It’s a shame that the city of Detroit has gone from what The Blog Prof calls “the center of the industrial PLANET EARTH in 1950″ to a place where thousands of people feel no compunction about lining up for a little sip from the government teat.
Conservative economic or social policies did not bring Detroit so low, not even a little bit. In fact, most conservatives, including me, get angry when we see lines upon lines of people ready to sell their pride and self-reliance for the progressive welfare shackles. That’s not to say that the thousands of people in The Blog Prof’s post are bad people, or even weak people (though surely some of them are both). They are trapped people, hemmed in by the inevitable result of progressive social engineering. They are exactly where the progressive left wants them to be, in thrall to a government steered by the self-appointed elite who honestly believe, deep down in their bones, that they can run your life better than you. That has been the underlying principle of every progressive policy in the Unites States for at least seventy years, from the big ones like the New Deal, the Great Society, the Stimulus Plan, and Obamacare to the less-famous ones like Cash for Clunkers, Planned Parenthood, No Child Left Behind, and Social Security.
Remember, as you watch those people queue up for a ladle full of taxpayer money, that the progressive left wants you in the same position, eventually. Until you are, they don’t have the control they crave and seventy years of American history proves without a doubt that control is what they want more than anything in the world.
UPDATE: Linked by Ed Driscoll, who notes that change works both ways.
Tags: Detroit, Nanny State, Progressives
Not only do they believe they can run your life better than you…they actually believe they are better than you. More intellectual, more moral, more just, more evolved, in other words, better. That’s why they know better than you do what’s good for you.