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Feb. 8, 2013
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Jewish World Review
Sept. 6, 2011
/ 7 Elul, 5771
Our Progressive Economic Wrecking Crew
By
Arnold Ahlert
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
On the jobs front, it doesn't get any clearer than zero. Nor did the news get any better during the Friday-before-a-holiday-weekend news dump. One which also revealed that the public part of America's debt (as opposed to the intra-governmental debt we owe to ourselves) topped $10 trillion for the first time in history. That's an increase of 59 percent in public debt since Barack Obama was inaugurated on January 20th, 2009. This is a double-barrel dose of reality that can better explained by ideology than economics. Simply put, two progressive nostrums are killing the country. To wit:
1. Government knows best. Only a fool, or a progressive would believe such utter nonsense. But they do, with a kind of religious intensity that would make the Dalai Lama blush. And it has to be religious, because only blind faith--with an accent on the blind part--could look at the gargantuan amount of waste, fraud, inefficiency, and lethargy, coupled with the legions of petty, power-mongering bureaucrats and conclude government is the answer.
Yet that so-called answer begs the obvious question: why do progressives believe government knows best? Because they believe the overwhelming majority of Americans are hopelessly stupid and need to be led around by their "betters." Note the two dominating attitudes that draw them to that conclusion. One is the unbridled contempt these people have for their fellow countrymen. As one who has long believed in the innate wisdom of most people--as opposed to the self-aggrandizing, Ivy League, book smart, elitism progressives use as their measuring stick--I find such contempt appalling.
If progressives are so brilliant, why has virtually every iota of bad economic news been characterized as "unexpected?"
The answer to that question reveals the second attitude. Arrogance. Reduced to it most basic level, progressive arrogance stems from one simple idea: I'm right, and you're not only wrong, but stupid and/or evil to boot. Now mind you, someone suffused with a tad less contempt and arrogance, might look at something like a month where zero jobs were created (or saved), or two-and-a-half years of economic malaise--most notably, the two of those years when progressives had complete and dominant control of Congress and the White House--and come to the conclusion that something's not working. Like about 14 million Americans who are unemployed and another 11 million who are working part-time, or who have given up looking for work entirely, for example. You might say to yourself, "we gave it our best Keynesian shot, it didn't work, let's try something else."
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Progressives? See government knows best, driven by contempt and arrogance. See a Thursday speech by the president and wait for the infrastructure bank, shovel-ready, command-and-control b.s., packaged with a vocabulary where any mention of the word "stimulus" is a speechwriter's firing offense. I'm betting "targeted investments" is the new catch-phrase. In other words, get ready for a new shade of lipstick on the same economic pig this president and his administration have been pushing since they assumed control. And brace yourself as well for a pig-promoting mainstream media who will tell you that any resistance to the same old same old, is Tea Party-led racism or good old-fashioned Republican obstructionism. Which brings us to our second nostrum:
2. When you're suffused with contempt and arrogance, you can actually believe that, with respect to economics, "coercion" and "incentive" are interchangeable terms. If there is a bigger progressive disconnect than this one, I would be hard-pressed to imagine what it is. Only a progressive would believe you can bash the hell out of America's wealth-creators, burden them with thousands of regulations, many of which are either unknown or more likely unknowable, and embrace crony capitalism with its government-selected "winners and losers"-- and still wonder why those wealth-creators aren't falling all over themselves to hire more workers.
Memo to the business world's would-be progressive masters: a substantial portion of America's wealth-creators are on strike. You know what a strike is all about. That's when a worker, or in this case a business owner, decides conditions are so onerous, that it no longer pays to work under them. Or in this case, hire under them. And when those wealth-creators see one of the worst examples of unbridled coercion to ever come down the pike--as in the NLRB suing Boeing airlines for daring to open a plant in a right to work state--it's not going to get any better.
Even we dullard Americans recognize a government-sponsored shakedown when we see it.
As for the president's upcoming jobs speech, Americans would be wise to note it's not a jobs speech at all. It's a campaign speech. Ergo, even if by some miracle, the dedicated socialist/Marxist/progressive who currently occupies the Oval Office did a one-eighty and embraced any sort of Reagan-esque, genuinely business-stimulating ideas that got us out of the last recession, they would be ephemeral at best. It is absolutely critical that Americans understand one over-arching reality regarding Barack Obama:
This economy is the one we've got while this man is desperately seeking re-election.
In other words, it reflects his best efforts with respect to getting elected for another four years. Four more years in which he will no longer be constrained by the necessity of winning votes. Four more years in which his habit of bypassing Congress and doing whatever he pleases will be amplified, not diminished. The common political wisdom which has preceded this president has long been the idea that no one man, no matter how bad a president he is, could ruin the nation.
This is one American who believes that theory no longer applies.
