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Ted Abram writes for FreedomWorks:

[C]omplicit politicians and special-Interest predators are destroying America.  AARP, government unions, Wall Street banks, energy giants, and thousands of other special-interest groups give enormous sums of money to politicians and receive gigantic favors in the return.

This mutual corruption – between industries and politicians  – restricts innovation and the expansion of products.  Additionally, it increases bureaucratic control and the cost of government, which reduces personal freedom.  Higher taxes and reduced consumer choices diminish the personal freedom of all Americans.

ObamaCare is the most vivid example of this corruption.  The Obama Administration made deals with all the industries associated with health insurance; doctors, hospitals, governmental unions, pharmaceutical companies and the like.  These industries agreed to cut costs or actively support their legislation, which includes millions of dollars in promotional advertizing, in order to ultimately receive preferential status.

For example, healthy, young Americans will be forced to buy insurance and government unions will provide tens of thousands more government employees to enlist – additional IRS agents, healthcare providers, etc.  By legislative and bureaucratic edicts, these industries will have a quasi monopoly of power.  Without competition, innovation will be reduced and costs will be increased.

America’s Founders were aware and feared the universal problem of factions, i.e. special-interest politics.  From the beginning, America has witnessed plenty of factional fights.  However, it wasn’t until the New Deal when alignments were permanently formed. George Will writes in the Washington Post:

Under FDR, liberalism became the politics of creating an electoral majority from a mosaic of client groups. Labor unions got special legal standing, farmers got crop supports, business people got tariff protection and other subsidies, the elderly got pensions, and so on and on.

Of course, Republicans rushed to counter Democrats in cultivating special-interest partners.  Today, according to Joel Kotkin of New Geography, Democrats are aligned with financial interests, technology, green energy, education and trial lawyers.  Republicans are complicit with large banks, oil, gas and small businesses.   Most of these industries are heavily regulated by government.

Again, laws and bureaucratic favors distort the efficacy of the products consumed by Americans.  Two other examples are the American educational system and energy produciton.  Our educational system is declining but our government and teacher unions resist innovation, which would improve our system.  In addition to education, America has a huge potential for energy production, but government is so concentrated on promoting windmills and solar panels that they’re missing everything else that can be utilitzed.

Tragically, in the 20th and 21st  centuries, government has stopped protecting the natural rights of Americans – the freedom to believe, think, work, exchange and own the fruits of their labors – and has only worried about itself rather than the people it governs.   Politicians and bureaucrats have joined in complicit alliances with big banks, big unions, big energy and others.  All of this is adversed (sic) to the rights of our citizens or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.

Here’s a great illustrative clip from the movie The Distinguished Gentleman which shows how this system works (little warning: language):

P.S.- The editor’s only disagreement is that the “founder” really didn’t have much difference. Or at least, only some of them did. Hamilton and Washington planned the first corporate-welfare State, and got away with it.