Like a Thief in the Night Liberal Extremism Will Rob Us of Our Freedom

 

There is a liberal movement underway to fundamentally change our country; it will rob us of our freedom.  The liberal vision of America is one of big government, centralized control, taxation and regulation, and dependence on the government. Extreme liberals have a vision of how we should live, and they are wasting no time trying to impose it on the rest of us. COVID-19 was a lesson in how easily people can be manipulated when they’re frightened and unprepared, and it has emboldened the pursuit of a “new world order.”

 

The freedom our founders fought and died for requires restrained government that serves the people, self-sufficiency, and individual responsibility, and is in direct conflict with the liberalism. The two visions are incompatible.  There will be winners and losers in this battle, and it will be much harder to fight than it should be.  While our family structures deteriorated over decades, our children were being indoctrinated with liberal ideology in our schools, emotion replaced critical thinking, and complacency and apathy kept us from seeing what was happening right under our noses.

 

The Dane County Board and County Executive recently passed the 2023 budget.  The county is extremely liberal and already the highest taxed in the state.  It is a useful case study in liberalism.

 

The ideology and skills of our elected leaders matter. It behooves us to know who they are and choose wisely. Joe Parisi is the Dane County Executive. He dropped out of high school to become a rock star. That didn’t happen so he got his GED when he was in his 30’s and a BA in sociology in the 1990’s.   He got a job as a legislative aid, was elected Dane County Clerk in 1996, state representative in 2004 and Dane County Executive in 2011.  His extreme liberalism aside, are these the qualifications of the chief administrative officer of an $853 million enterprise? 

 

Parisi titled the 2023 budget “Opportunity Out of Adversity” and described it as "progressive investments in our quality of life paired with visionary approaches to confronting our challenges.”  The budget is 877 pages.  In the absence of serious, investigative journalism, we will never know what’s buried deep within.  Here are a few things we do know.

 

• Increases the tax levy by nearly 6%

• Adds 75 full-time employees to the county payroll at a cost of $7.4 million.

• Gives every county employee a 9% raise.

• Implements the Dane County Caregiver Leave Program which provides county employees with up to 80 hours of paid leave.

• Provides $6 million for a permanent shelter for homeless men.

• Creates a Dane County Department of Justice Reform and Equity.

• Provides funding for travel expenses of county employees who travel to other states for abortions.

• Increases fees for numerous licenses and permits.

• Adds millions for Climate Change initiatives.

 

 

This is a big government budget that brazenly balloons government on the backs of the taxpayers who are dealing with inflation and looming recession. It favors dependence on government over self-sufficiency and individual responsibility.   It’s a microcosm of what’s going on throughout the state and around the country.

 

We must reverse course if we want to live in a free country. It’s much more difficult to steal what’s ours if we see the thief coming, are prepared to defend ourselves, and stand our ground.