Precedent is a powerful thing. Once something has been established as acceptable behavior, there will inevitably be a flood of eager followers. That is why trailblazers get all the credit. The brave souls who test the waters, who first go where no one else dares, who push the envelope and set the stage for the rest of us. In many walks of life, such as science, exploration, and philosophy, these people are heroes, pushing mankind forward even when it is dangerous to do so. In politics, however, the trailblazer all too often covers territory that would have been better left unexplored.

The IRS will now delay new regulations that would have stifled your free speech rights.

After a report last week that rising insurance premiums would drive employers to dump 90 percent of workers’ health care plans by 2020, the IRS went into damage control mode using its preferred course of action: executive fiat.

States that helped carry President Obama to victory in 2012, are now suffering at the hands of his signature legislation. Democrats hoping to avoid the repercussions of Obamacare are going to have a difficult time explaining away its failures in their own friendly states. Republicans are referring to it as the Blue State Obamacare Blues, with Colorado, Hawaii, Washington D.C., Oregon, Maryland, and Massachusetts all suffering varying degrees of embarrassment.

Democracy and Power 114: The Power Players Who actually controls the force of government? Politicians and interest groups control the American political process. Special-interest groups – i.e. big business, big unions, education, seniors, and a multitude of others - seek favors, such as tax breaks, subsidies, exclusive legislation, and the list goes on. Interest groups give enormous amounts of money to political campaigns and receive gigantic benefits in return.

Party-endorsed Ohio Republican Party (ORP) State Central Committee candidates are being promoted with inadvertently hilarious ORP flyers asserting, "It Takes a STRONG Republican Party to Stand Up to Obamacare."

Back in November, on the eve of Thanksgiving when they thought nobody would notice, the IRS surreptitiously announced its proposal of a new regulation that would severely limit the ability of tax exempt to groups to participate in the political process. The proposal was short on specifics, but the regulation would have given the IRS the power to narrowly define what constitutes “social welfare” and “political activity,” qualities it says organizations must exhibit in order to qualify for tax exempt status.

Democracy and Power 108: Obfuscation Wherever politics intrudes upon economic life, political success is readily attained by saying what people like to hear rather than what is demonstrably true. Instead of safeguarding truth and honesty, the state then tends to become a major source of insincerity and mendacity. —Hans F. Sennholz