Common Sense May Sink ObamaCare

WSJ ^ | July 24, 2009 | Peggy Noonan

[Kaslin]

It turns out the president misjudged the nation’s mood.

This is big, what’s happening. President Obama appears to have misstepped on a major initiative and defining issue. He has misjudged the nation’s mood, which itself is news: He rose from nothing to everything with the help of his fine-tuned antennae. Resistance to the Democratic health-care plans is in the air, showing up more now on YouTube than in the polls, but it will be in the polls soon enough. The president, in short, may be facing a real loss. This will be interesting in a number of ways and for a number of reasons, among them that we’ve never seen him publicly defeated before, because he hasn’t been. So we may be entering new territory, with new struggles shaped by new dynamics.

His news conference the other night was bad. He was filibustery and spinny and gave long and largely unfollowable answers that seemed aimed at limiting the number of questions asked and running out the clock. You don’t do that when you’re fully confident. Far more seriously, he didn’t seem to be telling the truth. We need to create a new national health-care program in order to cut down on government spending? Who would believe that? Would anybody?

The common wisdom the past week has been that whatever challenges health care faces, the president will at least get something because he has a Democratic House and Senate and they’re not going to let their guy die. He’ll get this or that, maybe not a new nationalized system but some things, and he’ll be able to declare some degree of victory.

And this makes sense. But after the news conference, I found myself wondering if he’d get anything.

[SMARTY]

“Common Sense May Sink ObamaCare”

Common Sense should have kept him out the the WH!

[SonOfDarkSkies]

"Common Sense May Sink ObamaCare"

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

Common sense ain’t.

[WayneS]

Common Sense May SHOULD Sink ObamaCare

There - fixed it!

Still not holding my breath, though.

[mattdono]

Maybe common sense is returning to Miss Noonan?

Ahh...I spoke too soon:

“He rose from nothing to everything with the help of his fine-tuned antennae”

Miss Noonan: You sure the corrupt Chicago political machine has NOTHING to do with this?

[Rapscallion]

I want the federal government OUT OF HEALTHCARE. As for MEDICARE they should go after prosecuting the fraud that exceeds billions of dollars every year. That would be useful and save a lot of tax dollars.

[Frantzie]

Peggy is a Notre Dame (baby killing) Catholic.

[Jeff Head]

Here is a link to the full House Democrat Health Care Plan in PDF. In Section 1233 E & F, pages 426-433, you find the part about mandatory end-of-life counseling for anyone over 65 years of age.

HOUSE DEMOCRAT HEALTH CARE PLAN - http://www.jeffhead.com/DemHealthCare.htm

Also, here's a large image of the Democratic (Obama) Health Plan chart-another Obama empty promise. This is the one the House democrats are censuring. Email these links or the image to everyone you know.

Decmocrat (Obama) Health Plan
http://www.jeffhead.com/DemHealthCare.htm

Obama and all those pushing his radical agenda are abject marxist ideologues. Their "fundamental; change" is nothing more than a destruction of the American free market and fundamental republican principle.

A PETITION FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RESTORATION

THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH ABOUT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA

A 4TH OF JULY TEA PARTY SPEECH

...and on the lighter side, take your mind off the Obamanation for a few minutes and enjoy some beautiful Western US scenery slideshows.

JEFF HEAD'S WESTERN US SCENERY SLIDE SHOWS

[Tirian]

good article with insightful comments - share with friends

[Da Coyote]

Obama does not have a “fine tuned antenna”.

He is clueless, and is at the beck and call of his alien friends Rahm whoever-idiot-savant, etc.

Good grief, how many Obamateurisms do we need?

If not the president, I challenge anyone to think of something he would be hired for (not by ACORN or other completely criminal enterprises).

[Def Conservative]

I agree. Although Noonan irked me during the campaign, this article is spot on

[patriot08]

Attention fellow Texans:

Governor Rick Perry may invoke the 10th Amendment over Obama’s health care bill (Vanity)
7/23/09 | Cowtowney
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2299225/posts?q=1&;page=51

Join this organization and just say no to Obamadeathcare.
Send a message; ‘No! NO you don’t, you muzzie pos. You’re not denying our seniors deserved health care while insuring millions of illegal aliens and while Demorats are REJECTING Obamacare for themselves and their families!’

