The American Spectator

p> GRAND SMALL PARTY br> Re: Peter Ferrara’s The Conservative Welfare State : /p>

Mr. Ferrara makes several solid policy points that could lower government dependency. Coupled with school choice and health-care choice and well… with personal choice, we could make this country a much better place.

p>More importantly; with the advancement of these ideas, being open and honest about the difference between our personal social ideals and our political philosophy, and being clear that being anti-governmental intervention doesn’t make for bad governance, the conservative movement and the GOP can start winning again. br> — Charles Campbell br> Austin, Texas /p>

Do the compound return math: The average auto worker extended family could have one or two retired millionaires if Democrats hadn’t designed Social Security pyramid scam that — literally — meets the legal definitions of financial crime. Imagine where the working family could have been with a generation of personal accounts: Grandchild going to Harvard? No problem — write the check, plenty left over. Surprise medical bills? Write a check, and buy cheap catastrophic insurance to protect against really big bills. Children laid off in middle age? No problem, grand-dad can easily carry a few mortgage payments until they’re back on their feet. Unwed teen mother? Okay, the family can easily afford someone to stay home and care for the kid until she finishes school. Nobody would need Democrat’s stingy, strings-attached, inefficient, soul-killing hand-outs, because they could solve their own family problems.

And imagine if Democrats had not been allowed to take away half the life savings of a working black family if Dad died young (they lose one Social Security pension). Imagine instead he’d been allowed to pass on his personal account to his kids. How much progress could black Americans have made with that stolen inheritance? Any wonder why black Americans seem to have a hard time climbing the inter-generational economic ladder?

Conservatives have not been able to illustrate the tragic opportunity cost of socialist policies to the working class — would could have been — because they’ve relied on hapless Republicans who are too busy apologizing for their brethren and sanctimoniously proving how clean their hands are of political dirt. It is woefully irresponsible for pols like Bush and McCain to fail to criticize the policy failures of Democrats loudly and constantly, and pretend you can “just get things done” and “do the right thing” and “reach across the aisle” before preparing the public by winning the argument.