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…
Here is what Fred thinks about Obama:
My friend Fred voted for Obama and trusts him to do the right thing. “He’s the brightest and most decent person who’s occupied the Oval Office in my lifetime,” Fred says. His trust for the man extends to Obama’s agenda. “I don’t have time to wade into the details of the economy or health care or climate change legislation or anything else, but I know he’s got my interests at heart.”
This is frightening to me. Fred admits that he doesn’t have the time to “wade into the details”, but he trusts Obama to make all the right decisions because “he’s got my interests at heart”. What! How does he know Obama has his interests at heart? Is it because Obama says so? We aren’t supposed to trust our politicians and believe they have our best “interests at heart”. That’s what brainwashed people living in socialistic dictatorships believe! Free and independent Americans aren’t supposed to think like this. Thomas Jefferson knew this when he said, “Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories.”
If we trust the government (or those in charge of the government), and decide not to educate ourselves on the issues or hold the government accountable, it only leads to trouble. When left unchecked by the people, government always tries to grow it’s power. When it’s power grows it becomes dangerous because, “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.” – George Washington.
Even if our values seem to align with the politicians in charge of the government, we still should not blindly trust them and believe they are looking out for us. It’s dangerous! Failing to educate oneself on the issues and blindly trusting government leads to tyranny. As Benjamin Franklin put it, “This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.”
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Very nice FL, well done indeed. This is a prime example of ideology overrunning rationality. To say that you [regarding Fred] “don’t have time to wade through the details” tells me an awful lot about your mentality. Furthermore, it tells me that you cannot ascertain the significance of the basic concept of liberty, or its historical sacrifice. Either by ignorance or willful stupidity; it is vital that this type of mindset be stripped from successive generations, lest our Republic will fall to national socialism.
Great post as always FL, it strikes me that either this mindset is born of pure naivete, or willful, festering hatred of liberty. Do these people know the oppression that will come with the “progressive” state, or do they welcome it?
This is always the tension in the Democratic Party… they need the Lefties to vote for them but because a Democratic president always has to move to the center (even if a little) because Americans are that way their voters become upset and don’t vote in the next election and thus during the mid-terms they always lose seats.