Mike Huckabee's Commentary On The News

December 26, 2022
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We all knew a kid in school who just had to run everything. Remember the classmate who insisted on picking the games you’d all play at recess, where you’d go after school, even who was “in” or “out” of your group? In high school, that kid had a compulsive need to be the leader of every student organization. You just wanted to say, “Hey! You’re not the boss of me!” Whatever happened to those kids? I wouldn’t be surprised if most ended up in government. We certainly have no shortage of people there who think they know how to live your life and spend your paycheck better than you do.

I’m convinced the world is divided into people who just want to live their own lives and those who, for some reason, have an uncontrollable urge to tell everyone else how to live. Unfortunately, to that latter group, government seems like the ideal place to work, and at the moment, they are getting 99.9% of all the attention from the media. As more of them gravitated toward government, Congress abdicated much of its legislating authority to unelected bureaucrats. Their bureaus grew like kudzu, and so did their regulations with the force of law (but no input from the people.) Then one day, we looked up and discovered we had a crushing national debt and were paying huge salaries to an army of people who enforce how big your soda should be and who couldn’t be fired and who is allowed to come into your daughter’s locker room. That’s when sane people realized that government is the LAST place these out-of-control control freaks needed to be.

The temptation for government to overreach is hardly new. In fact, it stretches back to the beginning of recorded history, and I bet even earlier than that. There’s a story in the ninth chapter of the book of Judges in the Old Testament about Gideon’s son Abimelech, who craved leadership and stature - not to serve the people but to control them and make them serve him. He said, “Give me dominion over your lives, and I will simplify your existence.” Wow, does that sound familiar? It’s basically the entire Democratic platform. Our government has taken us pretty far down that same road, but does your life seem any simpler -- or just a lot less free?

Anyway, back to Abimelech. He had a very smart younger brother, Jotham, who came up with a clever tale about three trees: an olive tree, a fig tree, and a vine tree. All three were fine trees that produced lots of fruit. All were offered the exalted position of “King Of All Trees,” but all three turned it down. The plant that wanted to be “King Of All Trees” was the bramble bush, a weak plant that produces no fruit at all. Jotham’s point was that only the weak and nonproductive have the desire to rule everyone else. Does that lesson not resonate like a gong right now?

When anyone aspires to a position of power, take a long, hard look. If that person seemingly crawled out of the cradle with an ambition to be President, then beware! Anytime someone talks about “running the country,” alarm bells should sound. No one – not the President, not Congress, no one person – “runs the country” or should aspire to.

That’s why the Founders took such pains to divide and limit federal power, and why we need to reinstate those limits that have been trampled in recent years, whether by Presidents ruling via executive order or out-of-control judges legislating from the bench or unelected bureaucrats abusing their power to try to influence the results of elections. If we allow any one person or entity to ignore those limits and assume the power to run everything, we won’t be able to stop them when they run America into the ground.

We should pick leaders who resemble the trees in the Bible story that don’t need or crave power but that have shown they bear good fruit. As it is said, by their fruits ye shall know them. Government has more than enough nuts already.

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Comments 11-20 of 142

  • Ron Szoczei

    11/29/2022 12:45 AM

    As it seems to me, there is no vocation that is unchangable, whether in obligations to perform, or in duty to provide, life is about growth and thusly change is imminent. The dynamics of governance is "evolutionary" by nature, therfore those that are charged by selection of the electorate, with the privilege of governance must be changable, in both mindset and their function to perform. When they fail to perform the will of the electorate, their time for change has come.

  • Dr. Jay Brown

    11/29/2022 12:43 AM

    6 years for Senators; too long; should be the same as Representatives (2 years)
    President 4 years (plenty of time to pick a good cabinet in advance, and 48 months to improve.
    Supreme Court Judges (4 years)

    All elected or appointed can be re-elected or reappointed for no more than 3 terms

  • VALERIE JEAN HINDLEY

    11/28/2022 11:28 PM

    Just love you Mike huckabee. I can't seem to find your article on what's happening in Arizona Maricopa county?

  • ROBERT WELLS

    11/28/2022 09:14 PM

    Our nations true leaders understood human nature because of their formal education and religious upbringings. Today we do not have the luxury of choosing leaders who are students of the Bible or care about anything but their own power. How have we come to such ends. Americans are spoiled and want everything to go their way as their parents failed them and our nation. Took the easy way out since the early 1950's.

  • Suzanne Hawkins

    11/28/2022 07:57 PM

    I believe our forefathers hit the nail on the head! We have lost our way and need to return to a simple way.

  • Sandra Trank

    11/28/2022 07:51 PM

    They continue to reinforce our America as a "democracy" and it is not. When we recite the Pledge of Allegiance, what to we pledge to? A democracy where leaders rule or to our Republic that the people rule? We have all made the mistake of calling America a democracy and we need to realize our error and quit reinforcing with our speech the rule dems want. We train well it seems. Guilty myself of doing that and realized the error.

  • Amelia Little

    11/28/2022 05:54 PM

    I don't know all the details on a term limit proposal (well, hasn't been written yet, I would suppose.) BUT it also need to include that, once the politicians term in our govt has ended, they revert to regular citizens and therefore aren't eligible for lifetime benefits of any kind. As when I retired, there was no more employer contribution to my retirement account. I had to find my own insurance (and supplements after SS and Medicare kicked in.) Normal, everyday citizens having to deal with normal everyday citizen matters. No exception. I hope this is something that is taken care of. Heck, there should already be some revision in the lifetime benefits the former Presidents get.

  • Sharon BLdwin

    11/28/2022 05:16 PM

    A simple example that can get through to younger people.....you work hard for your excellent grades in school; some barely put in any effort. Everyone gets a C for the final grade.

    That gives a little example of how socialism works.

  • Shauna dickerson

    11/28/2022 04:53 PM

    How about the elected officials with NO ability and their office is being used by puppeteers - unelected - and mostly not recognized. I'm talking about Biden of course, and his one obvious puppeteer is his wife, Dr. Jill. The other obvious one now is Fetterman, the newly elected puppet who can't even string together a good sentence. Who are the voters who put this man in instead of Dr. Oz and where was their common sense. I'm very confused! and not a little angry.

  • Mary Lou Harden

    11/28/2022 03:43 PM

    Thanks for calling attention to Abimelech and Jotham -- I knew the stories but hadn't translated them to leaders/non-leaders today. Love the book of Judges!

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