Category Archives: Government & Politics

The Constitution Under Siege

On my recent summer vacation, I read three fascinating books: Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government’s Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives, by Grover Norquist, Who Killed the Constitution, by Thomas Woods, Jr & Kevin Gutzman, and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization by Anthony Esolen. Although they differ markedly in style and content, there is a theme that is common to all of them. Namely, each both asserts and attempts to demonstrate that the UnitedStates of America has slipped the moorings established over two hundred years ago by our founders—especially in the U.S. Constitution. Moreover, the slippage is broad, deep and seemingly permanent. The liberties we have lost, the limited government that we aspired to, the culture that we have shed, the morals taught by our religiously-inspired forefathers, these are bid good riddance by nearly half our population; and the vast majority of the rest—who might rue these changes if they thought seriously about them—do not even realize what has happened.

Over the last century, the captains of the ship that have plotted this voyage have steered the USA away from the open waterways of: limited government, a strong allegiance to Western Civilization, the preservation of the traditional family, and a clear vision of the USA as Winthrop’s and Reagan’s shining city on a hill; instead, they’ve steered the ship straight down the narrow isthmus of: the nanny state, multiculturalism, multilateralism, a socialist economy and an enfeebled national defense. The final port of call is the besotted, morally degenerate, week-kneed, aging, nearly defenseless, ill-fated continent that Europe has become.

Woods’ and Gutzman’s book examines twelve case studies of US government actions—in every case detailing precisely how and why the action constituted a gross violation of the US Constitution. Naturally, many of them are Supreme Court decisions, but not all. Others involve actions of the executive and legislative branches of the government. Several of them are very well known, like the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision or its 1962 Engel vs. Vitale ruling. The former mandated racial integration of the public schools, the latter banned public prayer in the schools. Woods and Gutzman argue that, whatever one thinks about the merits of these aims, the Constitution provided no authority for the judiciary to issue either ruling. Both matters should have been handled by the people’s local legislative representatives or at worst by the US Congress. Another well known government activity the authors consider is congressional earmarks—which they discuss in the context of federal spending on US roads and highways. They give a long constitutional analysis in which they demonstrate that our founders clearly did not intend to give the federal government such authority. Yet another constitutionally troubling  move—this time by the executive—was President Truman’s seizure of the steel mills in1952. In a similar vein, they castigate Franklin Roosevelt for confiscating all the gold held legally by private citizens in 1933. In every one of the 12 cases, the authors document how a branch of the federal government embraced, then invoked a power far beyond any intended by the drafters of the US Constitution.

Esolen’s book in the popular PIG (politically incorrect guide) series deals with a much broader issue than American constitutional politics. Basically, he examines in depth the modern assault on the fundamental tenets of Western Civilization. Clearly he has little sympathy for the attackers and in a series of clever arguments he turns virtually the entire American school system’s presentation of Western Civilization on its head. He resurrects much that is worthy in the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome; argues that the onset of ethical monotheism—under Judaism andChristianity—changed the world immeasurably for the better; points out that the traditions and stability of the Middle Ages (or as they are usually known, the Dark Ages) contributed as many positives to Western Civilization as did either the Renaissance or the Enlightenment; and he argues that the horrors of the twentieth century are the culmination of the latter rather than the former. In short, he believes that the secularism of modern society is the death knell, not the savior of Western Civilization. His discussion of the Constitution is surprising, especially when he asserts that the founders looked more to Athens and Rome than they did to European enlightenment thinkers. He emphasizes the Constitution’s elaborate system of checks and balances and highlights the oft-overlooked fact that the founders were striving to create a robust federalism rather than a pure democracy. He does not dwell on it, but it is clear from the rest of the book that he agrees with Woods and Gutzman on what has happened to the Constitution, and he sees that as a sign of the deterioration of Western Civilization.

