Posted on 07/21/2009 3:59:03 AM PDT by Kaslin
There is only one good thing about the Obama administration's attempts to nationalize most health care and to begin to control Americans' energy consumption through cap-and-trade: clarity about the left. These attempts are enabling more and more Americans to understand the thinking and therefore the danger of the left.
The left has its first president -- with the possible exception of Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- and for the first time controls the Democratic Party and both houses of Congress. In the name of compassion for the sick and the poor and in the name of preventing worldwide environmental catastrophe, it is attempting to remake America.
In so doing some principals of the left are becoming clearer to more Americans:
Principal One: The left, as distinct from traditional liberals, is not, and has never been, interested in creating wealth. The left is no more interested in creating wealth than Christians are in creating Muslims or Muslims in creating Christians. The left is interested in redistributing wealth, not creating it. The left spends the wealth that private enterprise and entrepreneurial risk-taking individuals create.
The left does not perceive that poverty is the human norm and therefore asks, "Why is there poverty?" instead of asking the economic question that matters: Why is there wealth? And the obvious result of the left's disinterest in why wealth is created is that the left does not know how to create it.
Principal Two: The reason the left asks why there is poverty instead of why there is wealth is that the left's preoccupying ideal is equality -- not economic growth. And those who are preoccupied with equality are more troubled by wealth than by poverty. Ask almost anyone on the left -- not a liberal, but a leftist like Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi -- which society they consider more desirable, a society in which all its members were equally lower middle class or one in which some were poor, most were middle class, and some were rich (i.e., America today). And whatever they say, in their hearts, the further left they are the more they would prefer the egalitarian society.
Principal Three: The left everywhere seeks to make as big and powerful a state as possible. It does so because only the state can redistribute society's wealth. And because only a strong and powerful state can impose values on society. The idea of small government, the American ideal since its inception, is the antithesis of the left's ideal.
The cap-and-trade bill's control of American energy and the "ObamaCare" takeover of American health care will mean an unprecedented expansion of the state. Added to increased taxes and the individual becomes less and less significant as the state looms ever larger. Americans will be left to decide little more than what they do with vacation time -- just as Western Europeans do. Other questions are largely left to the state.
Principal Four: The left imposes its values on others whenever possible and to the extent possible. That is why virtually every totalitarian regime in the 20th century was left-wing. Inherent to all left-wing thought is a totalitarian temptation. People on the left know that not only are their values morally superior to conservative values, but that they themselves are morally superior to conservatives. Thus, for example, the former head of the Democratic Party, Howard Dean, could say in all seriousness, “In contradistinction to the Republicans, we don't think children ought to go to bed hungry at night.”
Therefore, the morally superior have the right, indeed the duty, to impose their values on the rest of us: what light bulbs we use, what cars we drive, what we may ask a prospective employee, how we may discipline our children, and, of course, how much of our earnings we may keep.
It is dishonest to argue that the right wants to impose its values to anywhere near the extent the left does. This can be demonstrated to a fifth-grader: Who wants more power -- those who want to govern a big state or those who want to govern a small state?
The president of the United States and the much of the Democratic Party embody these left-wing principals. Right now, America's only hope of staying American rather than becoming European lies in making these principals as clear as possible to as many Americans as possible. The left is so giddy with power right now, we actually have a chance.
Ping
Welcome to the USSA.
It’s a real shame that George W. Bush spent so much effort trying to get leftists to appreciate Republicans by signing the prescription drug benefit, light bulb bans, increased CAFE standards, and other major expansions of government power, spending, and influence. It gave Obama a head start.
I believe Dennis Prager is correct in some ways.
Expose them. Expose whom they are. Expose what is their intent. Expose them for their fraud, their lies, their anti-Americanism.
Our Nation was founded upon specific rules generated by the Founding Fathers with great clarity of thought, and with knowledge of tyranny.
Our Nation has been brought to its knees by self serving radicals narrowly focused upon ascent to power for sake of power using the tool of a false premise of equality.
I believe that no matter what the Left says, or does their internal driving force is to be revered as all powerful, and not unlike a god(s).
