Joshua Heath’s May 21 column tells that he, like some other writers, has alluded to the New Deal as being the answer to the end of our Great Depression. That’s not factually true. World War II ended that episode of our history.
Starting in 1940 with Lend Lease, our factories were geared up to produce war materiel for England and then Russia. Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in 1945 before either the GI Bill or the FHA was finalized, so other people had to carry the water to make those programs happen. He was a progressive and he may have had input, but there was also a strong feeling that there should be some reward for those who gave so much. We should also be mindful that FDR was a pragmatist who shifted his aims to suit the moment.
War leaders are often given too much credit for the outcome, therefore mistakes can be overlooked. FDR did select the right men to lead and that was his outstanding contribution to the war effort.
Nazi Germany is a lesson that should sturdily stand before us but it’s seldom reviewed. Adolf Hitler was the architect of a society that put the state first and the individual second. In this manner, the individual had no personal value but only as they could contribute to the whole. No individual within the Reich had any say in existence.
Students, pastors and butchers alike were mere cogs in a vast machine the Fuhrer wielded as his own personal weapon. Each man personally swore fidelity to the Fuhrer and understood that his life was a forfeit to the greater good of the Fatherland.
This did not happen in a vacuum. Good people had to be sold incrementally this idea of the Greater Good. Germany was suffering great turmoil as a result of the worldwide depression and the majority of the population was seeking any answer out of the calamity. At this point, many good Germans settled for solutions that had long-term implications of disaster.
Heath’s suggestions as to what should be done have the same implications that led Germany to ruin. These solutions always have one thing in common: LET THE GOVERNMENT DO IT. However, as we have seen, the government is made up of a collection of fools. We have had a virus unleashed upon us by China and it’s propelled us to overreact.
In times of stress, it’s easy to overreact and yet what we should be doing is to think through the solutions and choose the most appropriate.
Our leaders fall within a bell curve that, when dispassionately viewed, reflects the very good to the least qualified. Unfortunately, those least qualified to offer guidance and leadership turn out to be the loudest, and as in the Pied Piper scenario, we are taken in a direction that does not produce the outcome that we hope for.
When we turn our lives over to some disinterested bureaucrats and assume that all will be well, we commit an error that can be very costly to us personally and to the country as a whole. Most people recognize this but the progressives among us never stop trying to influence us in the wrong direction. Our dealings with the DMV alone are enough to warn us of taking that path, yet, we can be so easily seduced by calming words that tell us Big Brother has all the answers when we all should know, Big Brother has done few things well; one being the FAA.
The only thing that has ever worked has been individual freedom. We are currently under a situation where our individual freedoms have been abridged and we have some of the least qualified making decisions for a large part of our population. To listen to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti or California Gov. Gavin Newsom tell us what is good and bad for us is akin to having to listen to fingernails being raked endlessly over a blackboard.
For the last 20 years California has been poorly run. People have voted with their feet and fled the state because of high costs of living, including taxes, housing and fuel. We’re increasingly saddled with bad ideas that progressive idealists think up. “Global Warming” presents as one of the most significant destroyers of wealth followed by our infamous Bullet Train to nowhere. Recently, Assembly Bill 5 has shown true genius in its aim to destroy a significant part of the state’s economy. Such intentional destructions should be hanging offenses.
Joshua Heath is one of many who seek to lead us down the garden path to a socialist debacle. It’s been tried many times before and will continue to be a threat with us as long as there are people with little understanding. We have a road map that has been laid out for us by such men as Plato and Aristotle. We don’t have to invent anything, just follow the good advice.
Jim Horton is a Santa Clarita resident. “Right Here, Right Now” appears Saturdays and rotates among local Republicans.
