You Can Keep Two of Them, All I Want Are Two Freedoms

Pastor Jeff has an excellent post that takes to task the FDR inspired liberalism that has dominated American public thought for quite some time.

Even when conservatives make headway against the ideas put forth by FDR, they have to do so in a manner that doesn't undermine many of the ideas that FDR expressed.

But, the dirty little secret of the 30s, is that what FDR gave us was Fascism-Lite. There was a real fear that the fascism fever that swept across Europe could ignite in the USA during the Depression as well. So FDR gave us a kinder, gentler state controlled economy, and would have controlled more, except for a reluctant Judicial Branch. FDR didn't' save our economy, he most likely exacerbated the crisis with his meddling into the free market. Pick up Amity Shlaes invaluable book for some perspective on this. And for the confluence of liberalism and fascism, no better book puts that in perspective than Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism.

This stuff shouldn't be news to anybody. But we've had decades of rhetoric that has distorted the use of all these terms so that nobody who is liberal could ever be considered a fascist (even though fascism is about state control of the economy, and so is liberalism). Also, nobody questions the fact that the kinds of measures FDR took to 'fix' the economy have failed every other time and in every other country where they were copied, and whenever the free market has been allowed to work through a correction, a boom time generally followed a recession within a few years, not after nearly a decade like under FDR. He retarded the economy with his policies, all in the name of compassion and protecting folks from 'want'. Rather than really helping people back on their feet, he turned more folks into beggars on the government dole.

What we want (or should want), and what we deserve is pretty simple. Everyone should have equality of opportunity. But what liberals have been promising since FDR's time is equality of results. That way lies danger, that way lies populist anti-corporate stupidity and hostility towards profits. If Sen. Obama were to govern as he is running, he'd be Carter II (this is a serious enough issue to actually use he who should not be named's last name), for that matter so would Gov. Huckabee.

Hopefully, Americans will reject this populist fever that seems to be spreading and the candidates spreading it, or at least whichever person becomes President will be smart enough not to enact any of the populist reforms they hope to get elected on.