I wish the poor, dead GOP were going after these in an organized way, instead of prattling on about "taxes", as if the problem with these proposed laws had to do with how much they cost.
Here's a clue for our "leaders": IT WOULDN'T MATTER IF THEY WERE COST FREE. They are unconstitutional TO THE BONE, and they establish a comprehensive system of central control over every significant aspect of our lives and our property.
Of course, more than half of the GOP sees nothing wrong with Federales coming to your front door at 11pm because the lights are too bright. Most of them believe in the theology of "carbon", or are too stupid to analyze the data and don't care.
I hope Sarah starts a second party soon.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
- C.S. Lewis
“They are unconstitutional...”
They won’t be once Obama gets a bunch of “wise Latina” types on the Supreme Court.
Yeah the left is so open-minded...that their brains have all fallen out...
Not to mention TARP, AIG and the Auto Bailouts.
Bush opened the door for Obama.
I would have hoped that we all would have moved past this mentality of blaming Bush. It’s bad enough that the leftists do it, we don’t need to join their chorus.
Great analogy
She won't. But what WILL happen is that she will do things ‘her way’ and those who think she's ‘got it’ will fall in step in and around her. I think she's a leader, in the true sense of the word, and the thing about leaders is they collect followers like flowers collect bees and butterflies.
Above all else, I believe the verse in the great old hymn “This is my Father's World” that says:
“This is my Father's world,
and let me n’er forget,
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet!”
Amen. I am convinced that God, in answer to the prayers of people of fatih, HAS blessed America all these years and will continue to do so. He does it by sending us the right person for time. He's done it over and over for 200 plus years. If Sarah Palin is what America needs there will be no stopping her. I don't say that she is, but I don't want to be looking the other way when God sends the next special person to pull us through!
This article, especially his last point,
is consistent with my research over the last few years.
And you, indeed, are infinitely correct.
The way to defeat them is to EXPOSE THEM.
This fact is abundantly clear when you examine how they campaign. They ALWAYS hide their true agenda, their true goals, and their true core values, and act like people who support individual liberty.
The book of Judges is a chronicle of this happening, OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Your timeframe is a bit short - just sayin'.
The Book of Judges is a tragic account of how Yahweh [God] was taken for granted by His children year after year, century after century. Judges is a sad contrast to the book of Joshua which chronicles the blessings God bestowed on the Israelites for their obedience to God in conquering the land. In Judges, they were disobedient and idolatrous, leading to their many defeats. Yet God has never failed to open His arms in love to His people whenever they repent from their wicked ways and call upon His name. (Judges 2:18) Through the 15 judges of Israel, God honored His promise to Abraham to protect and bless his offspring (Genesis 12:2-3).
I am convinced the people who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were just as inspired by the Holy Spirit as were those who wrote the Bible, just in a different direction.
You will never convince me that a man like Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Adams just ‘happened along’ at a good time for America!
Despite what the Left/MSM cabal would have us believe, there are still millions and millions of Americans who spend time each day in prayer for our country. And I find it impossible to believe that a God who has brought us this far would turn His ear against even a few of His people who are faithful just to punish the many who aren't. He's much too powerful and creative to have to destroy His people to get to Satan's people!
Americans didn’t have a chance against FDR and his sweeping progressive policies. I hope this time there are a few more people that are armed with a thorough knowledge of history and can cut through the smoke and mirrors for the rest of the population.
Thomas Sowell, Victor David Hansen, Walter Williams, Glenn Beck, Rush, Neal Boortz, Ann Coulter. Thank god these men and women are on our side.
Where are the so called “intellectuals” that can match these names on the left? Am I not seeing them or are there no honest to god liberals that can communicate where the liberals and progressives want to lead us?
Ping
bttt
There is only one good thing about the Obama administration's attempts to nationalize most health care and to begin to control Americans' energy consumption through cap-and-trade: clarity about the left. These attempts are enabling more and more Americans to understand the thinking and therefore the danger of the left.
