US Democrats are not European-style socialists. They are worse.
If I had to describe the single most disturbing thing about today’s Democratic Party, I’d be hard-pressed because the number of possible choices is so large. But it probably would be this phenomenon, well-described yesterday by commenter “Lorenz Gude”:
And finally an observation from a resident (and also citizen) of a Social Democracy on a point that I don’t think most Americans fully understand. What distinguishes social democracy from other forms of socialism is that when social democrats lose an election they accept the results. That was true in Sweden when the Social Democratic party finally lost power after about 50 years. And it was true in Australia when the current PM Scott Morrison surprised everyone by winning our most recent election. NOTICE, my fellow Americans, that the Democrats have never accepted the results of the 2016 election, and are promising us not to accept the results of the 2020 election should they lose. Some of them are totalitarian communists like Stalin, and some are the kind you have to pry their cold dead hands off – not guns, but power. Like Comrade. Mugabe or Comrades Chavez, Maduro, and Castro.
That is it.
They have signaled this for the last four years by Russiagate, the ridiculous impeachment theater, the nomination of an obvious puppet candidate (proxy for others), their push for mail-in voting, and proposals such as ending the filibuster, packing SCOTUS, creating several new states, ending the Electoral College, making illegal immigrants citizens, and open borders, every single one of them designed to fundamentally change the country in ways that would keep the left in power indefinitely.
In the US the left is exploiting the goodwill of Americans and their desire to bend over backwards to avoid any taint of racism and to atone for the racist past. Therefore, a great deal of the Democrats’ agenda has been redefined as anti-racist. That is the key they believe will lead to permanent power, and they are betting that the citizens of the US will hand it over to them.
Leftists can sense that Obama’s “fundamental transformation” is well within the possibility of imminent realization, and thus by fair means or foul they will stop at nothing to pave the way for rule by a corrupt and senile fool, managed by a Lady Macbeth of color and abetted by a large group of wealthy and powerful interests within the MSM, the federal bureaucracy, Big Tech, the military-industrial complex, the academy, and corporate America, as well as ensuring that never again will non-leftists ever be able to have any real influence on policy or opinion within this moribund republic.
Actually, what they’re exploiting is the unseriousness of a critical mass of the voting public. A menu of things have been done over the last 8 years which should have generated sufficient revulsion among the public at large to put the Democrats in their place for a decade, starting with Lois Lerner and the IRS scandal. The reaction of the public has been imperceptible. Some of this appears to be cohort driven. NB. voters under 25 spilt their ballots 50-50 in the 2000 elections. Eight years later they were voting 2-1 for the Democrats. It may have slacked off a tad. Does anyone have a plausible explanation for this shift?
I still have Facebook friends who are california liberals. I became friends with the many years ago when they were normal people. Sure, they slammed GWB and were snide. And they did believe that the 2000 elections was “stolen” but the more it less “accepted” it. Anyhow…
They more or less worshipped Obama.
I left California before the 2012 election. On Facebook, they are nasty beyond description. (One posted something to the effect that Trump supporters should meet the same fate as Nazi collaborators did at the hands of the French after WWII.) They seen to think that there are no violent protests going on anywhere. That any talk of that is all a lie. Any person whose death can be connected to COVID-19, Trump murdered. Trump is, they seriously believe, is as bad as Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot…
These are normal people: Car dealers, IT directors, teachers, biologists, sales people… They are graduates of Cal, Stanford, UCLA, USC, UV Davis, U of Michigan, U of Chicago… Most of them are over the age of forty.
But they’re insane when it comes to Trump. Just of the charts rabidly so.
Did anyone see this article and the embedded video? It’s insane how a recording from 1969 can so well describe exactly what we are experiencing today:
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/09/video-color-communism-and-common-sense-frontpage-editors/
I’ve racked my brain over the years trying to think of why the insane reaction about Trump. It’s got to be that there’s something deep for this kind of reaction.