From the website:
The Alliance of Texans Against Government Controlled Healthcare:
http://www.notintexas.org/

office (972) 466-2915
fax (972) 466-2965
toll-free (866) 377-1300

We are currently contacting Governor Rick Perry by fax and mail!

We have made it easy for you to help. Click here to display the letter and contact information.
http://www.notintexas.org/Letter_rick_perry.htm

Petition to STOP government controlled healthcare in Texas
Read and sign the petition
http://www.notintexas.org/Letter_to_Reps.htm

Print and sign the letter
(feel free to make changes if you wish)

Fax the letter to the fax numbers

Mail a hard copy to the addresses

Call their offices

Dear Governor Perry,

On March 30, 2009 the Texas House of Representatives passed HCR 50 affirming that the State of Texas claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment.

You have publicly supported this bill, and stated that attorney generals from all over the union could be getting ready to sue the US Government.

We are asking you to take the lead.

We are asking you to order the Texas Attorney General to publicly begin working on a law suit under Article IV, Ninth, and Tenth Amendment of the Constitution.

We are asking you to protect the citizens of Texas that we will not stand for government controlled healthcare in our state.

Under your leadership we can effectively kill the proposal of this administration and allow Texas to be a state free from socialism and collectivism.

Be the voice of reason in the national debate and allow Texans the ability to solve the problems of our state.

Thank you,

(Signature Date)

Lookup your state representatives

Contacting Rick Perry

Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711
Phone: (512) 463-2000
Fax: (512) 463-1849

Washington Office:
122 C St., NW, Ste. 200
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: (202) 638-3927
Fax: (202) 628-1943

Contact Budget Planning and Policy

Address:1100 San Jacinto
Austin, Texas 78701
Phone: (512) 463-1778
Fax: (512) 463-1975
Gregory S. Davidson
Constituent Communication Division Director and
Executive Clerk to the Governor
Phone: (512) 463-1873

Office of the General Counsel
Department Mailing Address
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711
Phone: 512.463.2000
Fax: 512.463.1932

Press Secretary
Allison Castle, Press Secretary
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711
Phone: (512) 463-1826
Fax: (512) 463-1847

Contact Texas Health Care Policy Council
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711
Phone: (512) 463-1778
Fax: (512) 463-1975

Sign up. Become a member.
Sign petition against Obamacare!
See member interview with Cavuto!

From ‘Texans Against Government Controlled health Care’
http://www.notintexas.org/

To all Texas elected officials:

“Don’t Mess with Texas” has been a proud motto in the Lone Star State. Now with Government controlled socialized healthcare appearing inevitable, we say “NOT IN TEXAS!” We ask our elected officials to cite the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as the reason why Texas rejects and will not accept the U.S. Government takeover of our healthcare system!

The 10th Amendment states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

States’ rights, in the United States, is political doctrine advocating the strict limitation of the prerogatives of the federal government to those powers explicitly assigned to it in the Constitution of the United States, and reserving to the states all other powers not explicitly forbidden them. The doctrine of states’ rights has been the cause of bitter controversy at several periods in U.S. history.

The impending death of free market healthcare is an important issue that will again cause bitter controversy.

If the cause of defending our free market healthcare is a worthy cause, we in Texas must stand up and say: “NOT IN TEXAS”.

We in Texas will not stand idly by and allow the U.S. Federal Government to eliminate our free market healthcare system by incrementally changing and ultimately replacing it with a Government controlled socialized Healthcare system.

“NOT IN TEXAS”

Where are the Texas politicians?

The Alliance of Texans against Government Controlled Healthcare is insisting upon the immediate action of all Texas Politicians. Tell the U.S. Government: Government controlled healthcare may be adopted in other states, but…NOT IN TEXAS.

Tell the U.S. Government that Government Controlled Healthcare will never be allowed in Texas. Texans still believe in individual freedom and individual responsibility.

The saving of our free market healthcare system is one of the most important tasks ever to face Texas.

When are we going to hear Texas politicians saying: “The Government Controlled Socialized Healthcare stops at the Texas border!”

