Yesterday a caller to Michael Medved asserted that most Americans are not free, because freedom requires wealth, and wealth is concentrated in the hands of a very few. Medved countered (correctly) that freedom is opportunity, and that still exists in abundance in this country, although there are greater government restrictions on freedom every year. He also pointed out that someone else's wealth is not a limitation to your opportunity, and that most poverty in America is among recent immigrants and the very young. Statistically, there are very few people over 40 who qualify as "poor," implying that they had found opportunities, used them, and succeeded.
The caller then went on to extol the "successes" (he actually used that word) of twentieth century leaders like Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse-Tung for "equalizing opportunity" and improving the economies of Russia and China. Medved thought he was joking, at first. Further discussion proved that he was utterly sincere, but completely clueless about the millions of victims these men had slaughtered to achieve their political ends, as well as the fact that economic success did not come to either of these countries until they modified collectivism to allow for free enterprise.
The point is that this caller did not speak in the vocabulary of a high school drop out, nor with the speech inflections of a recent immigrant. So where did he learn such one-sided history? I know the answer, and if you do as well, you should join me in my passion to teach truth to the next generation.
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