« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

MEMBER DIARY

LF 9: The Religion of Government

By: andyd (Diary)  |  December 14th, 2009 at 08:50 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

From the diaries by Erick. Chapter 10 next week.

But it’s worth looking at Reich as a true acolyte of the religion of government.

When I came to the above sentence, it occurred to me that the same could be said for many of the most prominent liberal / progressive / statist politicians in today’s world.  “Man-made global warming” is obviously one of the religions of today’s Democratic Party.  If Abortion isn’t the most sacred of the faiths, it’s really far up there.  But Jonah Goldberg points out the truth of the matter is that Hillary Clinton and others are true religious believers in the power of Government as a religion or a faith.

Time and time again in this chapter we see that Mrs. Clinton and others attempt to use government to give meaning to the lives of individuals.  Government can’t give meaning to my life.  In truth, I am insulted that anyone believes I would want the government to give me some sort of meaning.  My life derives meaning from my faith and my family.  However, to the liberal fascist, only the government can give us meaning.

I think this is a good lesson to learn in this book.  To liberals, the government is the be-all-end-all.  There is no source higher than it, and no crisis / problem can be solved without it.  The current health care debate is a great example.  The Democrats in congress believe the solution to all our health care needs is for the government to tell me what kind of health insurance I should have.  If I don’t get it, then I go to jail because I am part of the problem, not part of the solution.  What if I don’t want abortions, sex changes, drug abuse, or any number of other things covered in my health care?  Doesn’t matter.  The government knows best, and they have decided I shall have it.

I think this is a weakness in any political debate.  Liberals must put their faith in government to solve problems, while most conservatives believe that individuals are much better at solving their own problems.  This is also a message that could be reinforced with some of our Republican representatives.

Tags: , ,

COMMENTS

POSTING RULES  |  LOGIN TO COMMENT  |  REGISTER TODAY
  • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

    And there have always been people who are driven to control others. The genius of Leftism is that it made it out to be the moral thing to do.

    Of course there is nothing really moral at all about statism, but it will never lack for people who worship it.

    Far more difficult is to convince the average person that they should NOT try and control the actions of their neighbors, both because it is not moral, and because it will actually result in a better world if people are free.

  • Flagstaff

    But I still noticed a comment on the radio today that made me think, “If that person only realized it, he just observed the slide we’re making into totalitarianism, as in Mussolini’s fascism, without recognizing it.”

    All health care controlled by the state; none outside the state. The totalitarian approach.

    It’s really undeniable.

  • drfredc

    Well, not quite.

    The problem for the conservatives is, while the Democrats have a big government solution for every social marketplace problem, conservatives seem stuck on a small government mantra. as if a small government will automatically define and manage viable individually driven social marketplaces for individuals of all sorts. This is very unlikely to happen. However, it is true that properly defined and managed, individually driven social marketplaces will lead to small government as well as general prosperity for all.

    Expect conservatives to be always fighting an uphill until they start to figure out that putting social marketplace solutions in front of their small government message is a long term answer to success. You can’t put the cart of small government in front of the horse of vibrant, individually driven social marketplaces… You’ll get no where.

    The next challenge for conservatives is understand the need to aggressively spread the message to moderates as well as others that big government social marketplaces don’t lead to small government and general prosperity for all. Big government social marketplaces lead to big problems.

    Another curious feature of conservatives, particularly of the religous spectrum, is their general silence on the class/wealth envy issue. You’d think those who believe in the Commandment “that one shall not covet another’s wife or wealth” would make a point that class envy has no place in a moral society. Or is their faith only for Sunday? The reality is those with more wealth have more responsibility to promote the prosperity of others, which in turn promotes everyone’s prosperity. At least if one believes in the gospel…

    • Flagstaff

      I’m not sure what you mean by “big government social marketplaces,” though.

      And I suggest that “those with more wealth” do NOT “have more responsibility to promote the prosperity of others,” but that it happens naturally in a free market economy.

      If I understand the rest of your comment, I agree, but the general lack of economic knowledge in the country is a big problem for us.

    • http://vbushmills.blogtownhall.com/ vassar

      …if you’ll accept that the driving class envy, ever since Marx, and beyond, has been the educated intellectual (and today, the Cliff’s Notes/Wikipedia intellectual) who seethe at the prosperity and economic power of those they perceive to be their intellectual lessers.

