Collectivists To Force People Out Of Their Cars

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Democrats hate cars, or at least they hate those that are not a part of the "ruling class" driving cars. The liberal left is pushing for us to become a nation of public transportation. In Europe, as compared to the United States, few people drive. Most people are dependent upon the public transportation system. The liberals will tell you that they want us to ride a bike, walk, ride the bus, or board trains, more because they wish to save the environment. That, however, is just the excuse they use. The reason they want you out of your car is much more sinister than that.

The Democrats told us that they needed much of the stimulus money to get the economy going again, and part of that was to build a new transportation infrastructure. However, most of the money went to other sources, and much of the spending went to places that is still unknown to the public.

They do want us out of our cars, and signs of that include the leftist push for a high speed rail system. The collectivist blueprint eliminates cars because cars give individuals, as far as they are concerned, too much independence. If you are on a bus, or a train, they know where you are and where you are going. With public transportation they have more control over your movement. That is the liberal dream: control and power.

Politicians hate cars because cars make people free.

The fact that bullet trains are impractical, or that public transportation is inefficient and a waste outside of a buzzing hive like New York City, seems not to sway the liberal collectivists from their push for more public transportation. The truth is a mere obstacle. The goal of domination over the populace is too important to them to worry about the fact that public transportation is not something that most people in America care to use.

The reasons for wanting you out of your car, however, goes deeper than merely controlling you, and taking away yet another slice of liberty. Packing the people into buses and trains goes way beyond the collectivist mentality. The drive is one that fits the Global scheme, and Agenda 21 - an international agreement that seeks to blur the lines of sovereignty, and bring the world under a single global system of governance.

The transportation system of the future, in the minds of these people, excludes private auto mobility. In an effort to remove people from cars, living areas where travel is discouraged are being created with a generous offer of public transportation. Rural areas are combating this agenda, but this agenda to move us toward a collective society is part of the reason we are seeing a push to eliminate the Electoral College, and a push to change the Senate to eliminate equal suffrage among the States (which is prohibited by Article V). Doing these things would eliminate the voice of the small states, and remove yet another obstacle to removing us from our cars and creating a communal society using public transportation for all modes of travel.

Getting us out of our cars limits, and eventually eliminates, our unalienable rights in many ways. Removing us from our cars compromises our choices, limits our movement, and further abolishes private property ownership (privately owned cars).

The elimination of a society that is free to move about with cars also pushes us closer to a controlled industrialized society, achieved by depopulation and heavy regulations on personal freedoms. Getting us out of our cars also takes away yet another symbol of wealth - leftism wants this to be an equitable society where everyone is equally poor, and unable to do anything to unseat the power structure.

An end to personal mobility opens up the opportunity for full control over the people, and would keep Americans from venturing out to much of America's lands. They wish to keep the populations concentrated in the cities, leaving most of the land vacated. Populations are easier to control in this manner. To achieve a communal utopia, they need to regulate travel and destroy choice.

Regardless of what you think their reasoning is, one thing is for sure: The progressives are admitting they want us out of our cars.

Last month, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told a group of reporters at the National Press Club that he wants to “coerce people out of their cars.” Newsweek later called it "behavior modification."

LaHood used those words, in fact, saying that he has joined a "transformational" administration: "I think we can change people's behavior."

La Hood, a former Republican Congressman that hardly adheres to the principled foundations of the GOP, has become a champion of using the Department of Transportation and federal transportation spending to get people to take trains, buses, and ride bikes instead of driving cars.

Like the rest of the liberal left, LaHood has a vision for using the power of government to change people’s transportation behavior and to change the nature of American residential communities.

“We want to. . . [create] opportunities for people to get out of their cars--and we're working with the secretary of HUD, Shaun Donovan, on opportunities for housing, walking paths, biking paths. If somebody wants to ride their bike, if--to work or to the place of employment or to other places--mass transit, light rail--creating opportunities for what we call livable communities.”

After asked if his policies were designed to make driving more torturous and to coerce people out of their cars, LaHood answered: “It is a way to coerce people out of their cars."

He continued, “I mean, look, people don't like spending an hour and a half getting to work. And people don't like spending an hour going to the grocery store. And all of you who live around here know exactly what I'm talking about. You know, the dreaded thing is to have to run an errand on a weekend around here or to try and get home at 3:00 in the afternoon or even 5:00 in the afternoon.

“Now, look, every community is not going to be a livable community. But we have to create opportunities for people that do want to use a bicycle or want to walk or want to get on a streetcar or want to ride a light rail,” said LaHood.

Lahood made a joke about the fact that some conservatives believe that the way he wants to use the Department of Transportation represents an increased government intrusion in people’s lives.

“About everything we do around here is government intrusion in people's lives,” said LaHood. “So have at it.”

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Obama’s Transportation Secretary Says He Wants to ‘Coerce People Out of Their Cars’ - CNS News