Today’s Editors’ Choice

• Ben Shapiro: How America Lost Its Head
• Marvin J. Folkertsma: America’s Entrenched Media Malpractice
• Ed Feulner: Searching for Self-Reliance

To view all of today’s opinion, click here.

Opinion in Brief

Ed Feulner: “Americans have been sliding into dependency ever since the New Deal began federalizing everyone’s problems, and particularly since Lyndon Johnson launched his so-called ‘Great Society.’ What fell by the wayside was the previous American way of dealing with adversity, the era when people in need turned to the civil society around them — the safety net of families, friends, churches, local doctors, and politicians. All that changed with the proliferation of federal programs doling out benefits on an industrial scale. Federal involvement in everything from retirement (Social Security), health care (Medicare and Medicaid) and education grew by leaps and bounds, making more and more Americans dependent on faceless bureaucrats they never meet. It all adds up to a profound loss of the self-reliance that built this country and made it great. Many of our seemingly benevolent programs succeed only in weakening people and condemning them to endless dependency. This is why conservatives want to cut government down to size. As President Reagan said in his first Inaugural Address, ‘It is not my intention to do away with government. It is, rather, to make it work — work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride our back.’ Critics call that heartless. But to allow our present trajectory to continue unchecked is senseless.”