A few years ago, I was watching a story of how the terrorist group Hamas acquired power in the Palestinian territory. While the Fatah faction was busy "governing," it was Hamas and its leaders that were providing social services, health care, social programs, food and money to the poverty stricken Palestinian people. When the call for direct elections came, the Palestinian people elected Hamas to run their territories. It was the classic tale of "you scratch my back and I'll starch yours. "
For many years, the Democratic Party in the United States, in the inner cities, and in Washington, have maintained power by using the Treasury to provide entitlements, regulations, social programs and more to the American people. It started in the 1930s when Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democratic Congress of that era, raided the Treasury to provide relief funds to the down and out, social security, welfare and more. This caused the Democrats to maintain power in the 1930s and early 40s and afterwards for 40 years. This practice continues today.
Republicans have done it too, but, to be fair, not to a massive extent that the Democrats have done it. They have used the Treasury to provide benefits for Veterans in the military, and to fund some social programs like the "No Child Left Behind" law and the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan. That is all.
By using money and a government treasury to provide "needs," most politicians and others have the belief that they can manipulate people to support them in their quest for power. Sadly, they are correct. If these forces can make individuals dependent on them and, to obtain loyalty from them, they have the battle won. This approach has been used many times by the Communist Parties in Europe, Asia and Latin America and it has worked only to bring about injustice later on to many a people.
No individual, no politician no political party or other, should attempt to make another a dependent on them for anything. It is the equivalent of making an alcoholic a slave to boos. This approach violates not only freedom and liberty, but it also violates this nation's founding principals, traditions and values. The task for Libertarians is to show that dependency of any form is an affront to, if you want to be poetic about it, the individual's moral, economic, social and spiritual well being. They also have to educate the public that freedom is a great deal preferable to bondage.