To the editor:

After listening to the vice president during the debate, I thought I may have heard a couple themes of his that he has touched on in the past. In 2008 Mr. Biden said: “For too long in this society we have celebrated unrestrained individualism over the common community.”

I found some more quotes that reflect this reasoning from other politicians, such as this one from Hillary Clinton back in 2003: “We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society.”

I found another quote that’s quite a bit older, but similar nonetheless: “There is the great, silent, continuous struggle: the struggle between the State and the Individual; between the State, which demands, and the individual, who attempts to evade such demands.”

People should look up the author of that last one for themselves.

Had I been the moderator of the VP debate, I would have asked Mr. Biden whether or not he thinks the concept of individualism, particularly that of individual liberty, can co-exist with the “spread the wealth around” doctrine he and Mr. Obama espouses. After all, during the Democratic Convention we saw the video which said “government is the only thing we all belong to.” I think this is the “common community” Mr. Biden spoke of.

Are we merely servants to the “common community,” to the government we “belong to,” or are we independent beings with our own lives and individual liberties who have an inalienable right to exist for our own sake?