Daniel Henninger, WSJ:
Barack Obama meets with a flock of nervous bankers at the White House tomorrow to reassure them he understands their interests. Good luck. There has always been tension between the Democratic Party and the private sector. That tension is over. With its vote in the House of Representatives to punish corporate bonus payments, the national Democratic Party has disconnected itself entirely from the private sector.
The public bear-baiting of AIG’s Ed Liddy, and then passage of the bonus bill, gave the nation a good look at the modern Democratic Party freed of constraints.
The current version of the party has largely broken free of any understanding whatsoever of the private sector — how it works or what it needs to function.
True socialists at least think about markets so they can criticize them. The Democratic Party’s leadership doesn’t stir to even that level of engagement. In the House, Senate and some corners of the Obama White House, the party is acting as if the marketplace was the world of an alien tribe, which it has to control through intimidation or demands for protective tribute (read: campaign contributions).
This is not true of the entire 90% of self-identified Democrats who voted for Barack Obama. But Democrats who work in real jobs rather than work for the mothership in Washington must recognize that the party’s obsessions are becoming ever less hospitable to a functioning economy, or Mr. Geithner’s labors to that goal.
— not to interrupt, but I’m thinking that maybe some of that 90% might be ripe for the message of classical liberalism. Provided we don’t, you know, present that message too forcefully…
[…]
Put it this way: Imagine any of this generation’s Democratic establishment taking a job at Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati as a middle-manager responsible for a division of employees and its annual profit and loss. It is wholly inconceivable. Or helping an owner of an auto-parts company manage through a real crisis. They wouldn’t have a clue.
That anti-bonus bill was not unique. It is routine.
Spending in the president’s budget, skyrocketing to 28.5% of GDP this fiscal year, is a harbinger. No matter. This week two of the party’s “progressive” (the left) Web-based activist groups — the force that kept the Obama candidacy afloat — announced an effort to harass some 50 moderate-to-conservative Blue Dog Democrats in the House for expressing doubts about Mr. Obama’s reforms, such as “health care for all.” They name 20 “conservative” senators, including such notable right-wingers as Evan Bayh, Mary Landrieu, Ben Nelson, Robert Byrd and Blanche Lincoln. This is not your father’s Democratic Party.
Wall Street’s collapsed businesses and layoffs have devastated New York’s tax revenues. So what? Attorney General Andrew Cuomo flogged Bank of America into giving up the names of Merrill Lynch bonus recipients. Imagine the coincidence this week when two of Merrill’s most respected hands, analyst David Rosenberg and strategist Richard Bernstein, quit. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and the legislature are also mau-mauing AIG over bonuses.
Nor can it be said that these Democrats are merely scapegoating the private sector to deflect blame for the politicians’ share of the mortgage debacle. Using the private sector as the party’s punching bag is also now routine. Al Gore and John Kerry ran at Big Oil, Big Pharma and Big Insurance. With mercurial suppleness, so did the current president. These “big” industries are proxies for the whole world of owners and managers, who somehow now always find themselves beyond acceptable politics as enemies of the people’s interests. A Democratic Party that was always anti-Wall Street is becoming anti- Main Street.
If the private sector is now largely an abstraction to Democrats in Congress, they will continue to make mistakes, explicit like the bonus bill or just thoughtless errors that constantly disrupt operations for private companies.
This will have a dampening effect on the U.S. growth rate and its ability to create jobs, especially for new, younger entrants.
Some of Mr. Obama’s supporters need to reboot their vision. They did not sign on just to him, but to him and his party. That party is creating a world of its own, a world being drained of oxygen for the kind of people who build the nation’s economy.
Well then. Perhaps rather than worry about how our tone comes off to this mythical beast “The Moderate Middle,” we should instead be concentrating on making our case forecefully for why progressivism and its policies (and yes, its dedicated practitioners) need to fail should we wish the US to live on as the experiment in individual freedom and personal liberty.
Then, let the chips fall where they may.
(h/t Terry H)
Then, let the chips fall where they may.
DEATH THREAT!11!!!
Maybe we could get a handful of people to stand up and say, “I think people should be free.” I’d love to see how our opponents twist that into something distasteful.
Second to last paragraph, “forecefull”.
Here, here.
Squid, the vermin of the left call that selfishness.
Leninism in full force
this time, they have used the powers of government first to re-educate the proles, and now are overthrowing capitalism by revolutionary means…
A reinforcement of Henninger’s sense, only aimed directly at Obama’s economic understanding, from Fred Barnes: Pablum.
