And yet we see THREE such Socialists running (again, counting the one already in the Oval Office) to rule this county that perports to be one where the Individual is supposed to be valued over Government. Reformatted, emphasis mine:
“Beginning in the late nineteenth century, and especially after 1930 in the United States, the term liberalism came to be associated with a very different emphasis, particularly in economic policy. It came to be associated with a readiness to rely primarily on the state rather than on private voluntary arrangements to achieve objectives regarded as desirable.
During that same time period, we saw the rise of the Industrial Age – the Age of the Machine. Also, we saw the rise of Socialism and Communism – a neo-view of a Monarchist / Royalty control of Society. No, no crowns, scepters, or flowing robes, but make no mistake, the end goal is the same – for The State must necessarily push Individuals aside and The State must necessarily be controlled by a few at the top of that State.
The catchwords became welfare and equality rather than freedom.
A repudiation of the foundational philosophy that gave birth to this country – that a limited government was necessary such that Individuals would have the maximal amount of Liberty. Liberty, Freedom, Sovereignty – those were the words the Founding Fathers spoke and wrote about – not welfare and equality (except for the former in the mode of Equality Before the Law). Those former words were a part of the French Revolution – and that ended up rather badly. So have pretty much every other Communist and Socialist society that chose to do the same.
The nineteenth-century liberal regarded the extension of freedom as the most effective way to promote welfare and equality; the twentieth-century liberal regards welfare and equality as either prerequisites of or alternatives to freedom.
Instead of seeing Freedom that is innate, the now Regressive Liberals are all too willing to subtract from that Freedom and mandate that ALL participate in the societal goals that have received their imprimatur. In other words, as I have posted before, your choices are removed and nothing is a better metric of the level of Freedom one has is by the number of choices one has. Yet, these Regressives have no qualms about about doing just that – after all, they know better than you (such a condescending and moral superiority attitude).
And here is the shining “kicker” and main thing that should worry us all:
In the name of welfare and equality, the twentieth-century liberal has come to favor a revival of the very policies of state intervention and paternalism against which classical liberalism fought. In the very act of turning the clock back to seventeenth-century mercantilism, he is fond of castigating true liberals as reactionary!”
(H/T: Café Hayek)
