Gerson, Coburn, and the Role of Government
Posted by Mike | May 15, 2008 | |
Michael Gerson wrote a despicable column yesterday bashing a group of Senators he calls the “Coburn 7″ for blocking an AIDS relief bill. According to Gerson:
The seven, led by Coburn, complain that the reauthorization is too costly. They object to “mission creep” — the funding of “food, water, treatment of other infectious diseases, gender empowerment programs, poverty alleviation programs” — as though people surviving on AIDS treatment do not need to eat, work or get their TB treated. … For all of conservatism’s evident virtues, it can have one furtive, seedy vice: A justified suspicion of government can degenerate into an anti-government ideology — rigid, stingy and indifferent to human suffering
This is hardly the case and Gerson knows it. Being anti-government is not the same as being stingy. After all, so-called conservatives give more to charity than liberals. And the people in Africa suffering from AIDS are indeed a worthwhile charity. But there’s no reason government should be the primary instrument of assistance.
But for Gerson, the test of a government involvement seems to be whether or not it will help people and save lives. If that is the only test, our body politic is doomed to failure. There will always be more pain and suffering in the world than we are capable of healing. And our attempt at solutions will inevitably create their own, new problems to solve.
While this way of thinking about government makes Gerson feel good about himself, it is cancerous and morally irresponsible! And yet, our entire government is driven by this sort of thinking. At least the Coburn 7 are asking us to govern with our brains and not our hearts. It’s about #&$% time.
Tags: Charity > Government > Michael Gerson > Political Theory > Tom Coburn
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3 Responses to “Gerson, Coburn, and the Role of Government”
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May 16th, 2008 @ 6:23 pm
[...] Michael Gerson - Tom Coburn blogging: Weekly Standard / A Chicago Blog / Madison Project / Robert Stacy McCain These icons link to social bookmarking sites where [...]
March 6th, 2009 @ 5:45 am
‘There will always be more pain and suffering in the world than we are capable of healing.’ There is no way to disagree with that. But it doesn’t mean that we can’t help other people and sleep well when others are suffering. So, judgng government is not all right but it could do something. We all are a bif family.
April 24th, 2009 @ 1:55 pm
This brings up some really good points. If the government was looked down upon for every cause it couldn’t help, we would be in huge trouble!