Presidents, Pandemics, and the Road to Surfdom

It’s no secret that Presidents love to use and abuse executive power. They use it to skirt the legislative process, appeal to voters, and get what they want out of their presidency.

Since taking office 75 days ago, President Biden has signed 37 executive orders. Many of those were signed in the first week, regarding issues like the climate and racial justice.

President Trump signed 220 executive orders during his time in the White House.

President Obama signed 276.

The list goes on and on.

Leaders of both political parties tend to cry “overreach” when it’s not their pick in the White House… then conveniently forget about that whole concept once someone from their own team takes the reins.

But why is overreach a bad thing?

For starters, this country’s founders were pretty clear that they didn’t want any one guy with all of the government power — even one who was popularly elected. It’s why they set up a system of checks and balances.

They knew that any one person — no matter how intelligent, noble, and kind — would eventually be corrupted by the poison of power and influence. So they created a revolutionary system of government — one that is based on the God-given rights of people rather than the whims of their rulers. A government that limited its own power.

Sadly, we’ve gone far astray from the vision laid out by America’s architects. Rather than working to protect our rights, the government tends to often strip them away from us.

Throughout this pandemic, we’ve watched our rights to assemble and worship freely curtailed and politicized. Businesses have been forcibly shut down. Millions of jobs lost. Kids set back in their education.

And to “help,” the President offers us an “American Rescue Plan”… a big-government “relief package” that watered down the US Dollar by another $1.9 Trillion.

In his book The Road to Serfdom, Nobel prize-winning economist F.A. Hayek laid out what happens when the government ushers in central control of economies and people. It was written as a warning, but today, it reads more like a news column.

Hayek’s book is an excellent read, and perfectly illustrates what happens when we let the government forget its boundaries. But it’s not the most accessible text for children. (Or for many adults!) 

That’s why I wrote The Tuttle Twins and the Road to Surfdom. It’s an accessible version of Hayek’s warning, written in a narrative format with characters and illustrations… without watering down any of the central ideas.

Our kids are the future. And if we can teach them why they should fight big-government tyranny in pretty packages, we might just stop the runaway train.

Let’s get reading…

— Connor