Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a former John Locke Foundation headliner, describes in a new column at Human Events the “tug-of-war going on in America today”:
Tugging on one side are those of us who believe that what made America great is what makes us great today: freedom and all the things that come with it?individualism, self-reliance, limited government, and personal responsibility. These are the sort of values I?m raising my children with. Pulling on the other end are those who see Americans as sheep, lost and helpless souls unable to find their way around our complex world without the enlightened guidance of what David Brooks of the New York Times calls ?the educated class.? How can Americans get along without a much wiser elite to guide us? Our future, they say, lies in becoming more like Western Europe, with the government playing a larger role in our lives. We sheep, they tell us, can?t get along without sheepherders. …
What our government can guarantee is our freedom, the liberty that is the miracle of America. That freedom, if we preserve it, is what guarantees both our prosperity and our safety. As many have noted, that liberty has allowed roughly 4 percent of the world?s people to create approximately 20 percent of the world?s wealth and prosperity. That liberty has allowed millions of Americans to create strong families, prosperous communities, and a powerful and generous country. It has allowed generations of Americans to roll up their sleeves and achieve their dreams. It has allowed us to build the miracle of America, the strongest, safest, and most successful country man has ever known.