Norquist’s book divides the people of the USA into what he calls the “Leave Us Alone Coalition” and the “Takings Coalition.” These might be thought of roughly as conservatives and liberals, but Norquist gives a more precise description of the constituents of these coalitions. The former consists of: “businessmen and –women, entrepreneurs and investors who wish to run their own affairs without being regulated and taxed out of existence; property owners who do not wish to be taxed out of their houses or property; gun owners protective of their Second Amendment rights; home schoolers who are willing to spend the time and energy to educate their own children, asking only that the government leave them alone; all members of the various communities of faith who wish to be left alone to practice their faithand pass it on to their children.” The members of the latter  coalition are primarily: “trial lawyers; labor union leaders; government employees (except for those in the military and police); government employee unions; recipients of government grants; Americans working in the non-profit sector; professors; those on welfare; and those managing the vast welfare system.”

Norquist then examines many trends in American life and assays which will enlarge which coalition. He examines the growth of the investor class, the decline of labor unions, geography, demographics, the influence of the media and the internet and many other facets of American life. Perhaps surprisingly, he concludes that more trends favor the leave us alone crowd than favor the takers; from which he predicts that—despite what recent events might suggest—the former will prevail. Norquist doesn’t say so explicitly, but it is clear that he views the leave us alone coalition as adhering to the basic principles set down in the Constitution whereas the takers are inclined to rip it apart when it suits their needs.

The three books are thoroughly researched and very well written, but two of them are exceedingly depressing. Woods’ and Gutzman’s case studies lay painfully bare how deeply we have violated both the spirit and letter of the Constitution. Our political system has evolved to the point wherein we routinely and cavalierly disregard clear precepts that our founders set for us in the Constitution. These violations are perpetrated by all three branches of government and virtually no one—not journalists, constitutional scholars, nor state government officials—calls them on it. Presidents make war with no constitutional authority; Congress interprets the commerce clause so as to bring under the purvey of the federal government an unchecked bevy of powers that are expressly reserved to the States by the Constitution; the Courts invent “penumbras” and “emanations” in the Constitution and then use those phantoms to give the people “rights” not even hinted at in the document, rights which of course are enforced on us by the federal government. The most depressing feature of the book is that the authors offer no prescription for righting the ship. They only suggest that perhaps their book will open a few eyes so that we’ll at least be less ignorant of our increasing enslavement to the soft tyranny the federal government is imposing upon us. There is barely a ray of hope offered for reversing the trends that they identify and which they clearly believe have effectively destroyed the Constitution.

Esolen’s book is not much more hopeful. As I said, the fundamental treasure whose violation he depicts is Western Civilization, not the Constitution. Thus the sweep of the book is grander and the stage on which developments are investigated is much bigger. But in fact that only highlights the magnitude of our loss. Actually, it occurred to me that the Constitution is more intact than Western Civilization. Those who break its rules at least pay it homage. They pass laws and institute regulations that disrespect the Constitution but they purport to do so in furtherance of the Constitution itself. On the other hand, the destroyers of Western Civilization have identified it as evil and the source of much of the world’s ills. They make no pretension of trying to preserve it; they want it overthrown.

Only Norquist’s book holds out any hope that our constitutional slide might be reversed. Not that he lays out any grand program for achieving that. Rather he believes that the favorable trends that he has uncovered and the inherent wisdom of the American people will turn the trick. Moreover, his presentation and arguments are so upbeat and optimistic, and his logic is so compelling that it is very tempting to have faith in his analysis. Well, in light of my last comment comparing the status of the Constitution to that of Western Civilization, perhaps he is right. But I am not sure. After finishing his book, which ends with a consideration of the possible outcomes of the struggle between the two coalitions—namely, either the leave us alone viewpoint prevails, or the takings folks run the table, or the current stalemate continues, I sent him an email with the following words: “…thesituation resembles one that calls forth the classic football coach’s lament–namely, when you pass the ball one of three things can happen and two of them are bad. Unfortunately, that is also true of the scenarios you laid out at the end. Either we win, or they win, or the current stalemate continues. But as you point out, the current stalemate essentially is a win for the statists because, if the coming built-in economic/entitlement train wreck is not addressed, then its fulfillment will effectively mean that they win. Thus two of your three possible scenarios are bad.” His simple response: “We will win.” God, I hope he is right.

Do the Democrats Really Believe in Democratic Capitalism?

