Last night Harry Reid had this to say about the procedural vote on his health insurance reform bill:

“Today we vote whether to even discuss one of the greatest issues of our generation – indeed, one of the greatest issues this body has ever face: whether this nation will finally guarantee its people the right to live free from the fear of illness and death, which can be prevented by decent health care for all.”

The above passage from Reid’s comments is, of course, meaningless political babble. There is nothing that the government can do to “guarantee its people the right to live free from the fear of illness and death.” It is dim-witted hyperbole to argue that a government insurance plan can eliminate fear of these constant human companions. Furthermore it is corruption of the meaning of the word “right” to argue that there exists a right to be free of fear of illness, death or anything else. Fear is an integral part of the human condition and there exists no right toe be free of it.

In fact, fear is healthy. Fear drives us. Fear causes us to work to protect our interests, our families and ourselves. Life is a series of fears faced and overcome. Fear has many uses but cowardice has none.

Reid appeals to cowardice. He decries the challenges of life faced by the citizenry as unfair and argues that the people must be cared for as children. The hapless people of his state and the nation, he argues, are scared and their fears must be assuaged, not through their own work, intelligence and industry, but through new legislation. Reid believes it is better that the citizenry be dependent than fearful. He sees the people, not as free citizens capable of their own care, but as hapless wards in need of guardianship.

“Around dining room tables in Nevada and across the nation, families are agonizing over what to sacrifice next to buy health insurance. They are questioning whether to fill a prescription or go without it and hope for the best.”

Other than changing standard description of the “kitchen table” as the gathering point of the anxious family, the statist narrative is familiar: Citizens – really no more than helpless children – need government support to survive. Reid is only too willing to provide support and, in so doing, impose upon them a profound dependency.

With freedom comes responsibility and with responsibility comes fear. Government programs designed to reduce fear do so at the expense of responsibility and, therefore, freedom and liberty. Reid preposterously promised an absence from fear of illness and death. This is a ludicrous proposition but, nevertheless, he will attempt to purchase the end of fear at the cost of freedom. Every statist promise to reduce fear and provide safety and comfort comes with a heavy cost: a loss of freedom and individual liberty. Selling freedom to purchase comfort is cowardice pure and simple. The brave prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery. Reid’s promise is an appeal to cowardice.

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition. ~Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 19, 1787

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