From: atfurman@cup.portal.com (A T Furman)
Newsgroups: alt.activism
Subject: Re: The Decline of America: "Strong Family Values"
Date: Fri,  2 Oct 92 00:14:31 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

Stewart Rowe writes:

>Maybe I'm paranoid, but I have a nightmare of the Pat Robertson
>"Christian" version of the Ayatollahs' Iran being imposed on us 
>little b y little.

If it does happen, it will be because the "progressives" delivered our
privacy, property, and civil rights to the Bible-thwackers on a silver
platter.

Consider:

1.  Socialized education and scientific research has long been at the
top of the "progressive" agenda.  So now we have universities totally
dependent on Big Brother's grants and subsidies.  When Stuart Reges
sassed the Drug Czar, the jellyfish running Stanford University
sacked him on the spot rather than face the wrath of the "Drug-free
Schools and Workplaces Act".  Meanwhile, back at the human Trabbie
factories (K-12 public schools), all manner of hysterical "DARE"
propaganda is being stuffed down the tykes' throats, to the point that
one recently turned his parents in for possession.  And last but not least,
if you want to do research on the effects of smoking pot, you can't even
get access to the weed grown in a special Federally authorized field
unless the bureaucrats are satisfied that you are adequately biased in
favor of "reefer madness" hysteria.  Can you say, "Lysenkoism"?

2.  Of course, rich or poor, it's always nice to have money.  In the
service of "progressive" egalitarianism, and all-around pork barrel (excuse
me, "public works"), the favorite means has been the most direct: the
outright theft of your income.  Since the income tax in effect turns
making a living into a victimless crime, the State must resort to 
invasions of privacy and violations of civil rights to obtain convictions
(as in victimless crimes generally--especially the War on Drugs).  So
all the bureaucrats, politicians, police agents, prosecutors, and judges
whose salaries, benefits, and pensions are paid for through taxes have
abandoned inconveniences like presumption of innocence and due process.
Through a "jeopardy assessment", the IRS can confiscate your property
(e.g. bank account) before even bringing civil proceedings, let alone
criminal prosecution.  The "progressives" cheered when Big Brother
socked it to those selfish, greedy tax evaders who wouldn't pay Their
Fair Share of taxes.  Now they whine when these precedents are applied
to pretrial (as in, P R O B A B L E   C A U S E) forfeitures in the
War on the Bill of Rights ("War on Drugs").

3.  Regulation has been an obsession of the "progressives" from the start.
The FDA, the high priesthood of regulatory bureaucrats, now has the
power to drive up the cost of introducing a new product by MILLIONS at
the flick of a pinkie.  If you are a pharmaceutical exec, and you point
out how many people the FDA has MURDERED by holding up lifesaving drugs,
you're dead meat.  Your career is finished.  No company wants to be
associated with someone who sassed the FDA.  Of course, you can have all
the First Amendment rights you want, as you find another line of work.
The FDA's power has been near-total since the Thalidomide affair, which
was to the FDA what the Reichstag Fire was to National Socialism.  So
when someone displeases them by importing injectable vitamins from
Europe, they just go ahead and send armed agents to raid their clinic
and hold LOADED WEAPONS on nurses.  The "progressives" then squeal
about how the FDA is suppressing "alternative therapies", but they are
simply getting what they asked for, taken to its logical conclusion.

To sum up:  The essence of the Progressive movement is to turn the
micromanagement of every aspect of education, research, and "commerce"
over to Big Brother, in the process providing Him with as much of the
public's earnings as He can spend.  To the degree they succeed, to precisely
that degree the Religious Right can impose their repressive agenda
on us upon those inevitable occasions when they out-politic their
competition.

The process is happening before our eyes.

It is one reason why I (and many, many Christians too, by the way) support
the libertarian movement.


    Alan T. Furman         | VOTE LIBERTARIAN!!  Marrou/Lord in 92!!
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