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Life, liberty and the pursuit of principled governance
by Craig Westover
"We can talk all we want about freedom and opportunity, about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but what does all that mean to a mother or father who can't take a sick child to the doctor?" - Hillary Clinton speaking about health care at an Iowa rally
Dear Hillary:
What do freedom and opportunity, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness mean to Americans? That a candidate for the highest office in the land could ask that question is perplexing, to say the least. You've heard the expression "character counts." Character does count, but it is trumped by principle. Americans have shown we can survive a president of dubious character, but a president who in pursuit of policy minimizes the principled foundation of the nation would surely test "whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure."
Parents with a sick child live in the moment. Every parent has been there at one time or another. Your child is hurting and very little else means anything at the time. But a leader isn't afforded the luxury of living in the moment. Yes, Hillary, a president ought to be compassionate. But frustrated compassion is a cost of leadership. Governing is not about giving hugs. Government is about policy, and policy without principle is like a court system without the rule of law - it renders justice only by accident.
I'm not going to go all religious on you, Hillary, but recall the Biblical story of Job. Job really got the smelly end of the stick. He lost his family and his wealth and was inflicted with running sores and boils.
His friends (who may have been his greatest curse) tried to convince him that his woes were of his own doing. Obviously, he had ticked God off something fierce, and was paying the karmic cost. But Job, even in his suffering, would have none of their rationalization. Even while cursing the day of his birth, he held firm to the principles that guided his life.
In the little morality play you've concocted, Hillary, America is Job, infected with all manner of running sores. You, Hillary, are one of Job's friends. Your message to America is, "You've sinned." Don't insist, America, on keeping faithful to your founding principles. Your ideological faith in freedom is the problem, not the solution. Opportunity nurtures self-interest - a virus in the village. America must repent before it can progress into the future.
And what a glittering future you promise us, Hillary! From the perspective of an exceedingly high mountaintop you show us a land where everyone has health insurance; everyone has equal access to low-cost, high-quality medical care. And you will give all that to us; all we need do is limit freedom and opportunity, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and put our trust and our futures in your hands.
Putting the whole world in your hands, Hillary, is a sweet song to sing to people caught in a moment of personal crisis - but luring a person into selling the soul of freedom and opportunity for the frail security of a government handout is a deal with the devil, and a needless deal at that. Your premise is flawed - any parent can take his or her sick child to a doctor, regardless of economic status. And the trip likely will not be in vain.
Freedom and opportunity and millions of individuals with diverse ambitions created the miraculous medical advances we take for granted. Not government. Freedom and opportunity in pursuit of self-interest created the wealth that enables medical care to be available to anyone. Not government. Health care decisions ought to be made by patients and doctors, not government. It's only when you're out to create a health care system in your own image, Hillary, that individual freedom and opportunity get in the way.
You are running for president of the United States, Hillary, not building a SimCity society of Clintonesque avatars. America is a country founded on principles - the classically liberal principles of individual sovereignty, personal property, the rule of law and, yes, freedom and opportunity, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is not your policies that scare some of us, Hillary, it is your core disregard for those fundamental principles.
Freedom and opportunity, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - that is what the definition of "America is ..." is.
Craig Westover is a contributing columnist to the Pioneer Press Opinion page and a senior policy fellow at the Minnesota Free Market Institute (www.mnfmi.org).
This column originally appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on Wednesday, January 30, 2008. |
