[antimedia] antimedia: You can't get much more disgusting....

[Email subscription to blog articles]

Posted by antimedia:
You can't get much more disgusting....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1200723281.shtml


   ....[1]than this op-ed in WaPo.

     After watching Fred Thompson debate his Republican rivals, I have
     often wondered why he is not in the top tier of candidates. He
     seems to have John McCain's honesty, without his razor-sharp edges,
     and Mitt Romney's conservatism, without his jaw-dropping
     inconsistencies.
     This contrast between Thompson's large political talent and his
     poor political performance has led to persistent questions: Does he
     lack ambition? Energy?
     This week, he added one more to the list: Does he lack moral
     seriousness?
     At a campaign stop attended by a CBS reporter in Lady's Island,
     S.C., Thompson was asked if he, "as a Christian, as a
     conservative," supported President Bush's global AIDS initiative.
     "Christ didn't tell us to go to the government and pass a bill to
     get some of these social problems dealt with. He told us to do it,"
     Thompson responded. "The government has its role, but we need to
     keep firmly in mind the role of the government, and the role of us
     as individuals and as Christians on the other."
     Thompson went on: "I'm not going to go around the state and the
     country with regards to a serious problem and say that I'm going to
     prioritize that. With people dying of cancer, and heart disease,
     and children dying of leukemia still, I got to tell you -- we've
     got a lot of problems here. . . . " Indeed, there are a lot of
     problems here -- mainly of Thompson's own making.
     While he is not an isolationist, he clearly is playing to
     isolationist sentiments. His objection, it seems, is not to
     government spending on public health but to spending on foreigners.
     But this is badly shortsighted. America is engaged in a high-stakes
     ideological struggle in Africa, where radicals and terrorists seek
     to fill the vacuum of failed and hopeless societies. Fighting
     disease and promoting development are important foreign policy
     tools in this struggle, which Thompson apparently does not
     appreciate or even understand.
     Thompson's argument reflects an anti-government extremism, which I
     am sure his defenders would call a belief in limited government. In
     this case, Thompson is limiting government to a half-full thimble.
     Its duties apparently do not extend to the treatment of sick people
     in extreme poverty, which should be "the role of us as individuals
     and as Christians." One wonders, in his view, if responding to the
     2004 tsunami should also have been a private responsibility.
     Religious groups are essential to fighting AIDS, but they cannot
     act on a sufficient scale.

   Excuse me?
   Thompson is saying that governments can't (and shouldn't) try to solve
   every problem, and from that Gerson gets that Thompson is pandering to
   isolationists and spewing "anti-government extremism"? It's no wonder
   this country is so screwed up when we have "intellectuals" like this
   propounding stupidity to the masses.
   Government's duty is to provide for basic services, keep us safe in
   our homes and then get the hell out of our way. It is our
   responsibility to decide to whom we give our money and to what causes
   we will donate. America would be a much better place if we each would
   take responsibility for the care of the needy rather than foisting
   that responsibility off on government and then patting ourselves on
   the back for being "generous".
   That includes the needy in Africa.
   Tags: [2]federalism [3]fred08 [4]isolationism [5]anti-government

References

   1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/17/AR2008011702243.html
   2. http://technorati.com/tag/federalism
   3. http://technorati.com/tag/fred08
   4. http://technorati.com/tag/isolationism
   5. http://technorati.com/tag/anti-government