By democratic capitalism I mean the socioeconomic system described vividly in Walter Russell Mead’s penetrating new book, God and Gold: Britain, America and the Making of the Modern World. It is the system pioneered in some of the Italian City States nearly five hundred years ago, picked up in the Low Countries thereafter, but adopted and developed with the greatest success by Great Britain and the United States over the last three hundred years. It has many attributes, but for the purposes of this article, let us define it as a society in which the economy is characterized by free markets, private ownership of property and means of production, and respect for the profit motive and the pricing mechanism, all operating under the rule of law guaranteed by a government that intervenes very little in the economic and social life of the people. The people are completely free to decide what to produce, what to charge, where to sell it, and to whom. Contracts are freely entered into and their legal sanctity is enforced by the government. Such an economy can exist only in a democratic society, that is, one in which the people are free to choose their political leaders and means of organization. The overarching structure could be a republic (like the US), a constitutional monarchy (like the UK), or a pure parliamentary democracy (like Estonia), but democracy is a sine qua non. 

 

History has demonstrated beyond any conceivable doubt that democratic capitalism leads to mass prosperity. Without the stultifying hand of government weighing them down, the people are free to develop new products, open new markets, produce copious consumer goods, trade with their neighbors and with partners around the globe, and lift the overall standard of living far beyond any ever achieved in a planned or centrally controlled economy. This assertion is unchallengeable. The sorry history of societies organized under feudalism, mercantilism, socialism, communism, fascism, absolute monarchy, religious fundamentalism, oligarchy or any system other than democratic capitalism makes the assertion self-evident.

 

But there is a catch. Because democratic capitalism is characterized by free and open competition, it results in winners and losers. In a general sense, people prosper. Some individuals and groups prosper immensely. Others falter, usually due to their own poor performance, but sometimes just because of bad luck. A classic example of the latter is the individual who invests heavily in a product or technology immediately prior to it being superseded by a newer and better technology or product invented by a competitor. This process of creative destruction that typifies capitalism can convert winners into losers in a brutal and sudden fashion. Well, that kind of phenomenon is often offensive to our sensibilities: ‘It’s not fair. It’s inequitable. Why should some prosper at the expense of others? Shouldn’t we shield the weak from the predatory practices of the strong?’

 

Such sentiments are not without merit. People should take no joy in seeing their fellow man fail—at least compassionate people should not. And aren’t we all striving to be compassionate these days? Compassionate or not, people often experience guilt feelings when they succeed, but friends and relations do not. Egalitarianism is not a philosophy that is easily compatible with democratic capitalism, but history shows that it runs deep in us.

 

It seems to me that there are two approaches for dealing with this ‘flaw’ in democratic capitalism. The first approach accepts the superiority of the system, but seeks ways to ameliorate its potential ill effects without disrupting the fundamentals of the system and thereby curtailing the great benefits it yields.

 

The second approach, while paying lip service to the benefits of democratic capitalism, postulates that either: (a) it is in fact not the ideal system and that a substantial modification of it would be better and fairer; or (b) regardless of whether an improvement is possible, the price that capitalism exacts is just too high and should not be paid. In this approach, in either case, a just-minded and powerful referee must supervise the game, intervening where necessary to ensure more equitable outcomes than would result under unregulated laissez-faire rules.

 

To implement the first approach, the people develop civic associations, religious associations and other non-governmental organizations designed to aid the less fortunate in society for whom the competition has not gone well. Their focus is on those who played by the rules; but didn’t play very well, or on whom the ball took a funny bounce. Because of the overall prosperity of the nation, the percentage of the population in need of assistance is small. Therefore, the goal of designing and implementing palliatives to help the deserving without compromising the overall system becomes attainable. Such an approach characterized the US for more than two hundred years—until the onset of the Progressive Era in the early twentieth century.

 

At which point we slipped into the second approach—starting a long slide down a slippery slope ever since, arriving finally at a new destination, the ‘Modern Welfare State.’ In which we pay homage to the superiority of democratic capitalism but in practice we countenance the activities of an increasingly interventionist government on the playing field in an aggressive fashion.

