By Christopher G. Adamo

The newest “crisis” being contrived by the Hillary camp has to do with the supposed need for government to assume control over child care, since moms and pops, friends and neighbors, and the local privately owned daycare centers are all obviously doing such a lousy job of it. No doubt, the people who bring you the Post Office and Department of Motor Vehicles can do better.

In truth, none of this is new, but just another facade covering the same old agenda of the left. Convince people that they are in dire straits financially and othewise, and then promise to fix everything for them if only they will sacrifice their freedoms and ultimately their good sense, to the cause.

Hillary’s grim assessment of the current status of parenting, combined with her utopic promises of how it will all work once she is in control, represent the latest iteration of the old tricks from the left. The “village,” by which she means power-grabbing bureaucrats, are still on the prowl, awaiting any opportunity to intervene in peoples’ lives. As with federalized “health care,” it is all about Democrat statists gaining power to micromanage the lives of the people.

Those wanting a “heads up” as to how this governmental child-rearing monstrosity could take hold and eventually metastasize, need only to watch how it has been implemented in several consistently disastrous state ventures. Wyoming in particular, is in the early stages of heading down this dark road, but the chicanery and deceit employed thus far should serve as a warning to the rest of the nation.

Plans for state control of the nursery first burst upon the Wyoming political scene in 2006, with HB92, the euphemistically named “Quality Child Care” act being ramrodded through the “Republican” legislature with disturbing ease. Nancy Freudenthal, wife of Democrat Governor Dave Freudenthal, took an activist roll in forcing the bill through the political process, even appearing at committee hearings in what once would have been roundly condemned as a conflict of interest anywhere outside of Arkansas.

Though overwhelmingly “Republican” on paper, Wyoming’s political apparatus has for many years been dominated by liberal Democrats in both parties. Thus the state’s budget continues to bloat, annual calls for school “reform” merely amount to lavish increases in funding, and virtually every problem is addressed through monetary outlays and new programs.

Meanwhile, even the most rudimentary laws protecting innocent life and reaffirming marriage stand no chance of ever being enacted.

In this atmosphere it has been relatively easy for unbridled socialism, such as “Quality Child Care,” to be foisted upon an unsuspecting populace. While still very conservative and traditional in their views and mores, many among Wyoming’s citizenry do not remain sufficiently engaged in the political process to anticipate looming threats such as this current government power grab.

Fortunately, once the bill mandating an initial study and providing funding was passed last year, Governor Freudenthal made a strategic miscalculation by appointing Becky Vandeberghe, a registered lobbyist and pro-family Christian grassroots political activist, to the study committee. Clearly, Freudenthal was attempting to throw a few crumbs to his opposition in order to buy them off (a technique at which he has proven to be quite skilled). Yet all indications are that he grossly underestimated Vandeberghe.

Her attendance at the study committee meetings revealed several alarming aspects to the situation, as well as a corrupt and self-serving political machine which seeks to ingratiate itself to the state power structure by greasing the skids toward implementation. And the specifics of the intended plan are more alarming still.

Overwhelmingly liberal, the committee and its advocates in the legislture were careful to put a benign face on its long-term goals. But they clearly intend to define “the hand that rocks the cradle.”

Behind closed doors, committee members revealed a grand scheme to expand the scope of the program, through the implementation of “standards” by which to raise the bar on daycare centers, thus ensuring that smaller private providers would eventually be excluded. Ultimately, this would facilitate their implementation of universal preschool.

When queried directly by Vandeberghe about the intrusion of government on what has long been respected as the realm of family, one committee member responded with the question “Who better to raise our children than the government?”

Amid intense opposition from individuals and organizations who feared a government takeover of every childcare facility in the state, reassurances were given that the real intention was only to subsidize those individuals who could not afford the expense of placing their children in such facilities.

Yet this is only one of many veneers being placed on this program in order for it to gain public acceptance. The latest attempt is to couch the whole thing under the heading of “economic development,” a term which usually plays well in Wyoming, where a low population and limited industrial base leave many of its entepreneurs scrambling for ways in which to expand the business community.

All diversionary excuses aside, the scope and expense of Wyoming’s latest foray into “Hillary Care” in the nursery promise to grow to nightmarish proportions. And, as Becky Vandeberghe has consistently found in her research on the topic, no educational benefits for the children have resulted elsewhere in the country where similar programs were implemented.

Of course, this does not mean that they will be cancelled. Rather, the dismal reality of their inadequacy will be used as the catalyst by which to demand ever increased funding. Once a bureaucracy of this nature is established, it is all but impossible to ever be rid of it.

So, as the former First Lady turned Senator turned Presidential candidate seeks to draw us all into her web of governmental assistance and dependence just in time for the 2008 Presidential election season, it would be good to consider what her real motives are.

On its face, her phony concern over children and childcare is as transparent as her professed lifelong devotion to the New York Yankees. So for this ruse to work, she will require the kind of support she is currently receiving from Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal.

Global warming alarmists step aside! Hillary and her minions have their own pending catastrophe from which she will save us.