LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

U

Search

Many Voices, One Freedom: United in the 1st Amendment

March 28, 2024

M

Menu

!

Menu

Your Source for Free Speech, Talk Radio, Podcasts, and News.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

This is a case study in “Socialist Compulsion Policies” versus classic American voluntary Do It Yourself.

Joseph Wulfsohn reported on Fox News on June 4 that “Matt Walsh launches fundraiser for AOC’s ‘abuela’ after Dem blamed Trump for home damage from Hurricane Maria.” AOC tweeted that she visited her grandmother (Abuela in Spanish) in Puerto Rico. The roof was leaking, and buckets caught the leaks. Predictably, she blamed Donald Trump: “Hurricane María relief hasn’t arrived. Trump blocked relief $ for PR.

Her solution? “We immediately got to work reaching out to community advocates and leaders and following the money.” In other words, more government activities and government investigations.

Let’s take a deeper dive into this specific Orwellian memory hole. According to a BuzzFeed January 19, 2020 post,

Puerto Ricans have been accusing their government of withholding and mismanaging disaster relief supplies and funds for years. About a year, after two powerful hurricanes slammed the island in 2017, killing nearly 2,000 people and leveling entire neighborhoods, videos posted by Radio Isla showed about 10 shipping containers full of food, water, and baby supplies meant for storm victims rotting at an election commissions office.

Hurricane Maria relief arrived a long time ago. It has been rotting in warehouses mismanaged by the Puerto Rican government. Trump doesn’t manage those warehouses.

The Root Cause? Government Bureaucracy 

So the root cause is government bureaucratic mismanagement. AOC’s solution? More government. The common-sense approach I learned long ago is “When what you are doing doesn’t work, don’t do the same thing harder. Try something different.”

While AOC wants to do the same thing harder (more government), enter Matt Walsh with a direct DIY (Do It Yourself) approach. He started a Go Fund Me page for AOC’s grandmother and raised $100,000 in less than 12 hours. More than enough money to repair the roof. Private voluntary action solved the problem in 12 hours. The Puerto Rican government hasn’t solved it in three years. 

Voluntary Action vs. Government Compulsion

Matt Walsh took voluntary action. He was a leader. Others followed his lead and voluntarily contributed money. Now there is enough money to solve the problem for AOC’s Abuela. Matt forced no one. He contributed $499 of his own money. He did not propose raising taxes on everyone else to fund a new government program of “Abuela-Care.”  

This is the classic American voluntary “barn-raising” approach to helping those in need. You see a person in need. You help. Do It Yourself vs. Government “Make Everybody Else Do It For You.” 

In the name of ‘compassion,’ AOC and fellow Socialists want to confiscate your money by adding more taxes and distribute it as they see fit. You see the typical result here: food rotting in warehouses because of government bureaucracy. Bureaucrats didn’t pay for it themselves, so they aren’t concerned with the waste of rotting food intended as hurricane and earthquake relief. 

The Substitution of Government for Family 

“We take care of our own” used to be the motto of families. Now the knee-jerk response is, “let the Government do it. That’s why we pay taxes.” Notice that this is AOC’s response. Matt Walsh pointed out that his donation of $499 is one month’s lease payment on a luxury Tesla Model 3 like the one AOC drives. She drives in luxury while her grandmother’s roof leaks. She takes no responsibility. In effect, AOC is saying that taking care of her grandmother is your job, an American taxpayer, not hers. 

AOC blames others for her grandmother’s roof but does nothing herself. Matt Walsh does something himself. AOC wants taxpayer coercively funded government action. Matt Walsh took direct action with his own money.

Which one is more compassionate? Which one cares more about family? Which approach gets the job done? Which approach requests your voluntary help, and which approach forces you to help?

DIY is Distinctly American

Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville toured America in 1831. In his book Democracy in America, de Tocqueville wrote, “Wherever at the head of some undertaking you see the government in France, or a man of rank in England, in the United States you will be sure to find an association.” Meaning an association of individuals taking voluntary action to solve a problem or further a cause. Not government forcing you. Not “a man of rank,” a duke or baron asserting the elitist privilege to tell you what to do. A voluntary association of individuals. 

Matt Walsh, de Tocqueville would be proud of you. You are following a distinctly American tradition of voluntary DIY response to a need.

Image: Reuters

MANY VOICES, ONE FREEDOM: UNITED IN THE 1ST AMENDMENT

Join our community: Your insights matter. Contribute to the diversity of thoughts and ideas.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Sitewide Newsfeed

More Stories
.pp-sub-widget {display:none;} .walk-through-history {display:none;} .powerpress_links {display:none;} .powerpress_embed_box {display:none;}
Share via
Copy link