Why the political is personal

Remember when friends could disagree about politics? Unfortunately, it seems as though that time has past us by. What happened?

There was a time in our history that our interactions with government were quite rare. Daily decisions were not influenced by the policies of the state. If you wanted to build a barn in your backyard, you acquired the resources and built it. If you lacked the resources, you did not build it. If you were unemployed, you went to local merchants and offered to work. You did not visit a government agency to get money or to look for a job. If you needed money, you relied on the charity of your church and neighbors.

Today, the state is now involved in an incredible proportion of our very personal decisions. And since the government is, at its heart, a political entity, political preferences now have very personal ramifications.

In other words, my vote - a political act - now has a personal impact on you. The only way out of this is to shrink the size of the government ... to reduce its influence on daily life.