... Principal One: The left, as distinct from traditional liberals, is not, and has never been, interested in creating wealth. ... The left is interested in redistributing wealth, not creating it. The left spends the wealth that private enterprise and entrepreneurial risk-taking individuals create.
... Principal Two: The reason the left asks why there is poverty instead of why there is wealth is that the left's preoccupying ideal is equality -- not economic growth. And those who are preoccupied with equality are more troubled by wealth than by poverty. Ask almost anyone on the left -- not a liberal, but a leftist like Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi -- which society they consider more desirable, a society in which all its members were equally lower middle class or one in which some were poor, most were middle class, and some were rich (i.e., America today). And whatever they say, in their hearts, the further left they are the more they would prefer the egalitarian society.
... Principal Three: The left everywhere seeks to make as big and powerful a state as possible. It does so because only the state can redistribute society's wealth. And because only a strong and powerful state can impose values on society. The idea of small government, the American ideal since its inception, is the antithesis of the left's ideal.
... Principal Four: The left imposes its values on others whenever possible and to the extent possible. That is why virtually every totalitarian regime in the 20th century was left-wing. Inherent to all left-wing thought is a totalitarian temptation. People on the left know that not only are their values morally superior to conservative values, but that they themselves are morally superior to conservatives.
... Therefore, the morally superior have the right, indeed the duty, to impose their values on the rest of us: what light bulbs we use, what cars we drive, what we may ask a prospective employee, how we may discipline our children, and, of course, how much of our earnings we may keep.
It is dishonest to argue that the right wants to impose its values to anywhere near the extent the left does. This can be demonstrated to a fifth-grader: Who wants more power -- those who want to govern a big state or those who want to govern a small state?
The president of the United States and the much of the Democratic Party embody these left-wing principals. Right now, America's only hope of staying American rather than becoming European lies in making these principals as clear as possible to as many Americans as possible. The left is so giddy with power right now, we actually have a chance.
Nailed It!
Moral Clarity BUMP !
This ping list is not author-specific for articles I'd like to share. Some for the perfect moral clarity, some for provocative thoughts; or simply interesting articles I'd hate to miss myself. (I don't have to agree with the author all 100% to feel the need to share an article.)
I will try not to abuse the ping list and not to annoy you too much, but on some days there is more of the good stuff that is worthy of attention.
You are welcome to browse the list of truly exceptional articles I pinged to lately. Updated on June 3, 2009. on my page.
You are welcome in or out, just freepmail me (and note which PING list you are talking about).
Besides this one, I keep 2 separate PING lists for my favorite authors Victor Davis Hanson and Orson Scott Card.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
- C.S. Lewis
-—<>-—<>-—<>-—<>-—<>-—
A PERFECT CSLewis quote. Thanks.
“And those who are preoccupied with equality are more troubled by wealth than by poverty. Ask almost anyone on the left — not a liberal, but a leftist like Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi — which society they consider more desirable, a society in which all its members were equally lower middle class or one in which some were poor, most were middle class, and some were rich (i.e., America today). And whatever they say, in their hearts, the further left they are the more they would prefer the egalitarian society.”
This is only partly true. The left craves a MOSTLY egalitarian society, forced on the population by an elite with the power and money to make their egalitarian edicts stick. So it is egalitarian as to everyone else.
But it is deeply un-egalitarian in that Al Gore must be rich and powerful and have a huge carbon footprint in order to have the power and resources to force us regular folks to have a small carbon footprint.
No different than the Soviet Union or Communist China.
We’re now in the endgame of Antonio Gramsci’s and Saul Alinsky's heirs and disciples. These are the murderous great-great-great-great-grandchildren of the French Revolution, cold-eyed with contempt for you and yours; spiral-eyed crazy with hate for what you believe in and possessed of that utterly unappeasable appetite for controlling mankind.Just as Hitler was completely candid in "Mein Kampf" about what he intended to do with Germany, the Jews and the world, so the Left has been completely up front about where they intend to take America, how they've planned to do it and what they're going to do once they get there.
