Recently, in an article I wrote entitled "Legislators Have Pity On Hawaii Workers", I asserted that the Hawaii State Legislature, in light of Hawaii's place as having the second highest state tax burden in the United States, needs to try shrinking the size of government before they shrink our paychecks – that we ought to aggressively cut or repeal most of our taxes, shut down or consolidate unnecessary, wasteful, or redundant government functions, and most of all, reform the grant in aid process away from liberally dishing out millions of taxpayer dollars each year. In light of the recent polling information, it's time that our government wake up and finally get the message: the people are tired of being taxed to death.

What disturbs me so much about the more radical wings of my fellow Democratic friends is that that they seem to believe that more taxes, more fees, more regulation, and bigger government is the solution to America's problems. There used to be a time when being a Democrat wasn't about creating a socialist soup kitchen welfare state.

Today, at the local level, the defining marks of a "good" if not mainstream Hawaii Democrat is tax more, spend big, and regulate everything. It's a sad state of affairs when we can frankly say that if you didn't find new ways to mine money out of the people, didn't come up with a way to spend millions of dollars on district projects or raise someone's salary at the expense of the taxpayer's salary, didn't promote controversial closet values or didn't make something illegal in 2008, you're either a Republican or an ineffective Democratic legislator. My friends, it's time for a change here in Hawaii.

The question we need to ask ourselves in November is this: which candidate will cut our taxes, give us back our freedom of opportunity and shrink the size of government? Those who would increase our taxes, increase our regulation, and empower more bureaucracy in the name of social compassion want this election to be about electing based on gender, skin color, culture, and making symbolic statements to antagonize decent, hardworking Americans into accepting their radical worldview. It's time we said "hell no" to these candidates and to the party that sent them in November.

The time is now for us to take back control of our government and make our incumbents reap the whirlwind for their shocking disregard to the people's God-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I believe that we can have a freedom renaissance in 2008, but it's up to us.

I encourage everyone to rock the vote in November and to use their vote as a hammer against the wall that government has erected between us and destiny. It's time we silence the shouting of the fools who believe the radical deception that government and lots of it is the key to success.

The beauty of our system is that every two and four years, we have a chance to have a revolution in government: it's time we made good use of that opportunity – and let freedom reign.

Daniel de Gracia, II lives in Waipahu. Reach him at mailto:daniel.p.degracia@gmail.com

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