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Previously:
09/01/11: Summer Swoon
08/29/11: The Real American Fanatics
08/24/11:The Five Stages of (Progressive) Grief
08/22/11:The Inevitable Descent From Progressivism to Nihilism
08/22/11: Perry Stands Firm. Obama Stands Mute
08/15/11: Give Me a Flatscreen TV, or Give Me Anarchy!
08/11/11: Resign, Mr. President
08/08/11: Facts? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Facts
08/03/11: Manufactured Crises
08/01/11: Stay Healthy, America --- or else!
07/28/11: Existential Crisis, Part 2
07/25/11: Three-Out-of-Four Americans Are Radicals
07/21/11: What Does Two Plus Two Equal?
07/18/11: News Nuggets
07/13/11: The Write Stuff
07/11/11: Completely Expectable Unexpectedness
07/07/11: Organized Cheating
07/05/11: Stimulating Disaster
06/30/11: Progressivism Masquerading as Education
06/27/11: America: Greece With Better PR
06/23/11: NBC-ya Later
06/19/11: One Man's Conversation About Race
06/10/11: An Exhibitionist in an Exhibitionist Age
06/07/11: NAACP Betrays Black American Schoolchildren
06/02/11: For the First Time in My Adult Life . . .
05/31/11: If I Were President
05/25/11: California Dreamin'
05/23/11: On Wisconsin!
05/20/11: Obama's Farewell to Israel Speech
05/16/11: Krauthammering Amnesty
05/11/11: Bounce, My Backside
05/09/11: The Epicenter of Progressive Contempt for the Rule of Law
05/03/11: SEALing Osama's Fate
05/02/11: The Education plantation
04/24/11: The Bell May Toll for Jersey Toll Collectors
04/19/11: From Medical Dependency to Dependency on the Welfare State
04/14/11: Trumping the Debate
04/06/11: It Takes a Bigot to Expose a Death Cult
04/04/11: Charlie and Snookie --- and Barack
03/30/11: Disabling America, One Lawsuit at a Time
03/28/11: The MSM Kills the Kill Team Story
03/23/11: Another Military Scandal
03/21/11: Barry, Joe, Helen and Wisconsin Teachers
03/16/11: The Inevitable Viability of Conservatism
03/14/11: Progressives in Their Own Words
03/09/11: $61 Billion in Cuts --- Vs. $223 Billion in One Month of Spending
03/07/11: Bean Bag B.S.
03/02/11: A Green Catastrophe in the Making
02/28/11: Ain't Noting Like the Real Thing
02/23/11: Progressive Rot vs. the ROTC
02/21/11: Wisconsin: Progressivism in All its Ugly Glory
02/18/11: News reporters --- or Narrative Shapers?
02/16/11: The Presidents Budget Proposal: An Obamination of Progressive Profligacy
02/14/11: Only Another 9/11 Will Alter the Illegal Immigration Status Quo
02/10/11: Is O'Reilly losing his touch or is he just irresponsible?
02/07/11: Tossing Britain Under the Bus
02/03/11: Starving the World In Order to Save It
01/31/11: Walking the Middle East Tightrope
01/27/11: Small-scale Terrorist Attacks: Big Strategy?
01/24/11: Jeffery Immelt: A Crony Capitalist In Charge of Job Creation
01/20/11: An Intimate Prime-time Interview
01/17/11: Progressives: Always Angry, Newly Desperate
01/12/11: Twain vs. the Totalitarians
01/10/11: Politically Correct Passports?
01/05/11: Showdown at the Fiscal Corral
01/03/11: Reading the Constitution Aloud is a Good Start
12/30/10: Getting Our Moral Mojo Back
12/27/10: PC Airport Safety is an Oxymoron
12/23/10: Getting America Back On Track
12/20/10: A Collectivist Coalition of Convenience
12/15/10: The President Who Wasn't There
12/13/10: Tech-No!
12/08/10: A Lethal Military, Inclusive or Not
12/06/10: The Unexpected Consequences of Progressivism
12/01/10: Leakers and Losers
11/29/10: We Won, Part One
11/22/10: Keep Your Hands Off My Constitution
11/17/10: Grope and Change
11/14/10: Taking Back Our Country, One School At a Time
11/11/10: Checks (and Balances), Please
11/08/10: Curtain Up, Progressives Down
11/04/10: Last Chance, Republicans
11/01/10: By Their Own Words Shall Ye Know Them
10/28/10: Progressive Determination to Undermine American Elections
10/25/10: Shock, but more importantly, action: De-Unionize Public Schools now
10/20/10: Multiculturalism? Check, Please
10/18/10: Healthcare: Alice in Wonderland vs. The Constitution
10/11/10: Vote for Restoring the Rule of Law in November
10/11/10: Dems: Running From Clarity
10/07/10: Hypersensitive Hogwash
10/04/10: Comprehensive Con Artists
09/29/10: Why Dems Are Going Down in November
09/27/10: The Unholiest of Unholy Alliances
09/22/10: Two Words for Republicans to Remember: I Won
09/20/10: Purging Me First Politicians
09/17/10: No More Lesser of Two Evils
09/15/10: Recovery Arms Race
09/13/10: Bigots in the Majority --- Again?