They won’t see it this way, but I think new liberal sees Trump as a direct threat to their $90,000 salaries and concomitant status that took 50 years of progressivism to get to. In Trump’s world, they don’t deserve it. The make nothing, grow nothing. They think they are essential to the cause of justice and equality, which of course is the cause the trumps all others. Since Trump isn’t about social justice causes – causes that have been pushed along for the last half century – and ignores all that in favor of broader governance, they see him as diametrically opposed to all they stand for. Since he is not with them on actually supporting and pushing the causes, he must be out to undo all they’ve accomplished. This is behind the standard refrain of ‘wanting to go back to slavery’ type accusations.
They stand to lose both their underserved high standard of living and their exalted status in a Trump world.
“I still have Facebook friends who are california liberals. I became friends with the many years ago when they were normal people.”
Most of my lefty friends are not in California, but otherwise, this has been my experience. There was some lesser harassment from them in the 1990s, but they were once people. Since Obama, they’ve turned into obsessive ghouls. Nothing matters to them anymore but political things, and they are arrayed across a spectrum from approving of harassment to, ranging to cheering on lethal violence toward, people who have ideas they disagree with. Yet they are sure that we* are the Nazis. No reasoning or discussion with them is possible anymore. What they imagine we are justifies in itself anything that is done to us. Do not think for a second that a lefty who used to be your friend or coworker would defend your right to exist should push come to shove. If they were to see you, personally, get dragged out of your car and beaten up by a mob, they will look away or rationalize it. You had a coming because you voted for Trump (or they think you did).
When I was young, I wondered how ordinary people became associated with evil regimes, and now I’ve seen it happen.
(*We/us meaning anybody who holds any idea that they disagree with.)
I’m betting with much sadness the Democrats will win their bet.
It is the result of what I would call “Gerald Fordism” for two generations, the desire to compromise in order to maintain a minority position, but a position in DC nevertheless. These guys gave away the store! The Nixon GOP was a disaster that had zip to do with Watergate. It gave us wage-price controls, unhooked the dollar from gold, opened the door to China, created the EPA monster. OK, the wage-price freeze was temporary, but the others have had massive ongoing consequences. The GOP went after Nixon with a vengeance in Watergate; do you really think the Dems would do the same? No, Clinton-Lewinsky was private, consensual sex. Perjury, hah.
What talk do we hear from the GOP leadership about the crisis that is about to overwhelm the country? Crickets. They should be shouting it from the rooftops!
I am also willing to bet on sustained riots in many cities should Trump win the EC plus a complete disavowal of the results by Democrats.
But if Trump loses, will the country rise up? No. More Gerald Fordism.
It does not hurt to bear in mind that Trump ran against both party establishments in 2016, including the Republican establishment (GOPe). Once Trump was in office (and even before that, truth be told), GOPe, still despising Trump, did nothing to blunt the establishment attacks on Trump, very much including Russia! Russia! Russia! in its various manifestations.
Where I’m going with this: Trump has done whatever he’s done as a loner.
So when Cicero (5:16 pm) asks . . .
“What talk do we hear from the GOP leadership about the crisis that is about to overwhelm the country? Crickets. They should be shouting it from the rooftops!”
. . . there are reasons. Not good reasons, in my rarely humble opinion — I so wish they *would* shout it from the rooftops, because it’s coming, regardless of who wins, or who claims to win, the Electoral College vote (or, for that matter, the popular vote). But there are reasons.
“I am also willing to bet on sustained riots in many cities should Trump win the EC plus a complete disavowal of the results by Democrats. But if Trump loses, will the country rise up? No. More Gerald Fordism.”
Worse. Gerry Ford was a player, albeit a player like my pet maltese doggie: cute, and if he’s well-fed, he stays happily in his place. After a Harris-Biden victory, no member of the right will be a player in any sense of the word.
To quote the late great Mel Blanc, “dig-a-dig-a-dig-a-dig-a that’s all, folks!”
If only they were merely European-style Social Democrats! We could live with that. Economic statism, high unemployment, a cradle to grave welfare state administered by a lumbering, barely competent bureaucratic behemoth…it wouldn’t be pleasant but we could adapt and maintain some semblance of freedom.
But they’ve long abandoned social democracy.
Plenty of Republicans thought Obama was not legitimate – or even born in America. Including Trump. So it’s not new for one side to think the other side is not legit.
