Elizabeth Warren is wrong.
Not just a little wrong, but in a style so epic and disconnected from reality that only a Harvard professor could articulate the wrongness and make it sound even plausible.
This weekend’s National Journal made a big splash over the weekend, as many conservatives simply did their utmost to scrape their jaws off the floor. Senator Warren’s list barely sounds like a list of principles at all — more like a set of wants from an ill-mannered teenager demanding the car keys and screeching about the 12am curfew.
The worst part? Not the entitlement — most conservatives are used to that by now. What was shocking to me was the depiction of the opposition (meaning us) as selfish, greedy, and obtuse.
Is that really what they think of America? Of Republicans?
Of course, I couldn’t let it stand there. The Jeffersonian spirit remains alive and well in some quarters of this great nation of ours, and when lowercase-r republican values come under threat and are redefined in a sweep of “progress” one has to wonder qui bono? Who benefits?
The answer here was clear as day. Warren wasn’t proffering a set of tenets as much as she was delivering an ultimatum — a perversion of the Contract With America that separates this nation into two camps: winners and losers. Lowercase-r republicans have never believed this Marxist dialectic.
To the contrary, the prosperity of our neighbor is a thing to be celebrated, the free market having lifted more people out of poverty than any social program on the face of this planet. Yes, there is such a thing as win-win, and the long history of the American experiment has proven time and time again that the values that made America great once will make America great once again.
One cup of coffee later… I produced the 10 Tenets of Republicanism (because why use 11 when only 10 will do):
** We believe in the basic and absolute human right to exist; that this gift of life is gifted to us by God, and predicates the existence of all our other rights.
** We believe in liberty as the balance between tyranny and license; that it should be preserved and enhanced by society — not destroyed by it.
** We believe in one’s absolute right to property and prosperity, and deeply resent the collective theft that forces people into dependency while masquerading as the social welfare state.
** We believe in the rule of law to protect and advance these rights, and desire a just and moral immigration system consisting of those who freely assent to our basic American creed and ethos.
** We believe that everyone is responsible for their own debts and earnings, and that neither government nor society have a right or responsibility to abrogate either.
** We believe that every child has the right to their mother and father, that family is the cornerstone of civil society, and that government has neither the ability nor the competence to redefine this standard.
** We believe that parents have the absolute right to determine how their children are educated, and that true education is a moral investment made to preserve and enhance the dignity of the individual and the integrity of the American republic.
** We believe that a living wage is earned, and that the hard work, abilities, skills, and education of the individual will create and produce the ability of the free market to lift people from dependency and poverty.
** We believe a strong monetary policy ensures that after a lifetime of hard work, individuals ought to be entitled to the fruits of their own labor, and should not have it stolen through inflationary theft or government mismanagement.
** Lastly, we firmly believe the rights of the individual inevitably triumph over the collective desires of society.
…and lastly, in response to Warren’s view of us vs. them?
And the main tenet of conservatives’ philosophy, according to Warren? “I got mine. The rest of you are on your own.”
I’ll leave the response to that for you to leave in the comments section.
