Don't Be So Sure Of Yourselves
The American Left has had it far too easy for far too long in this country. The agenda of the reformed and very socialist-leaning Democrat Party of the 1930’s has largely been implemented. Government has grown into a massive behemoth, riddled with programs, assistance and safety nets at all levels for most all people (except white males by and large). Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are sacred cows that gain weight every year. Government money is in just about everything and government has used that money repeatedly to cow everything from organizations to companies to States to comply with federal mandates. Given that this has largely followed the liberal or leftist agenda, there’s not been much carping by those same figures against such an intrusive and bullying attitude on the part of the federal government.
I suppose that’s why when the mechanism of government is turned on them, when responsibility for their actions or accountability for the spending of federal funds is demanded, you hear an almost universal cry of outrage from that same Left. While the Left’s had no trouble seeing the States bullied over things like speed limits and drinking age laws (both, if I’m not mistaken clearly identified as federal powers in the Constitution) at the risk of losing highway funds, and it certainly saw no trouble with Prohibition or the current ongoing wars against cigarettes, fast or high calorie food and guns, there are other issues, just as valid where it has screamed bloody murder.
Take Katrina and the bloated federal response to it. That’s right, I said bloated federal response. $5.8 billion could only be described by a Leftist as a pittance. Now that we discover up to 16% of the claims were fraudulent and that funds were used to purchase all sorts of luxury items one could hardly defend as survival aid or subsistence goods (electronic equipment such as TV’s and DVD’s, alcohol, massages, etc.), there is a question of accountability. First, we see that we were naïve and a bit ahead of ourselves to throw money to people who would naturally abuse it. Why, there are court cases still in the works about “refugees” from Katrina fighting to keep the federal government paying for their expensive hotel rooms.
Yes, a lot of people lost it all and still more lost a significant amount of their holdings. But what of those with insurance, which every homeowner is required to have? Aren’t they already reimbursed? And what of those who just rented? Shouldn’t they have had renter’s insurance? Is it our fault if they were too short-sighted to get it? Must we pay for their dereliction? Is it our responsibility as fellow Americans to give them new homes, thousands of dollars (no questions asked) and pay for their vices? Again, only a Leftist would think that was so. Naturally, there was the added bonus of many of the displaced and affected being minorities in one of the old-style Democrat bastions of the South and corruption, New Orleans. Combine the guilt of a federal government who didn’t want to be seen as racist with the skills of some of the best criminals in the country and a willing and gullible press and Democrat leadership in the area and the money flowed.
Now, we demand an accounting, for those people from top to bottom to take responsibility for their actions or inactions. You’ll only hear charges of racism or some hatred for those less fortunate than us or how those of us closer to the libertarian and conservative philosophy aren’t true Christians. I’m still looking for the passage where Jesus said “And Caesar should take what he needs from those able and give to those less fortunate, by threat of the sword if needed”. Oh wait, that wasn’t Jesus. It was Marx & Lenin. Guess it depends on who you worship, eh?
It doesn’t end there. The Welfare Reform Act and other attempts to curb out of control federal spending (including the aborted attempt to reform Social Security) continue to meet with calls that old people, widows and orphans will eat dog food or nothing at all and be cast into the street if we question how much is doled out or what is done with it. Should we dare question how grant money doled out by the National Endowment for the Arts or the Department of Education/National Education Association is spent? Should we dare question what is considered art or what is taught in our schools? The courts, for the moment packed with Left-leaning judges, seem to think we haven’t that right, that such monies are guaranteed, again somewhere in the Constitution although I’ve yet to find where. Perhaps it was written in with crayon during the 70’s.
When it comes to the Boy Scouts using a public school or a church wanting to use a park or meeting house for any function, though, expect the Left will want a full accounting and eviction of such dangerous entities. This, also has been the norm. It’s nothing new, though. When you exist in a philosophical vacuum of the theoretical as do many on the Left, no one has the right to question you. Your theories are your religion and they are sacrosanct. David Limbaugh perhaps said it best as he defended Ann Coulter from the current round of attacks (which had the sole effect, by the way, of causing her book to go to #1 on the NTY Bestseller list) when he called those on the Left members of “a Cult”. Indeed, a group that so religiously believes themselves right and all others wrong to the point of wishing to destroy those others would classify as a cult. Perhaps why, in David Horowitz’s book, Unholy Alliance , he was able to so closely link radical Islam and the Modern American Left. They have much in common in their belief structure and their ultimate agenda. As they say, though, politics makes strange bedfellows.
In a nutshell, the American Left in this country, by becoming engorged with success over the last few decades has assumed that they have the moral mandate to lead and develop their gains into a “new America” and can fully expunge the old, right after they defeat those pesky conservatives who are trying to spoil their plans of collectivism and Marxist America. Their clinging to the truths they developed over the last 40 years as self-evident, they will tell you, trumps the previous 160 years of truths, but such is they way of fascists and such is the way of the American Left. Consider this a lesson in knowing thy enemy.
