College Republican Federation of Virginia

As classes start for the fall 2007 semester on college campuses across the country, it hasn’t taken long for the typical blather of liberal “progressivism” to find its way into what otherwise should be politically neutral discussion. Furthermore, as discussions do move into the realm of the political, the narrow mindedness of liberals can shock and astound.

Leaving out names and the like, what started as a typical first-day, syllabus review session in my senior seminar of British Politics quickly turned into a conversation about the virtue of Michael Moore’s new ‘documentary’ (cough-propaganda-cough) and the state of American health care versus that of various European and Australasian countries.

Quick to jump on the bandwagon of the left’s newest brilliant policy idea, universal (read ’socialized’) health care, liberals love embracing the notion of ‘free’ health care without thinking of the ramifications which this would entail.

Praising things like government distributed health care, how doctors really do get paid fairly because they saw the one guy on ‘Sicko,’ government negotiated contracts with pharmaceutical companies, and how the lines at the ER can sometimes be significantly shorter in Europe, people tend to forget the freedoms you give up in exchange for things they believe to be a necessary function of government.

Whilst all of these might seem nice on the outset, when one looks deeper into the consequences, one finds the errors. We must keep in mind that a government in control of the health care of its constituents becomes one that not only serves the people, but also possesses the ability to stifle and control opposition by threatening the restraint of said health care services and the like.

More subtly, one is naturally resistant to question the authority which provides for ones welfare at the cost of other freedoms. Were the United States to become just another welfare state, it could also become a nation of complacency, where citizens ignore the actions of one hand whilst the other gives it free health care and welfare checks. What good is free health care in a country without personal freedom?

Furthermore, with government negotiated contracts in countries such as Australia, (the same negotiations not allowed under the 2005 Medicare changes enacted by the Bush Administration) prices are lowered for companies with whom contracts are made, thus certain companies are endorsed and brought business over others by the government. This not only ensures the collapse of present competition and stifles that of the future, but allows for lax standards and practices to become the norm all the while endangering both the free market and the citizens therein.

Appealing as certain liberal ideas may be on the surface, at college campuses across the nation it is up to conservatives to delve into pesky little things like those ideas’ logistics and consequences in order to debunk the ‘progressivism’ that has become so rampant. Go ahead, stand up to liberal professors and conservative-hating students; show them that we shouldn’t trade our freedom for temporary conveniences and that you don’t have to trade your intellectual freedom for a college education.