Hillary
Clinton's book “It Takes A Village” is, conceptually, quite
simple. It consists entirely of a list of America's problems along
with the solution for each. There are a lot of problems. In fact,
it is surprising how many problems there are, but Hillary somehow comes up with a solution for each one. And the truly
stunning aspect of “Village” is that each solution to each
problem requires the federal government to get bigger in some
way---for new rules to be written, or new taxes to be levied, or new
government functionaries to be empowered. P.J. O'Rourke's famous
two-sentence book review neatly captured the Hillary philosophy of
governance: “Washington is the village. You are the child.”
As far as the
Left is concerned, there is always a big-government solution.
There is always a new bureaucracy to be built, or a wealth
redistribution program to be expanded, or a new tax regimen to be
imposed, or a freedom to be curtailed, or a world-government
institution to be constructed. And after witnessing this process for
several decades, those of us who do not share the statist utopian
vision come to realize that the cart is actually pulling the horse.
The “solutions” do not arise in response to the “problems.”
Rather, the solutions are the entire point of the exercise. The goal
is redistribution of wealth, or confiscation of property, or
elimination of an inalienable right. The “problem” is identified
only to justify the “solution.”
Otherwise, why
would the “solutions” always be the same? If the global climate
is getting warmer, why is the only “solution” to create
international governing bodies with plenary powers and transfer vast
amounts of wealth from rich nations to poor ones? If some people say
things that offend other people, why is the only “solution” to
use the coercive power of the government to silence the speakers? If
there are a small number of Americans who find it difficult to secure
medical care, why do all of us have to buy insurance products we
don't want, pay for other people's abortions and buy Larry King his
Viagra?
The list is
endless. For public schools, the only “solution” the Left ever
proposes is more taxes and more spending, no matter how much money
has been wasted and no matter how many decades the schools have been
failing to educate children. For the EPA, there is never a
“solution” that does not limit a landowner's use of his property,
that does not reduce its value, that does not impose the sort of
centralized mandates that characterized the Soviet Union's
environmental oversight at the Chernobyl nuclear plant. And if a
lunatic shoots a dozen people for no apparent reason, why is the
“solution” always to make it more difficult for me to defend
myself against the next lunatic who comes along?
Never does the
“solution” involve empowering individuals to make their own
decisions and live their own lives. Instead, there are only new
rules and new taxes, new licenses and permits, and the relentless
attack on traditional freedoms.
When the Left
agenda never changes, it is easy for us conservatives to see what's
coming, and also to see that the Obamas and Bidens and Kerrys and
Pelosis and Clintons who propose all these “solutions” don't care
about me or my freedom or my republic, and have no real interest in
the problems they claim to be so very concerned about. The
“problems” are merely part of a necessary rhetorical exercise in
the continuing process of gathering power into the state.
Identifying a “problem” is simply a predicate to the exercise of
a bit more coercion on the rest of us.“Power is not a means; it is
an end,” wrote George Orwell. “The object of power is power.”
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