      This totally clouded Marx’s view of capitalists, and lawyer’s views of C-students who got rich selling scrap metal.

      Yep, I think Frank Capra was right. It’s always been about class.

    • edintexas

      I know it has been many decades since I last sat in a PolSci class, or studied a PolSci textbook, so do me the favor of defining “Social Marketplace” . The term is simply not retrievable (if it ever existed there in the first place) from my age slowed mental retrieval system.

  • jackhammer

    and that is the most gracious attribution I can make.

    I read a lot of the left leaning blogs, and in it I am struck with the adoration of the blessed trinity of the executive, legislative and judicial….they feel they already have 2, and are hoping for one or two of the Catholics on the SC to retire or die so they can finally have all 3…

    Their bleeding hearts go out to all of the people who are just too stupid to fend for themselves. Who are lured in by the big bad banks and credit card companies, and retailers and whatever else is out there tryign to take them off the virtuous path….and the only thing that can keep them on the path is the government. They would have loved the inquisition, or one of those towns where liquor and dancing were outlawed.

    One thing that struck me yesterday on firedoglake (where they have become seriously obsessed with Erick) was their contention that the 60 vote hurdle presented somehting wholely “undemocratic”…they have an inherent view of 50+ being the final arbiter, as long as it is on their side.

    When our side is at 50+1 I don’t want us practicing the tyranny of the majority , but then again I am mistrustful of the government. I trust the individual to make decisions that are best for them….

  • ihateliberals

    What do these “ist” have in common? They are all religions. To a Leftist Power to rule peoples lives is God. But unlike God they have no compassion. Telling people what they can and can’t do and then forcing them to do what they are told is good for them is not like the compassion of God. At least in the Baptist and Methodist religions I can Opt-Out if I don’t believe and I won’t go to jail.

    • http://politicalfriends.blogspot.com andyd

      ihateliberals, the only thing I would disagree with is that leftist have no compassion. They at least think they have compassion. Everything they do is in the name of “compassion”. In reality, I think it makes them feel good and they don’t actually think through what they are doing.

  • http://stores.lulu.com/iconicfreedom iconicfreedom

    And those who, either through government or religion, demand that others carry their beliefs to the extent that they force, through government legislation, to subjugate to such subjective ideology are infringing on the freedom of the individual conscious mind to decide for self.

    You either uphold objective freedom or you contribute to the problem through subjective ideology.

    Believe all you want, stop demanding Americans fund your personal ideology, be it government or religion.

    It’s an interesting self-correction happening right now. The religious of our nation who have demanded god in everything are getting a horrible dose of what it’s like when people want to push their ideology onto everyone and demand that all acquiesce.

    Republicans are the best at self-correction. If they get this and start moving toward getting government out of EVERYTHING, they will create a forcefield foundation of freedom which will not lose in debate or elections when discussing who is creating more individual freedom: the guy demanding you believe as he believes, or the guy who says that government needs to be limitied and each decide for self through the conscious mind.

    The key: make your choices at no cost to others without their consent and you create the byproduct of integrity where society lives free.

    If you consider that rule: make no choice at the cost of others without their consent, you’ll see in the application how it respects all, favors none, upholds and advances individual freedom.

    If you attempt rationalization, justification or excuse for NOT behaving as such, then it’s your personal agenda seeking to control others cause you think YOU know how it ought to be done, how to live, how to choose, what to choose. Sounds liberal to me and I know that liberals are anything but liberal.

  • jgault

    This seems to be the mantra of the left leaning socialist. What happens is that they have been taught that if we all look and act alike that society will be less destructive and hateful.

    They belive that by right of birth and training, they are far more qualified to lead us. Senator Clinton belives that by waving trite sayings around that we all will fall down and worship at the alter of big goverment.

    That we all will go ‘oooh you are so right! I have been so wrong, allow me to grovel and give everything to some person who has’nt earned it or deserves it.”

    If we do not follow that type of delusional reasoning,then we are a part of those that are the problem and not a part of their solution, and therfore must be silenced.

    A lot of what I missed in this chapter when I first read it, I had to go back to re-read it so that I could fully see, is that all of these things that liberals hold up and worship are all just smaller elements of the whole religion of big goverment.