Russiagate was not nothing. There were 199 criminal charges, 37 indictments or guilty pleas, and 5 prison sentences. And it impeached Trump. The fact that he didn’t have to leave office was because Republicans in the Senate were just as political as Democrats.
The nomination of an obvious puppet candidate (proxy for others). Stop already. The Democratic voters have chosen Biden through the Democratic primary by having MORE of them vote for him that voted for the other nominees. That’s the way it works.
Their push for mail-in voting – Mail in voting has been around for a LONG time and, in fact, a lot of Republicans vote this way. A few states only have mail in voting. Stop pretending it’s new or radical. The reason there is a push is because there’s a pandemic and maybe it’s best people don’t crowd around the polling places.
Proposals such as ending the filibuster – Republicans never proposed this? They have. Look up the ‘Nuclear Option’ which they attempted in 2005 to make the filibuster on judicial nominees unconstitutional.
Packing SCOTUS – That proposal was a reaction to McConnell who decided Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland couldn’t reach the Senate floor because of some non-existent rule McConnell made up to prevent a Democratic nominee from getting a vote. Actions have consequences.
Creating several new states – The fact that we haven’t had new states for a while doesn’t mean it’s something that should not be considered. History in the US shows us that certain parties and certain political positions gained when states were added – for better or for worse.
Ending the Electoral College – I can assure you if a Republican candidate got the greater number of votes and didn’t win Republicans would call for this. I don’t think the EC should end [and it won’t] but it is annoying that each election comes down a handful of states while the rest are ignored during the campaign.
Making illegal immigrants citizens, and open borders – This is not anywhere near the mainstream in the Democratic party. Schumer authored a 60 billion for border security. They do want to continue the Dreamer pathway but it’s not for every illegal immigrant. They do oppose the border wall but it’s not the same as wanting the border open.
Montage:
“Plenty of Republicans” – it was a marginal point of view, versus what is now the mainstream point of view in the Democratic Party that Trump is illegitimate and has been from the start. There is no comparison – not even close.
Russiagate was a hoax and a coup. It has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, and I’m not wasting my time arguing with you on it. It’s grotesque that you don’t see it at this point, but since you are a troll, a propagandist, and a shill, you don’t (or pretend not to).
You can assure me all you want that Republicans would do the things the Democrats are planning, but they are not popular stances among Republicans. Republicans actually respect the two-party system and have never tried to become the only party forever. Democrats used to see it that way, too, and I am old enough to remember when they did. Now they have utterly changed, and they’re not even hiding it anymore.
I guess we’ll just agree to disagree… again. I’m pretty sure most conservatives would prefer if Republicans ran everything. As I’ve said before this is a normal even logical sentiment. If you are a Republican and you dislike the entire platform of the Democratic party then it would stand to reason you do not want them in power – except maybe on a token basis to make things seem fair. Someone who is a moderate independent swing voter would be someone who I would say might really respect the two party system because they don’t vote on party lines all the time. We have a lot of those voters in America and I respect them.
I will say I don’t think Trump is illegitimate and no one I know personally does either. We’re fine simply calling him a bad president.
Montage:
You ignorant *lut. Worse than just a troll.
Been wondering where you’ve been hiding. Any thoughts about sedition charges for your Antifa/BLM shock troops and their enablers? The $1,000,000 bail for your Lancaster sorority sister is pretty sweet IMO. High cost of LARPing in PA? You can send her some cash by GoFundMe.
How about the attempted assassination of the Sheriff’s Deputies in Compton? . It’s reported that the Compton perp rode the bus to the scene but left on foot, how green.
Your Antifa assassin from Portland is now pining for the fijords. He’s now mostly peaceful, I’m sure. The WA Post is trying to rehab his image it seems. You could add to their effort I’m sure.
Montage:
You know nothing about conservatives or Republicans or what they want. You think they are the same in some basic way as the left. They are not, except that we are all human beings, of course.
Not only do you not understand the right, you don’t even understand the post on which you are commenting. I’m not saying the left “would prefer” if they ran everything. I’m saying that they are bound and determined to make it that way whether the people like it or not, by changing the rules that people used to understand protect us all from tyranny. The left would embrace a tyranny if they were in charge – and what’s more, they would cheat to get there. In fact, that is the plan. Not only that, but once the left is in charge, we’re not talking about “live and let live” liberty or libertarianism. We’re talking about the sort of control that has always been the hallmark of the left.
