the America that doesn’t. The America that contributes and the America that
doesn’t. It’s not the haves and the have nots, it’s the dos and the don’ts. Some
people do their duty as Americans, obey the law, support themselves, contribute
to society and others don’t. That’s the divide in America.
It’s not about income inequality, it’s about civic irresponsibility. It’s about a
political party that preaches hatred, greed, and victimization in order to win
elective office. It’s about a political party that loves power more than it loves its
country.
That’s not invective, that’s truth, and it’s about time someone said it.
The politics of envy was on proud display a couple weeks ago when President
Obama pledged the rest of his term to fighting “income inequality.” He noted
that some people make more than other people, and that some people have
higher incomes than others, and he says that’s not just. That is the rationale
of thievery.
The other guy has it, you want it, Obama will take it for you. Vote Democrat.
That is the philosophy that produced Detroit.
It is the electoral philosophy that is destroying America. It conceals a
fundamental deviation from American values and common sense because it
ends up not benefiting the people who support it, but a betrayal.
The Democrats have not empowered their followers; they have enslaved them
in a culture of dependence and entitlement, of victim-hood and anger instead of
ability and hope. The president’s premise – that you reduce income inequality
by debasing the successful–seeks to deny the successful the consequences of
their choices and spare the unsuccessful the consequences of their choices,
because, by and large, income variations in society are a result of different
choices leading to different consequences.
Those who choose wisely and responsibly have a far greater likelihood of
success, while those who choose foolishly and irresponsibly have a far greater
likelihood of failure.
Success and failure usually manifest themselves in personal and family income.
You choose to drop out of high school or to skip college – and you are apt to
have a different outcome than someone who gets a diploma and pushes on with
purposeful education.
You have your children out of wedlock and life is apt to take one course; you
have them within a marriage and life is apt to take another course. Most often
in life our destination is determined by the course we take.
My doctor, for example, makes far more than I do. There is significant income
inequality between us. Our lives have had an inequality of outcome, but, our
lives also have had an in equality of effort. While my doctor went to college and
then devoted his young adulthood to medical school and residency, I got a job
in a restaurant. He made a choice, I made a choice, and our choices led us to
different outcomes. His outcome pays a lot better than mine. Does that mean he
cheated and Barack Obama needs to take away his wealth?No, it means we
are both free men in a free society where free choices lead to different outcomes.
It is not inequality Barack Obama intends to take away; it is freedom, the freedom
to succeed and the freedom to fail. There is no true option for success if there is
no true option for failure. The pursuit of happiness means a whole lot less when
you face the punitive hand of government if your pursuit brings you more
happiness than the other guy. Even if the other guy sat on his arse and did nothing.
Even if the other guy made a lifetime’s worth of asinine and short sighted decisions.
Barack Obama and the Democrats preach equality of outcome as a right, while
completely ignoring inequality of effort.
The simple Law of the Harvest – as ye sow, so shall ye reap – is sometimes applied
as, “The harder you work, the more you get.” Obama would turn that upside down.
Those who achieve are to be punished as enemies of society and those who fail
are to be rewarded as wards of society. Entitlement will replace effort as the key to
upward mobility in American society if Barack Obama gets his way. He seeks a
lowest common denominator society in which the government besieges the
successful and productive to foster equality through mediocrity. He and his party
speak of two Americas, and their grip on power is based on using the votes of one
to sap the productivity of the other. America is not divided by the differences in our
outcomes; it is divided by the differences in our efforts.
It is a false philosophy to say one man’s success comes about unavoidably as the
result of another man’s victimization.
What Obama offered was not a solution, but separatism. He fomented division and
strife, pitted one set of Americans against another for his own political benefit. That’s
what socialists offer. Marxist class warfare wrapped up with a bow. Two Americas,
coming closer each day to proving the truth to Lincoln’s maxim that a house divided
against itself cannot stand.
“Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.”
Lou Holtz
Leo “Lou” Holtz (born January 6, 1937) is a retired American football coach, and
active sportscaster, author, and motivational speaker.
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