If you are saying that liberalism is a failure, then you are saying that America in the 20th century is a failure.
I have not forgotten Reagan...but he didn't repeal social security or medicare or medicaid or the EPA or the civil rights act or child labor laws or the minimum wage or a woman's right to vote, did he?
And you are really brave...and you "support veterans" so well when you call a man a coward who served most of his adult life so that YOU could remain free. shame on you you pathetic little man.
You nhave sold out your country to your party - you are the pathetic loser
There are three (at least) deficiencies in modern liberal thinking:
The assumption that people will act in the interests of the common good.
A basic lack of understanding of economics and capitalism.
The view from the ivory tower is not the view that most of the world sees.
The notion that people will act in the interests of the common good is simply erroneous. People first act in their own self-interest and in the interest of self-preservation. Children are naturally selfish and must be taught to share. Many never learn and even those that do only practice benevolence once their basic needs are met.
It is for this reason that many welfare programs fail. If people can get something for nothing, they will, whether or not they are in need. Only in a fantasy world will people act for the common good that is necessary for liberal doctrine to succeed.
In order to achieve the goals of a civilized society, the plain fact that people are selfish must be channeled in a way that ultimately benefits everyone. In this country, we do this. It is called capitalism. It is the desire for self-preservation and maximization of ones personal station in life that drives the engine of capitalism that ultimately benefits the society as a whole.
It is the challenging of the individual to achieve and rewarding that achievement that elevates the society. Handouts and bailouts reward and yes, encourage, failure. Preferences also undermine the achievement incentive by rewarding some over others on a basis other than achievement.
Liberals know what they want, but dont know how to achieve them. A couple of practical examples in the news today are prescription drugs and energy. Liberals want affordable prescription drugs but they also demand breakthrough drugs. The only way to get new, lifesaving drugs is to turn to the capitalistic system that produces them. Controlling the profit mechanism, i.e. price controls, reduces the incentive for any company to invest the resources to produce new drugs. Yes, existing drugs may become affordable but at what cost of future breakthroughs?
When it comes to energy, the liberal mantra is toward renewable energy. The only way renewable energy will ever be developed on a large scale is when there is a profit potential that provides incentive for companies to invest. One way to do that would be to increase the price (through taxation) of petroleum-based energy. I would offer that a five-dollar per gallon gasoline tax would drastically reduce domestic consumption, and would provide the incentive for research and development of alternative energy sources. Of course such a radical attempt to change the economics of energy would be disastrous to the economy, but until alternative energy sources make economic sense, we will continue to depend on petroleum.
Liberals also dont understand why wealth redistribution is not a good thing. The rich, the group most often reviled by liberals, dont just stuff their money under their beds. They invest their money, they spend their money and they even put their money in the bank. All of which ultimately create jobs. Everyone, by their inherent instinct for self-interest would like to be wealthy, but yet the liberal views the achievement of wealth as being somehow evil. Many, many people have benefited from the wealth of entrepreneurs such as Sam Walton, Bill Gates and Michael Dell. Why would we ever take away the incentive and opportunity for anyone to become wealthy? This incentive is what drives capitalism and that, in turn, makes everything else possible. Excessive taxation diminishes the incentive to work and invest. The redistribution of wealth and the imposition of disincentives to capitalism results in a society like the now defunct Soviet Union.
Another serious shortcoming of modern liberal thinking is that few on the left can view the world from a viewpoint other than their own. It would be utopian for everyone to just get along but the undeniable fact is that some in this world would eliminate all that do not share their view of life, one example being those that practice the so-called radical Islam. A liberal would say that one should sit down and work out differences with such people, but the reality is that while the liberal is sitting on one side of the table, his adversary would shoot him dead. Liberals always denounce war. Conservatives do not want war, but at times there comes a point where talk and diplomacy fail and one must speak in a language, force, that the opponent understands.
The goals of both liberals and conservatives are not all that different. Liberals just have to figure out that most of the world doesnt live in their ivory tower and doesnt work the way they would like.
[1]
http://www.washingtondispatch.com/article\_7196.shtml
