There is a common denominator to all this mayhem, to this socialism, interventionism, and imperialism. It is, in a word, statism, the philosophy that views the government as a daddy or, even worse, a god, one that is charged with taking care of people, forcing them to be good, and keeping them "safe," mostly from dangers that the government itself produces.

The statists have brought us a political and economic system that is based on the destruction of life, liberty, privacy, and property. Consider what massive statism has been brought to our nation:

A system of mandatory charity that statists foisted on us in the 1930s, one that is based on using the political process to take money from people to whom it belongs in order to give it to people to whom it does not belong. That's not charity, and it's not compassion. That's just plain old stealing, in the name of forcing us to be good and caring. There is no way to reconcile mandatory charity with the principles of a free society.