Matt Corley of the ultra-liberal Think Progress blog was kind enough to bring this Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor poll into the news today in which 51% of Americans say they want politicians to “Make a stronger effort to stand up for principle, even if that risks increasing conflict with members of the opposing political party.”
Clearly Matt’s implication is that voters’ wish for more principled government demands left-of-center solidarity in Congress, thereby forcing moderates to approve the health care boondoggle liberals threatened the nation with lo these many months. But is that what American voters are really saying?
I refuse to believe it. The flaw in Corley’s interpretation of the poll is that he, like so many leftists, fails to understand the basic conflict between the liberal value system and the core principle on which this country was based.
(Reader, if you consider yourself a liberal there’s a good chance you’re angry right now and on the verge of dismissing this article with a click of your mouse, if it’s not already too late. But in the interest of truth – which should be our most pressing interest at all times in life – please don’t go. Not yet.)
You see, the bare-bones belief that is the skeleton on which modern liberalism has grown plainly says that it is both acceptable and desirable for the government, when run by the right sort of people (that is, the left), to forcibly take that which belongs to one person and give it to another – if doing so suits liberal purposes. That is liberalism at its most basic level, a philosophy of life based on the ethics of Robin Hood.
That this credo has taken control of this nation is a travesty of justice and wholly against principle. The American middle class is no Sheriff of Nottingham and our well-to-do no treasonous Prince John in need of a thrashing.
The United States was founded on the principles of liberty, private property, and individual initiative and responsibility. Nothing less could have tamed this continent. Nothing less could have won two European wars. And nothing less could have stared down the despicable Soviet regime that ravaged Russia and Eastern Europe for decades, killing tens of millions inside its collectivist realm.
Moreover, these feats were not accomplished by the milquetoasts on the left but rather by the patriots who understood that the principles defined in the Constitution were worth shedding blood for. Foremost among those principles is that which is earned by and belongs to a man is his property, of which he is not to be deprived.
If Americans truly want to be governed by leaders who understand the basic principles of this land and who make laws accordingly, I say “Bring it on!”, because such an electoral result would truly bring the change that we’ve been waiting for. Not the change of Barack Obama, which is more of what’s wrong with the mob-rule leftist mentality, but the change of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, men who understood that government is by its nature the oppressor of its citizens unless continually constrained by respect for their rights.