Posted on 10/27/2005 12:46:56 PM PDT by Irontank
Government has been transformed from a necessary evil to a nanny—benign, compassionate, and wise.
My grandparents’ generation thought being on the government dole was disgraceful, a blight on the family’s honor. Today’s senior citizens blithely cannibalize their grandchildren because they have a right to get as much “free” stuff as the political system will permit them to extract.
Big government is not just the opiate of the masses. It is the opiate. The drug of choice for multinational corporations and single moms, for regulated industries and rugged Midwestern farmers, and militant senior citizens.
if we can invoke no ultimate limits on the power of government, a democracy is inevitably transformed into a Kleptocracy — a license to steal, a warrant for oppression
The idea of constitutional government is deceptively simple: the government cannot legitimately infringe upon our rights even if the majority votes to do so.
Europe’s predominant idea of emancipation consisted of changing the concept of man as a slave to the absolute state embodied by the king, to the concept of man as a slave to the absolute state as embodied by the ‘the people’—i.e., switching from slavery to a tribal chieftain into slavery to the tribe.” America sought to make government subservient to the people; the collectivist impulse which gained preeminence in Europe sought to keep people subservient to the government.
I used to work at McDonald’s making minimum wage….I would get $200 a week and they would take out $50 in taxes. That’s a lot of money if you only making $200….What do you get with that $50? All the free street light in the world. As far as I am concerned, give everybody a candle. Just give me back my $50.”
Soon enough, if current trends continue, government will become self-contained, generating (apparently spontaneously) the forces to which it responds.”
Collectivism provided the 20th century answer to a question very different from the one our Constitution resolved. The new question was how to achieve cosmic justice — sometimes referred to as social justice — a world of perfect social and economic equality. Such an ambitious proposal sees no limit to man’s capacity to reason. It presupposes a community can consciously design not only improved political, economic, and social systems, but new and improved human beings as well.
Individual liberty cannot be preserved if the majority’s will must always triumph. My view is admittedly a bit skewed. My heritage includes not only the middle passage but the trail of tears; not only the rhythms of midnight trains but the terror of midnight riders; Jim Crow and Jim Dandy; whited sepulchres and colored fountains. Anyone with that kind of history will tell you quite emphatically that the positive law is not enough. Never enough. When I was growing up the positive law declared that some people were more equal than others. But that law, judged by a higher law, was wrong.
Freedom never has been easy. Not to obtain. Not to sustain. In the last 100 years we have let the government buy our birthright with our own tax money. Freedom requires us to have courage; to live with our own convictions; to question and struggle and strive. And to fail. And Fail. Recently, I saw a quote attributed to Samuel Beckett. He asks: “Ever tried? Ever failed?” Well, no matter. He says, “Try again. Fail better.” Trying to live as free people is always going to be a struggle. But we should commit ourselves to trying and failing, and trying again. To failing better until we really do become like that city on the hill, which offered the world salvation.
That's my nominee --
LOL! Well put. Earthy, but well put!
Excellent, learned speech. BUMP!
bump
Mine too.
Gee Dubya is a bigger fool than the DUmmies accuses him of being if he passes her by again for a SCOTUS seat.
On the one hand, I have an appreciation for her ability to utilize pop culture so well, on the other, it still makes me wonder a little.
I can affirm that comment about originalists.
I'm in love!
I firmly believe that Brown could be confirmed. I sure wish Bush would go for her.
I wonder how many Freepers really understand this statement. I suspect most of the most fevered for the fight do not really want to consider what this statement actually means. You are all going to find out that no one is a 100%er.
She makes me want to go to law school so I can grow up to be just like her!
She's the right choice. It'd be a heck of a fight, but well worth it.
If she's nominated, I'll do hand-springs across the room.
I think I orgasmed after reading that speech...
Does anyone here think that she has even a snowball's chance - either to be nominated, or to be confirmed?
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