Liberals also want a great America
Another gem came from the pen of Dave Ball in his July 23 column on conservative values and principles. I appreciate his opinion that liberals aren’t evil, that we just lack understanding.
On his beliefs, it must be said that Americans didn’t want Donald Trump to be president. About 3 million more voted for his opponent. When stauch conservative columnists Ross Douthat, George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Mona Charen and David Brooks recognize serious issues with this president and his henchmen, maybe Ball and other Trump apologists should re-evaluate their loyalty to him.
Ball states “the federal government has no business invading citizens’ lives in which it has no constitutional mandate. Examples include education, health care…” He conveniently ignores the Constitution’s opening sentence, which includes the words, “promote the general welfare.” Here is where conservative and liberal perspectives are oil and water. A liberal sees education and health care as essential to life as food, clothing and shelter. Conservatives see them as moneymaking opportunities.
Liberals believe in the First Amendment, but don’t believe that it confers a right to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in an attempt to influence elections with the ultimate goal of favorable policies for the “investor,” or the right to disguise bigotry as religious freedom. Liberals believe in the Second Amendment, with limits on who can possess a gun and the type of gun that can be owned. Liberals also believe in a strong military that should be used to defend the country from outside aggression, not to be a business critical to our economy or to protect our “interests around the world.”
When Ball says a “free and open market economy is the result of minimal government interference,” two things come to mind. First, a free and open market economy gives us a basketball player getting a five-year contract worth $200 million, plus tens of millions in endorsements and Wall Street bankers with yearly bonuses that exceed what the average American worker would make in seven lifetimes.
Liberals and conservatives want a “great” America. We just can’t seem to find a common definition of great, or a path to greatness. To quote our tweeter-in-chief, “Sad.”
Don DeAngelis
Canonsburg