The Nanny of Lake Woebegone

Power Line's Scott Johnson opines on the most recent screed of Minnesota's Chief Scold, the increasingly tedious and obviously socialist Garrison Keillor who explores the subprime mortgage issue (clearly his speciality) and comes to the inevitable conclusion that It's Bush's Fault.

Johnson sums up Keillor's platitudinous gasbagging thusly:

If most Americans are too stupid to understand that the "A" in ARM stands for "adjustable," and that mortgage rates can, in fact, adjust upwards...

...if our business leaders are too greedy to avoid making bad decisions ...

...if we're all somehow left "holding the bag" for problems caused by the aforementioned stupidity and greed...

...then, the logic of Keillor and other Nanny State fans kicks in, like this:

a) We are smart, unlike you;
b) We are free from greed, unlike like you;
c) Therefore, we must save you from yourselves, by regulating more of your life.

Higher taxes? Less freedom? A sclerotic, French-style welfare state? These are but a small price to pay for a total absence of suffering, bad decisions, worry and fear.

Which brings us to a fundamental difference between conservatives and liberals. Conservatives want the freedom to pursue happiness on their own terms. Liberals think they have a right to happiness and that it should be delivered, like a pizza.

Or, for analogy fans:

When you understand this, you understand why the liberal version of the American dream -- no worries, free health care and a guaranteed income, among other things -- would be like living in your parents' basement, for life.

Read the whole thing.