A concerned caller on a Pueblo talk show avowed that he had recently participated in a Tea Party protest because he was trying to protect dearly held “traditional American values and culture.”
Yet, American culture does not need protection. It needs to be shaken up, reevaluated in light of changed circumstances, and then modified to better fit the 21st century.
It’s true the United States has never before had an African-American president, but President Obama is not a magician; he is not a superhuman; he is not a demigod; and he is not a messiah — despite Rush Limbaugh’s repeated sarcastic use of this term to describe Obama’s public persona. So, if Obama lacks the clout to turn our culture upside down, why are many people very upset and afraid?
One answer is that he is trying to change the way people think about government regulation, in general, and, in particular, the regulation of health care. According to his opponents on this issue, if we overhaul health care to make it more equitable, the whole American way of life will be plunged into decline until we have deteriorated into a socialized society.
Of course, this is nonsense. When the United States established the Social Security system in 1935, at the encouragement of Franklin Roosevelt, the country did not fall apart. In fact, the newly created safety net made life less fearful for social security recipients (and for theirs sons and daughters).
In 1965, when Medicare legislation was being debated, its opponents argued that Medicare was socialized medicine. Ronald Regan even warned that the proposal must be defeated so that, “In your sunset years, you will be able to tell your children and grandchildren what life was like when men were free.”
Today most Americans in their sunset years are thrilled to have access to Medicare and consider themsleves to be freer and more independent because of it.
The Veterans Aministration provides free health care to wounded veterans. The health care provided to current American service women and men is also a form of socialized medicine.
Privates and officers have access to the same care, the same doctors, and the same facilities. This has not caused military discipline to suffer, nor has it caused the American economy to fall wholesale into the abyss of socialism.
Some pundits view any government-run health care, even the aforementioned programs, to be a threat to America’s free enterprise system. They argue that America was built enirely through free enterprise, but the “unfettered free market economy” is a myth. The truth is that America has always been a mixed economy.
For example, the Tariff Act of 1789 imposed the first national source of revenue on all imports in order to pay the national debt accrued during the American Revolution. After the War of 1812, tarriffs were used to protect American business from cheap English imports. The explosion of train service in the late 1800’s would not have occurred without huge government subsidies and land grants.
The rapid growth of American airlines and innovation in aircraft design after WWII was largely dependent on taxpayer help and government regulation. Dwight Eisenhower’s 1956 Federal Highway Act expanded the nation’s highways, country roads, bridges, tunnels, and interstates, ostensibbly to improve national defense; but all motorists benefitted from our nation’s improved transportation system.
The recent collapse of financial institutions and two automobile manufacturers is an example of free enterprise gone awry. The fundamental truth is that businessmen work to achieve profits, not to strengthen the country. Sometimes these purposes coincide, and what is good for business is good for America.
Other times, investors and taxpayers lose billions to AIG, the stock market, and banks that are too big to fail. Left unregulated to wallow in their own insatiable greed, the piggish will devour their workers, their competition, and the health and welfare of the entire nation.
Charles W. and Kay Beth Faris Avery are retired educators who have written professional articles for national educational publications. Kay Beth’s first book, “Warriors, Widows, and Orphans (And Other Tales About Southern Colorado),” was published by Western Reflections in 2003. A second book, “Tales from the Trappers’ Trial,” is due out in the spring of 2010.
Kay Beth and Charles W. Avery live in Walsenburg. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