The Texas citizens are waiting to hear from you. We don’t have much time. President Obama wants a healthcare bill out by August 1st.

Tell the news media loud and clear: “NOT IN TEXAS”

We hope to see and hear your stand in the media in the next days to come.

P.S. Once Texas politicians make their stand, you will see other states standing up for State’s rights. Let the Lone Star state of Texas stand first.

FREE FAX SERVICSES:
http://www.gotfreefax.com/
http://faxzero.com/
or google ‘free fax’

.

From Texans Against Government Controlled Health Care

http://www.notintexas.org/

Facts about the 10th Amendment:

The Tenth Amendment (Amendment X) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, 1791. The Tenth Amendment restates the Constitution’s principle of Federalism by providing that powers not granted to the national government nor prohibited to the states are reserved to the states or the people.

Why Texans should fight National Healthcare:

When all of America’s top health insurers and providers met at the White House this week and pledged to save $2 trillion over the next decade in health costs, they were pledging to sabotage our medical care. The blunt truth, which everybody (the politicians and healthcare providers) agreed to keep quiet, is that the only way to reduce these costs is to ration healthcare, thereby destroying our system. http://www.notintexas.org/Front_4.htm

>Cutting Doctors’ fees will reduce access. Your doctor may not accept the government health plan. Congress is wanting to cut Medicare fees by 21 percent. Cuts in Medicare reimbursements will spill into the government health plan and ultimately limit the number of doctors and hospitals that will accept the government plan.

>Much like the HMO’s of the 80’s your doctor access will be restricted to the few doctors who will accept the socialized plan.

>Limiting the availability of doctors and hospitals will have many devastating effects. Most threatening are:

>Over crowding waiting rooms

Backlog of medical testing i.e. CAT scans, MRI, PET scans etc...

>Rationing of Health Care

>Reduction of quality college students choosing medicine as a profession.

>With our aging population, quality health care providers needed now more than ever.

>We can pay with our lives. The federal government want us to believe they can “mandate away” 2 trillion dollars of medical expenses. We have learned from our friends from the north (the Canadians), the best way to reduce cost is to ration care.

>Government bureaucrats will pour over data and decide what the best means of care will be for the largest number of patients.
If medical condition differs from the government guidelines, it will NOT be paid by the government.
Should your doctor(s) decide the government allowed treatment is not for you, your doctors hands will be tied. If you don’t have the financial means to pay for your treatment elsewhere, it could cost you your life.
In Canada, colonoscopies are rationed for colon cancer. Canada’s colon cancer rate is 25 percent higher than in the U.S. even though Canada’s population is smaller.

>We know from history, once a government program of this nature is passed, whether it is a total failure or not, it will NEVER be rescinded.

Solution:

Texans can reject, and refuse to pay for, the federal government health plan. Texas will attract the BEST trained, MOST experienced doctors (and upcoming doctors) in the country. Texas will be the envy of every state in the union.

The truth about government controlled healthcare:
Government healthcare is failing miserably in Massachusetts
If you think a government run healthcare system can work and be more affordable, read this... http://www.notintexas.org/Front_5.htm

Article from the Washington Examiner 1/11/09:
“Obama’s health policy advisers should take a good look at the smoldering wreckage in the Bay State before trying to impose any such “universal coverage” on the rest of the nation.” Link http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Universal_coverage_First_look_at_the_disaster_in_Massachusetts_011109.html

More interesting reading - Free Market Cure
http://www.freemarketcure.com/

Medicare - What is all the fuss about?
Medicare (and health insurance) is a political football. The aging baby boomers are currently contributing more tax dollars to the Medicare Trust Fund than they ever will again in our lifetime. In 2011, the first baby boomers will become eligible for Medicare, and many of them will retire, no longer contributing to the tax base.
Instead, they will become consumers of the Medicare system and begin to tap into the very funds they contributed to Medicare for more than 40 years. Within a few decades, we will suffer massive deficits caused by Medicare, Medicaid (welfare—long term care) and Social Security.
There is simply not a way to finance the Medicare system long term by raising taxes. Even if taxes were raised by 50 percent of the current rate, there still would not be enough money to fund the Medicare Part A Trust Fund for the long term.
The current Part A trust is expected to pay more than it takes in by 2019, and some are estimating this will begin to occur as early as 2016.

