Column 410        July 7, 2023

Radical, liberal socialists assume all American citizens are like two-year-olds. Any socialist in a position of power or not believes they are the only adult in the room. The rest of us, which includes all of the common-everyday liberals, need to be micro managed in all aspects of life and protected from its realities—told what to think, what to say, what is right, what is wrong, what to eat, what is history, what is science, what to drive, what to cook on, and who to vote for.

Socialists do not believe Americans should toe the line, or any line other than their line. Everyone should finish in first place which means everyone is protected from hardship and/or failure. They don’t realize that for every action there is a reaction. Unfortunately, they don’t understand that if no one is to suffer, everyone suffers.

The socialists’ reactions to the recent Supreme Court decisions—decisions based on the Constitution and Bill of Rights—has provided more examples of their mindset. Take affirmative action for instance. It is “a policy or a program that seeks to redress past discrimination through active measures to ensure equal opportunity, as in education and employment.” Affirmative action is blatant discrimination for the purpose of reversing 100 years of segregation. Obviously, when Obama was elected president 14 years ago, affirmative action had accomplished its stated goal.^{1 2}

Slavery in America ended 158 years ago. America’s slave population consisted mostly of imported black Africans or their natural born descendants. But it also included people from other races and backgrounds—even whites. Slave owners were also a mixed bag in that not all of them were white people—of the nonwhites some were blacks!

After slavery ended, for about 100 years racial strife continued with racial segregation and discrimination. But in the 1960s, under the leadership of Martin Luther King (MLK), the division between the races boiled over with violent marches, riots, and huge peaceful gatherings. It was a transitional era and affirmative action was initiated by the administration of President Lyndon Johnson (1963–69) in order to improve opportunities for African Americans while civil rights legislation was dismantling discrimination. In effect, affirmative action was designed to reverse the attitudes developed from hundreds of years of segregation and discrimination.

Initially affirmative action helped to reduce discrimination. But it had its limitations because it was simply reverse discrimination. Consequently it had a limited life in forcing decisions for hiring, school admissions, and even awards to be parceled out based on race rather than merit. Its only advantage was that it forced inclusion while ending discrimination against mostly blacks.

Unfortunately affirmative action impacted society a lot like today’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) or Corporate Equality Index (CEI) scoring systems have impacted businesses. Those metrics inspired wokeness in businesses such as Disney, Budweiser, and Target to name just a few. In other words, instead of focusing on getting the most qualified people for whatever positions in business, government, military, and education all activities are focused on inclusion based on race, gender, sexual proclivities, and attributes other than merit. For this to work, all organizations are supposed to have the same balance of merit-less attributes as the population overall. And that calls for lower standards which discriminate against the most qualified individuals. That’s why affirmative action eventually increases rather than decreases the wedge between races, genders, sexual proclivities, and other meaningless attributes.^{3 4}

Affirmative action, DEI, and CEI are bad for business, education, government, military, law enforcement, sports, the people all organizations serve, and the country as a whole. It’s why the Constitution does not tolerate discrimination based on race, gender, religious affiliations, or sexual orientation. When it comes to meeting and exceeding the qualifications for serving organizations, one’s ethnic background, skin color, gender, religious affiliations, or sexual orientations become worthless measures. All people are capable of fulfilling at least one of the many roles in our society, but not as CEOs in business or as GOATs in athletics. That’s just a hard fact of life. Not everyone is a top dog.

The other Supreme Court decision dealing with forgiving student debts said the power of the nation’s purse rests with Congress and not the Executive Branch. “The fact that Congress—and in particular the House of Representatives—would control the flow of money into and out of government coffers was the strongest Federalist response to Anti-Federalist arguments that the presidency was too powerful.”

Here once again, socialists want to ignore the Constitution and Bill of Rights in order to kowtow to a minority (to buy their votes) by demanding that the majority of citizens pay for decisions made by a minority.

No one is forced to go to college. It’s not a requirement for making a living. Going to college has options. Some cost way less than others. Some degrees take longer to earn. Some students spend college money on vacations, tattoos, keggers, and drugs. Some students are not college material. Many take courses that don’t fit their aptitudes.

If students are practical in their decision making and think through the process of matching their debts with their career choices, they don’t need to have the government force others to pay their bills. If they are reckless in matching their debts with their career choices, why should anyone be forced to pay their debts? If people decide not to go to college, why should they be forced to pay the debts of those who did go to college on borrowed money. Once again, socialists want a majority to suffer in order to gain favor with a grateful minority.⁵

This is similar to a recent government decree regarding mortgage interest rates. “Beginning May 1, up-front fees for loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be adjusted because of changes in the Loan Level Price Adjustments (LLPAs). Those fees are based on things including the borrower's credit score, size of the down payment, type of home and more. In some cases, people with better credit scores may pay more in fees, while those with lower credit scores will pay less.”⁶

That is another unconstitutional government policy that’s born from twisted logic. Home buyers, who are more prudent with their finances, will be penalized while those who are reckless gain benefits. This rewards the worst attributes and penalizes the best attributes of being a good citizen. This is not freedom. It’s a form of tyranny.

Additional tyranny comes from a corrupt legal system. A spoiled, rotten two-year-old who gets away with anything without consequences, will just get worse in acting out. Children certainly don’t learn good behavior from acclamation for acting out. The same is true when they grow up and commit crimes. Allowing crimes, any crimes, to go unpunished does not reduce crime in the future. It incentivizes crime which is a burden on any society or country.

Can the political left ponder these questions at all? Unfortunately they do not view freedom the same way most Americans do. They believe political structures should create equal outcomes rather than equal opportunities. They view morality and legal decisions as obstacles to what they want. Therefore, they support immoral and authoritarian overreach. It’s no wonder they view the Constitution and Bill of Rights as old fashioned structures that suffocate the living. That’s why it’s impossible to reason with people like that.⁷

Life is not always a bed of roses. Along with good luck comes bad luck. Learning requires mistakes as well as right answers. I’ve had good luck and bad luck. I’ve made good decisions and bad decisions. Because I keep learning with a goal of doing better, I’ve always worked through the bad times by looking forward to a better future.

It’s easy for a democracy to morph into a Nanny State. All it takes is corrupt leadership whose motivation is power and wealth coupled with a stupid electorate that drinks their Kool-Aid. One of our Founding Fathers greatest concerns for our country was what would happen if the mob learned that democracy meant they could vote to receive money from the nation’s treasury. Well, we’re there today and our current government is printing and handing out money right left and center. Unless this stops, the country will be destroyed from within.

To your health.

Ted Slanker

Ted Slanker has been reporting on the fundamentals of nutritional research in publications, television and radio appearances, and at conferences since 1999. He condenses complex studies into the basics required for health and well-being. His eBook, The Real Diet of Man, is available online.

For additional reading:

1. US Lawmakers Divided Over Supreme Court’s Two Major Rulings by Ross Muscato from The Epoch Times

2. What Is Affirmative Action? from Wordnik

3. What Is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion? From McKinsey & Company

4. Corporate Equality Index 2022 from Human Rights Campaign

5. Protecting Congress’ Power of the Purse and the Rule of Law from Budget Committee Democrats, U.S. House of Representative

6. Why Having Good Credit Could Cost You More on a Home Mortgage by Alexis Christoforous from ABC News

7. The Muddled Mindset of Progressivism by J. Peder Zane from American Geatness