Mid-20th Century Wisdom Can Save Us From 21st Century Folly

(Editor's Note: The following opinion column does not constitute an endorsement of any political party or candidate, on the part of Newsmax.)  

As America’s troubles mount — growing debt, rising prices, immigration crisis, lack of leadership and attacks on our freedoms to mention a few — today’s top conservative leaders are turning to the great thinkers of the mid-20th century for answers — sometimes without even realizing it.

Former Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy made the connection between immigration and entitlements Monday, almost as though he’d discovered something new.

"Shut down the entitlement state & you solve most of the immigration problem right there," he said. "We need to man up & fix the root cause that draws migrants here in the first place: the welfare state. But no one seems to want to say that part out loud, because too many native-born Americans are addicted to it themselves."

There it is — the root cause of the crush of illegal immigration that eluded Vice President Kamala Harris. But a great 20th century American thinker made that connection decades ago — economist Milton Friedman.

In 1976 Friedman was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, and he warned "It's just obvious you can't have free immigration and a welfare state."

Robert Rector, Heritage Foundation senior research fellow for the Center for Health and Welfare Policy, submits that it should apply not only to traditional forms of welfare such as housing and food assistance, but also to any program that redistributes wealth.

So we can have one or the other — open borders or a welfare state — but not both.

At a bare minimum any form of entitlement should be denied to non-citizens.

How about the state of U.S. leadership?

Let’s face it: We’re not being governed by our best and brightest.

When tech entrepreneur Elon Musk was asked last year whether he regretted voting for President Joe Biden, he admitted that "I wish we could just have a normal human being as president."

He continued "there’s that old saying, . . .  'we’re better off being run by people picked at random in the phone book than by the faculty at Harvard.'"

Musk added, "I don’t know who said that, but it was someone very wise."

And so it was.

It was author, commentator, and conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr., who founded National Review in 1955 and hosted "Firing Line" on PBS from 1966 to 1999.

The exact quote was, "I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University."

We’re now being led by career politicians, whose only goal is to win the next election (and will say or do anything to win it), instead of being governed by a "citizen Congress" of ordinary Americans who have an intimate knowledge of life in the "real world."

Then we have human rights issues.

Great Britain came under fire recently for freedom of speech violations — particularly for criticizing their own growing immigration problem.

As an example, an 18-year-old was arrested, tried, and sentenced to more than two years in prison for waving the British flag outside an Islamic center.

Although it’s well and good to call out civil rights violations committed by our allies and adversaries, celebrated mid-20th century newsman Edward R. Murrow believed a caveat should be attached to criticizing other nations.

"We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, defenders of freedom wherever it continues to exist in the world," said Murrow, who won many awards for his CBS News commentary, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964.

He added, "But we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."

And we have deserted freedom at home, according to NewsBusters.

"Big Tech is waging a war on the First Amendment," they reported.

"We've recorded over 7,000 cases of online censorship in our unique database CensorTrack."

Much of Big Tech’s censorship has been encouraged by the Biden-Harris administration, which has also attacked the Second Amendment.

Finally, recent events would suggest that we can’t abandon mid-20th century tech outright either.

A Hurricane Helene survivor and social media influencer who goes by the handle "Bossy_Leah," listed the things that helped her survive the storm — and those that were total duds.

"Things that helped me survive Helene:" she began, and listed them as follows:

• A gas car
• A gas stove
• A gas hot water heater
• A gas chainsaw
• Cash

"Things that are/were useless during Helene:" she continued:

• Electric cars
• Electric appliances
• Debit cards
• The city bus
• The government
• Diversity

On Saturday Leah concluded, "Rednecks with 4x4s and chainsaws are undefeated."

She added, "Damn, I love my people." And she closed with a heart.

New things may be bright, shiny, and nice to look at, but the tried and true of mid-20th century America, when life was civilized and things made sense, are the best, whether it’s solving problems, protecting freedom, or surviving the storm.

Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and a Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.