So, when it comes to the Constitution and rule of law, it’s only a game - they’ll not only sweep the pieces off the board, they’ll upend the table and put a bullet in you while they’re at it. As far as the Progressive Left is concerned, rules are for losers and history, god-awful bloody history is my witness.
The reality is that we’ll never see another truly free, open and honest election in this country until after the next American Civil War – the Left, ACORN, massive vote fraud and gutless Republicans have seen to that.
You must understand that the people who've now gotten their hands on the apparatus of the State would rather rule in Hell than live in peace with the rest of us. They will happily reduce Western civilization to stinking pile of rubble and corpses as long as they believe that they will be the ones sitting on top of the ruins.
You are making a very good point! Nomenklatura wanted to have all the best stuff.
Sidestepping a bit from the main theme of this thread: here lies a crucial difference between communists and islamists. Soviet leaders became with a time thoroughly corrupted and wanted to live a fat life. Which allowed for a deterrence. Islamists (or whatever other name) - those who want to sacrifice themselves and us in the name of their Allah - are irreconcilable enemies. While they have no industrial power like USSR or China behind them, modern technology and oil money allow them to be no less dangerous. Something most people in the West prefer to ignore.
Great essay, but every instance of “principal” needs to be replaced with “principle”.
Good catch about principal/principle - I missed that. I’d edit it in my highlights.
Every idea the left has - has been tried since the dawn of time: heavy handed control freak leaders - elites - knowing better than "the people".
Elites think "oh so much smarter" than the the little guy - always trying to manipulate the people - "for their own good". Powerful men pretending they represent the people - while stealing their power .
We Americans have something worth protecting and fighting for - our freedom. And now the "same old, same old" are working to take it away.
Dem elites don't speak for the little guy - they speak for designated victim groups only.
People have the right to speak for themselves. Make their own choices. About union membership - about health care - about where they want to live and how they want to educate their children. But liberals "know better" than the people - so they push and prod and manipulate - and take away our freedoms.
Not to mention intellectually superior, although precisely why consists pretty much of a group chorus of "how smart are we!" and a tribal hostility to dissent.
The foundational premise is the deification of envy: in old Proudhon's formulation, that property is theft. From that it follows that redistribution of wealth, which is blatant theft, is not morally distinguishable from the theft that "distributed" wealth in the first place. In this moral calculus there is no "earn," only "steal," which explains why socialist economies have such a difficult time creating wealth.
And yet, for all this theoretical blather, socialist states are not classless; far from it, class striates along a continuum of thievery. Both Orwell and Milovan Djilas showed how it works. In practice wealth really does become static under conditions in which its creation is prohibited, and economic life becomes a scramble to expropriate as much of the existing pie as possible. The most skillful thieves are the New Class, and if you don't think they're in charge now, just ask them.
In societies in which the creation of wealth has resulted in a surplus, this process can go on for a very long time. But wealth is as subject to the law of entropy as much as anything that Man builds, and eventually the thieves run out of things to steal. At that point there is no real society, only the tribes and savagery that were the real root of socialism in the first place.
It isn't difficult to envision this inasmuch as we have ample historical precedents for those who will read them without ideological filters in place. They turn out not to be very nice places.
"And yet, for all this theoretical blather, socialist states are not classless; far from it, class striates along a continuum of thievery."
The so-called *classless* society of the USSR had classes distorted (like almost everything else). The wages differences were not big comparing to a capitalist society - at the end of 80th the vast majority of people were earning in-between 80 and 400 rubles per month. What was much more important is the proximity to the feeding trough. Nomenklatura did not earn big bucks, but was able to buy, often cheaper, goods of better quality and goods that were simply not available to others. Central cities had more goods than provincial. Special feeding troughs existed for different levels of nomenklatura. Also, people working in the distribution system itself were selling/bartering their access to the goods. A Nobody, working in a supermarket, for example, had better food and other stuff than a manager at industrial plant earning 2 or 3 times more. Managers of stores considered them their personal fiefdoms. At the dusk of the Soviet Era, one should have been really in your face to get prosecuted for such shenanigans.
When Orwell finally became available in Russian thanks to Gorbachev's *glasnost'*, people were amazed how close he came to describe Soviet surrealism (in this case I refer to "some animals more equal than others").
