Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight
Gath'ring winter fuel
....Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing
Liberals have long benefited from a reputation for advanced thinking on social issues. At one time, the reputation was deserved. But it is no longer. Indeed, as liberalism has grown in power, affluence and decadence, it has succumbed to an age-old temptation: the use of government by rich and politically connected people to suck wealth from ordinary people and distribute it to themselves.
The Obama Administration is accelerating this tendency, with predictable results. And conservatism has a golden opportunity to turn the tables on the left concerning social justice, long viewed by liberalism as its trump card.
Conservatism possesses an instinctive ability to recognize what liberalism no longer can in the area of social justice:
1) The commonwealth must be defended against its enemies, foreign and domestic, which seek the ruin of its people.
2) An arrogant, intrusive and unaccountable government tends towards corruption and the impoverishment of the people.
3) Government monopolies and taxation have long been the preferred instruments of oppression by kings and their courtiers, ancient and modern.
It is no accident that ordinary people, with little prior political experience and certainly no instinctive affection for the Republican party, have swelled the ranks of the tea party movement and all the allied groups determined to oppose the statist depredations of the left. The MSM would rather die than tell you so, but these people are motivated by a simple concern for justice- social as well as individual. And therein lies the promise for the future of our movement.
We will take up this theme during the coming weeks on Italian Tomatoes radio, starting with tonight’s broadcast at 9PM Eastern.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ItalianTomatoes/2009/11/13/Current-Events-Al-Dente
There never was a good king. Even the Great ones, like Charlemagne of Franco-Germany and Alfred of England, used their power in ways we would not tolerate.
The "enlightened" ones of the 16th to 18th centuries were really just tossing their people bones while they used the bulk of their assets to extend their dominions.