Ultimately, the repudiation of individual rights, personal responsibility, and limited government has brought nations and states to the brink of economic insolvency and has severely restricted opportunities for current and future generations. Even worse, it has led to a culture of dependency in which learned helplessness dominates, while the merits of sacrifice, perseverance, and hard work are often trivialized. And finally, it has weakened the connections of community, faith, and family as individuals become alienated from one another in their reliance on the state.
In contrast, the principles of liberty, individual rights, and limited government – though they may be old -- are tried, and true. They are the principles that led to the creation of the most prosperous nation in the history of the world. They are the principles that enabled individuals like Nikki Haley, Mia Love, Marco Rubio, Condoleezza Rice, and even Barack and Michelle Obama to achieve the American Dream. And they are the principles that have inspired millions of immigrants to risk everything to come to our shores because they believed -- in the words of Governor Susana Martinez -- that “en America todo es posible.”
In so far as the president continues to celebrate the repudiation of these principles, it is he who is espousing the failed agenda of the past.