The American Left has had it far too easy for far too long in this country. The agenda of the reformed and very socialist-leaning Democrat Party of the 1930’s has largely been implemented. Government has grown into a massive behemoth, riddled with programs, assistance and safety nets at all levels for most all people (except white males by and large). Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are sacred cows that gain weight every year. Government money is in just about everything and government has used that money repeatedly to cow everything from organizations to companies to States to comply with federal mandates. Given that this has largely followed the liberal or leftist agenda, there’s not been much carping by those same figures against such an intrusive and bullying attitude on the part of the federal government.
I suppose that’s why when the mechanism of government is turned on them, when responsibility for their actions or accountability for the spending of federal funds is demanded, you hear an almost universal cry of outrage from that same Left. While the Left’s had no trouble seeing the States bullied over things like speed limits and drinking age laws (both, if I’m not mistaken clearly identified as federal powers in the Constitution) at the risk of losing highway funds, and it certainly saw no trouble with Prohibition or the current ongoing wars against cigarettes, fast or high calorie food and guns, there are other issues, just as valid where it has screamed bloody murder.
Take Katrina and the bloated federal response to it. That’s right, I said bloated federal response. $5.8 billion could only be described by a Leftist as a pittance. Now that we discover up to 16% of the claims were fraudulent and that funds were used to purchase all sorts of luxury items one could hardly defend as survival aid or subsistence goods (electronic equipment such as TV’s and DVD’s, alcohol, massages, etc.), there is a question of accountability. First, we see that we were naïve and a bit ahead of ourselves to throw money to people who would naturally abuse it. Why, there are court cases still in the works about “refugees” from Katrina fighting to keep the federal government paying for their expensive hotel rooms.
Yes, a lot of people lost it all and still more lost a significant amount of their holdings. But what of those with insurance, which every homeowner is required to have? Aren’t they already reimbursed? And what of those who just rented? Shouldn’t they have had renter’s insurance? Is it our fault if they were too short-sighted to get it? Must we pay for their dereliction? Is it our responsibility as fellow Americans to give them new homes, thousands of dollars (no questions asked) and pay for their vices? Again, only a Leftist would think that was so. Naturally, there was the added bonus of many of the displaced and affected being minorities in one of the old-style Democrat bastions of the South and corruption, New Orleans. Combine the guilt of a federal government who didn’t want to be seen as racist with the skills of some of the best criminals in the country and a willing and gullible press and Democrat leadership in the area and the money flowed.
Now, we demand an accounting, for those people from top to bottom to take responsibility for their actions or inactions. You’ll only hear charges of racism or some hatred for those less fortunate than us or how those of us closer to the libertarian and conservative philosophy aren’t true Christians. I’m still looking for the passage where Jesus said “And Caesar should take what he needs from those able and give to those less fortunate, by threat of the sword if needed”. Oh wait, that wasn’t Jesus. It was Marx & Lenin. Guess it depends on who you worship, eh?
It doesn’t end there. The Welfare Reform Act and other attempts to curb out of control federal spending (including the aborted attempt to reform Social Security) continue to meet with calls that old people, widows and orphans will eat dog food or nothing at all and be cast into the street if we question how much is doled out or what is done with it. Should we dare question how grant money doled out by the National Endowment for the Arts or the Department of Education/National Education Association is spent? Should we dare question what is considered art or what is taught in our schools? The courts, for the moment packed with Left-leaning judges, seem to think we haven’t that right, that such monies are guaranteed, again somewhere in the Constitution although I’ve yet to find where. Perhaps it was written in with crayon during the 70’s.
When it comes to the Boy Scouts using a public school or a church wanting to use a park or meeting house for any function, though, expect the Left will want a full accounting and eviction of such dangerous entities. This, also has been the norm. It’s nothing new, though. When you exist in a philosophical vacuum of the theoretical as do many on the Left, no one has the right to question you. Your theories are your religion and they are sacrosanct. David Limbaugh perhaps said it best as he defended Ann Coulter from the current round of attacks (which had the sole effect, by the way, of causing her book to go to #1 on the NTY Bestseller list) when he called those on the Left members of “a Cult”. Indeed, a group that so religiously believes themselves right and all others wrong to the point of wishing to destroy those others would classify as a cult. Perhaps why, in David Horowitz’s book, Unholy Alliance , he was able to so closely link radical Islam and the Modern American Left. They have much in common in their belief structure and their ultimate agenda. As they say, though, politics makes strange bedfellows.
In a nutshell, the American Left in this country, by becoming engorged with success over the last few decades has assumed that they have the moral mandate to lead and develop their gains into a “new America” and can fully expunge the old, right after they defeat those pesky conservatives who are trying to spoil their plans of collectivism and Marxist America. Their clinging to the truths they developed over the last 40 years as self-evident, they will tell you, trumps the previous 160 years of truths, but such is they way of fascists and such is the way of the American Left. Consider this a lesson in knowing thy enemy.
posted by Rob Beck | 8:49 PM
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