I cannot believe that I’m stuck with only two talk radio
stations in Charlotte, North Carolina. Last
Friday, NPR’s 9:00 AM show featured a segment on baking. Well, that was it for me. So, I turned the dial to WBT 1110 AM. Keith Larson, master of the mundane, had
taken the day off. Jerry Klein, an old
bitter hippie, was the guest host. And as
you can expect, he accused conservatives of being selfish pricks, who need to
compromise their principles, and what little wealth they have, for the common
good, as he sees fit.
Mr. Klein likes to address his audience as boys and
girls. That is how liberals see us
common folk. We are just a bunch of
children that need to be shepherded and lectured on how to live, spend our
money, and care for others. And of
course, who knows better on how to run our lives than an old hippie?
During Mr. Klein’s three hour lecture, I realized
something. I realized liberals have no
faith in the goodness of the American people.
They don’t believe we will do the right thing for ourselves, our family,
or our neighbors. Liberals have faith in
one thing only, and that is the general government. Only by force of a bureaucrat will the
American people do what is right.
Mr. Klein took a caller to task about social
security and the welfare state. He asked
who would take care of the poor and elderly if not the government. The caller replied
friends, family, neighbors and local churches.
That wasn’t good enough for the old hippie. Klein insisted that the poor were left out in
the streets while the bourgeoisie callously stepped over them. Only the federal government had the heart to
take care of the downtrodden. I’ve got
news for Mr. Klein, history states otherwise.
Before Progressives began their crusade against the
U.S. Constitution, liberty, property, and the middle-class by implementing the
welfare state; fraternal organizations and mutual aid societies helped the
poor, not just by giving them a handout, but by giving them a hand up. Here is an excerpt from Intellectual Takeout:
America’s first settlers and Founders were certainly not
oblivious to the problems of poverty, nor were they callous in their treatment
of it. Yet they explicitly urged its alleviation by means other than the
federal government. This ideology was concisely expressed by James Madison, who declared that "Charity is no part of the
legislative duty of the government." And Ben Franklin once stated, "the best way of doing good to the poor,
is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of
it."
Giving the poor a hand up rather than a
hand out continued beyond the Founding era through a variety of private
organizations and charities known as mutual aid societies. After visiting America in the
early 19th century, Alexis de Tocqueville made note of this phenomenon when he wrote, "Americans of all ages, all conditions, and
all dispositions, constantly form associations. ... Wherever, at the head of
some new undertaking, you see the government in France, or a man of rank in
England, in the United States you will be sure to find an association."
These types of organizations originally opposed a government-run, government-funded
welfare state because they viewed mutual aid as an expression of independence
and personal responsibility. With dues from members, they provided services such as
unemployment insurance, workers compensation, health insurance, life insurance,
and sick pay. In many cases, a fraternal society would hire a doctor to care
for the members' families giving them access to reliable, inexpensive
healthcare. Additionally, these organizations established a privatized safety
net through orphanages, hospitals, and homes for the elderly.
Liberals, like Jerry Klein, would have us believe Americans
are callous and selfish. They don’t see
the inherent good in our history or our people.
If anything, their views are a reflection of their instincts and
ideology.
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