The Quiet Conservative August 2, 2007
A Leaf Bowl in a Cage
The public has been indoctrinated again and again by the media that there is a “Right Wing”. What
they are actually talking about is the mainstream of America. If there actually is a ‘Right Wing’ it is
a very small group. It might be the white supremacists, or isolationists, or assorted small cults like
the Fred Phelps church family protesting military funerals, but the numbers are extremely minuscule-
and are nowhere on the political screen. When the press talks about the “Right Wing” they actually
mean traditional Americans, the majority of Americans. That’s you.
What dark force actually is shaping national and local politics is the “Left Wing”. This is a far larger
and more real body than the figment imagined by the press. But 'left wing' isn't really an accurate
name for these people and their movement. The correct name is Socialism. It often goes by the
code word of “progressive”.
Socialism is a viable political philosophy held throughout the world. Its international symbol is the
fist holding a rose. In France it took the form of the Chirac Government. In China it is the
Communist Party. In Syria and Iraq under Sadam Hussein it was the Baathist Socialist Party. In
Germany in the 1930’s and until the end of the Second World War it was the Nazi Party or National
Socialist Party. In Russia after 1917 it was the Soviet Union. In the twentieth century this political
and economic theory killed 100 million people and oppressed uncounted millions more.
The bedrock philosophy of all the myriad forms of socialism is that the group is the basic component
that has rights and the government is the controlling authority. Whatever is best for the group
economically and socially is decided by the government. The individual submits to, and is
subservient to, the group and the government. While this is a valid political philosophy it is also
uniquely un-American. The United States was founded on the principles of individual freedom and
limited government. As it was designed, the government was subservient to the people, not the other
way around. So it is disheartening to see socialism making such huge inroads in our national
government. With the first openly socialist senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, and the
Congressional Progressive Caucus in the House (which Senator Sanders founded when he was in
Congress to promote the spread of socialism), socialism is being pushed in practice if not in name,
the individual and individual rights are slowly fading away in preference to the group dynamic. The
line between liberal Democrat and Democratic Socialist is fading so fast that it would be hard to tell if
there was a line there at all.
When President Clinton took office he appointed his wife to lead the task force to socialize
medicine, nearly a seventh of the economy. Called Hillarycare at the time, this task force had an
unelected and unaccountable leader. Since she was not ‘officially’ in the government she did not
have any requirements to be transparent in her actions. Hillarycare went on to be roundly defeated
by the Congress as the Republicans took control of the legislature in 1994. But now it is back. This
time it is in smaller chunks being put forward in a way that is less bold but more cunning. The
Associated Press is reporting that Hillary Clinton, now the junior senator from New York, was asked
at the far left Kos convention “What three lessons she learned from her failed health care reform
effort during the presidency of her husband, Bill Clinton. “It is not enough to have a plan. You've
got to have a political strategy.” The New York Senator said.
The senator has a strategy and is implementing it in small steps to achieve what she first tried in
single consolidation of power. Called the Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act in the
House it takes an existing program and inflates it to gut private health insurance and make millions
dependent on federally controlled health insurance. What is most odious is that this is being done in
the name ‘of the children’.
Where has this been seen before? This condescending attitude by elites that they have the ability to
control and dispense programs by right of their superior intellect? It was the Great Society's war on
poverty of the 1960’s. Here Americans created a completely dependent class of people on welfare
that were locked into a cycle of poverty with no future. The hardest hit was the target of the
limousine liberals sought to help: the African-American family. In 1960 the black family had an
illegitimacy rate of 22%. By the end of the 1990’s it had reached a high of 70%. The cure had done
infinitely more damage than the original disease. When welfare reform was rammed through
Congress and signed by Clinton who was faced with enough votes to override his veto, it resulted in
a freeing of that dependent class and forced them to move forward out of poverty. As a result there
is a rise of a black middle class and a slow decrease of the illegitimacy rate as the basic family unit
begins to repair itself.
But socialism means never having to say you are sorry. The target of progressives is now health
care. Socialized health care has never worked and will never work. It hasn't worked in England and
isn't working in Canada. It works in Cuba because if you die who is going to object or report it?
Who do you report it to? When Michael Moore’s glowing film came out what went virtually
unreported was a group of Cubans that successfully escaped to the islands of the Florida Keys.
Included in those families were a doctor and a dentist. What were these health care professionals
thinking? I don’t think they saw Mr. Moore’s film.
Helping people have health insurance is a good thing. Helping children to receive medical care is a
good thing. But it is not the place of government to do that. That is not the role of a limited
government. Not unless you surrender your freedom and put them in charge of your life. Socialism
is about the group and so it means it takes from the individual to give to the group whether the
individual wants to give or not. Senator Clinton said in a speech: “We are going to take things away
from you on behalf of the common good.” She means it, and is dedicated to doing so. She has a
political strategy now.
Socialism wants equality of outcomes, not opportunity. Nationalizing health care is forging a
dependence on the government and surrendering choice and freedom. You are trading your chance
to pursue freedom on your own terms for a leaf bowl in a cage.