I get several emails per week asking my view on various topics and many of the questions raise very interesting issues.
So I’ve decided to start a new feature. Every weekend, I will endeavor to answer one question.
My first chore is to explain why I hate Republicans, and as you can see here and here, there’s certainly ample reason to think I hold GOPers in low esteem. The actual question, though, is:
You seem to be more critical of Republicans than Democrats and you went out of your way to attack Romney. Doesn’t that play into the hands of Obama?
The answer is yes and no. I don’t mean to sound like a politician, but I view my job as providing nonpartisan analysis on public policy issues. That means I criticize the statist schemes of the folks in Washington, regardless of whether the politicians have a “D” or an “R” at the end of their names.
To be fair, I’m probably a bit harder on Republicans, but only because they’re the ones who often pretend that they are on my side.
And sometimes they are on my side. My two favorite presidents are Reagan and Coolidge, and I have great admiration for those few politicians – such as Ron Paul – who almost always do the right thing.
But I also have discovered that bad Republicans usually do more damage than Democrats. Nixon was one of the most statist presidents of my lifetime, and Bush 41 and Bush 43 were almost as bad.
And even the politicians I’m willing to praise, including Ron Paul, sometimes do the wrong thing. And as much as I praise Reagan, he had some huge mistakes, such as the catastrophic health insurance program.
My simple rule of thumb is I will support a politicians who, in my estimation, will be a net plus for liberty. So notwithstanding my reputation for being a libertarian ideologue, I have a very practical approach to politics.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that it’s rather disappointing that so few Republicans satisfy that simple test.
But now let’s return to the question. Doesn’t that view play into the hands of Obama? As I said, yes and no
I want to maximize liberty (or minimize statism) in the long run. So if I have a choice between a big-government Republican and big-government Democrat, I sometimes think we’re better off if the Democrat prevails.
Jimmy Carter, for instance, probably wasn’t that much worse than Gerald Ford. And he paved the way for Reagan.
And Bill Clinton, in retrospect, was a much better choice than Bush 41. And he paved the way for the GOP landslide in 1994.
So the question before us today is whether Barack Obama is paving the way for a good Republican…or whether he’s a Lyndon Johnson paving the way for a Richard Nixon.
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The misconception at the root of this post is to assume that political parties embody ideologies. The reality is that parties are nothing more than bureaucratic machines to win elections.
The trouble is that political parties are boxes. R and D seem pretty much the same, Libertarian is a lot better. But they all have issues on which we think differently, which is because everybody and our context is very different, despite the government educational system which teaches what to think rather than how to think.
Switzerland doesn’t think one size fits all, their cantons offer various different policies and you can vote with your feet. Their reforms to their starting point of the US constitution have been pretty successful.
The obvious solution for the US? Reform the constitution to return power to the people and to the several states. I saw what seemed to be a viable road to hold a constitutional assembly somewhere. Any one know about it?
And while we’re dreaming, let’s also implement the voting improvement of: none of the above. See: http://www.LifeStrategies.net/nota
…meant “statist” not statistic.
So are we down to the hope that greedy statistic will overshoot and will turn the heat up abruptly enough that the American voter frog jumps out?
The problem I see with capitulating to such modest goals is that there are over two hundred countries in the world. “Not too bad”, dear Americans, is just not good enough if you want to maintain the top spot in worldwide prosperity.
If the American individual/voter no longer has anything that ideologically distinguishes him/her from the rest of the world, then his hope of remaining most prosperous nation in the world is simply a delusional pipe dream.
The reason why only so few few countries are successfully is because success demands that voters do something very difficult, something against their human nature: refraining from degenerating their regime into a Pitchfork Democracy”. Refraining from creating a democracy where the central operating principle is: “This is the village. Participation is mandatory”.
Please remove me from your listing.
There’s at least one more reason to condemn Republicans. Their leaders are still pretending to “believe in the power and opportunity of America’s free-market economy.” They’ve been asserting their claim about a “free-market economy” for years at their website, yet American commerce is thoroughly rigged by government. Republican leaders know it, and their followers know, or should know, this.
See http://www.gop.com/our-party/ for other confessions of the shallow militaristic gangsters who want “the judicial system to base rulings on the law, AND NOTHING ELSE.” (Emphasis added.) It’s difficult to imagine them being more contemptuous of the principles of equity that should guide courts of equity run independently of government. And could they do more to trivialize facts that are relevant when practicing the A in IRAC and CRuPAC?
“So the question before us today is whether Barack Obama is paving the way for a good Republican…or whether he’s a Lyndon Johnson paving the way for a Richard Nixon.”
That’s a scary question if ever I heard one. I need a drink now.
The difference between the “D’s” and the “R’s” is more about who is in charge than it is about substance. Both think the all controlling State is OK as long as it is THEM in charge of it.
A little Bastiat, Hazlitt, Hayek, and von Mises would be a great breath of fresh air for both sides.
After 40 years as a Republican I’m changing my registration to Libertarian, and that only because there is no other party as close to the meaning of the little “r” republican ideal.
“One of the most”? I’d say Nixon was the most statist Republican president we’ve ever had–don’t you remember wage and price controls?
OTOH, while the GOP seems to nominate moderately statist presidential candidates time after time (people seem to believe the MSM that we can’t elect a libertarian, so they give libertarian candidates no air time), some of the GOP representatives and even a few of the senators are reasonably libertarian.
And then the GOP has the problem of the so-called “social conservatives,” who are really statists on “moral” issues while somewhat conservative on economic issues. I think that the only way the GOP can win in the future is to convince these so-called social conservatives that while they are more than welcome to do their best to convince people to behave morally, they have no right to force people to behave morally using the power of the state, just as progressives have no right to force people to be charitable through the power of the state. IMHO
Judy, calling them fascists and commies is a little over the top, but being a lifelong Republican myself, I am beginning to wander from the reservation. I believe we need to rise up and bring back constitutional small-government principles. The key phrase is “rise up!”
The Republicans are worthless big government statists, fascists, commies and warmongers. I’m glad I stopped voting Republican in 2006 because I finally felt liberated from evil. It’s a joke to think that differences exist between the R’s and D’s. The lesser of the 2 evils is still evil. The liberty activists must take over the GOP – that’s our only hope.