 

The nature of our federal government; it’s enormous influence in the everyday lives of the people; the fact that the vast majority of the people approve of this role for the government—all of this would have been unfathomable to and anathema for the American people, certainly at the time of the founders, but even up to the end of the nineteenth century.

 

That the federal government would have some role in the people’s commerce and transportation is stipulated in the Constitution. But that it would have a primary role in the people’s health care, education, retirement, housing, and religious, social and business affairs would be astounding to our forbearers. There is absolutely no such role ascribed to the federal government in the Constitution or other founding documents. However, once we assigned it a paramount role in the machinery that drives our capitalistic economy, it is not surprising that we also accorded it a major role in many other aspects of our lives. We have been rewarded with: judicial rulings like Kelo v. New London, Univ. of Cal. Regents v. Bakke and Roe v. Wade that have no legal basis in Constitutional law; congressional actions like Sarbanes-Oxley or McCain-Feingold, which are incompatible with the role assigned to Congress by the Constitution; and an Executive with the ability to initiate warfare, which is in direct violation of the Constitution. All of these transgressions are tamely accepted by the American people. In its desire to ameliorate the sometimes harsh side of democratic capitalism, the people have ceded to the government—in the economic realm and elsewhere—a role never intended for it. We are so far down the road of the second approach that hardly anyone notices the vast distance we have traveled.

 

The last sentence summarizes one of my two fundamental assertions in this article. Namely, I do not believe that the American people are even pondering the question of which approach to take any longer. A centuryis a long time. Three (or more) generations have already lived under the rubric of the Modern Welfare State. Few are thinking about the drastic change it represents. Very few are contemplating the philosophical issue it poses. If we are, as our founders intended us to be, a nation whose socioeconomic system is grounded in democratic capitalism, how can that be reconciled with the fact that we have installed the Modern Welfare State, which violates the basic precepts of democratic capitalism?

 

Now for the second point: What about our political leaders? It is inconceivable to me that someone who stands for the highest political office in the land could be blithely ignorant of the fundamental changes in the nature of American society that I have described. It would be inexcusable for a presidential candidate not to have a deep understanding of the nearly 400 year history of American society, not to have thought philosophically about our Constitution and its role in our society, not to have pondered the nature of our current socioeconomic system and related it to the deep historical thread woven by the American people over its history. My second point is that based on the evidence I see, I have strong suspicion that the leaders of the Democratic Party, and in particular the three current major candidates for that Party’s Presidential nomination, fail these tests.

 

Ms. Clinton insists ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’ thereby paying ultimate homage to collectivism, violating the millennia old notion that the family is the basic unit of society, and clearly setting a role for a parental government far beyond what we have experienced to date. Mr. Edwards speaks nonsensically of two Americas, urging us toward class warfare and completely missing the well known point that in our capitalistic system the mobility between the poor and the rich is, and has always been, very robust. Either he is a demagogue or he is totally misguided. And finally, Mr. Obama, with his mindless mantra of ‘change’ without any indication of who will be changing what for whose benefit has no more gravitas than a toothpaste commercial. If one examines what little record he has, it would appear that the change he has in mind would take us much further down the slippery slope.

 

To conclude, what I see among the leadership of the Democratic Party is at best ignorance of the socioeconomic axioms that have guided our nation and at worst a rejection of them, accompanied by the political intention to further entrench the Modern Welfare State as the paradigm for the American socioeconomic system. It has been thus for a longtime. If I asked you to identify the last Democratic Presidential candidate who really believed in democratic capitalism, you might make a case for Kennedy, perhaps Truman. I’m not so sure. The correct answer might be Grover Cleveland.

What if Hillary Becomes President?

At this juncture, before the first caucus or primary votes are cast, the pundits tell us that Hillary is almost a lock for the Democratic Presidential nomination. And all the generic polls tell us, furthermore, that the Democrats have an excellent chance to recapture the White House in 2008. Ergo, the probability that Hillary Rodham Clinton will be the 44th President of these United States appears to be rather high.

This thought has women all over Americavery excited. Many women, regardless of their political proclivities, are moved by the possibility of a female President and it seems likely that a not inconsiderable number of female voters, who would normally vote Republican, will pull the lever for Hillary and then lie to the exit poll takers and to their husbands.

