Was Lincoln's quote about government hypocritical?
Toward the end of his State of the Union speech, President Obama quoted Abraham Lincoln: "government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more.鈥� But Lincoln was among history's most aggressive expanders of the reach of the federal government.
Toward the end of his State of the Union speech, President Obama quoted Abraham Lincoln: "government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more.鈥� But Lincoln was among history's most aggressive expanders of the reach of the federal government.
Toward the end of his State of the Union speech, President Obama said 鈥淚 believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: That government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more.鈥� Apparently, he didn鈥檛 note the immense irony of those words on the lips of one of American history鈥檚 most aggressive expanders of the scope and reach of the federal government, or the cognitive dissonance between that claim and the preceding substantial laundry list of things he wanted to do for (and to) Americans.
But the huge gap between the Presidents limited government words and his expansive government actions shows how limited is the power of such words to constrain centralized power and control. Ritual obeisance to the rhetoric can simply be combined with inconsistent behavior, and his inflation of government even further past any defensible claim of advancing the general welfare is defined out of existence.
Fortunately, this issue has already been considered. In his 1969 Let Freedom Reign, Leonard Read wrote about a loophole in the limited government formulation that now allows President Obama to eviscerate any such limitation. His depressingly current chapter on 鈥淕overnmental Discipline鈥� merits careful consideration.
By asserting his devotion to limited government in his State of the Union address, President Obama seems to be trying to blunt criticism of how untrue that statement is. He mouths the same words as those who are truly concerned about limiting over-reach of government, but he clearly means something else than they do. It reminds me of some other words of Abraham Lincoln:
We all declare for liberty, but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men鈥檚 labor. Here are two, not only different but incompatible things.