Commerce, Georgia
SPECIAL FEATURE
December 8, 1999
Commerce, Georgia
SPECIAL FEATURE
December 8, 1999
Senator Warns Of Future Threats To American
Freedom
The United States,
having won the Cold War and watched the dissolution of the Soviet
Union, is now the only true "super power" left in the
world. With the Soviet Union gone, the greatest threat to freedom
comes from inside our borders, according to U.S. Senator Paul
Coverdell.
Speaking to the Commerce Kiwanis Club last Thursday in a program
provided by Scott Tolbert, the state's senior senator spoke about
the "three pillars" of American liberty and the threats
that face them as the 20th century draws to a close.
Also see EDITORIAL on this subject.
"I don't believe
any of us expected in 1999 that the United States would be the
only super power in the world," Coverdell stated. "I
suspect most of us, when we think or contemplate about our liberty
being challenged, in our minds would envision an outside force
powerful enough to deny us our liberty. I do not believe that
is likely in the foreseeable future. But I do believe American
liberty is nonetheless at risk, and I think it is at risk because
of decisions and policy conclusions that are happening right here
in our country."
Coverdell said he reached the conclusion, after some study, that
the pillars of American freedom are economic opportunity, safety
for the citizens and their property and education.
"These are the three principals that make it work. These
three things must be intact and in good health for American liberty
to work, or liberty anywhere for that matter," Coverdell
said.
The concept of economic liberty dates back to the American Revolution,
Coverdell explained, when the colonists, who were "already
the highest paid workers in the world," revolted to gain
liberty.
"Economic liberty fosters independent minds. It is the root
of entrepreneurship, of focus, of confidence. It is probably the
most important attribute of economic liberty," Coverdell
stated. "The American people, by and large, don't think there
is anything we can't solve or lick. It comes from the confidence
built up through economic liberty, one by one, citizen by citizen."
By contrast, Coverdell said that after the Berlin Wall came down,
he was in Eastern Europe, where he saw the result of the lack
of economic liberty.
"The one thing you saw that was so obviously missing,"
he said, "was confidence. When they walked down the street,
people would look away, not at you. When you talked to them, they
could not look you in the eye. They would bow their heads; they
had lost their confidence.
"We're not who we are because of our genes, we're who we
are because we've been free."
The danger America faces, Coverdell indicated, is an oppressive
tax system. He stated that while his father was allowed to keep
80 percent of his income in the World War II generation, two generations
later Americans keep only 40 percent of their "lifetime wages."
"This is a situation we cannot allow to deteriorate. In fact,
we need to turn it around. Workers and businesses have to keep
more of their money," he said. "An American worker is
paying the highest taxes since World War II. They keep about half
of their paycheck after every government marches through their
checkbook ... We've taken too many resources from our workers,
and it makes them less independent."
But free societies cannot prosper without safety either, the senator
said.
"Free societies cannot function if their people are at risk
or their property cannot be effectively protected," Coverdell
stated.
He related a story of Nicaragua's quest for foreign investment
at a time when the country was reeling from 25 years of civil
war. The leader understood the need for foreign investment, but
such investment did not occur.
"The answer (to her requests) was always the same,"
said Coverdell. "When it's safe for people to be here, when
there's a civil system that deals with resolution and dispute,
it will come. But until then, it won't, and it didn't until they
overhauled their judiciary and created a civil police force instead
of a military police force.
"Capital and people do not go to insecure places. They leave
insecure places as quickly as possible."
While Coverdell believes the country has made some progress in
dealing with crime, he also believes it must do more to stop the
"drug Mafia" that is at the root of so much crime. He
called the discovery of more than 100 bodies on a farm near Juarez,
Mexico, "a grim reminder of just how evil this force is."
In response to a question from the audience, Coverdell said the
"Coverdell-Feinstein Anti-Narcotics Act" passed in the
late hours of the last session of Congress would use United States
"assets and intelligence and direct them at the perpetrators,
the institutions, at kingpins and at individuals" in the
drug business. One aspect of the legislation, he said, is that
the U.S. Treasury Department will compile a list of corporations
involved in "foreign assault of the United States" through
their participation in or support for the drug trade.
"Once on that list as a foreign threat to the U.S., no U.S.
business, no U.S. bank, no telecommunications company, no service
organization will be allowed to do business with them," Coverdell
stated. "It is designed to isolate them from the organizations
they need to conduct their business."
Coverdell said he will co-sponsor anti-money laundering legislation
next year, and proposed increasing interdiction efforts along
the U.S. border and conducting a public education campaign on
the dangers of narcotics.
The third pillar of economic liberty, Coverdell said, is education.
"The data coming out of education is troublesome," he
stated. "There are too many kindergarten through high school
students whose reading skills are not sufficient. Coming out of
high school, most tests show about a third of that population
as not being able to effectively read.
"There is only one way you can create a caste system in America
and that is to leave vast numbers of people without proper educational
skills. If we do that, we will do enormous damage to American
liberty."
The good news, he said, is that there appears to be a movement
to shore up the educational systems.
"I believe there is a renewal in education," he said.
"In a decade, you won't recognize the system. There will
be more alternative methods that have emerged."
Coverdell still believes in the need to have a strong defense,
including a ballistic missile system.
Still, "the struggle over whether American liberty stays
healthy or not is going to happen in the next quarter century
right here at home," he said. "Everybody in this room,
in their own way, no matter what (they) do, has a role to play
and nurturing and protecting these fundamental principals. We
are the current custodians of this democracy, the greatest in
the history of the world, and each of us can play a very important
role in our own way."
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