HCR 50 HAS PASSED THE HOUSE 99-36!
Affirming that the State of Texas claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution, serving notice to the federal government to cease and desist certain mandates, and providing that certain federal legislation be prohibited or repealed.

Take Action! Before it is too late!

[RatRipper]

He didn’t misjudge the mood of the people. He has been a total and complete con artist from the start. Peggy wasn’t paying attention. He did everything in his power to get this cow chip of a bill passed BEFORE THE PUBLIC KNEW WHAT WAS IN IT!!!!!!!!

He KNEW very well the country did not want this. Misjudged the mood my a$$!

[Seaplaner]

When everyone pays for the same health-care system, the overseers will feel more and more a right to tell you how to live, which simple joys are allowed and which are not.

Americans in the most personal, daily ways feel they are less free than they used to be. And they are right, they are less free.

Who wants more of that?

LOL. Chronically unfocused, post-menopausal Obama groupie Noonan finds an unwelcome chicken coming home to roost.

It's amazing what fear of confiscation of one's healthy future can do, even to hazy, dull-eyed, one-time pundits, whose analytical and communication skills have fallen to serious decline.

.

[NavyCanDo]

We won round one. Pelosi was just blowing smoke with her, “we have the votes”.
Now that you Representative is coming home for the August break, give them an earful so they have no doubt how we want them to vote when they return to Washington.

[SoConPubbie]

Peggy “Useful Idiot” Noonan apparently still has some common sense left.

[bcsco]

We won round one. Pelosi was just blowing smoke with her, “we have the votes”.

BS! Rham Emmanuel is already stating the vote will occur before the August break. Congressional members are stating they may bypass the Blue Dog Democrat committee and bring a bill to the floor for a vote. Fox News has stated that Harry Reid and Max Baucus have been called to the WH for arm twisting (arm breaking). If you think this is over, get real. They want this passed. They know the mood of the people and they're not taking chances. They want it passed NOW so they can go on to immigration. They want the illegals legalized and included in healthcare so they will vote Democrat in 2010. This is all designed to insulate them in the 2010 elections because they know the mood in America is turning against them. Their only recourse is to fast track this.

[green pastures]

“Now that you Representative is coming home for the August break, give them an earful so they have no doubt how we want them to vote when they return to Washington.”

New reports are saying the House will vote on this still before the August recess. Check the “breaking” forum. Another article about Pelosi hitting the throttle on this.

I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them.

[chiller]

"“He rose from nothing to everything with the help of his fine-tuned antennae”
Miss Noonan: You sure the corrupt Chicago political machine has NOTHING to do with this?

Neither inmho....he or someone figured out that political correctness had advanced to the level that no one would dare criticize a black man for fear of being labeled racist.

[scottinoc]

we’ve never seen him publicly defeated before, because he hasn’t been

Yep, he's 1-0. Real impressive. He beat McCain, that's it. Every other contest he managed to get his opponents removed.

[BunnySlippers]

Only problem is Peggy Noonan is almost always wrong. :(

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

He rose from nothing to everything with the help of his fine-tuned antennae.

....and Nimrods like you Peggy.

[schu]

When everyone pays for the same health-care system, the overseers will feel more and more a right to tell you how to live, which simple joys are allowed and which are not.

Peggy, you almost get it, but not quite. You are on the right track though. What people realize, directly or intuitively, is that giving the government the power over something so personal as your health and doctor is inherently bad. Who wants to have some faceless/nameless bureaucrat from who knows where dictating these decisions and inserting themselves between your doctor and you?

ObamaCare and socialized medicine fundamentally changes the relationship between you and government. Those in power know this, we the people have figured it out.

No to ObamaCare or any such nonsense.

schu

[karnage]

The Machine would not have been enough on its own. Obama is expert at fooling people. The combo was unbeatable. But that was then, this is now.

[Steelfish]

Ms. Noonan missed the key point. 0 screws up whenever he doesn’t have a teleprompter that tells him what to say. Yet in previous columns Ms. Noonan like the hordes who voted for him, were enthralled by his faux rhetoric.

