Sunday, June 19, 2011

The refuge of scoundrels.

Bravo.
It is the refuge of a scoundrel to pretend to hate government, and further, to lie about the role that the American government — the richest and most powerful force for good in the long story of humanity — has played in the creation of the most profound economic engine ever, the America middle class. Notions of American greatness are inextricably intertwined with the American government, and anyone who claims that the government has only been an impediment to American progress is a liar, a fool, a rank opportunist, or a combination of the three. That GI Bill didn't create itself. That Interstate Highway System didn't build itself. Those astronauts didn't send themselves to the moon. Your grandmamma and them didn't get electricity in their farmhouse on their own initiative. Small business didn't create a vast system of free public education, because an educated population makes for good workers and consumers. That was the government. The miracle of the free market didn't end slavery, or solve the pernicious problem that followed of grotesquely institutionalized racism. Nor did the free market end child labor, and decide that food and worker safety were critical values to a civilized society, and essential to a civilized standard of living. That was the government, too.

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