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Absolutely
powerful, insightful and truthful.
Two
Americas - Lou Holtz Nails
it
The
Democrats are right, there are two
Americas. The America
that works, and the America that
doesn’t. The America that contributes, and the
America that doesn’t. It’s not the
haves and the have not's, it’s the dos and the don'ts. Some people
do their duty as Americans, obey the law, support themselves,
contribute to society, and others don't. That’s the divide
in America. It’s not about
income inequality, it’s about civic irresponsibility. It’s about a
political party that preaches hatred, greed and victimization in
order to win elective office. It’s about a political
party that loves power more than it loves its country.
That’s not invective, that’s truth, and it’s about time someone
said it.
The
politics of envy was on proud display a couple weeks ago when
President Obama pledged the rest of his term to fighting “income
inequality.” He noted that some people make more than other
people, that some people have higher incomes than others, and he
say that’s not just. That is the rationale of thievery. The
other guy has it, you want it, Obama will take it for you. Vote
Democrat. That is the philosophy that produced
Detroit. It is the electoral
philosophy that is destroying
America. It conceals a
fundamental deviation from American values and common sense
because it ends up not benefiting the people who support it, but a
betrayal. The Democrats have not empowered their followers,
they have enslaved them in a culture of dependence and
entitlement, of victim-hood and anger instead of ability and hope.
The president’ premise –that you reduce income inequality by
debasing the successful –seeks to deny the successful the
consequences of their choices and spare the unsuccessful the
consequences of their choices. Because, by and large, income
variations in society is a result of different choices leading to
different consequences. Those who choose wisely and responsibility
have a far greater likelihood of success, while those who choose
foolishly and irresponsibly have a far greater likelihood of
failure. Success and failure usually manifest themselves in
personal and family income. You choose to drop out of high
school or to skip college – and you are apt to have a different
outcome than someone who gets a diploma and pushes on with
purposeful education. You have your children out of wedlock and
life is apt to take one course; you have them within a marriage
and life is apt to take another course. Most often in life our
destination is determined by the course we take.
My
doctor, for example, makes far more than I do. There is
significant income inequality between us. Our lives have had an
inequality of outcome, but, our lives also have had an in equality
of effort. While my doctor went to college and then devoted
his young adulthood to medical school and residency, I got a job
in a restaurant. He made a choice, I made a choice, and our
choices led us to different outcomes. His outcome pays a lot
better than mine. Does that mean he cheated and Barack Obama needs
to take away his wealth? No, it means we are both free men
in a free society where free choices lead to different
outcomes. It is not inequality Barack Obama intends to
take away, it is freedom. The freedom to succeed, and the freedom
to fail. There is no true option for success if there is no true
option for failure. The pursuit of happiness means a whole lot
less when you face the punitive hand of government if your pursuit
brings you more happiness than the other guy. Even if
the other guy sat on his arse and did nothing. Even if the
other guy made a lifetime’s worth of asinine and short sighted
decisions.
Barack
Obama and the Democrats preach equality of outcome as a right,
while completely ignoring inequality of effort. The simple Law of
the Harvest – as ye sow, so shall ye reap – is sometimes applied
as, “The harder you work, the more you get." Obama would
turn that upside down. Those who achieve are to be punished as
enemies of society and those who fail are to be rewarded as wards
of society. Entitlement will replace effort as the key to upward
mobility in American society if Barack Obama gets his way. He
seeks a lowest common denominator society in which the government
besieges the successful and productive to foster equality through
mediocrity. He and his party speak of two
Americas, and their grip on power is
based on using the votes of one to sap the productivity of the
other. America is not divided by
the differences in our outcomes, it is divided by the differences
in our efforts.
It is
a false philosophy to say one man’s success comes about
unavoidably as the result of another man’s victimization. What
Obama offered was not a solution, but a separatism. He fomented
division and strife, pitted one set of Americans against another
for his own political benefit. That’s what socialists
offer. Marxist class warfare wrapped up with a bow. Two
Americas, coming closer each day to proving the
truth to Lincoln’s maxim that a house
divided against itself cannot stand. "Life is ten
percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to
it."
Lou
Holtz
Leo
"Lou" Holtz (born January 6, 1937) is a retired American football
coach, and active sportscaster, author, and motivational
speaker.
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