- Ronald Reagan, January 20, 1981
“If you’re disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. Enlist in our Armed Forces. Become a teacher. Enter the ministry. Run for public office. Feed a hungry child. Teach an illiterate adult to read. Comfort the afflicted. Defend the rights of the oppressed. Our country will be the better, and you will be the happier. Because nothing brings greater happiness in life than to serve a cause greater than yourself.”
- John McCain, September 4, 2008
John McCain, in what may well have been the creepiest political speech in history, recounted his harrowing experience as a POW in Viet Nam. It was there that the future senator from Arizona learned an important lesson – no, not about the folly of an interventionist foreign policy and undeclared offensive wars. He learned that, “I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.” And now he’s witnessing to all Americans, hoping that we, too, will discover the joy that comes from surrendering our individuality and turning our lives over to the state. Based on this and previous speeches, it is clear that McCain believes that the only way for man to serve his fellow man is to pass the civil service exam first.
Perhaps this attitude should not be surprising. After all, the McCain men have been government employees for at least three generations. John McCain’s disdain for the private sector may be understandable given the fact that he’s never actually worked in it. Nevertheless, it is troubling when someone who claims to have been “a footsoldier in the Reagan Revolution” so obviously accepts the very liberal notion of government as the prime mover in society, rather than the individual. I think it’s safe to say that if the Reagan Revolution were still alive in today’s GOP, Footsoldier John McCain would be court-martialed for desertion. Not to worry, though, the GOP raised the white flag long ago and surrendered to the Coalition Forces of Big Government.
Aside from all that, though, it would appear that McCain simply has not done the math associated with his call for all those dissatisfied with government to come work for it. The approval rating for Congress hovers around 18% these days. According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s “
Report on the American Workforce,” there are roughly 143 million workers in the US workforce. If 82% of them abandoned the private sector to pursue their dreams of working for the U.S. Department of Labor, there would only be about 26 million of us left working to pay their bloated salaries. McCain seems completely unaware of the simple fact that every additional government employee is another burden on the productive members of society – those of us who work for “profit, not patriotism.”So what does it say for freedom in America when the standard-bearer of the allegedly small government party wants everyone in America to take a job with the government, and the admittedly big-government party’s great new agent for change is still preaching the old liberal gospel of a chicken in every pot? Sadly, nothing good.
But perhaps all is not lost. After all, I just spent the weekend in Estonia, where I freely strolled the streets of what used to be part of the Soviet Union. Estonia, of course, was able to throw off the shackles of totalitarian rule, and its citizens are now enjoying the tremendous improvements in their standard of living that can only be achieved through greater individual liberty. Who knows? Maybe we’ll be able to do the same thing here in the United States one day.