At the same time, there are probably plenty of men, including some that lean left and normally back Democratic candidates, who are so incensed by the prospect of a female Commander-in-chief, that their vote is going to whichever male the Republicans nominate.

Are there more female or male voters whose vote will be altered purely by the sex of the Democratic nominee? Who knows? I suggest that, whatever happens, the ‘authoritative’ polling numbers on this question that the pollsters and pundits will throw at us afterward will be completely without substance.

In fact I believe our country would be far better served if we all discounted Hillary’s gender and cast our ballots based on her (and all the candidates’) political beliefs, announced intentions and record of accomplishment. Among those who can get past Hillary’s sex, I see two schools of thought:

*Like her husband did, Hillary has placed herself toward the center of the political spectrum and is likely to adopt—again like her husband is reputed to have done—a center-left political agenda.

*Hillary is a life-long socialist, radicalized in her youth, camouflaged as a centrist by her handlers, but once in power will pursue a leftist agenda worthy of FDR or LBJ, and perhaps more radical than either.

We will be exceedingly fortunate if in the ensuing campaign we are exposed to enough evidence for the voters to decide which of these descriptions of Hillary’s political inclinations is more accurate. I doubt that will happen. For if the second is the more accurate description of Hillary’s political philosophy, then she and her advisors—knowing that its revelation would guarantee electoral defeat—will construct the camouflage so effectively as to mask the truth. Whether it is true or not—that is, Hillary is really a flaming leftist—her election is completely contingent on enough voters deciding that it is not true. Well, either it is not true and Hillary will be comfortable in her campaign shoes; or it is true, in which case we will witness one of the most duplicitous political campaigns in the history of our nation. Perhaps we are already witnessing it.

There is ample precedent for a President to govern to the left of his campaign position. Richard Nixon comes to mind, as does George W Bush. Incidentally, would someone please give me an example of the reverse phenomenon? I’m not sure it exists.

Anyway, my advice to the voters of America—especially to those men and women who are motivated by the fact that Hillary wears a brassiere—is the following: Please set that fact aside. Instead, ponder this question. Are your prepared to entrust the presidency to conceivably one of the most radical leftists ever to seek the office? That possibility cannot be ruled out; indeed I think it is at least 50-50 that it is true. If Hillary is the radical leftist that many assert, and more suspect, then when she occupies the Oval Office, you can expect: a weak andmeager defense of Western Civilization before the onslaught of Islamofascism; gargantuan government highlighted by socialized medicine, nationalized education and punitive taxation; loss of US sovereignty to the UN, the International Court of Justice and other multilateral organizations; business bashing, labor coddling, high tariffs and an overregulated economy; toadying to environmentalists, race baiters and media buffoons; amnesty for illegal aliens; Supreme Court justices as radical as Bader-Ginsburg; gun control, partial birth abortion and abolishment of capital punishment; and the conversion of our free market system into a European style welfare state susceptible to the same suicidal forces that are ravaging the continent. Are you willing to take that chance?

In 2008 the Choice is between Socialism Lite and Socialism Lighter

I don’t know why they don’t change the name of the Democratic Party to the Socialist Party. After all, each of its numerous candidates for President in 2008 espouses ideas straight out of the socialist playbook. They make no secret of the fact that they believe that:
* the US should have a big government, empowered to deal with any and all problems in American society. (Of course these include those that are real and those dreamt up by the liberal special interest cohorts.)
* there is absolutely no issue in or aspect of American life, which should not be subject to the purvey of the federal government.
* government bureaucrats and the elite intellectuals that advise them are better equipped to deal with America’s problems than are consumers, businessmen and investors who actually encounter the problems.
* said bureaucrats and intellectual advisors are more trustworthy than local political officials, policemen, clergymen, community leaders and certainly than any businessman.
* issues like global warming, the fairness doctrine, teenagers without health insurance and a prison housing jihadist murderers in Cuba are far more important than the impending collapse of our entitlement programs, the fear of a repeat attack on the mainland by Al Qaeda, the filth that pervades our popular culture and an avalanche of indigestible aliens who pour across our borders.
* those who create the economic opportunities in the US should shoulder a disproportionate share of the burden of caring for those who compete less effectively—in short, the successful should be compelled to share their bounty with the less successful. (This amounts to redistribution of wealth; nothing could be more socialistic.)

