I thought you might find this point of view interesting:
Left chooses to make up your mind
by Don Feder
Monday, January 25, 1999
The left claims to be pro-choice on abortion. But as the rest of its
agenda illustrates, the concept of choice simply doesn't exist in their
world.
Pro-choice is for liberals a euphemism. Driven by a zeal to limit
population, liberate women from maternity and separate sex from
procreation, they are far more pro-abortion than they are pro-choice.
Last week, the Christian Coalition of Maine submitted 70,000
signatures for a ballot question to ban partial-birth abortions. The
initiative is opposed by a group that calls itself The Maine Coalition for
Choice.
Choice. A woman's right to choose. It sounds so all-American. After
all, is not individual freedom our defining national characteristic?
Given their professed attachment to choice, one would expect liberals
to extend the concept to the furthest horizons. One would be
mistaken.
Many parents consider the ability to decide where and how to
educate their children significantly more important than whether to kill
them in the womb.
To frustrate this legitimate desire, teachers' unions have deployed
their Praetorian Guard, the Democratic Party and William Jefferson
Clinton, to block all exits from a dysfunctional public school system.
Last year, the president vetoed opportunity scholarships, worth up to
$3,200 annually for 2,000 poor children in the District of Columbia, for
fear their families would use the grants to flee public schools that
resemble free-fire zones.
The middle class is staggering under the property-tax burden, much
of which goes to public education. For the left, giving these families a
choice in educating their children, through tuition tax credits, is
unthinkable.
Education aside, liberals would limit parental discretion through
mandatory sex education and the misapplication of child-abuse laws,
and by harassing mothers who leave a toddler in a car for five
minutes.
Choice in retirement plans is as elusive as educational choice.
Most Gen Xers and not a few Boomers believe their chances of
actually collecting Social Security benefits to be slightly less than
their prospects of winning an Olympic gold medal for figure skating
with both of their legs in a cast.
Here is a choice with profound consequences for our golden years.
Clinton's answer to the looming Social Security crisis? Use 60 percent
of the budget surplus to shore up a structure with a ''condemned''
sign out front.
While he'll generously allow us to invest in some sort of
government-subsidized 401(k)-type account, we still will have no
choice on how our Social Security taxes are invested. Three-quarters
of Americans pay more in Social Security than in federal income
taxes.
Taxes themselves are another way liberals limit choice. The average
family's tax burden has climbed from 21.8 percent of its income in
1983 to 24.9 percent today.
Bill Clinton would cut off his right arm before cutting your taxes. The
deficit was his old excuse. Now it's saving Social Security. Who knows
what it will be tomorrow?
Liberals are afraid that if you keep more of your income, you'll choose
to spend it frivolously. They have it earmarked for socially responsible
projects, like child care, arts funding and fighting suburban sprawl.
On an issue as vital as self-defense, liberals again are intent on
foreclosing options. Los Angeles is one of a growing number of
municipalities weighing a liability suit against gun manufacturers.
The plan is to put firearms companies out of business, sharply
reducing supply and making it harder to exercise the Second
Amendment right to keep and bear arms, and the basic human right of
self-defense.
Even with something as mundane as transportation, liberalism's
penchant for coercion is conspicuous - witness the war on
sport-utility vehicles, the latest greenhouse-gas culprit. Al Gore would
raise their cost by subjecting them to the emissions standards of
cars, instead of trucks, putting them beyond the means of most
consumers.
Significantly, the alternatives liberals would allow us are all lethal -
abortion, assisted suicide, drug legalization (death by addiction) and
access to child pornography on the Internet.
Where choice really matters to those with their faculties intact - how
to educate your children, plan for your retirement, spend your
income, defend your home and family, commute - liberals want you to
do it their way and have a sumo wrestler in their corner to see that
you do.
bostonherald.com
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