Absolute Liberalism...

....corrupts absolutely. The soul, I mean. Excellent analysis is found over at The Brussels Journal; where the laboratory rats may be French but the results are exactly what the Clintons and Obamas would wish for America:

Some time ago, during the demonstrations about the ‘first job contact’ in France, a statistic became ubiquitous in the news reports: three quarters of the French youth aspire for a job in government bureaucracy....But there is something else to be said about the fact that the vast majority of young people in France desire a career whose often main contribution is increased red tape and public debt.

Government bureaucracies, especially bloated ones, have an unparalleled freedom to define the scope and limits of their role and authority; a freedom to ‘produce’ goods and services of their own choosing at their own chosen prices...From this environment of ironclad job security, onerous benefits, light workloads and early retirements emanate the most self-serving occupations.

The young people of France demand those careers without any moral or intellectual reservations. Often this choice is viewed as morally superior to a career in the private sector. This prejudice, where the tax consumer is considered the moral superior to the tax producer is a unique achievement of the welfare state, and representative of the most insidious effect of the welfare state.

It is feared that the welfare state might crowd out philanthropy and good works. That may be true but the more important effect is that it gradually corrupts and alters the meaning of caring, benevolence and common good. It is an Orwellian dystopia where taking is giving and selfishness is altruism.

Hillary and Barack look down upon this landscape and say, "Behold, it is good", and pose policy platforms to install its equal here.

The American people will face a stark choice this November - one with ramifications that can reverberate well past one term (one still sees the felonious mistakes of Jimmy Carter splashed upon the front pages of the newspapers on a daily basis, a generation hence). One hopes, of course, that the coverage evolves a bit past chucking mud on the honorable Mr. McCain while gushing over Obama's winning smile and charming "rhetoric"....