Time Magazine “Governor rankings” good news for South Carolina

November 16, 2005 --  The standard by which Time Magazine recently ranked America’s governors was based upon whether the fifty governors of these United States embrace collectivism over individualism.   Increasing taxes to create jobs, or in other words, buying jobs for some people at the expense of others, seemed to score highest with Time.  Governors that see it as government’s responsibility to care for the people by providing for their basic needs, again with the taxpayer’s dollars, also impressed Time.  If you haven’t already heard, Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina ranked 48^th on Time Magazine’s tally sheet, meaning that he is only two governors away from being the worst governor in the world!

 

Describing good government during his First Inaugural Address, Thomas Jefferson said, “A wise and frugal government…shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.  This is the sum of good government.”   Had Time been ranking governors between 1779 and 1781 when Jefferson was Governor of Virginia, this attitude of his would have landed him at the bottom of their Best Governor list.  How so many have grown to despise personal freedom, personal responsibility, limited government, and free markets - only the Marxists may ever know. 

 

According to Capitalism Magazine, a very American publication, collectivism holds that man is not an end to himself, but is only a tool to serve the ends of others.  The concept of raising taxes to build convention centers, aquariums, ballparks, etc. or to increase the size of government to supposedly create opportunity for some people at the expense of others, is collectivism.  The governors that topped Time’s list were rewarded for being collectivists, despite the fact that it is impossible to practice collectivism without sacrificing some people to benefit others.  Believing it’s appropriate to harm some people in the hope of helping others is to say that people are disposable; that the property rights of the individual can be trampled if done under the guise of general welfare, common good, or in the public’s interest. 

 

On the other hand is individualism, which is the opposite of collectivism.  Individualism declares that people may live their own life, in their own pursuit of happiness, as an end to themselves. Politically, the result of such a principle is capitalism: a social system where the individual does not live by permission of others, but by inalienable right.  Governor Mark Sanford scored poorly in Time’s rankings because he leans more toward individualism.  Sanford also reportedly ranked low because members of his own party, the “G.O.P. bosses” as Time called them, disagree with his measure of the sum of good government.  This shouldn’t surprise South Carolinians much though.  If being a republican was against the law in South Carolina, gathering enough evidence to convict the RINO’s (republicans in name only) running rampant in the SCGOP would leave even the best detectives at SLED scratching their heads. 

 

If Sanford has a shortcoming it’s that he is too polite to swing a big stick.  He’s tried to teach the collectivists that make up the only actual political party in power, the South Carolina Republicrat Party, that the business of good government is to restrain men from injuring one another, leaving them free to otherwise decide and regulate their own pursuits, and not take from their mouths, the fruits of their labor. 

 

The Muckraker Report supports the Jeffersonian concept of good government and the efforts made by Governor Mark Sanford to create the environment in South Carolina in which the people are proud of their state’s limited government, and strong in their faith in individual liberty and personal responsibility.  If Time Magazine doesn’t respect or see the value of these tenets of good government, which are firmly grounded in the principles upon which this country was founded, then the problem resides in their headquarters and not our Governor’s Mansion.