our little Harsanyi isn’t.
And can you blame him? Substantive reform is going to take real political bravery, coupled with being able to convince voters that until they rid us the government of enough statists who promise unsustainable “benefits”, much of what needs to happen — for instance, an insistence on a total restructuring of the tax system and an end to the progressive income tax; the attenuation of fourth-estate regulatory agencies and powers; and a fundamental reform to social security, Medicare, etc. — simply can’t.
Which is why the ideological fight is still so crucial. Until we root out the structural assumptions that allow statism to flourish (eg., the left’s reworking of “fairness,” “tolerance,” and “diversity” as nods toward identity politics and collectivism) and replace those with classically liberal ideas that foreground individual autonomy and liberty (tolerance that expands the cultural tent rather than restricts entry, fairness as a function of opportunity under the law, diversity as witnessed in a true marketplace of ideas) — we will always lose the propaganda war.
Political correctness is completely anathema to classical liberalism. Yet the left has developed it into perhaps the single most salient aspect of our culture. It is a method of social and intellectual control that naturally corrals people into the collective.
And it certainly doesn’t help that many on the right so willingly play along.
Defeat that, and the rest will follow. But it will be a long hard slog.
My favorite drum-beat point:
How many times have we heard the silly platitude about having to “pay” for tax cuts? We pay for spending, not tax cuts.
Also, I’m sick of hearing about how we need a progressive tax system (heard it today from GAry Peters, the incumbent in michigan just south of me.) [opens window and screams at th etop of my lungs] WE HAVE A PROGRESSIVE TAX SYSTEM.
I feel a little bit better.
Actually, I’m depressed.
failshit Team R senate leader Mitch McConnell’s #1 priority is preserving earmark spending
This is a clue.
Long hard slog, that’s what it will be. Has always been, as a matter of fact. Moments of political clarity in mind-bogglingly large populations are pretty damned rare.
It’s a short easy slog to currency devaluation and debt monetization.
Exactly. The idea that we have to justify keeping our own money is outrageous. Obama is fond of letting us know how Bush was for tax cuts he didn’t pay for. Meaning, cuts to government control of our revenue in favor of returning some of that control to us directly are by their nature a form of stealing.
How fucked has our perspective become?
Rush hit this point rather hard in the first hour. Shorter Rush, stop worrying about what the Left is going to say, because they’re going to say it anyway; go on offense and make them defend the unsustainable and indefensible.
Forgot to add that Rush wasn’t saying anything that Jeff hasn’t been saying already.
I’d link the hotair piece, but hotair crashes my poor old browser.
Carin, maybe watch Prof. Becker, particularly toward the end of today’s episode where he attempts to take a long view of the politico-economic trend across the Globe. In a sense, there hasn’t been a time when more people appear to be swayed at the efficacy of free enterprise and with them governments moving in the direction of democratically distribution decision making in economic life. I suspect that for the most part this is due to an answer to the question “What works better?”, as opposed to being driven by political thought along the lines we would prefer, but be that as it may, just so long as they get toward where we’re heading eventually, so much the better.
I don’t avoid women, Mandrake.
But I do deny them my essence.
And yes, that’s right. I’m here early today. Mostly because I’m done with the season 1 DVD set of “Glee,” and the new Twilight stuff hasn’t arrived yet from Amazon.
I think substantive reform – with all the messy trade-offs and realignings – with all the eek they want to do away with the mortgage interest tax deduction zomg and the eek he said VAT I heard it he said it right out loud zomg zomg – is going to take a tremendously higher level of trust in our failshit political leaders than what we have now… a tremendously higher level of trust the vast majority of our failshit political leaders simply don’t aspire to… probably cause it comes with a tremendously higher level of accountability.
But I’d like to be wrong.
feets we still have the primaries and our votes. And the internets. WOLVERINES!
Geez, Jeff, the troll droppings of late sure have a certain je ne sais qua to them, don’t they?
I’d also like to point out that because of his sources in high places who have given him ample insider knowledge, Glenn Beck has been sounding the alarm since 2006 to give us time to stock up on supplies before our money becomes worthless.
But he’s just an insane evil fear-monger, of course, trying to sell us gold and lying lying lying about Evil Overlord George Soros.
Loath as I am to engage in their threadbare identity group games, I’m willing to co-opt them until we can help people break free from that mindset. To that end, I think we’d be well served to take THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!! and turn it back against our opponents.
Leaving one’s children with a trillion-dollar credit card bill for shit they never decided to buy, and which they never got to enjoy, is not good parenting. I’d like to believe that there are still Americans out there who could feel shame about such behavior.
“How fucked has our perspective become?”
– That’s not “our” prospective, that’s the prospective that has been fostered by both sides of the aisle in Washington for decades. It makes for a pliable electorate, and feather bedding becomes so much easier.
– It started with paying taxes and working as being privileges, after “being our duty” wore off, post WWII.
More and more I see how right Leonard Read. I don’t think he’s a writer given much credit in today’s libertarian circles, particularly among younger ones who may never have heard of him, but he was the founder and director of the pro-free-market Foundation for Economic Education, and someone who played a leading role in my own personal intellectual growth in a pro-freedom direction. Decades ago, Read stressed the importance of education over political activism. He argued that the latter would not do much good without the former; that is, if the majority of the voters still labored under the delusion that the State is their best friend, and that politicians and bureaucrats can run the individual’s affairs better than the individual can himself, whatever political gains that might be made would be transitory and superficial. What luck, for example, would eventhe most pro-freedom politicians have in reducing the power of the State if fifty per cent plus of the voters are insome way dependent on the State? And not just dependent, but insistent that forcing other taxpayers to support them in some fashion is their “right”?
More and more I see how right Leonard Read. I don’t think he’s a writer given much credit in today’s libertarian circles, particularly among younger ones who may never have heard of him, but he was the founder and director of the pro-free-market Foundation for Economic Education, and someone who played a leading role in my own personal intellectual growth in a pro-freedom direction. Decades ago, Read stressed the importance of education over political activism. He argued that the latter would not do much good without the former; that is, if the majority of the voters still labored under the delusion that the State is their best friend, and that politicians and bureaucrats can run the individual’s affairs better than the individual can himself, whatever political gains that might be made would be transitory and superficial. What luck, for example, would eventhe most pro-freedom politicians have in reducing the power of the State if fifty per cent plus of the voters are insome way dependent on the State? And not just dependent, but insistent that forcing other taxpayers to support them in some fashion is their “right”?
– They have a right to try, and we in turn, have a right to kick their lazy asses to the curb, which hopefully, is now in process.
– Most of the Eurobloc Socialist experiments are already well on the way to repeal.
– It started there before it was imported to America, so naturally they’re running ahead of us in that particular scam.
– Then again, business seems to be booming in some sectors.
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