The author of the article you are about to read makes one request. Please read the work of Barry Goldwater at the following url before reading my comments.

http://www.nysun.com/article/39918

Students of history and those old enough to remember the election campaigns in 1964 will remember the battle waged between Republican Barry Goldwater and Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson. Essentially it was a battle between conservative Constitutional government espoused by Goldwater and the ever growing social welfare state championed by Johnson, which he called the Great Society. Johnson won and the nation is struggling under the burden he imposed on the people; principally those who are productive forced into paying the way for the people that Johnson and his ilk classified as “poor” (which morphed into the “working poor”) simply because the politicians decided that some didn’t earn as much or have as much as others who were determined to be “rich”, again such calls being defined by the liberal politicians of Johnson’s Democrat Party.

Those old enough to remember the campaign commercials of that year more than likely saw the one that depicted the little girl picking a flower and then suddenly a mushroom cloud appeared; she and the flower disappeared. The implication was that if Barry Goldwater was elected there would be nuclear war and we would all be vaporized. The ad only ran once but once was enough and Johnson won by a landslide. The Democrats said we averted a nuclear horror by electing Johnson. That can’t be proven, but a different kind of horror descended on the nation, the nuclear style explosion of political programs called “The Great Society.”

The first bomb to be dropped was Medicare and it exploded quietly. But the effect began to spread and now it is eating up the medical care system due to government programs (call it meddling by politicians) whose cost is consuming a major portion of the revenues of the states and federal government alike. Originally intended to cover the government designated needy, the program expanded to cover every one of a certain age and the disabled. As a result many insurance companies stopped writing medical coverage.

Another bomb became the food stamp program for the needy. As the program expanded those who formerly helped those in need, the churches, clubs, and local government relief programs, cut back aid or stopped it completely. As the government took over, the independence of the people lessened.

One of the most ill conceived programs was the government housing program. Block after block of houses and business properties were destroyed by the great public housing building program pushed by Johnson and his Great Society enacting dolts in Congress. Now, 40 years later many of those great buildings have gone the way of the wrecking ball. A larger portion of those that remain are drug infested and ruled by the criminals who live there and who prey on those that aren’t criminals.

The foregoing are but three of the ill advised programs of Johnson’s Great Society. The programs were and still are paid for by Johnson’s “We will take from the haves and give to the have nots.” Out of the Communist inspired notion has come three generations of citizens who believe that the government should wipe their noses and put them to bed, not to mention changing their diapers and feeding them, all paid for by the politically designated “haves.”

It is plain to see as the years have gone by that we are slowly being destroyed by the explosion of government programs beginning in 1965. In Sorting It Out, the only difference between the implied nuclear explosion of the Democrats and the slow demise of freedom for those of us who long for limited government, the suffering caused by the former would have been mercifully short in comparison.

© 09-23-2009  DEC