Many conservatives are nostalgic for a time when personal responsibility, self-sufficiency, hard work, Free Speech, Freedom of Religion, and a whole host of things formerly “American values” were valued.
Related:
Both the populist left and right are turning inward – anxious about the future, closed to to the world, attempting to return to an imagined past, intoxicated with nostalgia or with the concept of an unobtainable utopian future. Both are retreating from the importance of personal responsibility, embracing a narrative of victimhood, and treating those with whom they disagree as enemies to be defeated rather than as fellow citizens with whom to compromise.
-Michael Strain (The American Dream Is Not Dead (But Populism Could Kill It)
The same conservatives also deplore these values being lost under the onslaught of the Social Justice Warriors and Socialist Progressives who are regressing the country back to when Government was the end all, be all.
That’s such a “utopia”?
I think not.
“Take care of me!” is an expectation that is quickly turning into a demand. Even now, many people are wanting the next WuFlu stimulus bill – not so much the bigger picture but for the “what’s in it for me” money-wise. Do they realize that they or their offspring will be paying this back at even more of a price? Yet, they are stuck in the present instead of looking to the future.
And they ignore that for a Government that can give them this “everything”, what is the Faustian bargain they are making in have Government “take care of them” in this way?
The problem with “take care of me” is that no Government has been able to do so – not a single one. Yet, the Berni-Bro Socialists believe they are now the ones that can make that happen.
As I have written before, they lie. Everything in life is a tradeoff – in order for the Bernies, the AOCs, and the Bruce Curries of the world to hand out all these presents, they have to take, by force, stuff from others.
Already, we are starting to see this play out in New York City where the rich are leaving the City leaving diminished tax revenues and a plummeting housing marketplace. In California, U-Haul is recording record prices for trucks and trailers heading outbound – people are voting with their feet. Inbound prices are plummeting.
I rue the day that people will no longer be allowed to “vote with their feet” (although California is already trying hard to stop that as well).
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)
