The late, lamented Senator from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy, was a knee-jerk liberal who sang the Democrat party-line hymnal during the whole of his 47-year career in the Senate. In all that time he never uttered an original idea of any kind.
His passion for left-wing social causes was a reflection of his total dependence on trite political slogans and cliches. He knew he was not very bright and that is why he relied so heavily on a left-wing staff to advise him. He is presently being lionized for his passion for socialized medicine, which would destroy the finest medical system ever devised by the human race.
Take all of the socialized medical systems in the world — none of them produce anything new or innovative in medicine. They rely entirely on the inventiveness of Americans who still have the private incentive to make improvements. But the takeover of our medical system by the government would kill the goose that lays the golden eggs of medical progress. Without that private engine of improvement, medicine would stagnate.
The reason why America became the richest, most advanced nation in human history is quite simple. We started with a limited government that gave human beings the total freedom to improve their lives and the lives of others. To prove this, all one has to do is peruse the Annual Reports issued by the U.S. Patent Office to see what thousands of free Americans were inventing in every area of human endeavor.
In agriculture, our inventors came up with an unending number of improvements, big and small, that made American farmers the most productive in the world. In aviation we went from the Wright Brothers to the jumbo jets in less than a hundred years. Although the first automobile was invented in Germany, American inventors and manufacturers made astounding improvements so that we became the world leaders in automotive development.
In radio and television communications, American inventors were in the lead. Nor should we forget the men who invented the telegraph, the telephone, the electric light, the phonograph, the movie camera, electric refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, copying machines, and just about everything else that makes modern life livable.
And who can deny that the invention and development of the computer in America has changed the civilized world. Even Levis blue jeans, invented by a Jewish merchant in the Wild West, are now worn everywhere, even in countries that hate Jews.
The key to all of this astounding productivity is individual freedom, private entrepreneurship, the scientific spirit, and the ingenuity of the inventor who would be stymied and hanged in a stagnant socialist or communist culture.
The one area of American culture where we have seen a decline in freedom and productivity is in the government owned and controlled public schools with their unionized teachers. The public schools are ruled by liberals who believe in government control of how children are taught. The result has been the rise of functional illiteracy, learning disabilities, violence in the schools, and a general decline in student intelligence.
Should such government controls be imposed on our health-care system, we should expect the same results. In fact, it was only two years ago that we learned how well the government runs its own Veterans Hospitals. The San Francisco Chronicle of March 6, 2007 reported:
“Lawmakers’ fury was on display at a hearing Monday at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the hospital complex in the nation’s capital long seen as the crown jewel of military health care, where allegations of mice-infested buildings and neglected patients first surfaced.
“The tearful wife of an injured National Guardsman told lawmakers her husband received ‘treatment…a dog wouldn’t have deserved.’ A wounded soldier described how Army officials ignored his complaints about black mold in his rooms for months–until photos of his mildewed walls appeared in the Washington Post.”
So if the crown jewel of the government-run hospitals is such a mess, why would a system of nationalized hospitals be run any better? The Washington Post story brought forth a deluge of complaints from soldiers in VA hospitals all over the country.
Ted Kennedy worked tirelessly for government control over our lives. So he will not be missed by this writer. He died before he could see socialized medicine enacted by Congress and signed by his beloved Obama. Tough. But as Walter Cronkite used to say, “and that’s the way it is.”
Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld is the author of nine books on education including NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education, The Whole Language/OBE Fraud, and The Victims of Dick & Jane and Other Essays. Of NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education, former U.S. Senator Steve Symms of Idaho said: “Every so often a book is written that can change the thinking of a nation. This book is one of them.” Mr. Blumenfeld’s columns have appeared in such diverse publications as Reason, The New American, The Chalcedon Report, Insight, Education Digest, Vital Speeches, WorldNetDaily, and others.
