06-09-2004 

Just POlitics

Why Liberals don’t give up

by Roger Wm. Hughes

"For many Americans, this was a time best forgotten," said Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP and a longtime civil rights activist. "He was a polarizing figure in black America. He was hostile to the generally accepted remedies for discrimination. His appointments were of people as equally hostile. I can't think of any Reagan policy that African Americans would embrace."

President Ronald Reagan is being assailed by the leaders who still believe in socialism as the answer to civilizations problems. Roger Wilkins, George Mason professor of history, quoted Supreme Court Justice Louise Brandeis on NPTV’s The News Hour as having said that taxes are what people pay for civilization. [By the way, the show on Reagan’s legacy was one of the most liberally slanted shows on Reagan during this time of reflection on Reagan’s place in history.]

Wilkinson went on to say that Reagan was a racist and that he used racism in his political campaign. He further excoriated Reagan for ending all compassion towards those less fortunate in America and denying benefits to those in need in our society.

Why -- after Democrat President Bill Clinton declared the obvious result of Reagan’s legacy, "the era of big government is over,” -- are these liberals still professing that the welfare state is the answer to social problems?

Reagan had the courage and the "common man" approach to confront what up until that time were toxic issues for conservatives. He pointed out the obvious fact that the business of welfare social workers was to have more welfare recipients. It was not a system that helped the poor but rather enslaved the poor into a bureaucratic quagmire that pulled them to the bottom of our social structure. This is why Democrat President Bill Clinton announced “the end of welfare as we know it."

One of the great legacies of Reagan is the fact that he had the political acumen to translate the fact that state-ism and socialism were the "road to serfdom," as the title of F. A. Hayek’s book explained. Hayek’s book, “The Road to Serfdom,” was first published in 1944. It took until the 1980’s for conservatives to quit being dismissed as out of hand for their premise that the welfare state was harmful to the very individuals it was supposed to help.

Conservative intellectuals in academic and other liberal dominated cultures are still looked upon as stupid or at least intellectually inferior. However, since Reagan, it is now allowable for the debate to take place that will challenge the notion of collectivism, rights and wealth transfers.

Yet still today, Sen. John Kerry is running ads declaring that it ought to be every American’s right to universal health coverage. Liberals will never lose the intoxication of the temptation to use other peoples’ money to bribe large portions of the population to hear the siren call of ‘something for nothing.’ The dream of the utopia lives in every liberal’s heart -- a dream that would make them tyrants and all of us their serfs and slaves.

Liberals will never give up their dream of being Commissars and having the power to be God over us all. God bless Ronald Reagan and America. Let every conservative remember the courage of Ronald Reagan and take up the challenge of debunking the wrong-headed liberal beliefs that the welfare state is more compassionate.

Roger Wm. Hughes is the Chairman of Iowa Presidential Watch PAC
P.O. Box 171, Webster City, IA 50595
sixstrategies@wmtel.net

Kerry photo-ops Reagan casket

Presumptive Democrat presidential nominee John Kerry showed up at the Reagan Library on Tuesday afternoon to view the deceased former president’s casket, setting off a firestorm of reaction.

·        At issue: The need for a Kerry visit to the Reagan Library in California. As reported by Rush Limbaugh, a Kerry spokesperson had already announced Kerry would attend the State Funeral for Reagan on Friday in Washington, D.C.

·        At issue: The photographer accompanying Kerry into the Reagan Library. Clear guidelines (handed out to everyone prior to entering the library to view Reagan’s casket) state: “Absolutely no photography will be allowed inside the Library.” A photographer entered slightly ahead of Kerry and took pictures of Kerry while he was there. These pictures were posted as ‘Associated Press’ photos on YahooNews news 30 minutes after Kerry’s visit. [see photo below]

·        At issue: The timing of the Kerry visit to the Reagan Library in California. Dignitaries could view the casket at the Reagan Library in California before the general public or after the general public; or in Washington, D.C. during the time set aside for the other government big wigs to attend. California Governor and Mrs. Schwarzenegger were in attendance during regular public viewing hours at the personal request of Mrs. Reagan – who did not take Kerry’s personal phone call to her, and did not issue an invitation to Kerry.

A cameraman in lower right corner filming Kerry can
be seen on this video grab by MSNBC