The first part of the headline normally doesn’t make news, especially for me, but consider this an interesting case. Academy Award-winner Michael Caine, speaking with Sky News in his native Britain, makes a couple of points that seem mild to American conservatives but are certainly heresy in the Church of the Welfare State of Western Europe. Caine blames the moral decay of British society on the welfare state, questions the orthodoxy of taxing those evil rich folks, and criticizes the British government’s spending policies. Check it out, check-it-outers*:
If I didn’t always know in my gut that Caine was a right-winger, I tricked myself into believing it since he seems to embody one in one of his more recent (and one of my favorite) roles as Alfred Pennyworth in the new Christopher Nolan Batman films. I wanted to embed this clip, but I couldn’t find one that allowed that, so follow the link to watch one of my favorite scenes from The Dark Knight featuring Sir Michael.
You’ll notice, of course, that Caine won’t go so far as to criticize the idea of government intervention to help others (he calls himself a “right-wing socialist” which is perhaps almost as frightening as a left-wing one), but that just goes to show how entrenched the welfare state is in Britain. It’s even more this way in Ireland, where social welfare is just a part of the political culture.
It’s a harbinger of things to come, too, if the United States adopts this Pelosi-Obamacare monstrosity. Like many great minds on the right have argued, once a government-run health care system is in place, Republicans won’t be able to argue against it; they’ll just have to argue they can do it better, more efficiently, etc.
Still, it’s refreshing to see one of my favorite actors of all time speak about politics with some sense.
*Apologies to Greg Gutfeld.
