Real conservatives--and the vociferous rightists commenting on here are not among them--understand that it is not that individuals are the owners of property and the bearers of rights that exist before and apart from the involvement of the state. It is through the state that any right must be enforced, and that about which we do not need the state in some respect or other we need not call a right. So let's go ahead and check at the door this alarmist fear that any state involvement in matters it governs equals unfettered tyranny.
The criticisms of Barack Obama [that old song and dance about 'expanding government] being offered here forget the substantial respect that his proposals express for individual liberty. His health care plan would allow, but not require, individuals to buy health insurance policies offered by private companies and would subsidize the purchase of those policies by the poor. Moreover, the fact that Obama does not mandate insurance coverage for everyone is the primary difference between his plan and the one signed into law by Republican darling Mitt Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts.
Moreover, consider one solution Obama offers to the looming financial crises of those Americans facing retirement pensionless, with meager savings, or with declining value in their home equity. He proposes to make the first $50,000 of their yearly income tax free, encouraging them insofar as possible to work and increasing the reward for that work. Likewise, his other tax cuts are targeted to increase the rewards of work to Americans, whether it is by increasing the earned income tax credit or the child care tax credit. Even Obama's proposals to make college more accessible rely on an exchange of service for that benefit.
Not only does Obama's domestic policy create economic opportunity, it reflects the precise opposite of an "entitlement" approach and imagines everyday Americans not as the passive recipients of government assistance but as active parties, encouraged to work, encouraged to learn, and encouraged to serve their communities.
What kind of conservative--indeed what kind of person at all invested in the preservation and furtherance of republican forms of government--could look upon Obama's platform and not be, well, hopeful?