The right would love to be in charge, but the right is only interested in being in charge if the people want it. What’s more, a lot of people on the right realize it is dangerous if one group takes charge and stays in charge indefinitely – one party rule is not usually good. The right is for small government, not big, so the right is far more inclined to let people make their own decisions without the strong hand of government telling them what to do (and what is acceptable speech and unacceptable speech) at every turn.
Left and right are not mirror images in these regards, different sides that can just “agree to disagree” at this point. They are profoundly different and their idea of government is different. Republicans and Democrats used to be much more similar in that regard, but the Democrats have been wholly taken over by the left, and the left has something else in mind.
Whatever you and your friends think is irrelevant to what the leadership of the Democratic Party thinks. And they have made it clear, crystal clear, that they don’t agree with you that Trump is a legitimate president, and they are the ones who will be in charge, not you. That’s what you’re voting for.
“Does anyone have a plausible explanation for this shift?” Art Deco
20 years of incessant indoctrination; 8 yrs of BushHitler + 8 years of the “Lightbringer” + 4 years of Orange Man BAD.
Lee also,
“These are normal people:
No, they’re not. As you yourself indicate.
“But they’re insane when it comes to Trump. Just of the charts rabidly so.
It’s not their belief about Trump. It’s their refusal to consider any other POV, regardless of how factual and well reasoned.
McWilliams,
That probably largely true of virtue signaling liberals and perhaps of idealistic true believers. But not of the Left’s ‘Stalinists’.
Cicero,
Initially, you may well be right. In the revolutionary war only about 1/3rd of the colonists actively opposed the British. But when the Left tries gun confiscation, implements oppressive redistribution of the middle classes’ wealth, imposes carbon taxes, reduces the economy to a basket case. When the suburbs are racially ‘normalized’, when corruption becomes the norm and “who you know” becomes the primary determinate for opportunity… then resentment will build and support for the democrats will plummet. For virtue signaling liberals, oppression will have become personal and then Civil War will erupt.
I can accept an honest defeat. I can grudgingly accept a defeat deceitfully achieved. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to accept a stolen election in which there’s no doubt of massive fraud. The Constitution is not a suicide pact. There are worse things than death and a craven ‘existence’ under tyranny is one of them.
Looking back over the last 50 years, it’s pretty clear that the Democrats have never accepted a Republican presidential victory. They have tried by fair means or foul – mostly foul – to run every Republican president out of office. That alone demonstrates how little commitment to our Constitution they have.
Thank you Neo for emphasizing the contrast between Social Democracy and the floridly undemocratic behaviour of the Democratic party. Judis and Teixeira;s 2002 Emerging Democratic Majority’ anticipated this drive for permanent power on the demographic assumption that rising generations and the Black and Hispanic working classes would overwhelmingly support them. I would just add to the excellent comments here that I think the experience of the 2000 election in Florida caused many Democrats to lose faith in the system and move toward feeling justified in changing it permanently in their favor by any means – not just electoral fraud, but eventually planning to pack the court, ditch the Electoral College etc. But things have ‘gang a-gley’. The rising indoctrinated generations have exploded in Jacobin violence and the Blacks and Hispanics are to an unknown extent #WalkingAway. I agree with Cicero that a Trump loss could result not in civil war but more Gerald Fordism. What I would anticipate happening is that the Democrats would continue to screw the working classes and that rising generations will question Marxist indoctrination more. The Trump era – even if it ends next year – has blown open the cultural matrix in which the swamp has flourished. It will be harder for the Democrats going forward because the toothpaste is out of the tube. Still I hope they have already done enough to get themselves thoroughly rebuked in November.
Looking back over the last 50 years, it’s pretty clear that the Democrats have never accepted a Republican presidential victory. They have tried by fair means or foul – mostly foul – to run every Republican president out of office.
Well, it’s inneresting how the Obama Administration’s abuses, which were rather more severe than the Watergate scandal, cause partisan Democrats no embarrassment whatsoever.