    They need to have all earmarks of Christian religion removed so that they can set up their version of it. They need to compleatly scrub away all vestigages of it in order to make it work. All of you have have noticed that every element (abortion,entiltelment progams, ect…) are sacrosanct in their minds and therfor cannot be touched. They have made it almost political suicide to even discuss changing or ending those types of programs.

    They have convinced alot of groups of pepole (seniors, color, sexual) that they are special and cannot live without those programs or laws, that they are being personally attacked if they are removed or changed. Yet in realality if they were moved back to the state and community levels they were taken from, they most likely would be better managed and with less money too. Divide and conquer is the process and once started is almost impossible to stop.

    Once they have done that they can be less fearful of being stopped. Let me tell you that they are afraid of that happening. The folks I work with run about 99.99% liberal. I hear them talking quitely, fearfully of being stopped in their effort to fully crush and change our culture.

    This is their mission – to first start the assault by loosing the standards by which we live. Then weakining slowly, so as not to be noticed the hold on our childrens belife systems thru indocternation in the schools. Teaching them that their parents values and morals are not good that they are misled by the moral constrictions of religion.

    The many small courtroom victories by the ACLU have all served this purpose. All done under the guise of protecting our civil rights.They are in the current phase of removing the religious conversation from the public square so that they can re-inforce their mantra. This is so it is the only thing the general public will hear.

    They are attacking on all fronts and using our emotions to defeat us. This is how they rule, pusing us from one crisis to the next not giving us to time to breath or think. To think short term not long term.

    This is why it is so important for them to have their own religion and pretend that it is not. All religions are predicated on one thing and one thing only – that there is something bigger than self that will take care of us if we only bend our will to it and are subserviant to it.

    The reason we do not hear a lot of churches or religious pepole decring what is happening is that they have had several things done to them;

    The churches will lose their tax-free status if they complaine too loudly, the goverment will declare them a policital action group and their status will be pulled. this is tax law that was enacted back when FDR was in power he did it to shut them up because he knew they would ruin his plans and of the power of the pulpit.

    Next we have the christian princables that have been twisted in meaning and purpose to make any who oppose feel like that they are not being good christainsif they oppose them.

    Then there is the class envy baloney; it is more like making pepole afraid and resentful that they cannot have something till they earn it. That they are being oppressed by a class/group of pepole. It of course in this day and age a lie but if they get their way it will be the truth.

    Finally we have the dependance on goverment that has been bred into our socitey by the organizers and media who say it is our right to be cared for by the goverment.

    So you decide what you think. I finished the book last week so I may have bled over a tad. I found it a truley scary book and has given me a new purpose in life and a way to do it.

    • ronzo

      Forget about congress, they`ll do anything to keep their jobs.

      It`s obvious to me as well every program this administration pushes is for ultimate and incremental destruction of every aspect of free society. Obama and his leftist backers have streamlined the process toward the path of least resistance and seem unstoppable.

      The real battle will begin when US citizens are deprived of the right to decide our own future, much less voice our opposition to it.

      What options do we have then, up in arms? Who do we trust, ourselves alone?

  • anotherindyfilmguy

    on the one hand see “1984″ as their penultimate goal (as long as they are charge and yell “1984″ (or much worse) whenever someone has the audacity to be blocking them from taking over completely.

  • Flagstaff

    Liberals must put their faith in government to solve problems, while most conservatives believe that individuals are much better at solving their own problems. This is also a message that could be reinforced with some of our Republican representatives.

    All those millions of individual decisions made by the people involved in the situations also create an economy and a society where almost every need is met at the most reasonable price possible, prioritized exactly as the people themselves want it. Those who want abortions covered can buy that insurance. Those who don’t, don’t have to. If you need a 7-passenger car, it’s available. If you want a bicycle, that’s available also.

    In a real, free market, capitalist system, free trade across borders improves choice even more. If that two-passenger roller skate isn’t feasible to produce here, it can be produced in China or Sweden, and it then becomes available here.

    OTOH, a centrally directed system never allocates resources effectively to meet demand, simply because it is impossible to do so. A few thousand bureaucrats (or even a few hundred thousand) cannot come close to making those millions of decisions as well as the citizens involved can. It has nothing to do with personal or corporate greed, but it has everything to do with the fact the aggregate “us” knows best what “we” need.

    I don’t think many of our representatives understand these simple facts of a market economy and its inherent superiority.

  • gekster