The American Spectator

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Why Not the Worst?

7.14.08 @ 12:01AM

BEST CASE SCENARIOS
Re: Philip Klein's What's the Worst That Could Happen?:

I have long held Mr. Philip Klein in high regard, and hope to read more of his reflections on political developments in the future.

In "What's The Worst That Could Happen?" he makes a telling point: the "New Deal created the welfare state as we know it, and more significantly, changed the psychology of Americans so that they would look to government to solve their problems ever after, a legacy that Lyndon Johnson built on with his Great Society programs."

This statement I agree with. And because I agree, I must take exception with -- or at least wonder about -- the statement from the closing paragraph: "America is still a right of center nation."

Are we? I'm sure we're to the right of France's center, or Sweden's. But if there was a truly objective way to plot a nation's standing on a continuum of freedom to the right and statism to the left, could we truly be called a land of right-of center conservatives? We have surely shifted well to the left of where our own center was, just a generation ago.

John McCain is undeniably more conservative than Barack Obama, in the sense that Oakland is closer to the Atlantic than San Francisco. But if Goldwater is the exemplar of a conservative then -- correct me if I'm wrong -- there is no action in America taking place on the right side of an objective right-left line.

Our conservative party (conservative by the standard of the moment) is the one that gave us federally-funded pharmaceuticals, No Child Left Behind, IAIA (illegal amnesty for illegal aliens), and pointedly did not give us secure borders, nor a means to remove illegal foreigners from our midst.

Look again, please, at the first quotation above. Then look around you and see the effects of the new American psychology on American life. Formerly, American figured that having a government to fill in the potholes and deliver the mail was nice, as long as it didn't get in the way of freedom. Now, as Mr. Klein points out, we trade away our freedoms to have the government solve whatever problem we are too ignorant or lazy to solve for ourselves. Statism came to us slowly and quietly, like a glacier, and like a glacier, statism is nearly impossible to turn back.

What's the worst that could happen? Look around. It already has.
-- Byron Keith

Contrary to the title of his article, Philip Klein actually articulates a best case scenario, not worst case.

If McCain were to win in November, logic suggests that McCain would provide some coattails, however modest, with the practical effect of the Republicans keeping the Democrats from the magic sixty vote majority in the Senate.

But if Obama were to win in November, remember, the question is what's the worst that could happen, then Obama's coat-tails would push the Democrats to the filibuster proof majority and render the Republicans in the Congress completely inert for the next two years. They might as well save the travel expenses and stay home for the duration. Mr. Klein does not mention this scenario. Strike one.

Mr. Klein does concede that the worst long-term damage that an Obama Administration and all Democrat Congress could inflict would be a federal socialized medical system. But Mr. Klein then drops to his knees in prayer that Obama would prove to be the conservative to the Congress' rampaging liberal. Assuming your prayers will be answered is not worst case thinking! You can bet the mortgage, with or without a federal foreclosure bailout provision, that before the mid-term elections of 2010, private medicine in America would be dead, in the ground, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Strike two.

And Mr. Klein completely omits mention of "drilling," "energy," "oil," or "nuclear," except for connecting the latter to Iran's weapon program. There should be no doubt that an Obama Administration, worst case, would cripple U.S. industry and consumers with an inevitably permanent carbon tax, and all the other items on the environmental extremist wish list. Strike three.

As Mr. Klein walks in sadness to the dugout, consider his final "Nobody knows how Obama would actually behave were he elected." Well I don't pretend to be psychic or clairvoyant, but I absolutely positively do know how Obama and his Democrats in the Congress would behave. As far as the America that we know and love, in the words of Peachy Carnehan to Daniel Dravot, "the jig is up."
-- Frank Natoli
Newton, New Jersey

Letter to the Editor

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