Alas, poor country!
Almost afraid to know itself.
-William Shakespeare, MacBeth, Act IV, Scene III
With this morning’s Senate vote to approve health care “reform,” the representative republic the Founders envisioned has been dealt a serious blow. Health care has now become a “right” (according to Harry Reid of Nevada), though that right is enumerated nowhere in the Constitution. Also never mind the fact that, depending on the poll, anywhere between 53% - 60% of the American population does not want the government to provide this “right”, and about 65% are happy with their current setup. But, never mind what the American public wants. Their Democratic senators and representatives know better. Clearly the public does not know enough, or is not enlightened enough, or does not understand enough to know that this government-sponsored monstrosity is the best way for them to go.
“Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it... The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it.”
-Woodrow T. Wilson, 28th President of the United States, and one of the founders of modern “Progressivism”
I can only pray that the divisions between the House and Senate bills – especially in the areas of abortion and government-run health care are wide enough to delay any conference committee bill long enough for the American people to rise up and say enough. Enough.
Over the last 50 years, Liberty has been dying a slow death in this country. Not from one tremendous blow, nor from a foreign invader. He has been dying from neglect, and 1,000 small cuts here and there. A restrictive gun law here, an environmental prohibition there. A new bureaucratic process here, another new tax there. An unfunded mandate here, a new federal guarantee there. None of those things are death blows, and none of them are really big enough to raise the ire of the general public for very long. Yet combined, the effect has a demonstrably chilling effect on freedom. Government-run health care is a very large step to ending liberty in this country.
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one:
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods:
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
-W. H. Auden
Almost afraid to know itself.
-William Shakespeare, MacBeth, Act IV, Scene III
With this morning’s Senate vote to approve health care “reform,” the representative republic the Founders envisioned has been dealt a serious blow. Health care has now become a “right” (according to Harry Reid of Nevada), though that right is enumerated nowhere in the Constitution. Also never mind the fact that, depending on the poll, anywhere between 53% - 60% of the American population does not want the government to provide this “right”, and about 65% are happy with their current setup. But, never mind what the American public wants. Their Democratic senators and representatives know better. Clearly the public does not know enough, or is not enlightened enough, or does not understand enough to know that this government-sponsored monstrosity is the best way for them to go.
“Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it... The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it.”
-Woodrow T. Wilson, 28th President of the United States, and one of the founders of modern “Progressivism”
I can only pray that the divisions between the House and Senate bills – especially in the areas of abortion and government-run health care are wide enough to delay any conference committee bill long enough for the American people to rise up and say enough. Enough.
Over the last 50 years, Liberty has been dying a slow death in this country. Not from one tremendous blow, nor from a foreign invader. He has been dying from neglect, and 1,000 small cuts here and there. A restrictive gun law here, an environmental prohibition there. A new bureaucratic process here, another new tax there. An unfunded mandate here, a new federal guarantee there. None of those things are death blows, and none of them are really big enough to raise the ire of the general public for very long. Yet combined, the effect has a demonstrably chilling effect on freedom. Government-run health care is a very large step to ending liberty in this country.
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one:
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods:
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
-W. H. Auden
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