators must concur. Presidential appointments, likewise, must be approved by the Senate.

The Constitutional reins to government are missing. The President uses czars to bypass Senate approval. The President ordered an attack on Libya, firing hundreds of cruise missiles into the country without notifying Congress. The administration declared that it wasn’t a war; it was a “kinetic military action.” Last week the President issued an executive order that Federal employees and Vice President Biden get a raise. The Constitution states that spending bills originate in Congress.

I believe the second protection and the second missing rein on our runaway horse is a free press. The First Amendment to the Constitution, in addition to addressing freedom of religion, addresses freedom of the press. Our Founding Fathers believed that a free press would rein in excessive government. Sadly, we have lost that rein also. The press, at least the mainstream media, functions as cheerleaders for the administration.

And while we are speaking of the First Amendment, the Second Amendment is under assault. The Second Amendment is pretty clear when it states:  “…the right of the people to keep and to bear arms shall not be infringed.”  But as Rahm Emanuel says: “Never alloy a crisis to go to waste” and Democrats see the Sandy Hook tragedy as an opportunity to pass new gun laws.

As my dream illustrates, we the people are on a runaway horse with no reins racing down an unfamiliar road.

Printed in the January 10, 2013