"The world conflict of today is the conflict of the individual against the state, the same conflict that has been fought throughout mankind's history. The names change, but the essence - and the results - remain the same, whether it is the individual against feudalism, or against absolute monarchy, or against communism or fascism or Nazism or socialism or the welfare state. If one upholds freedom, one must uphold man's individual rights; if one upholds man's individual rights, one must uphold his right to his own life, to his own liberty, to the pursuit of his own happiness - which means: one must uphold a political system that guarantees and protects these rights - which means: the politico-economic system of capitalism." - Ayn Rand, from Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.
Democrats like to accuse Republicans of wanting reinstate the draft, however in 2004 Senator Fritz Hollings (D-SC) and Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) sponsored identical versions of legislation that called for universal military service, HR 163 and S 89.
Well...the Democrats are pushing the idea again. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is touting a new book called The Plan, which outlines the Democrats collectivist plan for the United States.
The first plank of this plan is the following, "A new social contract -- universal citizen service, universal college access, universal retirement savings, and universal children's health care -- that makes clear what you can do for your country and what your country can do for you."
On the "universal citizen sevice," they write:
We need a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us by establishing for the first time an ethic of universal citizen service. All Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 should be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic civil defense training and community service. This is not a draft, nor is it military. Young people will be trained not as soldiers, but simply as citizens who understand their responsibilities in the event of a natural disaster, an epidemic or a terrorist attack. Universal citizen service will bring Americans of every background together to make America safer and more united in common purpose.
What if I reject your plan? What if I don't want to be part of some circle jerk collectivist crap that was cleary conjured up while these guys were sitting around reading Marx and listening to John Lennon's song
Imagine.
I've heard a lot of Democrats talk about morals over the last few years, I've heard Republicans talk about it too, but Democrats do it more often and with the emotionalist and altrustic rhetoric. They say we have a moral duty to this and to do that. I am damn tired of people telling me what my morals should be...especially people who are part of the most corrupt institutions in the county...government.
You can talk about corporations all you want...but there is no institution more corrupt than government. Why? Because it's grow far past the point of what it was intended to be.
I also laughed when I saw this line out of the article I previously linked:
During the Great Depression, when capitalism and government alike were failing, FDR stepped forward to save both.
Captialism had absolutely nothing to do with the Great Depression. Some economists believe that the Federal Reserve had something to do with it. I'm not an economist, but Herbert Hoover was an economic interventionist and even FDR's own people stated some of the New Deal plans were extension of things that were started by the previous administration. Even under FDR we experienced another depression in 1937, however...Democrats and FDR apologists seem to forget that.
Many economists such as Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman and Murray Rothbard believed and documented that Roosevelt's economic policies actually prolonged the Great Depression and that his policies actually hurt the people they were meant to help. The only point where FDR was able to bring down unemployment under 14% was when he conscripted millions of soldiers to fight in Europe and in the Pacific during World War II.
Also...another point mentioned in this "plan" is a "return to fiscal responsibility":
We'll never be able to build a new social contract if we don't repair the broken contract between the American people and their leaders. We can only achieve universal service, college, pensions, and children's health care if we're willing to cut and invest to pay for it. The place to start is by ending corporate welfare and the hack-ridden government that fuels it.
While I am all about cutting corporate welfare...you are exactly putting my faith in you on fiscal responsibility when Rep. Jim Moran is
publically saying, “When I become chairman [of a House appropriations subcommittee], I'm going to earmark the s*** out of it." The man is saying that he wants to take more of my money and give it away through vote buying pet projects for himself and his cronies. It makes Alexander Tyler's statement ring true, "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship."
I've said before that the Democrats are honest about their intentions. They are going to tax and spend. Which makes more sense than the borrow and spend mentality out of the Republicans. But just because it's more honest doesn't mean that it's the way things should be. What I'm seeing with these "universal" proposals isn't a return to "fiscal responsibility." It would be the same damn thing that we have now, and it could very well be worse.
The Democrats plan is some of the most anti-freedom, anti-choice and anti-individual rhetoric I ever read.
Hat tip to the Volokh Conspiracy.
