Not this guy again.

Some people just never learn to keep their mouths shut. 

Q: What do you say to religious conservatives who argue that those kind of biblical exhortations [stewardship of universal health care and climate change: Ed.] are directed at individuals, not the government?

[James Clyburn: Ed.]: What is the government if it's not individuals acting collectively on behalf of the common good? That's what we are. So I would not argue with that point. I would agree.

This is so wrong on so many levels I don't even know where to begin. It's utterly amazing the amount of stupidity this moron packs into 31 words. 

No. Government is most certainly not a collection of individuals acting collectively on behalf of the common good. Nowhere in any founding document of which I am aware does it even remotely suggest that this is what Government is. 

Government is a necessary evil that is comprised of individuals acting in accordance with a very strict and limited set of guidelines. They have no power outside of those precepts adopted by the whole of the people. They definitely don't have the power to act in any way on what they perceive to be "the common good". Any such action is tyranny, by definition.

Also, even assuming for the moment that Clyburn was right that "the common good" was a proper sphere in which Government could operate he would still be wrong because "common" is another word for "majority" in this context. How could it not be? Even if we were to agree that Government had a role in acting for "the common good", everything Clyburn does would be in direct contradiction to that term because sizable majorities of the people of this Country oppose his ideology.

So what Clyburn means is that he thinks he's a disciple sent to Washington to impose his will on the majority based on nothing more than what he thinks is the "common good". This is the power that corrupts and in Clyburn's case, it has corrupted absolutely.

Anyway, this might be the starkest example I've heard this year of the historical and philosophical ignorance of the Left. It is also the most succinct representation of why liberals behave as they do. They see themselves not as temporary stewards of their offices operating under the Supreme Law of the Land at the pleasure of the people, but rather as anointed demigods sent to the mountaintop to dictate the lives of the unwashed masses.

What's truly depressing is that James Clyburn probably actually believes this nonsense and he's probably willing to infect the younger generations with the virus. 

Finally, if all the Government is is a collection of individuals acting for the common good, why the hell do we need elected officials in the first place? Why can't we just disband Congress entirely and let collections of individuals act on behalf of the common good?

Clyburn doesn't want you to answer that question.

Russ