And what if “The Moderate Middle†can’t be persuaded? What if we have stepped over that critical mass where more people are on the government cart than are pulling it? When the government is spending 28.5% GDP just this year, that’s a whole lot of crowding out of the private sector. And what’s wicked annoying, these figures don’t count state spending which is adding even more to the “crowding out”. Where is the silver lining today, I can’t see it today…
I don’t know if it’s been said before but I want Obama to fail.
From the Barnes article:
“Our economy only works if we recognize that we’re all in this together, that we all have responsibilities to each other and to our country,”
Translation: collectivism is the key to prosperity.
Which Obama glibly associates with “the free market” only by making sure that the term occurs in close temporal proximity to his statist policies.
No more than 10 lines should separate them on the ‘prompter, I guess.
You know, maybe, just maybe, this time – this one time – socialism will actually work.
It could happen right?
Like the bullet catch, maybe, just maybe, this one time he should try it for real? He can catch it.
Not an original thought, but…
“True socialists at least think about markets so they can criticize them. The Democratic Party’s leadership doesn’t stir to even that level of engagement.”
True socialists used to admire wealth, if only to the extent that they wanted to steal it.
THESE reactionaries want to destroy wealth.
Bullet catch?
DEATH THREAT!
“Wall Street’s collapsed businesses and layoffs have devastated New York’s tax revenues. So what? Attorney General Andrew Cuomo flogged Bank of America into giving up the names of Merrill Lynch bonus recipients. Imagine the coincidence this week when two of Merrill’s most respected hands, analyst David Rosenberg and strategist Richard Bernstein, quit. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and the legislature are also mau-mauing AIG over bonuses.”
Goose That Lays Golden Eggs…meet Mr. Axe.
Hey, look over there, Britney Spears, and have I mentioned I give great twitter… and cheap, too.
Live Free or Die:
Been thinking the same thing. I’d like to think that the ‘moderates’ who helped elect the very liberal Obama-Biden ticket could be similarly swung in the other direction, given a good candidate and a clear message.
But freedom, self-reliance and personal responsibility are hard work, requiring the sort of sacrifices, setbacks and hardship which used define the life well lived. An infantilized public accustomed to opting out of every inconvenience and avoiding consequences of even the most irresponsible behavior may not be strong enough to avoid the siren song of cradle-to-grave nannyism.
85 Republicans including Eric Cantor voted to steal people’s shit. The press helped. Don’t tell me the American Experiment isn’t already dead cause it’s dead. This is one sick little country.
Happyfeet,
That’s where you f’ed up my man, you trusted us.
“I think people should be free.†I’d love to see how our opponents twist that into something distasteful.
So you want to OWN people and you don’t even want to PAY for them?!?! PR-SLAVERY ANTICAPITALIST!
Imagine any? Oh, and the many clues they just might have. I’ll tell who doesn’t have a friggin’ clue, you chuckleducky Rethugliwags, hahahahaha – ya broke dick corrupted bitches!
This times are a pivotal, and so goodnight Darleens and all the other kooky clue claimers.
You’re done. You’re ignorant as fuck. You won’t be listened to.
Down falls the old structures and the falsified symbols of your failed narratives.
Pull my finger and I’ll tell you how much money I made this month, fuckyouverymuch.
…which should’ve been “pro-” slavery, naturally. In a perfect world, where proofreading is a reflex.
We are the Progressive Collective. Resistance is futile. Your technological and economic distinctiveness will be added to our own and then taxed into oblivion.
Your individualism will be your downfall.
This = These
VVV,
The insidious thing about government crowding out the private sector is it get them on the dole. It’s hard enough to try to persuade someone, but try doing it now that you are threatening something they now think they are entitled to. It’s almost laughable to think that someone can now run for office saying “I’m going to slash government back to reasonable levels” when +50% of the people are now reliant. I think you touched on this, just in a different way. When you have a nanny gov. saying nothing will go wrong, you will have no problems, and if you do find hardship, we will just squeeze that goose over there just a bit more, just to be fair. When you got that goose locked up, there’s no way you’re gonna set it free.
There is no exit strategy for us, not one I can see. Hail the tyranny of the majority.
The defanged detroyers of Wall Street, the trusted hands, the salted bonus bilkers and the we-done-goods! Stop! Too Much! Can’t.Stop.Laughing.
Tell you what you do. You go to Russia. You take a stick. There was a million works of art buried there. And there’s still a precious few. Poke the ground for art.
But Now I must go. It’s been a pleasure doing business with you. All the best to your family. Fine day, Good Sir.
