Larry Elder - Showdown: Confronting Bias, Lies and the Special Interests That Divide America

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Contents

To Viola and Randolph, my mom and dad

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to thank my first and best role modelsmy mom and dad, Viola and Randolphfor their hard work and sacrifice.

I want to again thank my excellent, diligent, and loyal staff, led by Dana S. Riley, and her assistants Pinky Winters-Hardaway and Jennifer Hardaway.

I also want to thank Jasmine Takeshita for encouraging me to do Moral Court, and her steadfast belief in my vision, and in me.

Thanks once again to attorney James Wilcox for reviewing the manuscript and making suggestions, and also to Justin Gelfand for pitching in at the last minute.

And finally, I wish to again thank my wise and patient editor, Elizabeth Beier, for agreeing to tee it up one more time.

PREFACE

On September 11, 2001, our government failed to live up to its most important responsibilityto protect its citizens. It failed because the federal government uses its $2 trillion budget to meddle in our personal and financial affairs and to provide goods and services that Americans can and should provide for themselves.

A federal government that promises education, health care, and retirement neglects its most sacred obligationto protect its citizens from foreign and domestic enemies.

America has become a nation of excuse-making, blame-pointing, government-dependent peoplevicticrats. Our victicrat nation hurts our war against terrorism. We fight this war on several frontsmilitary, political, diplomatic, and financial. But we also must engage in a domestic war against the welfare statethe victicrat mindset that says government knows best, and that has created a citizenry increasingly less inclined to accept personal responsibility.

After September 11 Americans asked, Why do so many hate us? Showdown traces the roots of Arab-Muslim resentment toward Israel, the United States, and the West. Ignorance, envy, jealousy, and scapegoatingand an Arab victicrat mind-setcaused the September 11 terrorist attacks.

A nation divided by special interests screams, Life is unfair; The rich get richer while the poor get poorer; Big business and multinational corporations exploit the poor, powerless workers. Nonsense. But the us-against-them nature of the mostly liberal mainstream media helps to support and advance this mind-set. Showdown reveals how the media misleads and confuses us on issues ranging from global warming to the fact of racial profiling. Similarly, a left-leaning academia converts our children into uncritical supporters of the welfare state. This book asks Americans to roll back the modern welfare state. The Founding Fathers envisioned a country whose citizens provide for themselvesand for each otherto the fullest extent possible. A self-sufficient society that assumes personal responsibility is not only more prosperous but more humane.

Showdown explains how people can and would cope better in a world without a government-provided so-called social safety net. The Founding Fathers clearly established a limited federal government. They assumed a society smart enough, mature enough, and moral enough to run its own affairs. This book shows that they were right.

Federal government involvement in spending our nations health-care dollars virtually guarantees that the number of uninsured Americans goes up. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ensures safe medicines. But the FDA stops or delays promising drugs from going to market, causing more deaths and greater suffering. The Federal Aviation Administration guarantees safe air transportation. But inefficient government management of airports and air traffic control systems creates delays and compromises safety. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) claims it levels the playing field in hiring and promotion. But threats of lawsuits from women and minorities make private employers skittish about hiring the very people the government designed the EEOC to help.

Showdown exposes the feminist, black, and civil rights leadership that cripples blacks and other underrepresented minorities by supporting unfair programs like affirmative action and insultingly pushes for reparations for slavery. This book exposes how black racism makes society worse off and paves the way for black leadership to replace affirmative action with affirmative attitude. It also shows whites and other nonblacks how to fight unfair charges of racism.

Showdown also explores the who, what, when, where, and why of a free society. Without a federal Environmental Protection Agency, how can we ensure a clean and safe environment? Assume the elimination of the Internal Revenue Service. How would the government fulfill its limited constitutional duties and obligations? If all states allowed citizens to carry concealed weapons, how could we prevent guns from getting into the hands of bad guys? If government did not force savings through Social Security, wouldnt we have irresponsible seniors sleeping on storefronts and diving in dumpsters? If taxpayers didnt provide public education, how would poor people afford their kids schooling? Without a federal Occupational Safety and Hazard Agency, how would it be possible to police unscrupulous, exploitative employers who force employees to work under dangerous, unsanitary conditions?

A world of limited government and maximum personal responsibility scares people. Showdown says: Do not fear a country that trusts its people, that refuses to rob its citizens of their income and their freedoms. History shows Americans are good enough, smart enough, competent enough, and forward-thinking enough to control their own lives with little government interference. Government now takes about forty percent of our national income. This is an assault on the very principles of the Constitution that set forth a small, limited federal government that trusts its citizens with their money, their freedom, and their spirit.

Showdown says that while the countrys two major political parties differ in rhetoric, their behavior endorses the growth and expansion of the welfare state. Showdown urges all Americans to renounce the welfare state, the status quo, and the collectivism of todays mainstream political parties. Showdown is a challenge to you to vote your conscience, stand up for your principles, and fight for a limited, responsible government that trusts its people.

LIBERAL FASCISM

Stealing Freedom With Compassion

Against individualism, the Fascist conception is for the State; and it is for the individual in so far as he coincides with the State. Liberalism denied the State in the interests of the particular individual; Fascism reaffirms the State as the true reality of the individual.

BENITO MUSSOLINI, FASCISM: FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C. S. LEWIS

Every day, well-meaning liberals sacrifice Americas freedom under the guise of benevolent protection. The United States faces real danger in following this perilous pathwhere liberalism quietly, softly, and sneakily becomes fascism.