Subject: 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.
