Once it became okay for politicians to promise distributions to individuals from the public treasury, politicians were provided a “license” to purchase political capital with your earnings. And once America’s government was allowed to pose as “provider” to some (using dollars confiscated from others), its exercise of power in this role would grow exponentially; spurred on by politicians’ expertise in converting human needs into political capital.
As has become obvious, “sorta-Socialist” is not sustainable. It moves toward overt taking of economic and other liberty. We’re either on our way to the fully-totalitarian control by Central Government that marks every Socialist regime, OR we’re in the process of RESTORING our Constitutional Republic.
There isn’t a middle ground.
Force of Law is either constrained by a fixed standard defining its just use or those in power will decide the limits to the just use of force. Citizens who fail to clearly and unambiguously claim their natural right to OWN their lives, liberty and property, will become Subjects.
The USA was founded on principles of Liberty which define each person’s natural right to life, liberty and property as both the purpose of the Law and the measure of its justice. Every program, policy or law should be measured against the yardstick provided in this fundamental definition by answering two simple questions:
* Does it defend natural liberty?
* Will this apply equally to all?
By that yardstick, much of what today’s government does is unjust; an infraction of natural liberty that can only be rationalized using the Socialist yardstick of “pursuing the greater good.” Yet many – even those who claim to champion economic liberty – are not yet willing to renounce the socialism to which they’ve become accustomed. They have not yet recognized the need to do so.
The use of force has no just role in securing anything other than natural rights of individual citizens. Improving the fortunes or circumstances of individuals CANNOT be done by force of law if the law’s just purpose or equal application is to be respected.
We cannot make effective or coherent arguments against the Socialist proposals of today’s Occasional Cortex crowd without repudiating socialism’s central lie; Benevolent government as a provider of sustenance.
This repudiation must apply to both new proposals and to the socialist programs America has already allowed; programs presently demonstrating the inevitability of their collapse. All should be rejected on the same grounds.
* Universal Basic Income, * Medicare for All, * “Free” College, * ObamaCare, * Social Security, * Medicare, * Medicaid, * Welfare
The socialist inclinations of this new generation of Democrats may well have been made INEVITABLE by America’s having previously permitted programs and policies predicated on the childish notion of government as a provider of sustenance rather than a defender of our natural liberty.
Our defense of American economic liberty must be coherent, consistent and principled enough to repudiate our past errors because a “sorta-Socialist” nation is simply a totalitarian Socialist state in immature form.
I concur wholeheartedly. Free markets are about making people pursue their own self interests, through purely economic means. In other words, if you want to make a buck, you better find a way to improve someone’s life by enough that they are willing to give you a buck for that improvement. Socialism is about making people pursue their own self interests through purely political means. One of those tends to create a growing economy, and the other is a purely zero-sum game…