“America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” -Alexis de Tocqueville
Did you know that no developed country approaches American [charitable] giving? It’s true. In comparison to the rest of the developed world, we are without a doubt the most generous with our own money. Though mocked mercilessly at the time, Bush Sr. was expressing a truth with his “Thousand Points of Light” speech, and I think he might have been a little humbled to lead a nation of people who so faithfully and unceremoniously freely give of their own wealth to others, without compulsion. This is a conundrum to the left, in both its leaders and its talking heads, who with that frightening liberal predictability, can look right at an issue, and yet get it completely wrong.
Forcing me to give my money to government, which will then take out its carrying charges, before redistributing it to others in a manner that creates a creeping dependency in those who accept, is not giving, and is not part of my duty as a Christian. In fact, at no point in his life did Christ rely on the largess of the government, nor did he by example use the government to do good works. His example was clear. Such goodness, and genuine human kindness came through his hands, and those of his disciples and followers. And yet, our government stands on the cusp of betraying every ideal on which it was founded, under the ostensible belief that it is doing good.
Our charitable donations say great things about us. Americans care. Americans pay attention to where our money is going. charitable Americans expect more than the need to give the same thing to the same people all the time. We want to give the hand up, and not the hand out.
However, this Congress and Administration don’t want you to have that choice. Whether it is supporting policies that are sinking the dollar, or a $700 Billion stimulus Bill that has failed to stop the consistent rise of unemployment, and has been defended with outright false data about jobs “saved or created”, or the favoring of a Cap & Tax Bill that would necessarily raise each and every American family’s energy bill, or a push for government-mandated health insurance that would raise taxes on employers and fine individuals who fail to purchase a government-approved insurance plan up to $25,000.00, it seems government is invading every aspect of our lives, and in order to pay for the onerous intervention, its many tentacles will choke the life from the economy.
In the face of such an onslaught, many Americans will simply have no choice. They will not have the money to give to the charities they would choose, and instead will have to use the paltry sums the ever-expanding leviathan will leave to them. And it’s already starting to happen.
There is really nothing more to be said. The current crop of leaders in Washington have decided to trade our money and our freedoms for power. And with so many in the grip of that insatiable lust for power, they have become blind to the fact that their actions can only lead to a place of diminishing returns. Producers can only produce so much. You can only be so hostile to the hands that feed you before the gravy train stops. You can only drain so much blood before the corpse is empty.
Yet the current predicament is an object lesson on liberal thinking. Don’t encourage self-reliance. Don’t produce, or allow those that do to do so. There will always be “the other guy” to pay the bill. And even as things are in an obvious decline, they will continue to dine well on the labors of others…right up to the moment when their check bounces, when their card is declined, and for the very last of them, when the pitchfork and torch wielding mobs are on their lawns. It is a frightfully self-centered and short-sighted strategy, and it will ruin this nation. To deliberately choose to steal the freedom and choices of others is evil, and it is not the “Hope” and “Change” that real Americans were looking for.
Taxes, Stupidity, and Death 