ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Republicans controlling the federal government practice Social Darwinism, a discredited philosophy that in economics and politics calls for survival of the fittest, according to a Democratic U.S. senator.
Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, a fast-rising Democratic star, told Florida party members that only a philosophy among Republicans of sink or swim explains why some Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans still live in cars while Republicans in Washington prepare next week to enact $70 billion in tax breaks.
"It's called the 'Ownership society' in Washington. This isn't the first time this philosophy has appeared. It used to be called Social Darwinism," Obama said late Saturday at the Democrats meeting at Walt Disney World.
"They have a philosophy they have implemented and that is doing exactly what it was designed to do. They basically don't believe in government. They have a different philosophy that says, 'We're going to dismantle government'," Obama said.
Republicans running the federal government believe, "You are on your own to buy your own health care, to buy your own retirement security ... to buy your own roads and levees," Obama said, referring to flood barriers that gave way in New Orleans during Katrina last August.
Saying that Republicans support Americans buying their own "roads and levees" is taking it a bit too far. Certainly no Republican that I know is in favor of privatizing the highway system (and neither am I, for that matter), and the federal government sent millions to Louisiana over the last couple of decades to build up their levees. Unfortunately, most of that was squandered by the Democrat political establishment down there who used it instead to fund their own pet projects.
But saying that Republicans support putting Americans, as opposed to government bureaucrats, in charge of their own lives is exactly right. That is called freedom. Its the best way to live your life.
Americans are some of the most independent, innovative and productive people on the face of the earth. The vast majority of them do not need a bureaucratic nanny state to force them to save for their future or to pay for their health care. All that bureaucracy does is put undue burden on the lives of citizens who could really be caring for themselves.
Some Americans have been lulled by the siren call of socialistic, cradle-to-grave entitlement, but that doesn't mean we should reject the ideals of personal responsibility and individualism. Obama and people like him don't understand those things. They'd like you to give them your wealth so that they can redistribute in our society as they see fit. But that's not how liberty works.
We cannot truly be free when we have overbearing, big-state politicians trying harder and harder to run aspects of our lives. We are free when we are in charge of ourselves.