-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! * Veritas Vos Liberabit * THE FEDERALIST(r) BRIEF The Conservative e-Journal of Record Date: 24 October 2000 Federalist #00-43.brf To retrieve today's Brief as HTML printer-friendly text, link to: http://www.Federalist.com/current00-10.asp To support or sponsor The Federalist, link to: http://www.Federalist.com/support.asp ______--------********O********--------______ THIS WEEK'S FEATURED SITE Recently, the Wall Street Journal noted in an editorial: "The vice president's Social Security plan isn't as bad as it sounds. It's much, much worse." If you think you might be counting on Social Security one day, we recommend you visit this page and enter your age and sex to calculate what an American worker of your same age and sex could expect to receive from Social Security. Visit -- http://www.heritage.org/socialsecurity/ CONTENTS: The Founders Insight Good News Faith Family Culture Liberty Opinion in Brief Editorial Exegesis The Gipper Government Political Futures For the Record Policy Pages The Last Word ______--------********O********--------______ THE FOUNDERS "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity and freedom of worship here." --Patrick Henry ______--------********O********--------______ INSIGHT " 'Liar' is just as ugly a word as 'thief,' because it implies the presence of just as ugly a sin in one case as in the other. If a man lies under oath or procures the lie of another under oath, if he perjures himself or suborns perjury, he is guilty under the statute law. Under the higher law, under the great law of morality and righteousness, he is precisely as guilty if, instead of lying in a court, he lies in a newspaper or on the stump; and in all probability, the evil effects of his conduct are infinitely more widespread and more pernicious." --Theodore Roosevelt "But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime." --Frederic Bastiat ______--------********O********--------______ GOOD NEWS "Rather a poor man than a liar." (Proverbs 19:22) "Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God." (1 Peter 2:16) "It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man." (Psalm 118:8) "The righteous man leads a blameless life; blessed are his children after him." (Proverbs 20:7) ______--------********O********--------______ FAITH "We should begin by holding our elected representatives accountable to the Constitution. After all, they do take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, not party bosses or big money contributors. We should tell the truth about abortion, that it is the killing of an unborn baby and that only depraved people would find it socially acceptable. We should warn our young people about the 'death-style' of homosexuality, which is far more dangerous to their life and liberty than tobacco will ever be. We should stop revising and demonizing our nation's history and let our children experience the pride of being an American once again. We should stop telling minorities that they are incapable of being successful without governmental assistance and help them understand that with God and hard work the possibilities for success in this free land are endless. We should encourage people to petition and glorify God freely and openly because He alone is the Author of our liberty and happiness." --Chuck Baldwin ______--------********O********--------______ FAMILY "In days gone by, character protected everyone. It protected children, who could play outside unsupervised, and who could go to school, ball games and Saturday afternoon movies by foot or bike without supervision and return safely. Character protected men from false accusations. It protected women from abuse, and families from dissolution. Character protected people from themselves. Emotions were kept in check. Even when character failed and people were murdered for love, hate or money, no one fired indiscriminately upon strangers. Character protected people from crime and gratuitous acts of violence. Even criminals had enough character to feel remorse. Today government has undertaken to do what character once did. But government has no more character than the people in government who, in turn, have no more character than the people who elect them." --Paul Craig Roberts ______--------********O********--------______ CULTURE "Democracy is about more than merely holding elections, counting votes and putting the winner into office. Before such procedures can create a genuine democracy, there has to be a common political consciousness generating a nationwide public opinion to which the parties can pitch their appeals in terms the voters can understand. In short, there has to be a political community. What are the minimum underpinnings for this? First, there has to be a common language and culture that shapes a common political consciousness, making vigorous democratic debate possible. Second, you need a sense of political community and common destiny such that the losing side in an election will not fear being dispossessed or even murdered when its opponents come to power. And the final requirement: There must be not just common interests linking the nation, but overriding common interests such that people are prepared to make serious sacrifices for them -- in extreme circumstances, even their lives." --John O'Sullivan ______--------********O********--------______ LIBERTY "Gun-control has always been an elitist method of controlling the common folk. ...Nevertheless, if the urban insane wish to be prey for predators, that's their privilege. But no one has the right to tell someone else that he or she cannot possess the tools necessary to defend his or her life and the lives of loved ones." --Charley Reese "With the demise of Soviet communism, world crises seem to lack the sense of mortal danger necessary to grab the interest and attention of sea-to-shining-sea Americans. This may turn out to be a serious flaw in the American national character. Just as our day-to-day lives are surely to be affected more directly by events and policies beyond our contented shores; just as even our nation's sovereignty will find itself diminished by the power of world