Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Southpaw musings

Once upon a time the Left was rightly regarded as standing up for "the little guy" -- not just against predatory plutocracy and crony capitalism, but against the power of government as such. The default supposition was that Joe Sixpack should be substantially free to live his life under the protection of, rather than with every action regulated by, the state.

That's an idea the Democratic party and the American Left need to get back to.

I didn't really want to pick on one blog in particular, but in going through my blogroll, I found one where the current posts, notwithstanding the author's occasionally bright and useful contributions, exemplify the problem:

America's teachers are too stupid to be allowed to protect themselves and their students.

Pharmacists are slaves who should not be allowed to have -- or act upon -- religious beliefs.

Medical patients are children who need their hands slapped to keep them from putting the wrong things in their mouths.

With the exception of 12-year-olds seeking abortions, the Left doesn't seem to trust anyone to exercise judgment or make unregulated, unsupervised choices any more.

Don't mean to get surly, Craig, but if I'm not qualified to live my life, then precisely when and how the fuck did you -- or your designated bureaucrats -- magically get qualified to live it for me?

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