“Well then. Perhaps rather than worry about how our tone comes off to this mythical beast “The Moderate Middle,†we should instead be concentrating on making our case forecefull for why progressivism and its policies (and yes, its dedicated practitioners) need to fail should we wish the US to live on as the experiment in individual freedom and personal liberty.”
Amen brother. We have to keep trying to get the truth out, or else we will go crazy watching the fools rape the American Dream.
Thor
You are either a total asshole trying only to irritate us, or you are one completely fucked up liberal dickhead.
So which is it?
I’m not going to Russia I have too much work to do. Art is a lot of trouble to monetize anyway I would think. That was not a helpful suggestion, what you said.
Whenever the American dream struggles a bit you apply a little more thrust.
And for all you Gregory Peck fans… there’s a big-screen kiss right before your last breath.
Whatever you say, Walter.
“You are either a total asshole trying only to irritate us, or you are one completely fucked up liberal dickhead.”
He’s socially retarded. Unfortunately for him he has spent his life being hardened by the reactions he engenders rather than seeing himself as the problem. Who’d want an emotionally-troubled clown like this around even if he agreed with us?
“ou are either a total asshole trying only to irritate us, or you are one completely fucked up liberal dickhead.
So which is it?”
He’s successfully multi-tasking. But to irritate, he would need to made a good point. Or just *a* point.
Cordially…
He’s a total pro. They’ll be no knock on your door. No memory of the sound of the control shot.
From downtown, that’s where he’s from. Born ready for you.
It’s a conflict called force.
O!
thor’s got the DTs again.
You made some big money this month, did you? That’s nice. Now clean yourself up a little and we’ll wheel you down to the cafeteria for some pudding. What? Sure you can be a Kossack tonight during play group.
thor, are you stroking your moderate middle again? You are going to go blind.
We’ll bring back that Golden Goose. In shackles, hung, long, and in the sun.
What are the recommended sentencing measures for pure, cold, animus, counselor?
We need more people like this.
The most frustrating thing about dealing with thor is watching him dissipate his point in vitriol.
Yes, thor, they’re a gang of incompetents. The situation came about due to unforced errors caused by ignorance and herd-following, and it isn’t hard to make a case that they should be punished for it, or at least have the profits they made taken away.
However, somebody is going to have to fix the system. Whether we’re going to retrain the old group or recruit a new one, I don’t see that telling the fixers that if they make any money we’ll take it all away and pillory them is a good recruiting tool.
Regards,
Ric
However, somebody is going to have to fix the system. Whether we’re going to retrain the old group or recruit a new one, I don’t see that telling the fixers that if they make any money we’ll take it all away and pillory them is a good recruiting tool.
But Ric, that’s just it. thor and his ilk don’t want to fix. They just want to destroy. It’s their masturbatory fantasy.
Not to mention that it was a certain amount of fixing, though addressing different “problems” at the time, that had Government meddling with the conditions underlaying the system to start with, and cascading away from those fixes got us to where we are. Government fixing looks like it may always be boobery of one sort or another.
Comment by thor on 3/26 @ 3:28 pm #
FOAD, you syphilitic drip.
And, whore?
Your Father is still ashamed of you.
N’O,
How’s Matt? As I recall he has about 11 months or so? When you speak to him next, please let him know that the “Old Corps” is very proud to have men like him carrying on the tradition.
Which is why the Democrats are “Wall Street”‘s favored party, by a huge margin, and “Main Street” is the only reliable Republican constituency. Because they’re all a bunch of fucking idiots.
Good ol’ WSJ. Trusty.
Because it’s only telling. Little show over here, a Grand Canyon full of cash over there. Wink wink get some.
From a comment by “Mrs. du Toit” (Kim’s wife Connie??) at Eject!3 http://pajamasmedia.com/ejectejecteject/2009/03/25/tone-deaf/2/#comment-9
…worth reading.
#46
Mrs. DuToit will earn a slot in the re-education camps for that. I’m disappointed in the usually reliable Bill Whittle.
#47
…it was a case of the comment being waaaay better than the post.
And she really nailed it to the church door, dint she?
Thor, it was a whole lot less than me, and you’re still a piece of shit faggot. Just saying.
“Barack Obama meets with a flock of nervous bankers at the White House tomorrow to reassure them he understands their interests. Good luck”
We’re turning billions of taxpayer wealth to covering their mistakes. And for that we get ‘good luck.’ No wonder people are pissed.
Obama is quite clearly a leader of men.