For years I have tried to relate my own personal experiences with friend’s colleagues and family members and the events being played out politically today. It is said that “all politics is local”
My mother and father came from a generation that lived through the great depression and World War II. They realized through real-life experiences that they had to work hard, be accountable to themselves and their families, and always take care of those around them who could not take care of themselves. They never looked to government. They realized that during the Great Depression government programs facilitated the private sector because transactions run by politicians were very much subject to cronyism and corruption. Yesterday, in the 30’s like we see today with the response of government to natural disasters without the private sector and individual imitative and work, government cannot provide for those in need. It will always be people who do the work. Today 65% of health care is subsidized by the government, but 80% of doctors, nurses and technicians have their paycheck signed by a private or non-profit employer. Who does the work?
Recently I heard a commentator state that “liberalism is a psychiatric disease”. I don’t believe this for a moment. But watching the Kavanagh proceedings I have come to the conclusion that people suffering from significant psychological diseases are attracted to the promises of Liberalism.
There are many people who find themselves in situations in which they feel they have not been given a “fair shake” in life. Maybe they have a congenital disease or juvenile diabetes. Maybe they have been born into poverty or subjected to racial or sexual discrimination or abuse. Many times they find themselves in situations where they had choices and because they made bad decisions, they are living lives very different than the ones they had envisioned for themselves.
My two forms of recreation are swimming and golf. Most people today have never seen a Thalidomide patient—I work out and play golf with two such patients. The golfer plays with two upper appendages that extend a few inches from his shoulders with only three digits. He swings a golf club around his body by lining up with his shoulders outside the ball. He has no arms to swing the club and yet he hits the ball 50 yards further than I do!
The second man is a CPA and is at the end of a very successful career. He swims 1000 meters 3 times a week by undulating his body through the water—he has no arms and legs! I asked both men how they were able to overcome such adversity and they each pointed to their Mothers. Their mothers did not teach them any differently than anybody else. One related how he struggled for years learning to do the activities of daily living—going to the bathroom, brushing teeth and putting on cloths. He would yell and scream at her for hours and days, but she never helped him.
After reciting that story to me he stated—”can you imagine how much love she had in her heart and how much she wanted to help me, especially when I was telling her every day how much I hated her”? She saw her job as preparing me for life. Making sure I could take care of myself when she no longer was around. In the short term, her job would have been much easier if She had capitulated to my demands. She was looking long term. “She insisted that I become responsible and accountable for myself”
Many people today find themselves in situations that are the result of their own doing. They make choices to use drugs and alcohol. They make choices about who their friends are or how hard they study or work. Unlike my two friends mentioned above, they find themselves today in situations that are attributable to their own choices.
People who do not want to take responsibility for their own life conditions look to blame others. It is easy to make oneself a victim and not be responsible or accountable for oneself.
Very bad things happen. A child loses a parent, a parent loses a child, and a breadwinner loses a job. A child becomes diabetic at an early age. The only way to move on is to understand that you alone are responsible and accountable for what your future will be. By blaming someone else you start “marching in quicksand”. You stop moving forward.
So people who are attracted to the occult of victimhood are attracted to liberal progressive philosophies. Liberals themselves hold out the false hope to victims who refuse to move on and get on with their lives and in reality, this closes the door toward self-sufficiency and independence.
Liberalism is not a disease, but those who are predisposed to not taking responsibility for themselves are attracted to the false promises of government solutions and in the end who is profligate by liberal progressive policies? Not the so-called “victims of bad fortune” who are incentivized to dependency status without being encouraged to know the pride that comes with being self-sufficient. It is the politicians themselves who are merely “rent seekers” party to a transaction of income redistribution. In the end, no matter the circumstances being self-sufficient and independent will lead to less dependency on government—and this is why the politicians today are so worried. People at all levels of society are seeing the false promise of liberal dependency and indenture-hood and are rejecting that promise. People want to work and provide for themselves and their families and neighbors. They are rejecting the promises of the government “rent seekers”.
