WILL THE REAL DUNCE PLEASE STAND UP?
A friend and I were recently missing the 1980’s, perhaps
partially because we were younger then, but mainly because of Ronald Reagan.
That got me to thinking about today, and comparing the two leaders and the two Americas. When it
comes to comparing leaders, it’s no contest.
Despite the press bending over backwards to ridicule Reagan
every chance they got and to portray him as a bumbling oaf and amiable dunce, he
was a great deal smarter than his enemies gave him credit for. He also knew a
helluva lot more about how government actually functions, or rather
dysfunctions, than the current crop of ninnies who would be king. He proved
that time and again in his own words.
Another thought came to me as I went over these quotes one last time. If you didn't know who said them, would you at least be able to tell which man was supposedly a shallow, superficial and none-too-bright actor and which one was supposedly a Constitutional lawyer and scholar?
"Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them."
"Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other."
"Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives."
"Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."
"No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!"
"The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much."
"We are going to put an end to the notion that the
American taxpayer exists to fund the federal government. The federal government
exists to serve the American people."
"There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat
and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts."
"The federal government has taken too much tax money from
the people, too much authority from the states, and too much liberty with the
Constitution."
"Extreme taxation, excessive controls, oppressive
government competition with business, frustrated minorities and forgotten
Americans are not the products of free enterprise. They are the residue of
centralized bureaucracy, of government by a self-anointed elite."
Fast
forward to the present. The media and the Far Left (but I repeat myself)
presented to the American people a fictional character, a savior, a Messiah.
They swooned over him, worshiped him and felt their legs tingle freely. They
painted him as some kind of cool genius, a suave sophisticate, a brilliant
seer, with the entire school-of-fish knee-jerk collective consciousness of the MSM referring
to him as “cerebral” almost to a person in 2008. Where, exactly, is the proof
of this caricature’s vast knowledge and savvy brilliance? Certainly not in his
own words.
“My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the
history of the world. I hope you’ll join with me as we try to change it.”
“I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good
for everybody.”
“They say that—uh—they say that—uh—in the face of
challenges—uh—that we face—we should be trying to do less than more.”
“I’ve now been in 57 states—I think one left to go.”
“The reforms we seek would bring greater competition,
choice, savings and inefficiencies to our health care system.”
The Constitution was, “…put to paper nearly 20 centuries
ago.”
“We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution: the notion that we are all created equal…”
“But I think it is an imperfect document, and I think it is a document that reflects some deep flaws in American culture, the Colonial culture nascent at that time."
“It’s a tragedy the Constitution wasn’t radically reinterpreted to force redistribution of wealth for African Americans.”
The Constitution, "...says what the states can’t do to you (and) what the Federal government can’t do to you, but doesn’t say what the Federal government or State government must do on your behalf.”
“But, the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution
of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic
justice in society. To that extent, as radical as I think people try to
characterize the Warren Court, it wasn’t that radical. It didn’t break
free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding
fathers in the Constitution, at least as its been interpreted and Warren
Court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties."
“…they end up taking a hospital bed—it costs—when if you—they
just gave—you gace treatment early—and they got some treatment—and a breathalyzer—or
an inhalator—not a breathalyzer. If they had an inhalator—inhaler—I’m still
stumbling over this word. You know what I mean. You know what I mean. Then we
would save some money.”
“The Middle East is
obviously an issue that has plagued the region for centuries.”
"Israel
is a strong friend of Israel’s.”
“On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken
line of fallen heroes—and I see many of them in the audience here today…”
“…America
compared to countries like Europe.”
“I’m always worried about using the word ‘victory’,
because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and
signing a surrender to MacArthur.”
“Whether we like it or
not, we remain a dominant military superpower….”
Looks
light a knock-out in the first round to me when we compare the knowledge of these two men when it comes to our nation, its principles and its history. Dutch v Dunce, as it were. Still, we’ll come back and do a few more comparisons
between the Reagan years and the Obama years next time to check things out beyond the personal level. After all, the character of the man at the personal level carries great consequences at the local, national and world level.
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