Why Limited Government is the Only Real Protection in a Divided Nation
In a time when politics feels more divisive than ever, it’s worth asking: Why do we care so much who’s in power? Why do elections feel like existential threats? Why are friendships, families, and communities torn apart over national politics?
It’s not because we’ve all gone mad. It’s because government has grown too large, too intrusive, and too eager to solve problems it was never meant to touch.
"If government were less intrusive, then politics would be less divisive.
If government would stay the hell out of our problems, most people wouldn't care which party was in power." -- Karl Uppiano
That’s not cynicism—it’s clarity. When government controls your health care, your kids’ education, your business regulations, your energy bill, and your speech on social media, of course people panic when “the other side” wins. Because control of government now means control over everything.
This is why people who claim to love liberty should be skeptical of any political movement that promises to "fix" everything from the top down. Even if you agree with their goals, centralized power is a loaded weapon—and one day, it will be in someone else’s hands.
"If you hate Donald Trump, and everything he says or does, then you should be very interested in limited government.
That wrecking ball swings both ways." -- Karl Uppiano
The same is true if you hated Barack Obama. Or Joe Biden. Or George W. Bush. If your solution to every problem is to expand federal authority, you're building the stage for tyranny—whether it's a tyranny you like or not.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.” -- C. S. Lewis
Founding principles like limited government, federalism, separation of powers, and checks and balances weren’t designed just to frustrate political progress—they were designed to protect you from power when it turns against you.
It’s tempting to cheer when your side wins and gets to “do something,” but history shows us that every tool you create to force your vision on others will one day be used against you. That’s not a glitch in the system—it’s the nature of power.
In short: if you’re worried about the next election, the next president, or the next wave of regulations, don’t just focus on who holds power. Start asking how much power they should have in the first place.
Because if we don’t restore the principle of limited government, we’re not just fighting each other—we’re setting fire to the very system that was designed to keep us free.
