Were the United States of America transformed to conform to the vision that Sen. Elizabeth Warren embraces, many government agencies -- such as those charged with enforcing the Green New Deal she co-sponsors -- might resemble Big Brother.
But the most insidious element would be a brainwashing babysitter.
To Warren, parents who take care of their own preschool children are victims of a class war.
"Right now, high quality child care is a privilege for the rich," Warren said in a tweet last week. "I believe it should be a fundamental right for everyone."
"Child care should be a fundamental right. Period," she said in a follow-up tweet.
Do not be confused: Warren is not saying children have a right to parents who take care of them.
She is saying parents have a right to have someone else take care of their children for them.
Why should parents take care of their own children? To Warren, it is an outrage that some are forced to do that.
To illustrate her point, she has described the hardships she herself endured as a law school professor with children.
She makes clear: Caring for children interfered with her career.
"I had been teaching for just a few weeks when the babysitter quit, and from then on, I was just on a treadmill," Warren said in a 2017 speech to the National Women's Law Center. "We cycled through one child care arrangement after another and every transition sent me into a near-panic. Every time, it represented a failure."
"I was failing," said Warren. "I was failing my kids, I was failing my family, I was failing my teaching. I was doing laundry at 11 o'clock at night and class preps after midnight, and I felt like I was always behind."
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Ironically, it was family -- not government -- that saved Warren.
Her Aunt Bee came and lived with her and took care of her children while she continued working as a law professor. "I'm a United States Senator today in part because my Aunt Bee rescued me on that Thursday in 1979," Warren said.
But Warren is not advocating that other families emulate her experience. Aunt Bee may have been her answer, but for the rest of America she is offering another answer: government.
Warren has proposed the Universal Child Care and Early Learning Act.
"My plan will guarantee high-quality child care and early education for every child in America from birth to school age," Warren wrote in a commentary posted at Medium.com.
Yes, she is proposing a guarantee for every child from birth.
Her Senate website includes a summary of the plan.
"This plan provides a mandatory federal investment to establish and support a network of locally-run Child Care and Early Learning Centers and Family Child Care Homes so that every family, regardless of their income or employment, can access high-quality, affordable child care options for their children from birth to school entry," it says.
According to Warren's summary, "the federal government would partner with sponsors -- states, counties, cities, school districts, tribal organizations, or other nonprofit entities -- to administer the program ..."
The federally funded centers and homes would be run by "child care workers" given "wages and benefits" that are "comparable to those of similarly-credentialed local public school teachers."
Parents making less than 200 percent of the poverty level could pay nothing to deposit their children there, the summary explains. No parents would be charged more than 7 percent of their income.
What would children do there? The facilities "would provide pre-K curriculum and educational services for children before they enter school," says the summary.
What would children be taught? "Providers would receive support and time to meet new requirements, which would focus on early learning and social-emotional development," says the summary.
The centers and homes, it says, would provide "a safe and nurturing environment that promotes children's holistic growth and development."
Is it reasonable to conclude that the "social-emotional development" and "holistic growth" future generations of Americans would experience in these federally funded, federally regulated, starting-from-birth child care centers would nurture the values and independent spirit needed to keep America a free and independent nation?
Where would you prefer to spend your preschool days: in a traditional family with a loving and attentive mom and dad? Or in an Elizabeth Warren Center under the watch of unionized workers "comparable" to "local public school teachers"?
Who would do a better job teaching you right and wrong? Faith and patriotism? Love and compassion?
Warren says she would not mandate that parents surrender their children to these centers. "Nobody would be required to enroll in this new program," she says.
In other words: If you like raising your own children, you can keep raising your own children.
This is not Obamacare. It is Warrencare.
Terence P. Jeffrey is the editor in chief of CNSnews.com.
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