[Steelfish]

Ms. Noonan missed the key point. 0 screws up whenever he doesn’t have a teleprompter that tells him what to say. Yet in previous columns Ms. Noonan like the hordes who voted for him, were enthralled by his faux rhetoric.

[wastoute]

Obama is a lame duck in 6 months, a record for any president. In 2010 we get Congress back and pass a BC before placed on the ballot law and he is a one termer. End of Zero. Zero is a lame duck right now (thanks to God).

Μολὼν λάβε

[Inwoodian]

Peggy didn’t see this coming in November? Astounding.

[Freddd]

‘fine tuned antennae’ means finely tuned in media help...

[Cicero]

Peggy’s getting buyer’s remorse? Who’d a’ thunk it?

[NavyCanDo]

“Rham Emmanuel is already stating the vote will occur before the August break.”

He's a committee member trying to force a floor vote. Reid says NO.

Reid: No health care vote in Senate until fall

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D99KA26G0&show_article=1

[bcsco]

He's a committee member trying to force a floor vote. Reid says NO.

Rham Emmanuel's not a committee member, he's Obama's Chief of Staff. And it was yesterday that Reid said no vote until Fall. And today Obama summoned Reid and Baucus to the WH. Do you really believe Reid has the guts to stand up to Obama?

[Rappini]

Glenn Beck will happy to hear that his Book is having an impact on ObamaCare.

[Kaslin]

Don’t worry Rham Emanuel will apply his thug tactics on Reid

[rdb3]

Get lost, Peggster.

Amazing << Hear this. Feel this, and tell me that this isn't music.

Oh, dear...

[loveliberty2]

"Common sense" could have saved the nation from the great dangers to liberty posed by those who would transform a constitutionally limited government into a vast engine for destroying individual liberty. Instead, they have chosen leaders whose vision of "change" is the antithesis of the great principles of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

American citizens have a responsibility to exercise ordinary common sense in their selection of the people who will represent them and on the executive to whom they entrust their liberty. The following is a portion of an essay on the subject from a book, published in the year of the Constitutional Bicentennial, entitled, "Our Ageless Constitution." Dr. Russell Kirk contributed his thoughts on the importance of citizen responsibility in a democratic republic.

THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF CITIZENS

"Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their atten tion. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature." - Thomas Jefferson (Letter to Edward Carrington January 16, 1787)

Background And Original Intent

"A good constitution is the greatest blessing which a socie­ty can enjoy." So said James Wilson, in his oration at Philadelphia on July 4, 1788, celebrating the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. Wilson, who signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, preached startlingly democratic theories - more democratic than the ideas of any other delegate to the Constitutional Convention.

Yet Wilson emphasized the duties, as well as the rights, of citizens:

"Need I infer, that it is the duty of every citizen to use his best and most unremitting endeavours for preserving it [the Constitution] pure, healthful, and vigorous? For the accomplishment of this great purpose, the exertions of no one citizen are unimportant. Let no one, therefore harbour, for a moment, the mean idea, that he is and can be of no value to his country: let the contrary manly impres­sion animate his soul. Every one can, at many times, perform, to the state, useful services; and he, who steadily pursues the road of patriotism, has the most inviting prospect of being able, at some times, to perform eminent ones."

Wilson's argument is quite as sound now as it was two centuries ago. The success of the American Republic as a political structure has been the consequence, in very large part, of the voluntary participation of citizens in public affairs - enlisting in the army in time of war; serving on school boards; taking part unpaid in political campaigns; petitioning legislatures; sup­porting the President in an hour of crisis; and in a hundred other great ways, or small-assuming responsibility for the com­mon good. The Constitution has functioned well, most of the time, because conscientious men and women have given it flesh.

The Premises of Americans' Responsibility Under the Constitution of 1787

• The Framers' first assumption was that all just authority for government comes from the people, under God; not from a monarch or a governing class, but from the innumerable citizens who make up the public. The people delegate to government only so much power as they think it prudent for government to exercise. Government is the people's creation, not their master. Thus, if the people are sovereign, it is the citizens' responsibility to take upon their shoulders the task of seeing that order, justice, and freedom are maintained.

