I gotta tell you, I love reality television.  And reality shows seem to have taken over the primetime television line-up. It seems even more so with the writers strike.  The thought of someone making a complete fool of themselves really entertains me.  Every season a new reality show is added to every major broadcasting station’s lineup, based on a more ridiculous concept than any already existing show.

The entertainment value of these shows normally comes from the spectacle of other people embarrassing themselves for some sort of grand prize.  From American Idol where you might become famous to shows like Deal or No Deal where it targets the contestants pure greed.  In fact, more people will watch American Idol than the State of the Union Address.  Include me as one of those people.  Look, I love W.  But watching him speak is really not good television.  It’s like watching your dog crap a peach seed.  You want to help it sooooooo bad, but you know you just have to let it run its course.  Besides, I’ll read the cliff notes. 

My all time favorite reality show is one that involves celebrities.  And my personal favorite is VH1’s Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew (the former Love Line host).  Basically it involves former—well B-list—celebs in a rehabilitation unit.  My favorite is former Taxi and Grease star, Jeff Conaway.  He is so beaten down by rampant alcohol and drug abuse that he is basically confined to a wheelchair.  His speech is so slurred they often have to subtitle him.  And the crazy drama he creates is down right delectable!! 

But there are some critics of reality TV.  The social criticisms are based on two assumptions: that millions of other people are being taken in by reality TV’s deceptions or are being led astray by its unsavory messages. When a reality show depicts bad behavior, it’s immoral, sexist. perverted or sick. When the formally critically acclaimed series The Sopranos does the same thing, it’s great storytelling. We assume that viewers can empathize with Tony Soprano without wanting to be him; we assume they can maintain distance and see the difference between his words and the truth. Why? Because we assume that people who like The Sopranos are smarter, more mature — better — than people who like Reality TV. 

And are they? (Queue the America the Beautiful song)  Is there something simply wrong with people who enjoy entertainment that depends on ordinary people living on some island, getting their heart broken, being told they can’t sing, getting played for fools or going broke?  Is it wrong to enjoy the downward spiral of a washed up, celebrity hack in a rehabilitation ward?  Perhaps.  But I love it.

We need government and its coercive powers to protect our natural rights to life, liberty and property.  Protecting these rights is the legitimate and moral role of government in a free society.  So in that respect, we need government, which means we need taxes.  But as Thomas Jefferson once said “The natural progress of things is for government to gain ground and for liberty to yield.”   

Jefferson was absolutely right.  Today the average worker pays close to 40% of his yearly earnings to the criminals at the federal, state and local levels.  Even more, there is little a person can do that is not regulated by some government command, be it flushing our toilets, building a house, driving a car or even getting married.  Sure we can blame our pompous politicians for an increasingly oppressive government.  But the real blame is with the American people. 

But what is our government’s job?  Our government’s job is laid out in (I looked it up.  You can too!!) Article 1, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution.  It gives Congress authority to lay and collect taxes to provide for roughly, among other things, roads, defense, printing money and the establishment of courts.  If members of Congress honored their oath and did only what the Constitution allowed, federal spending would be closer to the 4 percent mark instead of the 40 percent level it is at now.   

I am positive there is some liberal who will respond by saying something about the “general welfare” clause of the Constitution (then again, a liberal would have to read the Constitution first).  It basically authorizes Congress to tax and spend for Medicare, food stamps, crop subsidies and other gimmie handouts.  This is pure crap.  If the framers had that vision, they wouldn’t have put the effort they did in writing it.  They would have just said: Congress has the power to collect taxes to provide for all those things Americans would like to have but are unable or unwilling to pay for.  They didn’t because they had better vision and foresight.  They looked to limit the threat to your liberty by limiting what Congress could do.  Perhaps Congress needs a history lesson.