Hillary Revealed

Hillary Clinton, speaking in San Francisco on Monday:

"Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you," Sen. Clinton said. "We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

Now, we all know this is the philosophy of the left, but rarely has it been so plainly spoken.

We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.

Naturally, "the common good" is not defined, because it must be constantly expanded to maintain demand for bigger government and more beurocracy.

If this philosophy were to take hold in a majority of politicians, it would signal the end of all property rights in America. If the government had the power to take things away for such vague platitudes as "the common good," you would only own property until the government said you didn't own it, i.e., until a politician decided they wanted it for their own, for whatever reason they could devise. Welcome to Amerika, Comrade.

6/30/04 Update: As usual, Boortz has it nailed:

There are several basic elements of the liberal faith exposed in Hillary's threat. (And yes, it was a threat.) The two most important elements were that all wealth belongs to the government and that the lives of individuals must be controlled by government. The government demonstrates its ownership of all wealth by determining how it is to be "distributed," and its ownership of individuals by controlling aspects of our private lives.

The Imperial Federal government, under the control of such worthy people as Hillary, decides what portion of the wealth that we have earned it will "give" us. You've heard liberals refer to tax breaks as "giveaways" to the rich. You and I know that a tax break doesn't "give" anything to the rich. It merely allows the high producers to keep more of what they worked for and earned. But to Hillary and her leftist friends, all that you earn actually belongs to government ... so, to them, it is a giveaway. [...]

And now we have Hillary proudly and arrogantly announcing that the government is going to seize property from individuals for "the common good." Don't ignore the message here. You are not a free individual. You exist to serve the state. Hillary is here to show you the way.