Posted on 12/11/2005 5:31:19 PM PST by Crackingham
Republicans controlling the federal government practice Social Darwinism, a discredited philosophy that in economics and politics calls for survival of the fittest, according to a Democratic U.S. senator. Sen. Barak Obama of Illinois, a fast-rising Democratic star, told Florida party members that only a philosophy among Republicans of sink or swim explains why some Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans still live in cars while Republicans in Washington prepare next week to enact $70 billion in tax breaks.
"It's called the 'Ownership society' in Washington. This isn't the first time this philosophy has appeared. It used to be called Social Darwinism," Obama said late Saturday at the Democrats meeting at Walt Disney World.
"They have a philosophy they have implemented and that is doing exactly what it was designed to do. They basically don't believe in government. They have a different philosophy that says, 'We're going to dismantle government'," Obama said.
Republicans running the federal government believe, "You are on your own to buy your own health care, to buy your own retirement security ... to buy your own roads and levees," Obama said, referring to flood barriers that gave way in New Orleans during Katrina last August.
Obama, the only African American now in the U.S. Senate, gave the keynote address at the annual meeting of Florida Democrats.
Social Darwinism applies Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection from biology to human culture. Popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the theory advocates free competition and a minimalist role for government in society. Darwin himself rejected the application of natural selection to human society.
Osama obama...errr...obama bin la....obama bobama...
Then he's an American. It's those hyphens make me nervous, especially if their Democrats. That really sets me wondering what country or cause they put first.
..and the New Democrats practice Socialism ( of the PRK variety - if they could get away with it!!)
No, Mr. Osama Obama Ram-a-Lam-a-Ding-Dong, it's mainly Democraps who have supported the "social Darwinism" of 40+million abortions, so go screw yourself.
Gubmint already done bilt the lebees.
Gubmint lebee up an done broke.
Gubmint lebee money spent on other thing, like casinos.
I'd say we should wear Mr.Obama's attempted "slur" with pride, wouldn't you say?
Some Republicans will fall for it too.
19th century Social Darwinism as advocated by Herbert Spencer, Andrew Carnegie and the like is much closer to contemporary libertarianism than the sort of Darwinian anarchism advocated by Kroptokin, which reminds me of Anne Fausto-Sterling's "not red in tooth-in-claw arguments".
"Popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the theory advocates free competition and a minimalist role for government in society."
Sounds good to me.
"Obama, the only African American now in the U.S. Senate"
he is not! he is a mulatto Kenyan!.his history is not African American. if he were a republican the MSM would make sure that everyone knew his history and would not let the reps call him black!
" Obama says Republicans practice "Social Darwinism"
and "Usama" Obama and the rest of the Lib Dems practice Marxist- Leninism.
for later....
Why haven't they captured this guy yet?
Evolution is fine as long as they don't lose sight of pandering to the lazy for votes to keep their sorry butts in office. This speech was to reaffirm that policy.
"Social Darwinism" is one of those terms which is used by liberals as a straw man.
The truth is, in America there never really was such a movement. The standard works (by liberals, including in encyclopedias) attribute the school to William Graham Sumner. I have read just about all of Sumner's works, and no where does he use Darwiniam to bolster his ideas, and he certainly does not argue any sort of "survival of the fittest" ideas for human society.
Obama is just mouthing what he has been taught, or what his speech-writers have given him.
Sumner was a conservative with a laissez-faire economic stance. Rather than being for a ruthless social system, he was for the normal, hard-working citizens, whom he saw as harmed by high-tariff policies advocated by big industrialists. He opposed the Spanish-American War, and wrote a whole essay, "The Conquest of America by Spain," arguing that Spain was winning by the war because we were adopting their unwise policies. Would a person applying a distorted Darwinism to human society by so strongly against a war? In otherwords, the truth is the exact opposite of that which the liberal mythology teaches. All you have to do is read Sumner, and you will realize this.
By the way, Sumner's best essays are very readible: for example, "What Social Classes Owe to Each Other." I find by Google that a certain Prof. Richards at the Univ. of Western Washington has posted an excerpt, claiming that it is based on a Spencerian "struggle for survival." What Sumner actually says is that all human life requires effort, and that goods do not just reign on us from heaven. That is the basis of economics, by the way.
Once more, the liberals show themselves to be dishonest and/or ignorant. You can get a copy of Sumner's essay for a mere $6 from the von Mises Institute: http://www.mises.org/store/What-Social-Classes-Owe-to-Each-Other-P195C0.aspx
or you can probably find the whole text in various places on the Internet.
much later.
All this new wave "totally ok" candidate needed was to open his mouth.
He did.
Result: The Hook!
Baloooonery! He would have us resort to, retain the same policy that has ruined France. Welfare actually keeps the poor down.
Thanks for the pings, but this isn't quite right for the evolution list. Still, I like it! Anything to get evolution back into the right hands.
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