The Velvet Glove and the Iron Fist

The Velvet Glove and the Iron Fist

By Lawrence W. Reed

In the month of October in election years, we’ve come to expect political vitriol. When government gets as big as ours, and figures so prominently in our lives, it’s natural that people who might otherwise ignore it feel compelled to take an interest. No matter what side you’re on—or even if, like me, you’re not ecstatic about any side—the spectacle should teach us a larger lesson about government and political power: We have way too much of both.

If America’s Founders could observe the country’s politics today, they would be appalled. They would admonish us in terms like this: “We warned you! We told you to keep government small, but under both parties you created a monstrosity so big and powerful that you now find yourselves at each other’s throats. We told you that big government is incompatible with good government, but you didn’t listen. We told you never to sacrifice your character for handouts, but you forgot that too. You even put government in charge of your kids’ education, for crying out loud! Did you learn nothing about power and its corrupting nature?”

In my book, Was Jesus a Socialist?, I wrote about this toxic, soul-crushing thing called power. The pursuit of it is evidence not of a love of others, but rather, love of oneself. Power is about the lust for control, the desire to push others around, take their stuff, punish somebody just because of who they are or what they have, and puff yourself up by dragging somebody else down. It’s evil.

Nothing brings forth bad people and licenses them to do evil more thoroughly than concentrated power. It never advertises itself honestly. Nobody says, “Vote for me because I want to live your life for you.” From the outside, it sounds reasonable. The state will care for you! The state will relieve you of worries and responsibilities! We will give you free stuff! We will help the poor and punish the rich!

Inside the velvet glove of power’s seductive promises is the iron fist of arrogance and compulsion. The promises to care for you are the bait.

As a Christian, I look to the teachings of Jesus for guidance. He never made false or unaffordable promises. He didn’t curry favor with certain constituencies at the expense of others. He didn’t play cynical class-warfare games. He focused on eternal truths, not temporary, earthly advantages. He never said anything like, “Put government in charge. Demand that the politicians rob Peter to pay Paul.” When a man (in Luke 12-13-15) approached him with a request to redistribute, Jesus rebuked him for his envy and said, “Who made me a judge or divider over you?”

When Jesus walked the Earth, Rome was an imperial tyranny. A little more than a century before, it was a republic. The collapse of character had provided evil men the opportunities for power they craved. Demagogues promising “bread and circuses” corrupted almost everybody. In the end, none of that “free stuff” was worth what Romans forfeited in the pursuit of it—namely, their lives and liberties.

Government, the instrument of concentrated power, is composed of mortals, prone to all the temptations all mortals face. It has nothing to give anybody except what it first takes from somebody. If it’s big enough to give you everything you want it’s also big enough to take away everything you’ve got.

Power rots the soul. Rare is the individual who becomes a better person for having possessed it.

Reflect on this as you observe the ugliness of politics these days.

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(Lawrence W. Reed is President Emeritus, Humphreys Family Senior Fellow, and Ron Manners Global Ambassador for Liberty at the Foundation for Economic Education in Atlanta, Georgia. He blogs at www.lawrencewreed.com).