About the wealth creation. I am not sure if there are any economists of any stature still subscribing to the Zero Sum game. Unfortunately, thanks to the rampant economic illiteracy, too many people still do (and politicians willfully so). The Zero Sum game indeed answers the question why rich people are rich with the answer because poor people are poor, and rich take from the poor to become rich. In reality, it's not the case. The real pie IS getting bigger. The wealth indeed is *created*. Facts, numbers and peoples' experience supports it. A person born in America in the first half of XX century witnessed unprecedented grows of the wealth pie during his lifetime, regardless of any ups and downs on the way.
It's disturbing for me to see that a class warfare rhetoric takes hold in America. The Left's death-grip on education contributes nicely to this pampered ignorance.
I don’t agree. the liberals and the stupid will continue to go down with the obamanation ship..... I only hope that the real people get off in the life boats....
There are plenty of billionaires pushing for Socialism.
It isn't about fairness or redistributing from the haves to the worthy havenots.
It is about power and control. The power to tax is the power to destroy.
Anyone beleive that Ted Kennedy's estate will be subject to the same estate taxes that Senator Kennedy has upheld for decades?
There are times that the Socialist rich DO take from the poor to become rich.
We now have courts and legislators advocating the policy of seizing private property and forcing its sale to certainly politically connected and monied private interests in the name of "greater tax yield".
“There are plenty of billionaires pushing for Socialism”
The Big Government is a natural ally of Big Business.
First, they can afford anything to feed their guilty conscience. And Second, their smaller competitors can’t afford the same and are getting wiped out in the process. Win/win for billionaires.
the more learn about leftists,
the more convinced I become
that they are demon posessed
excellent!
C.S.Lewis...a great mind
It’s a fairly easy exercise to show that every policy and belief of the left is in direct contradiction to God’s natural laws.
And there’s one source of opposition to God’s laws. Only one entity from which the twisting of all that is good comes.
Yes and I think that most are starting to wake up to what they are trying to do. I keep saying that about every 30 or so years America has to be taught again why allowing liberals to run the show is a very bad idea. The last time they had complete control was 1992-93 and before that it was during the Carter years.
If she does we will have another four or eight years of radical Leftist control of the executive. Bad idea.
He did it by declaring war on private electric utilities. Real entreprenuers were willing to take the enormous risks involved. They were the high tech cowboys of the era but FDR and his socialists wanted credit, votes for electrification. Read The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes, and you will find many parallels with the policies and tactics of Hussein.
By the way, this article is excellent. As to the above quote, this is the strategy failure of RINOs and the Republican party establishment. I'm sick and tired of hearing the centrists whine about the conservatives being too narrow minded. How about the centrists being capitulaters? I'll be perfectly content opening the Republican tent, as long as those centrists understand that the Conservative base is in charge and they'll have to vote in our game, not we in theirs. Want small government? Come to us. Want to salvage what's left of the tattered economy? Come to us. Want national security? Come to us. Want to prevent the next 9/11? Come to us. You will find the answers in the Republican party, and the Conservatives *are* its base - it's raison d'être. Conservatives need to come to the fore, and force the R party to return to it's base and principled core.
“I hope Sarah starts a second party soon.”
+++++++++++++
Since the 1850s, name one 3rd party to 2nd party that has had any, *any* electoral success..
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
- C.S. Lewis
+++++++++++++++
Wow, thanks for sharing that. How true..
Dennis-Prager-is-a-genius bump
Close. The elites of the Left desire an aristocratic oligarchy, where wealth and power come from being "connected".
The reason they hate capitalism is that capitalism bestows wealth on the intelligent, the energetic, and the courageous -- qualities they tend to lack. It bothers them that nerds that they looked down upon in high school could start a business and become wealthier than the "cool crowd".
Forget the BLAME BUSH. This is ALL Zero and his minions in Congress. Accept that and you have a head start.
A little late Comrades.
Better late then never
Obama says it's "luck". The more racist among them will claim wealth is only for whites.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.