forgottenliberty.com

Over the weekend, Bill Clinton and Al Gore gave speeches at the annual Jackson Day dinner in Tennessee. They both referenced the passing of Ted Kennedy and the current health care debate. Their remarks show the fundamental difference between the conservative and liberal view of government. While the liberal focuses on bigger government and more social programs to solve things like poverty and health care, a true conservative will seek to limit government involvement and believes in individuals and the free market to solve almost all problems. Clinton and Gore’s remarks bear witness to this.

First, lets look at a line about health care from Clinton’s speech as reported by Politico,

“I’m not a very good politician any more; I just say what I think,” Clinton said. “But I have been waiting for this for 40 years … to recreate the American dream.”

Apparently, Clinton believes the recreation of the American dream is government reform of health care (a government takeover of health care).  This is vastly different from the traditional definition of the American dream.  The American dream was about the freedom to be anything one wanted to be, to be able to rise as high as one can and succeed or fail based on one’s own abilities and hard work.  People crossed the Atlantic Ocean because of the

I found this cartoon on YouTube called Make Mine Freedom.  It was made in 1948, but it definitely applies to today’s political environment.  Someone comes along, like Obama, and promises to be everything to everyone and solve all their problems, aka socialism. He promises them the world, but in the end, everyone loses their freedom.  I wish they still made cartoons like this!

“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.” Thomas Jefferson.

This morning, I was perusing the liberal area of the internet.  It’s that part of the internet where it’s a liberal utopia, and everyone lives in communes, has free health care, free housing, free food and free money (at least that’s how it is in their minds). While wading through the “George Bush is evil” articles and blog posts, I came across something that I found very interesting.  It’s from The American Prospect (boo, hiss).  The piece is written by Robert B. Reich, and he shares how two of his friends, Fred and Sally, view President Obama.

Here is what Mr. Reich’s friend, Sally, thinks about Obama:

My friend Sally also voted for Obama and still likes him, but she’s increasingly upset about his policies. “He’s giving away the store,” she complains, pointing to his penchant for compromise. “He gave Wall Street $600 billion in bailouts and doesn’t even want to regulate it, gave big polluters 85 percent of the cap-and-trade permits, and has promised the American Medical Association, Big Pharma, and private insurers whatever they want in return for their support of universal health care.” Sally says she voted for Obama because he promised to change American politics, but she thinks corporate interests are more powerful than ever.

Sally also doesn’t see why Obama is so bent on bipartisanship.

“Republicans haven’t helped him a bit so far, won’t help him, and he doesn’t need their votes, so why compromise with them?”

It seems that Sally thinks Obama is not liberal enough.  It’s a pretty scary opinion, since I think Obama is the most liberal person ever to occupy the Oval Office.  However, Mr. Reich’s other friend is the one who really scares me…