Our soon to be ex-president is always a big one to highlight heroes in his speeches. He often uses them as props and human shields to mask his agenda of scamming the country's wealth and invading our privacy. It is puzzling that he didn't even mention the heroes in New York yesterday afternoon who without a second thought sprang into action to rescue the passengers of the US Airways flight that had crash landed in the Hudson River.
Ferry pilots, small craft owners and their passengers and crew headed toward the downed jet and immediately began taking aboard the stranded passengers on the wings of the plane. That act reminded me of how basically good people are. That goodness shined through and it betrays the basic political tennent of the conservatives.
Leave it to me to find political significance in this event, but it was so obvious I couldn't avoid it.
Here is the deal. Conservatives believe that the basic of human nature is to turn toward evil. Therefore people always need a strong paternal hand to keep the populous law abiding. It's the "strong father" model of government, and though the GOP rails against big government they love the paternalistic approach to governing. Father always knows best whether its Uncle Sam or big business, its a top down approach.
Liberals believe in the basic goodness of people. Government is there to create a safe place for them to thrive and grow. A nurturing parent model wold be the best analogy. If a populace is free from oppression and has its basic needs met, the good human nature of the people will make it a great country.
Both those definitions are very simplistic, but the underlying premise is true. What happened on the Hudson yesterday shows that basic goodness. It was not just a display of how New Yorker's pull together, but a display of how people care for each other even if they are strangers.
It is that basic goodness that makes us a great country.
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