Dems: It's Time for More Socialism, Baby!

Great editorial in Friday's Review-Journal. The 2006 Clark County Democratic Convention kicked off yesterday, with symposia entitled:

*Securing the American Dream: The Right to Own a Home.
*Securing the American Dream: The Right to Earn a Living Wage.
*Securing the American Dream: The Right to Responsible Government.
*Securing the American Dream: The Right to Affordable Health Care.
*Securing the American Dream: The Right to Quality Public Education.
*Securing the American Dream: The Right to Retire with Dignity.

The editorialist then asks:

"Notice a pattern? (Hint: It isn't 'Securing the American Dream.')
"To grant everyone all of these 'rights' championed by county Democrats -- the 'right' to a house, a nice salary, 'affordable' health care, free education and a wonderful retirement -- would require the destruction of the very private market economy that has proven the most effective approach history has ever known for creating wealth and battling poverty."

Yeah, pretty much. Conservatives routinely accuse liberals of having no ideas. More precisely, I guess they have a bunch of ideas, they're just 200 years old and have failed dismally wherever they've been tried. It's just kind of funny that Democrats, sensing Republican weakness, apparently have decided that now is the time to seize power by formally announcing that yes, they're still confiscatory, big-government socialist hippies.

"[I]f the convention agenda is any indication, the gathering will once again highlight the party's embrace of a big-government, high-tax, collectivist approach to politics -- an approach that goes down at the polls virtually every time it's honestly presented to an electorate outside of Santa Monica, Calif., or Cambridge, Mass."

As concerned as I am about the hit Bush has taken at the polls over the Dubai Ports deal, it looks like the Dems are absolutely determined to let their potential advantage go to waste.

One last quote, which highlights I think the most fundamental distinction between true conservatives and true liberals:

"A true 'right' imposes no obligations on others. An individual has the right to purchase a home he can afford; he does not have a right to force someone to build it for him or subsidize his purchase. Likewise, an individual has the right to pursue the best job he can find; he does not have a 'right' to force an employer to pay him a 'living wage.'
"These are not simply fine distinctions. They are concepts that separate free societies from totalitarian dictatorships."