It is true that the Democratic candidates are not advocating the nationalization of banks, airlines, utilities and General Motors. And although many of the policies they advocate would severely limit the individuals’ right to do with his property as he wishes, they do claim to respect the sanctity of private property. But that is why I label their philosophy socialism lite instead of flat out socialism. In some sense it is an even more insidious version of government control of the means of production than is the method of pure socialism. Indeed, it is a huge burden on the government to manage all the industry, farms, utilities and finances of a nation. The experience of those countries that have tried to do it reveals how poor a job the government does and, as explained in F.A. Hayek’s classic book, The Road to Serfdom, inevitably must do. So instead of taking over the machinery of society, the viceroys of the Democratic Party have decided to let those better equipped to run things do so, except that the government will put them in a severe straight jacket of rules, policies, laws and regulations—backed up by sharp penalties if they fail to comply. In this way, the feds can effectively control almost everything, and thereby achieve the socialists’ collectivist and redistributive goals, without explicitly running much of anything. It might be lite, but as we have come to see in Europe, it is remarkably effective in establishing “the modern welfare state,” or what I have called socialism lite.

Through government legislation, taxation, borrowing, spending, regulation and jawboning the redistributors get to achieve their objectives and, since private property is still permissible, the elites get to keep their dachas in Hollywood and Manhattan.

But here is the kicker that fills conservatives with dismay. The opponents of the socialist-leaning Democratic candidates, that is the slew of Republican candidates for the presidency, does not present a fundamentally different picture. Which of those candidates asserts that the socialist path, which the country has trod over the last century, is flawed and should be abandoned? Which of them points out that the collectivist policies of the New Deal, Great Society and whatever sequel Hillary has in store for us run completely counter to the ideals of our founding fathers and represent a betrayal of core American values? Which of them proclaims as did Ronald Reagan that “Government is not the solution, government is the problem?” Some of them pay lip service to these ideas, but rendered cynical by experience with two faux conservative Bush presidencies, conservatives find it hard to believe that any of them really mean it. In the years since the Gingrich revolution in 1994, but especially during the years in which the Republicans controlled both the White House and the Congress, we have seen an explosion in federal programs, borrowing and spending. We have a massive new government bureaucracy in the Department of Homeland Security, intrusive and interventionist measures like McCain-Feingold “campaign finance reform,” business-bashing processes under Sarbanes-Oxley and the complete failure of the federal government to deal with illegal immigration. It isn’t a total disaster—e.g., taxes have been lowered—but by any reasonable measure, the expansion of the government, the acceptance of the pervasive role of government in the life of the citizenry, the collectivist approach to problems, all of these have advanced under the Republicans. Again, Republican policies have not been as egregious as those of their liberal Democratic colleagues—e.g., they are more respectful of the traditional culture, they appoint judges who do not willfully attack the Constitution, they are willing to pursue a strong national defense, and by in large they are not protectionists. But they are big government Republicans. Some call them big government conservatives, but that is an oxymoron. I believe the name socialism lighter is an apt handle for their governing philosophy. (This issue is explored in greater depth in my book, Liberal Hearts and Conservative Brains, see http://home.comcast.net/~ronlipsman)

Among the potential Republican candidates perhaps only Gingrich fails to earn the epithet (i.e., socialist of the lite, or lighter variety). But he has taken himself out of the race. (He was probably unable to secure the nomination and even if he had, the liberal media would have done such a hatchet job on him—comparable to Goldwater’s thrashing—that it is highly doubtful he could have been elected). So it will come down to Rudy against Hillary or Fred against Obama or maybe even Romney against Edwards (now that guy really scares me). In the end, like conservatives all over the country I will hold my nose and pull the lever next to the elephant. Oh how I rue one of Reagan’s few mistakes—he neglected to groom a successor.  The US is paying dearly.

Is Maryland the Most Liberal State?

