Lost in the Shuffle

I read the following in Nullifying Tyranny: “Many may enter politics thinking that they will use their office to ‘do good’ or ‘help the unfortunate,” neither of which is the legitimate role of government.”

Let’s discuss the first part: the “doing good” part. It seems to have started (unless I missed something somewhere) with the Depression. Amity Shlaes has a great book you should read—it’s called The Forgotten Man. She tells the story of the origin of the “forgotten man.” In the late 1800s a Yale philosopher named William Graham Sumner wrote about how “well-intentioned social progressives often coerced unwitting average citizens into funding dubious social projects. Sumner wrote: ‘As soon as A observes something which seems to him to be wrong, from which X is suffering, A talks it over with B, and A and B then propose to get a law passed to remedy the evil and help X. Their law always proposes to determine. . .what A, B, and C shall do for X.’ But what about C?” Shlaes asks. “There was nothing wrong with A and B helping X. What was wrong was the law, and the indenturing of C to the cause. C was the forgotten man, the man who paid, ‘the man who never is thought of.’”

Remember: C = the Forgotten Man.

Now, fast-forward to 1932, when “a member of Roosevelt’s brain trust, Ray Moley, recalled the phrase, although not its provenance. He inserted it into the candidate’s first great speech. If elected, Roosevelt promised, he would act in the name of ‘the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.’ Whereas C had been Sumner’s forgotten man, the New deal made X the forgotten man—the poor man, the old man, labor, or any other recipient of government help.”

Do you see it? Now X = the Forgotten Man. In the 1800s the guy who paid for all the unconstitutional social programs was the forgotten man. By the 1930s, however, social progressives had made the guy who received all the unconstitutional social programs the new FM. Do you see why there’s a feeling of powerlessness?

The Kennedy brothers refer to the FM in their book. They define the FM as “‘We the people’ who do not have political power at the Federal level.” Like Shlaes, they argue the Forgotten Men are “the ones who pay taxes that are used to finance a government whose agenda all too often centers on programs and policies that are detrimental to Christian values.” And the Kennedys argue that liberalism itself is immoral. They make the point on page 69: they rightly state that liberal programs, which the government uses to rob the politically unconnected for the sake of the politically connected, are immoral.

Any social program that coerces C to pay for X is immoral. It’s theft, and it’s intimidation, and it threatens punishment for something C should never be forced to do.

That’s why the “I’m just here to do good” argument is weak, and ultimately a danger to our liberty. Ronald Reagan said the nine most terrifying words are these: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” The government’s role is not to help the underprivileged and prop up those who “need” government-granted social benefits.

Which are you: Forgotten Man C or Forgotten Man X? I’m a C, and I’m sick of X.