European social democratic parties remain political parties. The Democratic Party in the United States is a sociopathic criminal organization. Street-level Democrats are perfectly satisfied with it as is. We’re suffering because the political culture of half the population is somewhere on the spectrum between frivolous and vicious. This will not end well.
Cicero at 5:16pm and M J R at 5:40pm/September 17,
Yup.
There is a peaceful way to reright the ship, but neither of the two parties, nor the mass media have the talent, ethics or courage to do what is needed. The citizenry suffers and will suffer greatly so that the elite class does not have to face up to their ignorance and ineptitude. I would write, “the end is nigh,” but I believe it happened awhile ago, as Cicero outlined. The American citizens have sat calmly through decade upon decade of usurpation of our rights with barely a bleat from us sheeple. “Pan et circensis.”
Mayor Ted Wheeler, Governor Cuomo, Governor Phil Murphy… I could list names of politicians, celebrities, media personallities, academics and entertainers for hours. As they watch their beliefs fail in the presence of reality they continue to double and triple down. It cannot be them who are wrong. It must be that reality needs to change.
In a translation of Berthold Brecht’s poem, Die Lösung the following stanza appears:
This is how our “betters” address the irrefutable evidence that their political and social beliefs do not conform with reality. They find it easier* to “dissolve” reality and insist on another.
*It is not easier, that is why we see the tragedies we see today, but it is less painful for for them that others suffer, than they examine themselves and come to the true conclusion that they are not what they imagine themselves to be.
I have a good friend who refuses to accept the election. Not to the point of rupture but we don’t talk about it. He still thinks that Trump colluded with the Russians.
Even if there are indictments before the election he will not shift his position. He is going to vote Democratic regardless. When I ask him “why Biden”, all he can come up with “he is not Trump”. When I talk about Biden taking away his guns (he is a big 2nd amendment supporter) he discounts it. All other positions that the Democrats espouse he just waves away. I just ask him to think of three positive positions that Harris has (Biden is a figurehead) and tell me. He has not gotten back with me yet.
Thinking of him and other ardent Democrat supporters this election I put them into 2 categories. Elitists and Safetists. Elitists think that because they can take tests and pass with high grades they should be in charge. They can’t conceive that people has other senses of intelligence. Remember Strozk saying to Page about those “smelly Walmart shoppers”? I saw that when I took my daughter to DC two summers ago. There is a sense of conceit with many people. Someone wrote a time ago that many elitists wouldn’t dream of going to McDonalds where that was not the case 25 years ago. I find that to be true.
Saftiests are the classic “soccer moms”. They want to be protected and looked after. They will concede some rights to be protected. Remember the 2012 “Life of Julia” presentation. That was aimed at them. However if you don’t make them feel safe they will shift. That is why the uni-party is stopping their riots because they see what it is doing to this voting bloc. Also note that not so subtle hints that their safety can’t be insured if Trump wins.
When the two strains merge then you get the “Karen’s” The hectoring and smugly superior harridans who try and run your life. The Portland woman on videos who had no shame or remorse about Aaron Danielson murder encapsulated this attitude. Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobacher are Karens to me.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/09/portland-woman-reporter-murdered-trump-supporter-tough-luck-dont-fking-trump-supporter-portland-video/
But things will change I believe. There is going to be a changing of the guard in the Democratic party as the old more traditional sounding leaders are replaced with firebrands that do not hide their goals. It will be interesting to see how that transition plays out. The Obama wipe-out of lower level of Democratic office holders is coming home to roost. I wouldn’t discuss how the Democratic Party membership is shifting for now.
Also an outcome of the COVID shutdown is that finances of all levels of government is wrecked. Particularly the blue states. They cannot keep their promises and in many cases have accelerated their decline. The American People are going to wake up to the huge debt bomb awaiting us when a state goes bankrupt. The fact that powerful politicians are now being charged or investigated for corruption shows the cracks are coming.
Trouble is that the Elitist and Safetist keep their voting pathologies when they move. That is how some states that were reliably conservative or moderate have turned blue. Colorado is a good instance.
Change is coming. All we can do is keep our heads up and move forward and live our lives with joy and happiness.
