United Liberty

Could they at least get an original name?

On Monday afternoon, MoveOn.org and Rebuild the Dream announced a campaign to build up a popular movement that could match (if not surpass) the debt reduction crowd in both size and energy. And they have borrowed a concept from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) as their organizing principle.

The campaign, led by Van Jones, President of Rebuild the Dream; Justin Ruben, Executive Director of MoveOn.org; and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), among others, is debuting a new Contract for the American Dream. They describe it as “a progressive economic vision crafted by 125,000 Americans … to get the economy back on track.” Its debut will involve a nationwide day of action, as well as an ad in The New York Times to run sometime this week, organizers said.

This “Contract” is very illustrative of the core tenets of modern liberalism – that it is the government that drives the economy, and that the government has every right to commandeer your money if it believes it has a better means of using it. Remember that the government is not some abstract and omniscient system; it is merely a group of power-hungry individuals with enough naivete to believe they know more than the rest of us:

The basic premise of the campaign is that America isn’t broke, it’s merely imbalanced. In order to stabilize the economy, politicians should make substantial investments in infrastructure, energy, education and the social safety net, tax the rich, end the wars, and create a wider revenue base through job creation.

“Many of our best workers are sitting idle, while the work of rebuilding America goes undone,” reads one bullet point of the Contract. “Together, we must rebuild our country, reinvest in our people and jump-start the industries of the future. Millions of jobless Americans would love the opportunity to become working, tax-paying members of their communities again. We have a jobs crisis, not a deficit crisis.”

It is very telling that the Contract emphasizes Americans’ desire to become “tax-paying members of their communities” as though the American Dream is to acquire enough wealth so as to afford to pay your taxes. These people are so impertinent as to view paying taxes as a civic duty, something one should be proud to partake in.

According to the Contract, those who have acquired a great deal of money and wealth via voluntary and mutually beneficial transactions, should “give back” to America, despite the fact that they did not “take” anything from anyone:

AMERICA IS NOT BROKE. America is rich – still the wealthiest nation ever. But too many at the top are grabbing the gains. No person or corporation should be allowed to take from America while giving little or nothing back. The super-rich who got tax breaks and bailouts should now pay full taxes – and help create jobs here, not overseas.Those who do wellinAmerica should do well by America.

Herein lies another central facet of the progressive liberal philosophy – that the government is not broke so long as there are those from whom they can pilfer.