Posted on 04/27/2006 2:17:31 PM PDT by Conservative Coulter Fan
If you were to ask me for a position on Social Security, I would tell you that it is an illegal government program maintained by an unconstitutional administration that forcibly transfers wealth from employers and employees operating on the exact same principle as a pyramid scheme (outlawed in all 50 states). I might add the State has no business meddling with an individuals retirement, the programs demographic defects will cause it to hemorrhage in red ink in the trillions of dollars, and it is on the road to bankrupting the country. Of course, the only glimmer of hope for me was the initiative by President Bush, which only allowed workers to invest a small portion under the supervision of Big Brother. Even this so-called reform went nowhere leaving us with the same old system and the same problems.
A friend once remarked that I live in a libertarian dreamworld (even though Im very much conservative) and therein lies the problem. I hear a lot of talk about small government, but thats all it is. Far from being a guiding principle, it is nothing more than a hallow mantra for many. I marvel how those who scold socialism are corrupt and hypocritical enough to uncritically accept this notion that we must provide social safety nets. The other form of corruption is this farcical attempt at rationalizing it by the defeatist attitude that the have nots are too many and the country too unwilling making it virtually impossible to kill the beast.
Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty in 1964 with a host of government programs aimed at eradicating poverty and in his words creating a great society, which was borrowed from a Fabian Socialist in Great Britain as were his ideas. Over forty years later, trillions of dollars legally stolen and transferred, the catastrophic failure continues unabated only growing in size, budget, and predictable bankruptcy. This promised great society was as much a reality as the workers paradise in the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc.
So why do the very people that clamor for small government concede in the same breath? You wont demand an end to the Welfare State, which is the essence of what one calls Big Government, but then you fill the air with the mantra of small government? To chide such senseless droning only stirs angry attacks and accusations of ideological purity. To this, I laugh. Do you really defend such blatant and glaring hypocrisy, by attacking my commitment to principle and conviction (consistency and honesty) as purity? The mockery and audacity of people who lack all conviction! You attack my purity, because I disdainfully regret youre corruption.
How can you speak reverently of our beloved Constitution of the United States when we have a Government that has ripped it to shreds? Our forefathers, often called the founding fathers, were willing to fight a war with the greatest military power at the time, Great Britain, but I cant even get my fellow conservatives to stand with me in opposing the massive federal behemoth, but theyre for small government! The Minutemen marched barefooted through the snow and endured great burdens, they risked their very life and limb to secure liberty, but you cant even get people to stand by their words. Im reminded of the words of Barry Goldwater, Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of freedom is no virtue. Others are only reminded he was largely defeated by Johnson in 1964.
Progressive propaganda teaches us that the poor must be lifted up, as they say, by soaking the rich. The prophets of radical egalitarianism (i.e., modern liberals), demand fairness, but not of opportunity - only result. The idle among us are entitled to a share because instead of seeking gainful employment they occupy their lives as couch potatoes, they drink, they abuse drugs, or are otherwise so worthless and superfluous that they wont get up in the morning and get a job, they wont educate themselves, they wont learn a skill or trade, and they just flat out wont do a damn thing. These deadbeats are entitled to a caning - they shouldnt eat - much less be afforded the luxury of living off people who work for what they have. I dont sympathize with the deadbeat or the drunkard and think their failure should be subsidized and encouraged. Were only breeding poverty by doing it! Thats not fairness - thats bestowing privilege on the most undeserving! The new aristocracy, people that are so sorry they wont work for a living! Im with Neal Boortz when he says poverty is a disorder.
Thomas Woods, in The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, pointed out one of the more interesting of government boondoggles. Job Corps was established to provide 100,000 young men job skills, education, and work experience. Amazingly, there were no shows and some were arrested, but of those that showed up - two-thirds didnt bother to complete a free government training program that spent the equivalent of an Ivy League education. Those that did complete it didnt find work, of those who did less than half of those found work in the field they were trained in and the average wage was a little over five bucks an hour.
The situation is getting so ridiculous that Hillary Clinton, in an interview with Barbara Walters, boldly told her big lie: Bush is trying to dismantle Medicare. If only! The phony conservative President was accused of this because he gave speeches proclaiming the $225 billion dollar a year entitlement was the commitment of a compassionate society and passed the largest expansion of Medicare in its history with a $600 billion prescription drug coverage. On Planet Hillary, this is considered dismantling Medicare! Of course when Hillary was President, I mean her husband, she was pushing for the complete nationalization of healthcare at a time when the Federal Government is already the largest third party payer in healthcare covering almost HALF of all medical costs through Medicare and Medicaid.
Under Bill Clinton, I criticized Title 1 Education spending, because despite the infusions of more and more tax dollars, test scores and proficiency continued to decline. Worse yet, there was reportedly around a billion dollars that couldnt be accounted for, but the books were so bad that a private accounting firm couldnt perform an audit. George W. Bush espoused quasi-conservative ideas in 2000 like school vouchers, but in the end he let Ted Kennedy of all people write his education bill, which was the largest single dollar increase in the Department of Education. Multi-cultural P.C. curriculum is still being dictated, the far left NEA still has dominion, and government schools are still God-free zones. Scores are still on the decline and high school drop out rates are on the rise. Yet, the most popular solution to the problem remains, you guessed it, spending more money! This is the very definition of insanity.