• The Framers' second assumption was that American citizens would undertake responsibility for the ordinary functioning of the civil social order and that local communities would manage their own affairs. Under their system, the roles of the various levels of government would be minimal and would not unnecessarily intrude into the day-to-day lives of the citizens.

In the matters which most immediately affect private life, power should remain in the hands of the citizens, or of the several states - not in the possession of federal government. So, at least, the Constitution declares. Americans have no official cards of identity, or internal passports, or system of national registration of all citizens - obligations imposed upon citizens in much of the rest of the world. This freedom results from Americans' voluntary assumption of responsibility.

In matters of public concern, it was the original intent to keep authority as close to home as possible. The lesser courts, the police, the maintenance of roads and sanitation, the levying of real-property taxes, the control of public schools, and many other essential functions still are carried on by the agen­cies of local community: the township, the village, the city, the county, the voluntary association. Citizens' cooperation in voluntary community throughout the United States has been noted and commended in the books of Alexis de Tocqueville, Lord Bryce, Julian Marias, and other distinguished visitors to the United States, over the past two centuries:

• America's citizens, most of them, have believed in a moral order ordained by divine wisdom; and so they have assumed moral responsibilities, including personal responsibility for constitutional government. The more thoughtful citizens have seen society as primarily moral in origin: a community of souls. Behind the outward forms of American political structure lie the old convictions that citizens have duties toward a Creator and toward other members of the society, and that a just government must recognize moral law.

• In family, church, and school, until the middle of the twentieth century, the rising generation of Americans were taught that they must be personally responsible for their own welfare, for the care of their aging family members, for the security and prosperity of their community, for their patrimony of order and justice and freedom, A sense of responsibility is developed by severe lessons, by private risk and accountability, by a humane education, by religious understanding, by knowledge of the past. Once upon a time, this sense of responsibility was diffused throughout the American nation. If it drains away, the consequences will be dreary.

A republic whose citizens - whose leaders, indeed - are concerned chiefly with "looking out for Number One," and ig­noring their responsibilities of citizenship, soon cannot "insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare" - or carry on the other major duties of the state. When the crisis comes, the people may turn in desperation to the hero-administrator, the misty figure somewhere at the summit. But in the end, that hero­administrator will not save the republic, although he may govern for a time by force. A democratic republic cannot long endure unless a great many of its citizens stand ready and will­ing to brighten the corner where they are, and to sacrifice much for the nation, if need be.

Has The Consciousness of Responsibility Withered in America?

For the past five or six decades, several perceptive observers have remarked, an increasing proportion of the American population has ceased to feel responsible for the common defense, for productive work, for choosing able men and women to represent them in politics, for accepting personal responsibility for the needs of the community, or even for their own livelihood. Unless this deterioration is arrested, the responsible citizens will be too few to support and protect the irresponsible. By 1978 there were more people receiving regular government checks than there were workers in the private sector.

What follows, if we are to judge by the history of fallen civilizations, is described by Albert Jay Nock in his book Memoirs of a Superfluous Man (1943):

"... closer centralization; a steadily growing bureaucracy; State power and faith in State power increasing; social power and faith in social power diminishing; the State absorbing a continually larger proportion of the national income; production languishing; the State in consequence taking over one 'essential industry' after another, managing them with ever-increasing corruption, inefficiency, and prodigality, and finally resorting to a system of forced labor. Then at some point in this process a collision of State interests, at least as general and as violent as that which occurred in 1914, will result in an industrial and financial dislocation too severe for the asthenic [weak] social structure to bear; and from this the State will be left to 'the rusty death of machinery' and the casual anonymous forces of dissolution."

Modem civilization offers a great variety of diversions, amusements, and enticements - some of them baneful. But modem civilization does not offer many inducements to the performance of duties, except perhaps monetary payment, and certainly it does not teach people that the real reward for responsible citizenship is the preservation of a free society.

It is not money that can induce citizens to labor and sacrifice for the common good. They must be moved by patriotism and their attachment to the Constitution. And patriotism alone, ignorant boasting about ones native land, would not suffice to preserve the Republic.

