The fleshpots of Washington, DC

This is guest blogger Wile E Coyote.

This article argues for a vast expansion in government entitlements because "[t]he America that Goldwater and Reagan defended against the presumed predations of government no longer exists." Life is now too risky, and people, unable to fend for themselves, need the government to protect them.

The Democrats love to sell failure. You can't make it on your own. Life is too complicated. Things are too risky. Change is happening too fast. Only government can help you, and since you are the helpless victim of forces beyond your control, it's not only OK that you give up, it is your right to demand to be taken care of.

The last unspoken line of this spiel is that the person who should take care of you is the technocrat, the well-educated, well-meaning, sensitive liberal. This is why intellectuals and journalists so often lean leftward, because it means rule by people like themselves, and so reenforces their feelings of potency and worth.

We Americans have always been a practical people. We know that even if we face difficulties, these are not the people to look to for anything except failure.

Reagan's America is alive and well.