OPINION:
As I approach my 87th birthday this June, I have come to the conclusion that the meaning of words in politics lies within the eye of the politician in question.
For example, when I was growing up during the 1930s, I found that the term “liberal,” which once described someone who wanted to keep people out from under the thumb of a repressive government, had become a word that meant (according to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his followers) just the opposite.
As defined by the New Deal, “liberal” came to mean much greater involvement by the government in the lives of the people, especially financially. This gave rise to the concept of “entitlements.”
In opposition to our freedoms as set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution is the siren song of the government, which offers to level the outcomes of different individual efforts. The government becomes our master rather than our servant.
President Obama, mirroring Nero, seems driven to create a socialist-style government. This is interesting considering the “success” that type of government has been having in Europe lately. Unfortunately, unlike in Europe, there will not be anybody to bail us out, as we are doing for Europe.
If we are to survive as anything close to the country we have been for the past 200 years, the last opportunity to make certain of that survival lies with the upcoming elections of 2010 and 2012.
THEODORE E. BYERS
Annandale, Va.
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