Thus it is that on the occasion of the Bicentennial celebrating of the Constitution, a mighty effort ought to be made to restore the American public's awareness of the principles of their government, of their responsibilities toward their country, their neighbors, their children, their parents, and themselves to be sure that their patrotism is based on this solid foundation. No one knows how late the hour is; but it is later than most people think. Love of the Republic shelters all our other loves; and that love is worth some sacrifice.

Responsibilities Are Readily Forgotten

Nearly all of us are quick to claim benefits, but not everybody is eager to fulfill obligations. We have become a nation obsessed with rights, forgetful of responsibilities. In an age of seeming affluence, a great many people find it easy to forget that all good things must be paid for by somebody or other - paid for through hard work, through painful abstinence, sometimes through bitter sacrifice. Below we set down some of the causes for the decline of a sense of responsibility among some American citizens.

• The growth of an American welfare state, over the past half-century, has produced in the minds of a good many men and women the illusion that somehow somebody in Washington can provide for all needs: so why make much effort to fulfill what used to be considered personal responsibilities? As Alexis de Tocqueville remarked, a century and a half ago:

  "Democracy in the United States will endure until those in power learn that they can perpetuate themselves through taxation."

In other words, the temptation of public men in Washington is always to offer to have the federal government assume fresh responsibilities - with consequent decay of local and private vigor (it might be argued that, at least in part, a failure in the proper exercise of citizens' responsibility permitted the development of the welfare state syndrome - that the government owes them a living. In any event, once it got under way and the welfare state grew, the sense of citizens' responsibility and rugged individualism deteriorated).

• The increase of the scale of society and the size of government has bewildered many Americans, inclining them to think that the individual can accomplish little or nothing in a responsible way, engulfed as he seems to be by the overwhelmingness of it all. It was easier to see ones personal responsibilities in a Massachusetts township or next door to a Virginia courthouse, in 1787, than it is to perceive what one's duties to country and community may be in the New York or Los Angeles of 1987. When one contemplates the enormous size of the federal government, then the exercise of individual citizen responsibility seems almost hopeless.

• Until the 1930s, and in many schools later than that, young people learned their responsibilities through the lively study of history, government, and especially imaginative literature that taught them about human dignity and human duties. But in recent decades, especially during the 1960s and 1970s, the disciplines of history and government have been supplanted by a vague social stew," and the study of great literature and philosophical ideas has given way to anthologies of relevant" - and often depressing - third-rate recent writing. So the function of the schools as places where responsibility would be taught - an expressed hope of several of the Framers of the Constitution, John Dickinson among them - has been ignored.

• Of all social institutions, formerly the family was most active and successful in teaching young people their responsibilities. But since the Second World War particularly, the American family has been weakened by economic changes, both parents being gainfully employed (often to pay for increases of taxation, in large part), the triumph of the television set over family conversations, the influence of periodicals read by young people, and a considerable range of challenges to parental authority - many times encouraged by judicial decisions and actions of the education establishment. At the same time, the influence of school teachers and of the clergy in perpetuating this strong sense of responsibility has diminished. So, in some degree, the restoration of a sense of responsibility depends upon the family's recovery of authority.

• The fundamental impulse to accept responsibilities and perform duties, in every society, has been religious in origin. Individuals obey moral laws and do their duty because of awareness of duties toward God. Religion teaches that there exist natural laws; and that if individuals try to ignore those natural laws, they find themselves in peril, individually and as a society. People who deny the reality of the Divine tend to shrug off their responsibilities to other men and women. Thus, weakness in religious awareness commonly leads to the decay of personal responsibility in many walks of life.

These are only some of the reasons why a 'permissive" society speaks often of rights and seldom of responsibilities. A time comes, in the course of events, when abruptly there is a most urgent need for men and women ready to fulfill high and exacting and dangerous responsibilities. And if there are no such citizens, then liberty can be lost. It must be remembered that the great strength of the Signers of the Declaration and the Framers of the Constitution was that they knew their classical history, and how the ancient Greek cities had lost their liberties, and how the Roman system had sunk to its ruin under the weight of proletariat and military state.

