We’re hearing this from several places now on the left – they are pushing this issue of “income equality,” or simply “equality.”
I first noticed this last year when the Post Office issued these four flag stamps. While Liberty, Justice, and Freedom are good old solid American principles upon which this country was founded, they threw in this Equality stamp. Now, with the apostles of the Left pushing for government-enforced equality, I am becoming more certain that this is part of a sense that they have that it is time for our society to embrace more fully this Marxist principle.
Equality is only a founding principle of this country when it is properly limited with other words. The Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal. That’s a critical distinction. The founders never had a sense that there could be equal outcomes. People vary in their abilities, their drive and ambition, and hence their prosperity. To achieve the Marxist notion of equality requires the destruction of the other principles. Instead of Liberty or Freedom, we have to have a tyrannical government that is given the power to level the playing field. The government crafted by our founders is the opposite of this. Instead of Justice, we would have to have a government that takes unequally from people, taking away private property that people have justly earned and unjustly giving it to those who haven’t earned it. Or, it is a correct American principle that there be equality of opportunity or equality before the law. The founders would agree with the principle with those modifiers attached.
Yes, I understand that we have had these concepts in play in our society and enshrined into our law to a degree, at least, ever since the progressive era. But it has been only partially promoted. Society has accepted the idea of taxing wealthier people more, and having a welfare system that raises the incomes of people with the lowest incomes. But now they seem to be pushing the idea of full equality.
Obama, taking his signal from Pope Francis, on December 4 made a call for income equality. “I believe this is the defining challenge of our time,” he said in a speech before the leftist Center for American Progress. “It drives everything I do in this office.” This is the classic modus operandi of the Left. With his policies, he creates the greatest income inequality we have seen in this country in a long time, and then he claims that if only we will give him more power, he’ll be able to fix it.
And then on December 20 that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced, “There is no greater challenge this country has than income inequality.” Yes, that was Harry “Land Deal” Reid who has become a multi-millionaire through his position of influence. How ironic.
And now New York’s mayor-elect Bill de Blasio announced on Saturday that upon being sworn in tomorrow, he will embark on a battle against inequality.
What government-enforced equality means, in practice, of course, is that everyone will be equally miserable and poor. Except for those in the ruling class, of course, who are foisting this upon us.
I have wrestled with trying to understand the Left for a long time. In the past, I have thought that they simply didn’t understand. They haven’t taken that dispassionate look at history that they need in order to see that the greatest engine of prosperity, throughout the history of the world, has been the free market. Turn people loose, and everyone fares better. But I have recently realized that it isn’t a lack of understanding – it’s simply that they don’t care. When you look at their private lives, these are people who don’t tend to give much to charity. They are often mean people and selfish. What they want is power, and they simply don’t care whether or not you have the liberty to do what you want. Their consciences don’t restrain them from using the iron fist of government power to come in and take away what you have, and they love having the power to be able to do that. And when society has lost its moral underpinnings, its religion if you will, people can be stirred up to jealousy, to class envy, giving these mastermind leaders the power to work their wills. They will live their lives of privilege and opulence, and you just don’t matter. In the past, the American Press would hold these people accountable. But now the press is as corrupt as the government.
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