Daily Archives: 7 September 2012

Hmm….

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Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama had a lot of rhetoric in his acceptance speech last night.  He also had this, ostensibly referring to Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney:

You might not be ready for diplomacy with Beijing if you can’t visit the Olympics without insulting our closest ally.

Was Obama really talking about himself, though?  After all, he’s the one who insulted Great Britain by sending back to them the bust of Churchill that had sat in the oval office for years, a gift from our closest ally.  And then doubled down on the mess by giving an iPod full of Obamatalk to Queen Elizabeth. He’s the one who travelled to Copenhagen to make a personal plea (“I’m the President,” he said then, and in his speech last night) for Chicago to host the 2016 Olympics, only to see them go with Rio de Janeiro without any further consideration of Chicago’s bid.

How’d he do in Beijing last week, then?

Meanwhile, the People’s Republic of China has laid claim to the entire South China Sea, nearly to the shores of the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia.  Without any opposition from anyone, other than helpless protests from those victimized nations—and idle chit-chat from the pivoted-toward-Asia United States.

Another Thought on Government

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One line from Michelle Obama’s speech on the opening day of the just concluded Democratic Party’s convention jumped out at me, and it did so because it epitomizes the difference between Progressive and Conservative views of government and responsibility.

[W]hen you’ve worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you.  You reach back and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed.

Indeed, conservatives not only believe this, we live it.  Arthur Brooks, the author of Who Really Cares, says:

[W]hen you look at the data, it turns out the conservatives give about 30 percent more.  And incidentally, conservative-headed families make slightly less [6% less] money.

and

…conservatives are 18 percent more likely to donate blood.

Here are some more numbers from Brooks, via George Will:

In the 10 reddest states [in 2004], in which Bush got more than 60 percent majorities, the average percentage of personal income donated to charity was 3.5. Residents of the bluest states, which gave Bush less than 40 percent, donated just 1.9 percent.

There are notable exceptions to this.  The Clintons and Obamas, on the other hand, gave significant per centages of their income to charity.  But these exceptions demonstrate the truth in the data.

Conservatives already are, as a matter of course, reaching back and helping others.  We’re reaching sideways and helping others with current problems, too.  And we reach forward—we pay it forward [emphasis added]:

…lower income people give more [than those better off] because they think they are more likely to need charity or know someone who needs charity.

We don’t need government to force us to do our duty.  We don’t need government to dictate to us what our charities will be, or the mechanisms by which we will help.

Progressives, though, do need government to prod them, apparently, as they project this shortcoming of theirs onto all Americans.  From Brooks (Will), again [emphasis in the Will cite]:

People who reject the idea that “government has a responsibility to reduce income inequality” give an average of four times more than people who accept that proposition.

Mrs Obama was, in fact, preaching to the choir.  She was just in the wrong church.

Two Thoughts on Government

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This video is what the Democratic Party used to open its convention in Charlotte, NC last week:

The Government Is The Only Thing We All Belong To

Here, on the other hand, is the Preamble to our Constitution:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

So.  Do we work for government, or does government work for us?  Do we belong to government, or does government belong to us?

Ronald Reagan answered this in his inaugural address in January 1981:

We are a nation that has a government—not the other way around.

We’ll take a step toward deciding this—again—in November.