I distrust the government. You should, too.

I am not a conservative because I lack concern for poor people. I am not a conservative because I hate women, or because of malicious greed. I am not a conservative as a result of being a racist, a bigot or a homophobe.

I am a conservative because as a core principle, I distrust government. I believe that as government grows it becomes at once less competent and more malfeasant – a belief that has been again recently confirmed.

As an illustration of incompetence there is Benghazi, Libya, where the U.S. government failed to provide basic security for its own diplomatic personnel, even though those personnel all but begged. Four persons died and the administration has now been caught in multiple lies trying to hide its own dereliction.

As an illustration of malfeasance, we have the now admitted fact that the Internal Revenue Service has been systematically targeting individuals and groups who hold political views in opposition to the current administration. There is no more feared government agency than the IRS. For it to abuse its power against political opponents of the sitting administration evokes recollections of Soviet Russia.

I am a conservative because I believe that the bigger government gets, the harder it becomes for its citizens to keep it within its lawful bounds. Thomas Paine was right when he said, “Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.”