Frank Capra's Conservative Manifesto: It's a Wonderful LIfe

After reading "Conservatives vs. Liberals: More Than Politics," an excerpt from The Age of Austerity: How Scarcity Will Remake American Politics, by Thomas B. Edsall, I have become obsessed with the notion that conservatives and liberals hold completely antithetical world views. We might read the same books (not likely), or see the same movies, or read the same news stories, but we interpret those things through completely different prisms. It is as if we were living in parallel universes. The following is a case in point.

A Review

It's a Wonderful Life, the new conservative manifesto by Frank Capra

Frank Capra's story of Bedford Falls liberal George Bailey's reliance on bleeding heart giveaways to the lazy working class denizens of this small upper New York community shows yet again the damages failed liberal policies do to unwary citizens who buy into the socialistic thinking that has created the welfare state.

The choice is made clear at the very beginning of the film when bleeding heart Clarence, actually more of a community organizer than an angel, sees young George and his friends already on the slippery path to economic doom. Instead of using the shovel they had obviously stolen from some local job creator to clear the walks and earn some extra money to boot, they choose to waste the day sliding down that symbolic slope. You would think when George's little brother Harry almost drowns, he would learn his lesson, but no. The next time we see George, his unpatriotic dreams of leaving his country are only inflated by the overlarge suitcase the town druggist, Mr. Gower, gives him. It is no coincidence that the liberal pipe dreams of George Bailey get their start among the drugs he delivers as a young boy to the unsuspecting citizens of Bedford Falls.

Inevitably, George's godless liberalism leads him and his pathetic savings and loan to the brink of financial ruin, another failed institution in need of a bail out. Bailey's last name is eerily prophetic. At the end we see George Bailey, a broken shell of a man, forced to accept hand outs from family and a rapidly diminishing roster of friends. Even Bert and Ernie wear skeptical expressions as they oversee the giveaway.

Standing above all this turmoil like the North Star is Mr. Potter, the economic engine that keeps Bedford Falls on the road to prosperity. Always ready to lend a helping hand, Potter never flip-flops. He is willing to buy up the troubled assets of the savings and loan, but George Bailey's liberal obstructionism won't let him. He even offers George a job and a chance to cash in on that American Dream. But stubborn liberals like George don't give in and George ends up cheating his family of their one shot at prosperity.

That's the lesson of It's a Wonderful Life. What this world needs is fewer George Baileys running around getting people's hopes up, and more Potters selflessly fulfilling their societal role as The Job Creators.