I Plead the 13th!

Scott Bushee

Did anyone happen to catch the State of the Union address last week? More importantly, did anyone happen to catch the party of the guy who was doing all of the talking?

I mean, what is up with Bush? Seems that, just a few years ago, Republicans were elected by talking about cutting idiotic government programs, not massively increasing them.

Take, for example, the new domestic peace corps, Americorps. That's a Clintonism if I ever heard one. Instead of killing this program, Bush wants to enlarge it.

Unfortunately, no government program stays as is. It is in their nature to expand beyond their original function. I guarantee that by the 2008 elections, this issue will mutate from a touchy-feely, compassionate-conservative, help-your-neighbor and be-a-patriot to a mandatory one or two years of community service for all Americans.

Impossible, you say. The 13th Amendment specifically states, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime. . . shall exist within the United States." So? Some schools already require service for graduation.

So why is this farce happening? Because both sides want it. Ever since Goldwater lost in 1964, the Republicans have slowly turned into Democrats. "Conservatives" now try to conserve the big government of Johnson and FDR, not the free republic of Jefferson and Washington. And the left, well, the left has been preaching slavery since Marx. Sure, they dress it up, they give it fancy titles like "the greater good" or "from each according to ability to each according to need," but when we cut to the core of the issue, forcibly taking the labor of one and giving it to another is slavery, just as it was when white folks took the labor of black folks.

And that is what "redistribution of wealth" is. It is taking, by force (taxes), the wealth (the income, the wage, the labor) of one and giving it to another. If I attempted to 'redistribute' your wealth, I would be a thief, and I would go to jail.

Ah, they say, this is different. You have to think of the big picture. This is for the good of society as a whole.

So what? Society isn't a thing. It is just a bunch of people. What is wrong for one to do to another doesn't become right when a bunch of people do it, it becomes more wrong.

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Scott Bushee can be reached at: [email protected]

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