Prospects For The Renewal Of Responsibility

What may be done by way of remedy? Although America's social difficulties are formidable, probably they are less daunting than those of any other great nation today. The economic resources of the United States remain impressive; and the country's intellectual resources are large.

This essay cannot offer, in its small compass, a detailed program for the popular recovery of devotion to duty. Here we can only suggest healing approaches:

• Like moral virtue, responsibility is first acquired in fami­ly and home. Nobody does more to injure a sense of responsibility than a parent who abandons children to the television set and the peer group, "liberating" them from household chores and study at home. Assigning and enforcing duties within home and family, though it may seem stern at first, is kindness to everybody in the long run.

• In the family, as well as in the school, the imagination and the intellect can be introduced to the literature of responsibility - for such does exist, and young people are much taken with this literature if they have not already been absorbed into a juvenile "counter-culture." It was not many years ago that boys read, for instance, Theodore Roosevelt's and Henry Cabot Lodge's Hero Tales from American History, with its stirring descriptions of George Washington; of George Rogers Clark conquering the Northwest; of the battles of Trenton, Bennington, King's Mountain, and Stony Point - to confine ourselves to Revolutionary fighting - of Gouverneur Morris, the most brilliant delegate to the Constitutional Convention, with his one leg and his crippled arm, refusing to flee from the Jacobins in Paris. In such true tales one learns what responsibility requires. And it was not many years ago that girls were reading about the heroines of ancient times and modern - about Hypatia, Joan of Arc, Abigail Adams. We learn our duties from learning about men and women who did theirs. One recalls James Wilson's words, quoted at the beginning of this essay: "He, who steadily pursues the road of patriotism, has the most in­viting prospect of being able, at some times, to perform eminent ones."

• In schools, the pupils need to be rescued from the sham subjects of "social studies" and "civics," ordinarily the most boring and empty disciplines in school curriculum, and introduced instead to real history and to the Constitution and American political institutions. From studying genuine historical figures and genuine politics and literature of the past, young people can come to apprehend what a citizen can do for his country.

• Perhaps the best way to renew responsibility in American society is to assume responsibilities one's self. It may be difficult to find the time, and painful to fight one's way into politics at any level; nevertheless, some honest men and women must do so if the Republic is to endure another two centuries - or perhaps to the end of the twentieth century. From running for Congress to cam­paigning for the office of drain commissioner; from publishing a newspaper to writing a letter to the editor - ­there is no end to the responsibilities that may be undeRtaken, to the general benefit. The apparatus for doing one's political duty still exists, thanks to our Constitution.

• To fulfill one's moral responsibilities through the agen­cies of a church, neighborhood, and personal charity may not be exciting; yet the example of duty does win converts, and one lays up treasure in a place unaffected by manipulated currency. To give aid and comfort to fugitives from Communist lands, say, is such an act as the Signers and the Framers would have approved heartily; and it teaches moral responsibility to one's children.

• Ultimately, the recovery of a sense of responsibility is bound up with the recovery of the old concept and vir­tue of piety - gratitude toward God for his gift of life, gratitude toward one's ancestors, concern for one's children and descendents. Such a sense of responsibility is in keeping with the philosophy upon which the na­tion was built - Creator-endowed rights and responsibilities.

In your own circumstances, you may encounter oppor­tunities for the renewal of responsibility more promising where you live than any suggested here. In any society, it always has been a minority who have upheld order and justice and freedom. If only one out of every ten citizens of the United States of America should vigorously fulfill his responsibilities to our civil social order - why, we would not need to fear for the future of this nation.

[Interesting Times]

What’s missing from Peggy’s reasonable-sounding analysis is any hint of outrage at the prospect of a Marxist-style takeover of American’s health care system.

[mo]

So..they’re declaring war on the American people..?

[bcsco]

So..they’re declaring war on the American people..?

Was was declared on the American people decades ago. It was this election that put it on fast track.

[Kaslin]

Perhaps it’s missing because she’s blind and does not see it?

[TChad]

Did Noonan ever admit to voting for either Obama or McCain? I stopped reading her last October.

[Mamzelle]

DON’T CLICK ON HER ARTICLES....please.

[libstripper]

Peggy finally shows some commmon sense. Too bad she didn't apply it to the Illegal Alien in the first place.