As our federal government continues to grow, each and every American is slowly losing their freedom.

Both sides of the spectrum currently want a bigger government because the left has succeeded in making the majority of Americans believe the government can solve everything that goes wrong.

Because of this, the conservatives are forced to water down some of their stances on certain issues, like gun control and tax relief.

In actuality, the perfect society, realistically, is a libertarian’s society, one where people are forced to be responsible for their own actions.

But this is not something that can just happen overnight; the country must slowly shrink government.

Although George W. Bush is expanding the government at a rate of 4 percent, he was as close to shrinking government as it got in the last election.

I hope the people in this country will realize he is better than anyone from the left and the beginning of less government interaction.

What types of things should and shouldn’t the government do to make itself smaller? Or in other words, what is the government’s business and what is not?

The business of the government, first and foremost, is to ensure life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This would throw abortion out the window.

Abortion should not be legal, and it is the government’s job to stop it in order to ensure life to the unborn child.

This is the issue where most Libertarians will disagree with me. They think it is not the government’s job to tell a woman what to do with her body.

My reply to that is, it is not just her body, it is also the child’s she helped create.

Liberals will use a number of other arguments.

A popular one is, “Oh, they are going to do it any way. Would you rather have them doing it in alleys with coat hangers?”

In all honesty, I couldn’t care less if a woman injured herself trying to abort a baby. Maybe that is something she should have thought about before she had sex.

As for rape, this is a much more sensitive area. The important thing to remember here is it is not the child’s fault, either. It is the government’s job to ensure the child has a right to life.

When it comes to the mother dying, the same rule must apply. It may be tough to grip reality, but wouldn’t most mothers die in order for their children to keep living?

Regulation of abortion is one area in which the government actually needs to grow.

Aside from abortion, libertarians are right on when it comes to almost every issue.

A big issue they press that I agree with is the legalization of drugs like marijuana, cocaine and heroin. This sounds horrible at first, but it makes a lot of sense.

First of all, it is absolutely no one’s business what people do to themselves as long as it does not interfere with other people’s rights.

If some moron wants to shoot up every night and ruin his own life, so be it; he is not hurting you or me.

Think about it, why can a person go out and get drunk but can’t stay at home and smoke pot? Who is a greater danger to society? It makes no sense.

I am not for letting this stuff flow freely. The Constitution grants the government the right to control interstate trade.

Obviously these drugs would flow from state to state so the federal government could tax them, much like they do tobacco today.

Think about what this could do for the American taxpayer.

Those who want to do the drugs will pay for it, bringing in more government revenue, and the amount of money spent on making criminals out of these people would be eliminated. The prison population would almost be cut in half and money for attorneys defending the random drug offender would be erased.

Speaking of taxes, Libertarians would like to abolish the income tax. Amen!

That means the government will not punish me for working. Granted this is one of those situations I would rather gradually shrink to, as opposed to doing it overnight.

Currently we punish the rich in order to help the poor. It sounds nice, but it does not work. It simply creates a dependency on government, and that is what the left wants – it keeps them in power.

The best way to get to that point is to make the income tax flat and gradually decrease it as government shrinks until there is no need.

When I say shrink the government, I mean follow the Constitution.

It never mentions education, food stamps, health care, Social Security and all the other failed programs the liberals have brought us. With these programs we have abandoned the principles of capitalism.

They will accuse me of being cruel and trying to starve children and people who can’t find work. That is the strategy of the left.

If we stopped over-taxing people, there would not be unemployment and poverty.

Every good businessman knows in order to maximize profits you need to grow. In order to grow, you make the best product you can and people will buy it.

In order for people to buy things, they must be paid well; this is where trickle-down economics comes into play. There would be no need for these programs because people would take care of themselves.

As for people who cannot physically take care of themselves, they would receive funding, and those are the only people who should be eligible for any sort of program. This program should be done at the state level.

These government programs have been the rot of society. Some blame it on television, while others go as far as to blame it on guns.

The fact is before the government took care of everybody, parents raised their children as best as they could in order to have someone with the capability of taking care of them when they could not do it anymore.

Then things like Social Security were started, and people thought they had something to fall back on. They were not forced to raise their children to take care of them; the government would do it instead.

Now, each generation has more and more problems and becomes more and more reliable on the government.

As for gun control, Libertarians think there should be far less regulation and that people have the right to bear arms. This means carry a weapon, whether it be a handgun or a knife.

People have the right to protect themselves. Libertarians base their argument on the Second Amendment, something the left should try to do now and then.

When it comes to campaign finance, we have too many laws.

It is a violation of freedom of speech; if you want to give your money to certain political groups because they have similar views as you, that is your right. The government telling you that it is not all right is censorship.

The government needs to keep a strong military, a post office and things the Constitution says it has the power to do. That is it. If the Constitution needs to be changed, there is an amendment process for that.

Equality is something else the government should stick its nose in. Not in the private business world, but in government itself.

Many conservatives will disagree with me, but there is no reason a straight couple should be allowed to reap the benefits from marriage and gays cannot.

You do not have to accept their lifestyle, but all citizens should be equal under the law. A gay couple being married does not violate anyone else’s Constitutional rights.

Personal freedoms would be valued in a libertarian society. States would not be able to regulate what a person does with his or her body because it is none of their business. If a woman, or a man for that matter, wants to be a prostitute, it would be his or her decision to make.

A libertarian society is simply a free society of limited government.

The conservatives are close, and the left keeps distancing themselves. It’s too bad the powers that be will never let us get there.

Zach Calef is a sophomore in journalism from Cedar Rapids..