Posted on 04/08/2013 2:14:34 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In his “farewell address” before Congress, libertarian Republican Ron Paul asked in so many words, “why is liberty so hard to sell?”
Congressman Paul answered that question at length in his speech (which you can read here),but in summary, he said that in the early part of the 20th Century, “The majority of Americans and many government officials agreed that sacrificing some liberty was necessary to carry out what some claimed to be “progressive” ideas. Pure democracy became acceptable… They failed to recognize that what they were doing was exactly opposite of what the colonists were seeking when they broke away from the British.”
One of the “progressive” ideas that seemed so right and “fair” was the notion that there were certain groups in American society that were “oppressed” and needed government protection and “benefits” to advance and gain equal status with their non-oppressed fellow citizens.
The list began with African-Americans, former slaves who were indeed oppressed. However, it soon began to expand to include the poor in general -- any minority ethnic group, homosexuals demanding to be accepted, even women, who constitute more than half the population of the country.
Anyone, it seems, with a grievance against the vicissitude of life in American society was suddenly a victim who was eligible, not just for government assistance, but for “protection” from oppression -- which might include the use of government force against the alleged “oppressor.”
In order to gain politically by constantly finding new “oppressed” minorities to liberate (as Rush Limbaugh observed during a recent broadcast), the Democratic Party, and especially Obama and his secular liberal allies, have redefined freedom to mean “Freedom is hedonism. Freedom is your sybaritic pursuits. You do whatever you want, and as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else, there's nothing wrong with it.”(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at conservativehq.com ...
In this day, right is wrong, up is down, ...
The root of modern liberalism lies in the concept of “positive liberty”, which is the belief that freedom comes through government benefits, as opposed to “negative liberty”, the belief that freedom comes from that lack of government control. Guess which concept the founding fathers believed in? Obama himself has complained that the constituion is just a document of negative liberties. In other words, not enough government entitlements are included.
It’s a culture thing for many Dems. The Democrats have built a straw man in the perception of “evil” “fun-denying” Republicans who want to take away their freedom to be complete wastrels. Few Democrats are aware of philosophical contradictions in what passes for liberalism. They don’t read much of anything. That’s why they libs. Most conservative Republicans don’t care what other people do with their lives. But conservatives understand that with rights comes responsibilities. Responsibility is a foul word among liberal Democrats.
Conservatives want freedom from coercion.
“Progressives” want freedom from reality.
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