Good Intentions, Bad Results!

Liberals are always touting how compassionate and caring they are (as compared to Conservatives) toward the poor and under-privileged, but their “good intentions” don’t always lead to good results. Actually, some of those “good intentions” have caused more grief than of being of assistance to the one’s they desired to help. You could say that the proverb of, “The road to hell is sometimes paved with good intentions”, applies in some cases. In other words, people, with good intentions, often mean to do well, but do bad things as a consequence of those “good intentions“. In addition, intending to do good without actually doing it, is really of no value whatsoever. As the saying goes, “talk is cheap”.

In modern times, you could say that the “road” started during the Hoover and FDR Administrations, as we were mired in a deep depression. The Hoover/FDR Administrations tried to ease the pain of its citizens by instituting various programs intended to help out the people in need. During the 1930’s, the government instituted various programs that addressed problems such as unemployment (the W.P.A.), union organizing (Wagner Act), old age and disability programs (Social Security), and some other programs, some of which are still with us today. You could say that FDR initiated versions of the “nanny state”, a major principle of Marxism/Socialism. Most of the “good intentions” were intended to be helpful and honorable, but as they evolved over time, it has caused our country great financial and personal hardship. Marxism and Socialism was somewhat popular during the 1930’s and beyond. In parts of the Democratic Party today, Socialist policies are still very popular (especially among the Congressional Black Caucus).

When LBJ (Lyndon B. Johnson) came into power, after the death of JFK, he expanded on the FDR programs by creating more government programs “intended” to help the “poor and needy”. Again, the intentions were meant to be honorable, as is the case most times, but when the government bureaucracy takes over a task, inevitably, fraud, waste, and corruption takes hold to make the program overly expensive and sometimes unresponsive to the needs of the people who the program was set up to help in the first place.

Over the past 60 years or so, we have seen a burgeoning of these government programs with dubious results. Both Social Security (FDR) and Medicare and Medicaid (LBJ) are now approaching bankruptcy due to the faulty cost and demographic projections at their inception. In addition, we provided welfare programs to many needy people, but the bureaucratic rules and regulations have caused some major social problems. Some experts have concluded that the requirements to get government assistance has caused the break up of many families, mainly black single parent families, who have a 73% out-of-wedlock birth rate caused mainly by giving more monetary assistance to unwed mothers who don’t have a husband or father at home to help care for the family. Some families have had three generations on the “government dole”. Was that the intention of the “do-gooders”?

Another “good intention” Act, the Davis-Bacon Act, which tried to prevent the exploitation of workers doing government jobs, actually became the means of “de facto” discrimination by requiring construction employers to pay “prevailing” union wages on all government construction jobs, and since many unions were “closed shop” unions (you couldn’t join unless a family member was a member), minorities and migrant workers were excluded from many jobs because they weren’t union members.

These are just a few of the many instances, too many to mention here, where the “good intentions, bad results” syndrome came into play.

So yes, you could say that the proverb, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”, is alive and well in our society today with, unfortunately, the help of Our President Barack Hussein Obama, and the leadership of the Democratic Party.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann