Desperation has been known to drive good people to do bad things. “Bad” is of course subjective. You have to be willing to accept that humans are flawed and prone to weakness. It is also imperative that you are not in awe of the power of the state as a beacon of morality or as the best guardian against bad behavior or you will forever be disappointed. The fact is people are weak. They seek the path of least resistance. And government attracts these people like flies to you know what. It is also a poor judge of character.
Why bring it up? Because expanded gambling passed the State Senate. So is expanded gambling inevitable for New Hamshire in this economy?
I think our situation mirrors the tragic tale of a young woman who has set off ill prepared to pursue some dream only to find herself in dire straits. Penniless, and perhaps homeless, having lived outside her means for too long, she abandons the last tenuous holds on what once constituted in her mind good or safe behavior and turns her body into a revenue center. She prostitutes herself out to whomever will pay, not because she ever planned to be a whore, but because the choices she made have lead her here and the desire to continue living—even like this—outweighs other harder choices she feels are beyond her or that she is unwilling or unprepared to make. Desperation fuels weakness.
That’s where our liberal friends and the grow government first lobby has landed on the matter of gambling in New Hampshire. Despite years of being voted down by basically the same legislature, the poor choices they have made in the past (intentionally or not) have piled up behind them. Their desire for more government has well exceeded the peoples tolerance for its cost, but that government still needs to eat. Its stewards seem almost unwilling to make hard choices for that which they, without a doubt, are responsible for themselves. But when you run a government the people have to pay for your mistakes but as long as you can convince them that the path you are now choosing is the lesser of two “necessary” evils, they may agree if for no other reason than that they don’t like the other alternatives you have given them. They will seek the path of least resistance.
So our democrat lead state government is prepared to prostitute the state of New Hampshire out to the gambling industry for any reasons they can imagine, including my favorite…everybody’s doing it. Well if that were all it takes, then why not grab two handfuls of that stagnant goo known as European secularist socialism and turn ourselves over in total to the state? That is after all what the whores in Concord have been leading us toward. Why pretend we are any better or any different than the collapsing socialist laboratories of New York, Michigan, or California? Why strike the pose of small government or personal responsibility at all if we are to simply justify away any principle that becomes inconvenient in the face of more difficult choices.
Who needs parties and platforms if all we are doing is slowing down or speeding up the train on its way off the cliff?
Pardon the imagery but this is not just about revenue to offset taxes on excessive spending. We would be strapping a giant vagina to the side of the state house and letting the deep pocketed “johns” in the gambling lobby come in and have their way with us.
Is this a test to see just how wholesome our citizen legislature is when they have to balance thousands of campaign dollars at a whack from the gaming industry against the nickels and dimes they would normally have to scrape up from the local electorate? Do you honestly think that a government that would actually put us in this position can continue to be trusted under those circumstances? If you let them in they will buy up all the legislators they need; then see who’s interest they bring to the state House with them; who’s emails and phone calls they consider as they vote on issues affecting your community and your state; what really matters to them once a mulit-million dollar industry has busted down the door and set up shop.
It’s not about what everyone else is doing. And it’s not about easy money. The problem with gambling isn’t even really about the societal risks of gambling to New Hampshire. It is a political gamble where the people allow outside influence and money with which they cannot possibly compete to drive policy that will affect their lives, and those of their children forever. If you prostitute your government out to the gambling lobby it won’t be your government anymore.
I’m not against gambling on moral grounds. I’m against it because it has the ability to shift the governments responsibilty away from the voice and the needs of the people. It is not whether gambling may corrupt people. It’s that gambling will corrupt my government. So at its core this is about the ability to compete with gambling for my governments attention. It is a fight I cannot afford to lose, and it is a gamble I am unwilling to take.
Cross Posted from NH Insider
