Why Does Government Exist?

Why does government exist? It sounds like a silly question in this day and age of all-pervasive government. But really think about it for a bit. Why? The Declaration of Independence says we are all endowed by our Creator with the rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness (aka the pursuit of property or material security). In a free society, the people ALLOW a government to exist as a necessary evil in order to protect these rights. This is the sole reason a government exists in a free nation. Yet it seems that governments from the federal all the way down to local these days do everything but what they're supposed to be doing. And it's time to start pushing back against this. It's time to proclaim loud and clear that any government that does not first and foremost as its reason for existing protect our lives, freedom and property, is an illegitimate government. From a federal government that refuses to secure our borders even after September 2001, and first instinct is to slash the military that protect us, to local governments whose politicians first (and many times only) cuts to spending is the police force and other first responders, the examples of government failing to perform its one legitimate role are many. It's time to get back to basics, folks. We've strayed so far from the blueprint of a free society, we are now suffocating under the weight of government run amok bother in our personal lives, and seen across the broader economy as government interferes in everything from light bulbs to fuel economy on automobiles all the while neglecting the real security of the citizens that fund its existence. Government budgets don't need a paring knife or slowing to their increases. They need a meat cleaver taken to them. The entire disconnect can be seen in what our so-called representatives in Washington are talking about now. Gun control. Immigration reform. Meanwhile, millions of Americans still are jobless and struggling from a four year old economic collapse due to government dictates to banks to loan to people that could never afford to pay said loans back. Ignore the fact that government dictates have caused anguish among the citizens in this country in favor of more government dictates. Meanwhile the priority is how can we reward non-citizens that came here illegally. Priorities are all out of whack. More signs of illegitimate government. We allow the government to exist to serve us. Not for us to serve the government as subjects.