The Great Adjudicator

WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan wrote brilliantly about the Republican and Democratic conventions last summer.  One of the things she focused on was the undeniable warmth and sense of community that was apparent in the Democratic convention.   She accurately characterized this as a Democratic Party feeling of Government as community, the sense that my community is not my family, friends, coworkers or church but my government.  The growing liberal ideal that government, as our primary community, is also the great adjudicator of all social ills; leveling out (or attempting to) all of those nasty inequities that are part of life.  We want the warm and fuzzy comfort of knowing that our government (like parent to child) will take care of us, after all the government is the grantor of our rights (not God), it will make sure I have health care; if somebody else has more money than I do it will tax it away from them and give it to me (all under the rubric of “fairness”).  If I am a woman then the government will make sure I get equal pay and have free birth control and (hopefully) abortions.  If the fat guy (your esteemed author) is drinking to many large sodas then we will ban them so he doesn’t do that anymore, and while we are at it perhaps we need to create a “sin tax” on fast food so he doesn’t eat anymore of that.  Of course this list could go on and on until anyone with a functioning brain would want to kill themselves.

So we see ideals of our countries founders pivot from a country of free peoples with rights granted by God to a country where many of its citizens see their government as essentially in the role of parent; adjudicating all societal ills and leveling out all perceived inequities.  Thus we see government grow bigger, less efficient and more intrusive and a passive, uninvolved citizenry.  Power, influence and money is transferred to a corrupt and immoral government which then hands out favors to the powerful few who can afford to pay for it while throwing enough crumbs to the children to keep them quiet.