If you were to ask a pundit to identify the most liberal state in the nation, the answer would likely be Taxachusetts or Vermont. While these are excellent choices, I would like to argue that the People’s Republic of Maryland should receive serious consideration for this dubious honor. Here is the evidence:

 

1. The State legislature is more than 2-1 Democratic (nearly 3-1 in the House) and has been that way for decades.

2. There were no Republican governors for more than 30 years and the one elected in 2002 was very far from conservative. That did not prevent his defeat by an ultra-liberal Democrat in 2006.

3. The State income tax is very high and has none of the investor-friendly features recently incorporated into the federal income tax (e.g., reduced rates on dividend or capital gains income).

4. The State’s other taxes and fees are high also.

5. The State has been on a drunken spending binge (not unlike that of the federal government) during the long reign of liberal Democrats, and there is no evidence that its exorbitant expenditures on various programs dear to the hearts of liberal special interests groups has improved the quality of life for State residents—even those targeted by the profligate spending.

6. The State’s less than business-friendly atmosphere has discouraged business development and economic growth. Two examples of this phenomenon, the punitive HMO tax and the Wal-Mart tax, are discussed at some length in my book, Liberal Hearts and Conservative Brains (see http://home.comcast.net/~ronlipsman).

7. It has been 20 years since Maryland voted Republican in a presidential election.

8. State officials have laid out the welcome mat for illegal aliens, setting up day laborer centers, issuing drivers licenses, providing generous welfare benefits, accommodating language inadequacies and offering in-state tuition.

9. The abortion rates in Maryland rank in the top ten in the nation, and in the top five depending exactly on how they are measured.

10. The new Democratic governor has proposed a sweeping series of tax increases and new spending programs that absolutely reek of “redistribution of wealth.”

 

Well, Maryland might or might not be the most liberal state in the nation, but it is certainly in the top five. Actually, the liberal hegemony that it enjoys is a consequence of a remarkable concentration of power. This is best illustrated by the gubernatorial election of 1994. A very liberal Democrat was pitted against a female Republican, who was actually conservative. Of the State’s 24 counties, she won 21 of them—but narrowly lost the election. There is so much power and population concentrated in Baltimore city and the two suburban DC counties that the three together outweighed the remainder of the State. This urban/suburban vs. suburban/rural dichotomy reflects the situation in the nation as a whole as was clearly represented in the dramatic, color-coded maps of the Bush-Kerry vote on a county-wide basis. In land mass the country is overwhelmingly conservative, whereas in population we are almost evenly divided. But not in Maryland since 1994. The few blue counties have far more people than the more numerous but declining number of red ones. Many are predicting that the country will experience a similar trend—the election of 2006 is cited as proof and 2008 is expected to ratify it. We’ll see.

 

But if it turns out to be true, then as they experienced in the 1930s and 1960s, the people of the United States are about to witness a frantic leap to the left. Our “modern welfare state” will lurch even further toward collectivism—a polite euphemism for socialism—wherein the people are hypnotized to look to the government (federal and state, and local too at times) to solve all their problems, real and imagined. The notions of a laissez faire free market economy, limited government, low taxes, respect for the traditional culture, and need for a strong national defense, all will be shunted aside in a whirlwind expansion of the nanny state. Yes the country does have many serious problems: it is under attack by a virulent form of Islam; it has constructed unsustainable entitlement programs to which it is addicted and refuses to face the fact that they are Ponzi schemes headed along the tracks toward a brick wall; and there is too much moral rot (rampant pornography, encouragement of teen promiscuity, partial birth abortion and assisted suicide, denigration of the traditional family). Should the liberals regain a firm hand on the reigns of power, they will fix these problems by instituting recycled versions of the same policies that caused the problems in the first place. Equally bad, they will set the wheels of government in motion to fix problems that don’t even exist: the uninsured health care crisis, global warming, lack of diversity and corporate greed. As with the original “crises,” their collectivist and heavy handed government schemes will create real problems that they will urge we fix with yet more government intervention.

 

Those of us who believe in individual liberty, limited government and free markets will find the going mighty unpleasant should the collectivist, big government, social justice crowd take control of the farm again. It will be particularly hard on those of us trying to keep our heads above water in the People’s Republic of Maryland.