As for the War on Terrorism, I was for leveling Afghanistan, and eradicating al-Qaeda & the Taliban from the face of the Earth. I was miffed when President Bush and other officials in his administration went from moral clarity to politically correct proclamations about Islam being a religion of peace. The White House trumpeted the fact that it dropped more food than bombs on Afghanistan, which was enough to make me hurl. In 2003, when war was declared on Saddam Hussein, I was on board. Then, we took a detour called nation building that Bush promised he was against in 2000. Now the United States focus is on basically forcing U.S. taxpayers to fund the new Iraqi Government and its infrastructure in addition to the government and infrastructure of Afghanistan. So were too P.C. to call the War on Terror a war with Islam, which it is, and now citizens of the United States are paying taxes for their own spend crazy government plus the governments of two middle eastern countries that are stuck in the Middle Ages.
So while Bush has earned the distinction of being the largest spending in history, with the help of a Republican Congress, the 2.7 trillion discretionary spending pails to spending on the Welfare State (mandatory entitlement spending), which comprises nearly 3/4 of the whole Federal Budget. Social Security is almost a quarter by itself, Medicare is something like 12 percent, Medicaid is around 6 percent, other entitlements make up another 5 percent, and all of this generates an additional 15 percent in interest. With discretionary spending, defense is about 12 percent and the remainder of the budget is non-defense spending.
Lets just acknowledge reality here: small government is effectively dead. The republicans have proven beyond all shadow of a doubt that we have a corrupt one-party system and we live in an ever increasing socialist nation. The people are mere livestock, over half the country doesnt vote, it has been documented time and again that the Democrats bring out their dead to vote. Were forbidden to require I.Q. tests or literacy tests, because apparently people believe it is unfair to deprive some dunce who cant even read (or is borderline retarded) of making such an important decision such as who our elected representatives should be.
We are light years away from Jeffersonian Decentralization, our market economy is being demolished day by day, and the hope of Ronald Reagan seems to have collapsed like the Berlin Wall. We have a run away judiciary legislating liberal morality, a Congress intent on running our lives from cradle to grave, and a culture degenerating into hedonism. Hollywood and the Rap Industry have made entertainment the national dope, envy is the order of the day, and intellect has given way to Miss Cleo. Universities are merely left wing indoctrination camps administered by a fifth column, Churches exchanged Judeo-Christian teachings for the inclusiveness espoused by the secular papacy, and the media is merely a ministry of propaganda for the Modern Liberalism and the Democratic Party. America seems to be on the way of meeting the fate of the Roman Empire.
You might think Im being pessimistic, but I cant look at a glass thats nearly empty and say it is half full. Small Government, it sounds nice, but it cant be taken seriously given the size and scope of government - especially with the relentless growth. The confiscation (legalized theft) and redistribution of wealth is both common and popular, eminent domain is the end of private property in America, and the government quite frankly has the power to oppress each and everyone of us. Small Government, R.I.P.
Essay of the YEAR! Now what?
A worthy rant!
I think the real tragedy is not only that Republicans no longer try to implement smaller government...they no longer even talk about smaller government!
The internet generation is being raised in an atmosphere that, in part, breeds sympathy to some (l)ibertarian causes. Fewer government restrictions, freer markets, and more unfettered capitalism; Freedom and liberty, especially the right to be left alone by the government. I like to take the opportunity to show young people where their tax dollars are spent (wasted), and they invariably end up angry. But more and more, I don't have to show them. They already know, and they are already angry. And I find that deeply satisfying.
The question is, should this resource should be channeled in a way to change the major parties (growth of the Republican Liberty Caucus in the US, and realignment of the Conservative Party in Canada, and so on in other countries), or should third party growth should be the goal to expand liberties and kill off the nanny-states. As a matter of political expediency, I would prefer to opt with changing the existing major parties - mostly because of the political atmosphere imposed upon us by the MSM and the polling industry (wherever they aren't one in the same!).
We have to, unfortunately, write-off most of those who are already hooked either on the entitlements themselves, or the warm fuzzies they get by supporting them, and focus on those who haven't been brainwashed into "thinking" that the government is the best solution to every problem. The cancer of compulsory collectivism cannot be removed except through time - and lots of sweat.
Let the small government dream RIP? Don't even let it rest.
Nice rant. Now I wish there was something we could do.
Hey, I really appreciate the generous words, but Im just fed up and frustrated with the whole situation. Perhaps we could get Mike Pence to run in 2008! There is a candidate I might be able to really get behind.
I think that a majority of Americans just don't want small government. Doesnt matter if they identify as Dems or GOPers.
One of the best ideas is to fix one place. Wyoming is the best candidate. If enough freedom lovers move there we can slowly untangle stuff. States often do have the right NOT to participate in entire programs. So, just say no. Of course you bump into the argument that you are "paying and not getting" but hopefully people can be educated to think two moves ahead in the chess-game of life and politics.
We need to concentrate just to keep the local-liberalism from overwhelming us on day to day stuff. We lost the right to smoke in public in Washington State this year. Gun ownership is under attack many places still. Etc.
I dunno.
Mike Pence for President in 2008!
Up there with JohnHuang2's best!
Good one CCF, but I think small government has been a dream since the New Deal. I'll keep pushing for it tho'.
We are on wartime footing...without civilians making any sacrifices.
If it feels wrong and it looks wrong...it must be wrong. We are trying to have it both ways...and the size and strength of this economy has so far been allowing us that luxury.
I'd like to see an across the board reduction in bureaucracy at all levels with the money savings going to the military and R@D.
You appear to have put my FReepName on your ping list. Please remove it. I have no interest in being pinged to posts in the Bloggers/Personal topic.
I do not remember ever asking you to be placed on a ping list. I am on very few such lists, since I read the News/Activism thread regularly, and find no need to be pinged.
Again, please remove my name from this and any other ping lists where my FReepname appears.
Women (50% of the vote) will vote for the cute, "I'll will take care of you" canidate 100% of the time. The republic is lost. The USA is toast, it is every man for himself.
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