In 1916, the Rev. William John Henry Boetcker produced a booklet of ten “nuggets” of wisdom which, today, are the antithesis of current liberal progressive doctrine. Some, if not all of them, have, at times, been mistakenly attributed to Abraham Lincoln. Sorry Abe.

If you would like to get into a heated argument with a liberal progressive, uttering any of the following ten sentences should do the trick.

1. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
2. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
3. You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
4. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
5. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
6. You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
7. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
8. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
9. You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.
10. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

Liberal progressives press for the redistribution of wealth. With the advent of COVID-19 and the subsequent “stimulus packages” of free money to the citizenry (and non-citizenry), even the Republicans have signed onto returning tax dollars yet to be collected to the tax paying masses in even measure. Naturally, these moneys will finally need to be collected as taxes. At that point, we will see if Winston Churchill’s adage holds true. ” We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”