Unfortunately, such conduct overlooks the shopworn but honest adage that those who cannot read history are damned to relive it. Since we have been alerted by John Philpot Curran that eternal vigilance constitutes the price of freedom, it appears appropriate to investigate the reasons that deny efficacy to such a proposal for a political solution. In the instant case, counselors recommend the formation of political action groups to encourage proper governmental stands upon such causes as the liberation of business from the bonds of constraint, the inculcation of fairness and restraint into the system of taxation, the limitation of expensive entitlement or transfer payment programs and the like. They champion such tactics as flooding Congress and the President with petitions, raising funds to elect compliant legislators or to defeat recalcitrant ones, employing proctors to adjudicate the legality of governmental behavior, and similar deportment. In the second place, it is morally repugnant to enlist force to achieve the ends of liberty.
Coercion begets coercion, restraint begets restraint.
Given the dark side of mankind, well-intentioned conduct invoking governmental action naturally deteriorates into coercive conduct resulting in the deprivation of human freedom. Treatment thus aimed at saving voluntary action soon succumbs to the disease sought to be cured. One may deduce a quintessential duty to join the community defense against outlaws, but one may not distend the principle to compel such an obligation against brigands who use the law for wrongful purposes. Those who exhort common political activity essentially contend that a person who lives decently and properly should nevertheless engage in distasteful activity at his own expense to prevent illegality by the very state which is supposed to act as the eternal policeman for the citizenry. An answer requires the height of presumptuousness, for no actor can effectively direct another in this type of endeavor.