economic forces; just as the capacity of small bands of terrorists to inflict unspeakable wounds into our very flesh just now Americans are choosing to avert their gaze from the world in favor of deceptively placid self-reflections. There will be a price to pay for such indifference." --Tony Blankley ______--------********O********--------______ OPINION IN BRIEF LIBERAL IS TOO EASY! Recently we asked readers of The Federalist why they believe "liberal is easy." Not surprisingly, as we'd expect our readers to be both creative and like-minded, several common themes emerged in the answers provided -- with original twists and innovative expressions of lasting ideas that are counterposed against contemporary liberalism. Here is a summary of reader replies, with a brief content analysis including examples of answers, and a few observations of our own. "Being liberal means never having to say you're sorry ... because you're always sorry, sort of...." The largest combined category of responses, from over a third of all selections, mentioned one, the other, or both of the two sides of the liberal coin regarding emotion and denial of accountability. (Overall, the answers split almost evenly in mentions of each of these two.) The first half of this notion is the recognition that liberalism is rooted in feelings, while conservatism is grounded in facts. Some responses making this point were the following: "Liberal is easy because 'caring about a problem' is easier than solving the problem." "It's for the children." "Being a liberal is easy because you can turn the mind off, stop thinking and go to your happy place." "It is much easier for liberals to curse the darkness than to pull their heads out of ... well, that place where no sun ever shines." And the complementary half of this notion acknowledges the specific (and too easy!) payoff to liberals espousing such political views -- if everyone is a victim, then nobody is accountable for the consequences of choices; in particular, liberals may not be held accountable for the devastation in lives that their liberal political policies and programs cause. Example comments echoing this theme were: "Liberal is easy because it: (1) allows everyone (except conservatives) to blame someone else for the social ill-of-the-day, and (2) replaces thought and logic with symbolism and emotion." "I could always blame my personal shortcomings on being 'victimized' by someone, somewhere and somehow in opposition to accepting the fact that I create my own problems many times and must suffer the consequences for my actions. In essence I am who I choose to be." "Liberal is easy because you are covered with true no fault insurance with no premiums -- whatever happens is never your fault." In fact, two responses explicitly noted that liberalism combines good intentions with bad results, which is a full, if shorthand, description of this idea. As goes the adage, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." ..Everybody's a victim, except, of course, for the vast right-wing conspiracy. There is a lone category of "victimizers" exempt from liberally acknowledged and protected victimhood status -- those people who, not coincidentally, are generally allied with conservatism and standing against liberalism. Ten percent of the answers specifically discussed how liberals can much more easily hurl epithets attacking conservatives, rather than replying thoughtfully to conservative arguments and positions. A particularly fine example from this category of responses was: "It is easy to say 'vast right-wing conspiracy'; it is difficult to admit that the Founding Fathers are its founding members." Another set of three themes each appeared in about five percent of the responses. The first of this trio noted virulent anti-conservative bias in the media. Parrot the media! "It's easy to be liberal because you don't even have to think of your own lies about conservatives -- the media will do it for you and as a bonus publish and broadcast it for free." "Not just for private investors anymore...." The second of this group of responses noted how liberals find it easy because they can spend other people's money instead of their own. "It is easier for liberals to spend money earned by others than to cut programs." "...Spending other people's money is so much fun!" Let government do it! And the third of these themes noted how easy shirking self-government can be when eager bureaucrats await inaction: "Liberal is easy because letting nine unelected judges decide questions of morality for you is easier than having to think things through for yourself." "Liberal is easy because the government can think for me so I don't have to get a headache." And some reader remarks dwelt on specific areas in which "liberal is easy." Most of these specifics dealt with family issues -- such as education, child care and child rearing, marital fidelity and sexual chastity, and the Boy Scouts. Another specific issue addressed was: "It is easier for liberals to assign quotas than to accept people for their merits and qualifications." But by far and away, the greatest number of reader responses to why liberal is too easy involved the fact that the hard right way is ... well, hard and right. The Federalist's readers remarked on how even recognizing moral absolutes -- much less defending them against liberal attack -- requires personal courage and moral integrity. It's far easier to do as liberals do, pleading ignorance of any binding moral code, than to surrender one's will and conduct to follow the harder path of obedience. "Liberal is easy because wanting to appear compassionate and likeable is easier than defending moral absolutes and taking a stand." "Because it's easier to have everything around you change than to have to change yourself." A cogent and coherent sum-up was the following: "Liberalism is easy because at its vile root are abrogation of personal responsibility and the repudiation of self-abnegation undertaken for any reason, no matter how noble. If there is no inherent value in self-abnegation, then any act that does not directly contribute to one's self-interest may be portrayed as irrational. If there is no personal responsibility for one's actions, then any self-interested act may be justified." And finally, one wry reader comment defied classification about why liberal is too easy: "I don't know. Ask Monica." ______--------********O********--------______ EDITORIAL EXEGESIS "When Al Gore chose Joe Lieberman to be his running mate, Democrats praised the Connecticut senator's bipartisanship. And then they rushed to suppress its every manifestation. On school vouchers in particular, Lieberman, facing a barrage of friendly fire, has beaten a hasty retreat. 