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Popularity of Politicians, Health Care, Global Warming, School Sports

By Theresa Camoriano

Popularity – It seems that the popularity of all politicians, from President Bush, to Congress, to Kentucky’s governor, has tanked.  The people are tired of political games, corruption, and scandals.  Of course, the people are right, but what are they going to do about it?

          The problem, as Lord Acton stated many years ago, is that power corrupts.  We have given the government too much power and expected it to do things it was never meant to do, so we should not be surprised that the excessive power has led to corruption or that the government has not been able to solve all our problems. 

The answer is not to keep looking for the uncorruptible  politician, since such a person does not exist, or to pile even more responsibilities onto the government, but rather to reduce the government’s power and thus the opportunity for corruption.

          In Kentucky, we have a candidate for the office of Treasurer who wants to do just that.  Melinda Wheeler wants to be elected Treasurer in order to eliminate that office.  What a great idea!  Her article is in this week’s issue of Jefferson Review, and I hope you will check it out.

          As far a presidential candidates go, I am listening for those who want the federal government to stick to its limited role under the Constitution and for those who believe in federalism – leaving most of the power in the hands of the states and the people. 

Health Care – We recently have had an extended period of hot weather over much of the United States, but we have not heard of people dropping like flies as a result.  When France had similar weather a few years ago, about 13,000 people died because they were turned away by hospitals.  So which is better, a kind and gentle socialist place like France, that has “universal health care”, or a brutal, capitalist place like the U.S.?

Global Warming – More and more evidence is coming in that Al Gore’s theory about large temperature increases caused by human activity is baloney.  (Check out the “recent articles” section of this week’s Jefferson Review to see some of the latest insights by scientists into the “global warming” debate.)

Those of us who really care about the environment and about the quality of human life ought to care about the truth and about how we should use our resources to reduce poverty and improve the environment in which people live.  The route Al Gore proposes would result in great increases in poverty and human suffering without doing anything to improve the environment.  It might feel good if you don’t think about it very much, but it would be a very bad move.

School sports – Many folks in Kentucky’s public schools are upset because they often are beaten in sports by private schools.  They say the private schools can recruit from larger areas, that they can give scholarships to good athletes, that it is unfair, and so forth.  They are proposing all kinds of restrictions that would end up punishing innocent student athletes.

Of course, the public schools have most of the advantages in that they provide a “free” education while private school students have to pay twice – once in taxes to support the public schools and then again for tuition to the private schools.  But if the public schools want to “level the playing field”, all they need to do is allow every student in Kentucky the freedom to attend any public school of their choice.  Or are they really just afraid of competition?

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