20 years of incessant indoctrination; 8 yrs of BushHitler + 8 years of the “Lightbringer” + 4 years of Orange Man BAD.
Again, the content of curricula and media have been such that nearly all of what the young have been taught for a couple of generations has been framed in a particular way.
I’ll use myself as an example. Prorating periods of part time study, I had around about 18 years of formal schooling. Most teachers I had you couldn’t readily tell their perspective on social conflict, but those you could were leftoids. The exceptions were (1) a macroeconomist, (2) a resource economist, (3) a political theorist, (4) and a pair of international relations mavens. Three of these men were born around 1922, one in 1939, one in 1948. That’s a little over a semester’s worth in 18 years of study. One of them was a personal friend of Wm. F. Buckley who I’ll wager voted Republican with contentment, one was a Heritage fellow who found Ronald Reagan a big disappointment (‘just moved so far to the left’). One was a continental European who despised American conservatism. Two didn’t declare any partisan allegiance; one thought Milton Friedman’s macroeconomic models about right and the other was a Realist who couldn’t abide Helen Caldicott and what she stood for; otherwise, he had no discernable politics.
See Rothman and Lichter’s social research on elites, the media in particular. Their preliminary studies were published in 1982.
The thing is, the youth of the country born prior to 1980 was pretty resistant to the framing. So, what changed?
I am Sparticus,
I have been predicting the “debt bomb” will explode since the Reagan administration, and now we have debt levels that make that administration look like a paragon of frugality. Yet, explode it must. “The gods of the copy book headings,” and all that…
However, betting on its explosion has taught me that timing markets is tricky stuff.
Rufus – the reason that the bomb hasn’t dropped on the US is because we have exported our inflation to the rest of the world which is in a deflationary cycle. But that which cannot go on will eventually stop. When……..that is the trick of it. But as Hemingway wrote “how do you go bankrupt? Lowly then suddenly.” A state bankruptcy will be a precipitating event.
But not all is lost. Great opportunities will arise from a bankruptcy. Like the restructuring of higher education which will be disastrous for high test takers, low common sense people. I say this with conviction.
The rest of the world WISHES they had our problems because we can fix them with innovation and re-structuring. They cannot. They are in a demographic death spiral because many nations identities are bound up with ethnicity while the Anglo Sphere is bound up with race. In other words people do tend to assimilate in Anglo countries after a period of time. There are stories of Volga Germans having to be deported to Siberia in WWII because their loyalty could not be guaranteed. They still had German papers 200 years after Catherine the Great imported them. Han Chinese and Japanese are huge racists and look down on blacks. I have heard comments about this after drinking with them late at night.
That is why the divide by voting bloc practiced by the totalitarians will fail eventually. They cannot promise benefits for staying with a bloc. The gradual realization of African Americans that 60 years of the progressive Great Society has not gotten them anywhere but down, but some loud mouth New Yorker has delivered the goods is opening their eyes. Couple that with the Democrats whole hearted embrace of gender politics has turned many traditional blacks and hispanics off. Hispanics realize that illegals and the criminal gangs are hurting them more than other people. Donald Trump has offered these groups a positive alternative of prosperity and hope. It will be up to the others to do the same after he is gone or they will go back to their old voting habits.
It is going to be messy but if we can keep our constitutional principles we will come out okay in the end.
which is in a deflationary cycle.
There is no such thing.
I am Sparticus,
I’ve been saying for years the only thing keeping the U.S.’ economy and the dollar from ruin is the rest of the nation’s of the world are a bigger mess.
There are ways out of our economic mess, and the worlds’ without disaster, but humans appear way too dysfunctional to make the consistent, year on year, decade on decade headway necessary. C’est la vie.
I am Sparticus,
Regarding your optimism with President Trump. If he is elected what happens four years from now? Many true Conservatives who understand economic theory and are well versed in the likes of Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, William Buckley… are convinced Trump’s methods are the death of the Republic. Look at George Will.
