Monthly Archives: May 2011

Historic Views on Government – Kirkpatrick

Honest opinion about government from Jeane Kirkpatrick:

The fact is that government cannot produce equality, and any serious effort to do so can destroy liberty and other social goods.

[B]ecause regulation uses the coercive power of government to alter outcomes, it diminishes individual liberty: people are persuaded by the threat of sanctions to act differently than they would otherwise prefer.
   Dictatorships and Double Standards, 1982

A former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and syndicated columnist, Jeane Kirkpatrick is the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1985) and the author of such books as Political Woman (1974), Dictatorships and Double Standards (1982), The Reagan Phenomenon (1982), and The Withering Away of the Totalitarian State (1990).

Quotation and short bio from The Quotable Conservative: The Giants of Conservatism on Liberty, Freedom, Individual Responsibility, and Traditional Values. Rod L. Evans and Irwin M. Berent, editors. Holbrook, Mass.: Adams Publishing, 1996.

Historic Views on Government – Pat Buchanan

Honest opinion about government from Pat Buchanan:

When one reflects upon conditions in those societies where government controls four-fifths of the economy, and government devotes itself to the material and moral uplift of the people, it is not difficult to conclude with Dr. [Samuel] Johnson that "a man is never more innocently involved than in the making of money."

Consider the minimum wage. For many years, conservative economists have argued that the correlation between a high minimum wage and high unemployment among the unskilled is absolute. Others contend that increasing the minimum wage not only prices the least able out of the job market, but threatens others, because of the incentive it provides to automation. Still others view rapid advances in the minimum wage as socially devastating in the inner city, especially to black teenagers who need work experience infinitely more than they need the higher wage few employers will pay a seventeen-year-old.
   In brief, the minimum wage is anything but a simple issue. Yet, what comes across the networks is that, "Senator Kennedy and the Democrats called today for a 20-cent increase in the minimum wage; the Republican Administration, however, is opposed, arguing that raising the income of the poorest-paid workers will mean added unemployment."
   Conservative Votes, Liberal Victories, 1975

Pat Buchanan, who has an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, has been an editorial writer, a political speech writer, a special assistant (and executive assistant) to President Richard Nixon, a columnist, and a 1992 Republican presidential candidate. He has regularly appeared on cable-TV political shows, including "Crossfire," "The McLaughlin Group," and "Capital Gang." Besides his columns, he is known for his books, such as The New Majority (1973), Conservative Votes, Liberal Victories (1975), Right from the Beginning (1988, 1990), and America Asleep (1991).

Quotation and short bio from The Quotable Conservative: The Giants of Conservatism on Liberty, Freedom, Individual Responsibility, and Traditional Values. Rod L. Evans and Irwin M. Berent, editors. Holbrook, Mass.: Adams Publishing, 1996.