And there’s a reason why everyone uses them. From preachers to movie stars to the boss you dislike to your parents all the way to the lowest form of life on the planet, that politician you despise so much.

The problem with eternal truths is that while many folks use them to promote their schemes and machinations and Machiavellian maneuvers, they never think those truths also apply to them. And nowhere do they apply more than to our political system.

If you bother to read this column often (which should be a concern, especially if you agree all the time) I have myriad favorites, and pretty much every one of them apply to government and politics. Here’s a particular favorite of mine that rolls around at about this time of year, every year from a guy named Gideon J. Tucker, a man who I have no idea who he was, just that it’s a pearl of wisdom everyone on every side of politics should take to heart:

“No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.”

And guess who just went to work in Denver? That’s right, all those folks we elected who love to tell you and me how to live, or what to do, and most important, what’s best for us, are going back to work to pass laws to force you and me into understanding how to live, what to do and what’s best for us.

After all, winning an election is akin to killing the Kurgan. Once the blessed event occurs, apparently those select few who’ve achieved this greatest accomplishment yell in unison, “I know everything!”

Don’t think so? Just ask them.

Sadly, they don’t have the slightest clue. After all, they are about to introduce how many new laws to make your life better? For us Coloradans the past several years it’s been a thousand or so? Let me ask you this. Did the thousand or so they passed last year improve your life? How about the year before that? Or the year before that? Getting the picture?

Don’t bother to answer, or tell me my numbers are off, because the questions are rhetorical and the answer is obvious. It’s no, by the way. It’s always no. The laws that lawmakers (can we stop calling them that, so they stop making so many?) pass are simply payoffs to cronies who expect a return on their investment in a fellow, fallen human, usually in the form of some money laundering scheme to benefit a benefactor.

And if you don’t think both sides do it, you aren’t paying attention. Why is it that Republicans feel the way they do with Pontius Polis in charge of Colorado the same way democrats feel about the Orange Man, Congress and the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., after this last election? Could it be they feel their life, liberty and property aren’t safe while those folks are “in session?”

The answer to that is yes. And they should be. We all should be. Because after this next session, whether it’s in Washington, Denver or right here in River City, pretty much all of these folks will be asking for forgiveness, and your vote, in stating another eternal truth from one of the greatest (albeit it simple) minds of the last generation with the words, “Oops, I did it again!” Then, they can go back to their hallowed halls while letting you know, “….they hear you, and they are gonna get back to work, fighting for you.”

Heck, Chuck Schumer just did it the day before I wrote this. How he (and they) gets away with it election after election is beyond me. Yes, progressives, you can insert any name you wish here as well. Do you feel heard? You were. And just like when a conservative speaks out to old Chuck U, it falls on deaf ears. Why? Because your guy (you know, the one you think is above it all as many of us do when it comes to politicians) is just as bad as my guy.

Although if you’ve read my musings long enough, you’d know I don’t think much of my guy, or gal, depending on just who we made the mistake of electing. They all seem to end up the same. Just like we do under the weight of the mountains of laws they pass.

In the truth of a famous golfer judge, “You’ll get nothing and like it.” Although that won’t stop them from promising everything. For that, I’ll add another favorite truth from P.J. O’Rourke:

“The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work, and then they get elected and prove it.”

Look no further than Minneapolis for your proof. Or public housing. Or property taxes. Or our welfare system. How about wolves? Maybe health care. What kind of toilet to use. I know, the roads you drive on, including the ones all bollard-up in Grand Junction.

The list of telling us what to do, how to live and what’s best for us could fill the volumes of the tax code they pass new laws in every year to make it better and friendlier. How many laws, acts or policies have our lawmakers passed to fix all those problems? And now, they have to pass more laws, spend more money, take more rights away or exert even more power, because they didn’t do enough last time to fix what wasn’t broken or what they broke more from the last time they tried to fix it.

I know, nothing but generalizations and no substance, no facts, Craig. Well, maybe that’s because they’ve taken almost everything else. And now they’re coming back for more.

As my favorite politician once said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” And before you go all in on sexism and start blaming men, just remember which party thinks there’s no difference between men and women. It applies double to politicians.

I guess we won’t be truly free until freedom is just another word for nothin’ left to lose. The legislature is in session, after all.

In Truth and freedom.

Craig Hall is owner and publisher of The Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com