One of my life long friends, a card carrying conservative, stated during one of his rants that Obama wants Americans to live in a Nanny State. This is a Fox News induced fantasy. We know that this Nanny State is nothing but nonsense.
Here’s what I know. I need a federal government that is strong enough to protect every American’s right to vote. I know that there are powerful forces (Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina) who would rather that I shut up and sit down. As an American, it is my right to vote and it needs to be protected. We have seen elaborate plans to make me vote on the wrong day, to induce me to vote at the wrong location, to make voting very uncomfortable as I wait in long lines and, finally, really, to make my vote meaningless. These injustices need to stop. If protecting my right to vote makes America a Nanny State, so be it.
We have all read about the South Korean Airliner which crashed in San Francisco. Every time there is a near miss or a crash there is a huge federal investigation. Through rules and regulations we have made air travel safe. Planes crashes are now rare. This is a good thing. Is every rule and regulation perfect? No. These are man-made things. Nothing that we do is perfect, nor should we expected them to be.
In 2007 and 2008, we had the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. This was a man-made problem. Millions of Americans suffered because of the greed of a few. If we truly had a Nanny State, this could not have happened. The government would have protected us from Wall Street stupidity and re-instated Glass-Steagall. If we truly had a Nanny State, the government would have worked quickly to put every American who wanted to work back in a job, but that didn’t happen. If we had a Nanny State, individual Americans who suffered would have been made whole and the companies that caused the crisis would have made to pay for the problems they caused.
The Nanny State is this terrifying mythical creature created by Fox News. The US government is our own creation. Our government employs Americans and not Russians or aliens bent on the destruction of the United States. It is time that we stop stupid catch phrases and start finding solutions to our problems. (BTW, vouchers aren’t the solution to any of our problems!!!)
What are your thoughts?
We only have a Nanny State when it comes to the struggles of the big banks on Wall St. The US Federal Gov’t has done everything it possibly can to nurse the banks back to health, and notably very little to improve the economic situation of working class people who have suffered tremendously in the last 5 years.
I think that
you either misunderstand the concept of “nanny state” or are suffering from FDS, Fox Derangement
Syndrome.
Nanny state
is a term coined by British politicians a few decades ago [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanny_state]. When people, or at least I, use the term Nanny State, we accuse the state
of making decisions for people and families that should be left to them.
I don’t
think that we have a Nanny State at the federal level but we do have political
Nannies that have been successful certain localities. The best known is Mayor Bloomberg of New York
who has earned the nickname Nurse Bloomberg for his war against fats and soda.
Regulating
air travel and protecting voter rights is a proper role for government.
However, government becomes Super Nanny when she bans 20 ounce Dr. Peppers,
monitors school lunches and invitations to school parties (anti-bullying laws).
Texas Psych I think that you need to chat with some of your fellow conservatives. They call anything that they don’t like Nanny State.
More later. Thanks for your thoughts.
This was sent by https://www.facebook.com/matt.rawlings.50 (can’t get my facebook comments to roll over here) – We only have a Nanny State when it comes to the struggles of the big banks on Wall St. The US Federal Gov’t has done everything it possibly can to nurse the banks back to health, and notably very little to improve the economic situation of working class people who have suffered tremendously in the last 5 years.
Oh, let me say that welfare for corporations doesn’t count.