Who is going to follow Trump that has the ability, will and clout to fight as hard as Trump has? And Trump himself has barely made a dent in the deep state and the swamp. Trump is a very rare combination of billionaire, carnival barker, WWE spokesperson, television celebrity, Queens NY bully, Rap star (his name has probably been stated favorably in more rap lyrics than Tupac Shakur’s), professional sports franchise owner, construction magnate… Who’s going to follow him? Nikki Haley? Tom Cotton? Ted Cruz? They’ll fold like paper napkins against the onslaught of the MSM and the Deep State. Look what happened to the Tea Party. The Republican party worked behind the scenes with the media and Dems to stifle it in its crib.
(And it’s no coincidence the last President we had that made similar strides for Conservatives and world peace was a movie star, union head, Madison Avenue pitchman and television celebrity.)
Rufus T Firefly:
Well George Will has show to be a stout as a wet paper bag. Does Will still have a column that anyone reads? Good question though about who will follow DJT in 2024. 😉
Many true Conservatives who understand economic theory and are well versed in the likes of Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, William Buckley… are convinced Trump’s methods are the death of the Republic. Look at George Will.
George Will, Scott Sumner, and some of the characters associated with the Volokh Conspiracy. That’s about it it. Sowell himself is not, btw, antagonistic to Trump.
A critic of Tyler Cowen and others associated with the Mercatus Center (which includes Scott Sumner, who has a near-lunatic hatred of the President) has offered that what distinguishes them is not libertarianism but cosmopolitanism. Libertarian discourse is a tool to use in arguing for a borderless world.
Now, you look at the actual roster of NeverTrumpaloos – and the petition signatories recruited by Jeff Flake would be an example – you see few people for whom muh-principles ever meant much. Flake recruits 28 others to sign that and you discover that when you eliminate people who voted against the caucus a great deal throughout their time in Congress (25% of the time or more), routinely voted against their caucus during their last leg in Congress; changed their registration, endorsed Obama, or affiliated with liberal organizations or squish organizations when they were out of Congress; or earned good coin as business lobbyists, you have about three people left. Now look at the extraparliamentary figures, and you discover that a bloc of them are on the patronage of some liberal outfit, have been pushing squish politics for decades, or are well known grifters. Muh principles gets you David Durenburger and John Danforth in Congress and David Brooks, David Frum, and Nicolle Wallace out of Congress. Whoop-ti-do.
Of course, you do have a residue left, but what gets you about their writing is a refusal to conjoin ends and means. True conservatives. Sigh.
Art Deco – yes there is a deflationary cycle going on in the rest of the world. All that monetary pumping is trying to keep nominal growth positive. It comes with declining populations and reduced export markets. If you aren’t selling in the US or China your sales are sunk.
Rufus – that is the good question. But let us not worry about it until after this election. We have to be laser focused on it. Will it be the same situation as to who followed FDR or Reagan? Who knows. Is it Pence? No. Is it Nikki Hailey? No, she is too corporatist. Is it Mark Cuban? Nope same as Nikki. Is it Tom Cotton? Maybe, let’s see his conduct now that he is on the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, the locus point of the uni-party soft coup. Will that person even be from the political class? One legacy about Trump is that he made it okay for politicians to fight.
People that could follow his policies could be: Jim Jordan, Josh Hawley, Matt Gaetz or Ron DeSantis. But if I had to pick a person best able to carry on Trump’s legacy it would be Donald Trump jr. He has the political wife (kind of), speaking ability and right instincts. But will the US take another Trump? If peace and prosperity breaks out across the land potentially. But that is a conversation for a later time.
Art Deco – well put. Many conservatives only wear that label so they can be invited to the polite parties as foils and let smug people think they are tolerant. When push comes to shove they display they are corporatists and one worlders.
But I am grateful for Jeff Flake for saying one thing that has stuck with me. He was not “pro-business” but “pro free enterprise”. That is a great statement that I use against big business.
When I talk to people why I support Trump one of the reasons is that Biden has the endorsement of Big Government, Big Technology, Big Business, Big Labor and Big Education. Then I ask them if they think that is a good thing and if we should let them have more say their life. It gets them thinking.
Art Deco – yes there is a deflationary cycle going on in the rest of the world. A
There is no such thing as a ‘deflationary cycle’. Inflation and deflation are monetary phenomena intermediated through the real economy.