Like many politicians, Senator Obama speaks from a podium with the sign: "A Call to Serve."

I've always noticed something. The more statist the politician, the more he talks of his passion to "serve." He wants to inspire you to "serve" by making sure he gets the power to "serve." Of course, in actual practice it cannot be denied that "serving" actually amounts to seizure. Seizure and transfer of wealth and capital from the private sector, where it's created and most efficiently spent, to the public sector, where it's largely wasted and lost. Seizure of the rights of the individual to be free from force and instead be placed into "service" -- ostensibly, service of "society," but in actual practice service to the interest group who has more political power than this particular individual does.

I know when a politician declares his pride in his public service we're supposed to admire all that he gave up in order to...seize and redistribute for my sake, or the sake of an opposing party. But the real question is this: Why doesn't the server engage in production instead? Production for his own sake, of course, but production that, in the process of being for one's own sake, adds to the overall wealth, viability or general quality of the larger society?

I'm sick of politicians who make a career out of politics--as most of them do. They are not producers. They contribute nothing, in most cases, but they take a lot from those who do produce. What we need, instead of all these career politicians, are temporary custodians of a severely limited government, a government which keeps us free from violent criminals and civil criminals--the latter of which are largely today's politicians.