Posted on 04/09/2011 7:02:10 AM PDT by hfr
The following quote is in the front pages of Milton and Rose Friedman's book, "Free To Choose". It is from Justice Louis Brandeis, Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 479 (1928)
The quote is relevant to the political debate in this country today. I want to hear a range of opinions about Brandeis' ideas.
The quote:
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greater dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."
That could refer to liberals of days gone by. It could refer to the George McGoverns and Sargent Shrivers. It has no place though with the liberals of today who hate their country and who believe only in their own self serving arrogance.
“Free to Choose” and Robert Ringer’s “Restoring the American Dream” were life changing for me.
Since Brandeis was appointed by Wilson and was a celebrated Progressive, this quote appears to be in keeping with that definition of a neoconservative: a liberal mugged by reality. I’d like to know the context of that quote — as I read now, Brandeis appears to have been a defender of New Deal legislation even though this quote should have raised a question on much of that social engineering.
I suspect most liberals are in denial because if they’ve lived long enough, they should have seen and experienced that their philosophy just doesn’t work in reality.
“The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.” —Plutarch
Not new.
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