09/09/10: Giving Voters Something to Vote For
09/07/10: Irresponsible Dems, Incomprehensible Bills
09/02/10: War Weary Americans vs. Implacable Islamists
08/31/10: A Dream Debased
08/25/10: American Bigots Versus Media Propagandists
08/23/10: Recovery Bummer
08/19/10: An Unholy Alliance of Radicals
08/16/10: You've Lost America, Mr. President
08/13/10: The Twin Towers of Progressive Disconnect
08/11/10: A Far Better National Discussion
08/09/10: It's Only One Dead Nun
08/06/10: Incremental Tyranny
08/04/10: Ground Zero Mosque: Context Counts
08/02/10: The Arizona Ruling: a Gift for November
07/29/10: The United Cities of America
07/26/10: JournoList: Coordinated Ideological Bankruptcy
07/20/10: Go For Broke Or Get Out of the Way
07/14/10: You're a Liberal/Progressive if You Believe…
07/12/10: $33-an-hour--For Sleeping On the Job
07/08/10: Extortionist Government
07/06/10: Commerce Clause Totalitarians
07/01/10: Another Public School Travesty in MA
06/30/10: Calling YOUR Bluff, Mr. President
06/28/10: A Trifecta of Progressive Corruption
06/23/10: Plug the Darn Hole --- In Our Border
06/21/10: Our Empty-Suit-in-Chief
06/16/10: Betraying Our Children
06/14/10: Who Gets the Benefit of the Doubt?
06/07/10: Politically Correct Warfare
06/01/10: Bill Maher's Black President
05/25/10: A Mosque At Ground Zero
05/23/10: Libs Stand Tall --- For Mexico
05/19/10: The 'Unintended Consequences' of Liberalism
05/17/10: 'Los' Suns: Stuck on Stupido
05/12/10: Union Audacity: Yes We Will!
05/10/10: Greeks, Leaks and and Double-Speak
05/05/10: Twelve Million Illegals --- or Thirty?
05/02/10: Republicans: Playing Not to Lose Doesn't Cut It
04/28/10: Arizona: Progressivism's Waterloo?
04/26/10: Son of Amnesty
04/22/10: Mortgages and Moral Meltdowns
04/20/10: Bashing Christians Or Gays?
04/15/10: Personal Integri-tea
04/12/10: Fools, Tools and Ghouls
04/08/10: (Tea) Party On
04/05/10: The Triumph of Mediocrity
04/02/10: Two For the Road
03/29/10: The Innate Immorality of Liberalism
03/24/10: The Art of War
03/22/10: I Want My Country Back
03/18/10: A Perpetual Process
03/17/10: American Exhibitionists
03/15/10: A Light Bulb Moment of Clarity
03/10/10: Little Things Mean A Lot
02/03/10: Budgetary Fork in the Road
02/01/10: Liberal Economic Illiteracy
01/27/10: Roe-ing and Wade-ing Back to Reason
01/25/10: Arrogance When Up, Denial When Down
01/20/10: Connecting the Educational Dots
01/19/10: The Next Tea Party?
01/15/10: The Myth That Keeps on Giving
01/13/10: Airport Security Begins Away From the Airport
01/11/10: Secrets and Lies
01/08/10: Embracing Bigotry or Rejecting Bullying?
01/06/10: Hanging by an Ideological Thread
01/04/10: Our Wonderama Bureaucracy
12/30/09: A Day Off
12/28/09: Dangerous Myths
12/25/09: I, Me, Mine
12/23/09: A Very Harry Christmas
12/21/09: My Opinon
12/18/09: The Party of Repeal
12/15/09: Privileged Exemption
11/30/09: Settled Science and Unsettled Children
11/30/09: American Sharia Law
11/23/09:The Trial (Travesty) of the Century
11/04/09: American Vampires and Their Political Enablers
11/01/09: Opting Out of Insanity?
10/28/09: Cell Phones Cause Brain Cancer. Brain Required
10/26/09: Communism: Nazism With Better PR
10/21/09: Just Asking
10/16/09: Cost Projections vs. Actual Costs, or Hope and Change vs. Reality
10/14/09: News you can use …
10/07/09: Incremental Insidiousness
10/05/09: MIA: Common Sense and Common Decency
09/30/09: Iran: Bad Options and Unpreparedness
09/21/09: Crying Racism: the Last Refuge of Scoundrels
09/11/09: 9/11 Cannot Be Sanitized
09/08/09: Truthers and Consequences
09/01/09: A Paper Trail Challenge for the Mainstream Media
08/31/09: Drowning in Amorality
08/26/09: The Republican Recovery Program
© 2011, Arnold Ahlert
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