'If you ask me personally, I'm still for a test of vouchers,' Lieberman confessed. 'But I understand how this works when you are vice president.' We understand, too -- when the presidential candidate says, 'Our administration will be opposed to private school vouchers,' the vice presidential candidate keeps his mouth shut. Too bad. Because, in this case, the presidential candidate is wrong and the vice presidential candidate is right." --New Republic ______--------********O********--------______ THE GIPPER "So, as we begin, let us take inventory. We are a nation that has a government -- not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed." --From his First Inaugural Address (To read it all, visit Reagan2000.com) ______--------********O********--------______ GOVERNMENT "Government is on the side of the little guy, protecting him from the rich and powerful. That's what many people believe -- after all, that's the sermon preached in our schools and colleges, and parroted by politicians, particularly those of the leftist Democratic persuasion." --Walter Williams ______--------********O********--------______ POLITICAL FUTURES "The American people are the real losers with the present arrangement. We have been deprived of a meaningful debate on significant issues. Instead we are left with a personality contest in which there is endless chatter in the media as to which candidate appealed to the undecided voter who seems to be looking not for a candidate who strikes a chord on issues but who is appropriately sensitive and who smiles at just the right time. Thank God we didn't have a Presidential Commission at the time of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. I am sure they would have found a way to have regulated them out of existence. No doubt I am vastly out of step with America on this matter but I think the debates the Presidential Commission has sponsored thus far have been next to worthless and virtually a waste of time. I guess I may not live to see genuine issues confronted in real debates ever again. What a tragedy. The voter may never again have the chance to make a choice based on real information gathered the old fashioned way: through confrontation with one's opponent." --Paul M. Weyrich ______--------********O********--------______ FOR THE RECORD "No group votes more solidly for the Democrats than blacks -- and no group suffers more as a result than blacks. Political spin makes Democrats the best friends of blacks, the party of civil rights laws, the party of affirmative action and the party of social programs to help the poor in general and blacks in particular. But spin and facts are very different things. The fact is that a higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. ... Democrats can claim credit -- if that's the word -- for all the government social programs that have played such a role in the disintegration of families. These programs have done little to reduce poverty. Blacks did more to reduce their own poverty than the government ever has. Between 1940 and 1960, the poverty rate among black families fell from 87% to 47%. Yet there was no major federal civil rights legislation or welfare state programs created during that period. ... As for the first decade of [the Great Society and] affirmative action -- the 1970s -- the poverty rate among blacks fell by only one percentage point...." --Thomas Sowell ______--------********O********--------______ POLICY PAGES & POINTS OF INTEREST (NOTE: For our subscribers with WWW access, if the URL line breaks, please select, copy and paste the entire link address into your browser's target address field.) A Better Missile Defense HERITAGE http://www.heritage.org/views/2000/ed051000.html Soul Murder: Are Bad Parenting and the Popular Culture Creating a Generation of Psychopaths? FRC http://www.frc.org/papers/insight/index.cfm?get=IS00E1&arc=yes Why Special Interests are Good For You CLAREMONT INSTITUTE http://www.claremont.org/publications/jaffa000209.cfm ______--------********O********--------______ THE LAST WORD A Clinton-Gore refresher on how to avoid the truth. "They say we did something bad. We say: No, we didn't. They say we did. We say: You have no evidence. They show evidence. We say: The evidence is immaterial. They demonstrate the connection. We say: Still, it's no proof. They prove it. We say: This law does not apply to us. They show that it does apply to us. We say: We didn't know that it applies to us. They show that we did know that it applies to us. We say: This law doesn't mean what it says. They show that it does mean what it says. We say: This law shouldn't apply to anybody. They show that it should apply to everybody. We say: The law is unfair, let's change it. They say that, nonetheless, we broke it. We say: No, we didn't. They say we did. We say: You have no evidence, etc. etc., ad infinitum, in circularis. Each one of these cycles, with the use of weekends, holidays, and travel (which saved us) is good for at least a year of delay. And you can go through a cycle half a dozen times before anyone notices. The great thing is that in between cycles, just like the pauses when a washing machine mysteriously does nothing (is it resting, undecided?), you can get the attorney general to distract your accusers with her wondrous stare. She went to hypnotism school somewhere in South America, you know, and she's totally in our corner." --Mark Helprin (T-14 days until Election2000. T-88 days until eviction of the Clintonistas -- and delousing!) -- PUBLIUS -- *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? 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