Things I've Said

Category: Politics

  • I May Have Been Wrong About Trump

    More than once, I predicted with great confidence that Trump’s presidency would not have a great impact on the country. It has barely started, and I am beginning to fear that I was wrong.

    It’s not Trump I’m concerned about. It is the left. The people who say that they want equality, and peace and social justice. The people who claim that those on the right are bigots, war mongers, violent and greedy.

    It’s not just this thing with UC Berkley. That is the latest and (so far) most egregious of the outrages. Since Trump’s startling win on election day, the left has made a point to say that everyone who didn’t vote for Hillary is a racist, bigot, vile, despicable human being. It isn’t good enough to say “I disagree with your judgement”, or “I disagree with your priorities”, or even “You are flat wrong for what you did”. None of these goes far enough to satiate the left. They will not tolerate anything less than outright condemnation of every non-Hillary supporter, and far less the genuine Trump supporters.

    I can live with that. Immature as such behavior is, hurtful and unproductive as it is, it is similar to the outcry from the right when Obama was elected. Worse in degree, I think, but still the same in kind.

    But since the inauguration, things have stepped up a couple of notches, and I am starting to think that it just might be worthy of genuine concern. These lovers of peace and freedom and equality are turning radical in a way that I didn’t expect. I have heard people on the left, in no uncertain terms, state that they were going to intentionally engage in disinformation campaigns. I have heard repeated cheers of support for the guy who sucker-punched Richard Spencer, which I can almost understand. But I’ve also heard the left tearing apart others on the left who decried violence. These are not things I expected to hear from the left.

    Now UC Berkley. I’d love to know how many of the rioters have ever actually listened to Milo Yiannopoulos give a talk? How many of them know who he is only because they have been told by their shepherd media that Milo is bad? Milo is a provocateur, no doubt. But he’s just a guy with some ideas. I’ve never heard him promote violence. He doesn’t promote causing harm to anyone.

    Maybe if the left would take the time to listen to Milo, they could make an informed rebuttal, rather than being the raging, violent mob that tolerates no dissenting opinion. For all the fear people have of vicious dictators who crush anything in the path of their vision, torture and kill any people or group that does not sufficiently support that vision, it somehow slips past the sight of the leftist that it is their political ideology that has actually lead to these horrors.

    I know just enough history to be aware that the most merciless people in history are on the left of the political spectrum. I know that those people who have pitilessly crushed and slaughtered all who oppose them have claimed to be doing so for the good of the people.

    If the left proves me wrong, if we descend into darkness and chaos because of their violent response to Trump’s presidency, I will concede that I was indeed wrong. I had more faith in the left than I should have.

  • Crowd Fund the Government

    Crowd Fund the Government!

    Eliminate all taxes. If the government wants to spend money on a bridge or a school or a war or a paycheck for Congress, set up a crowd-funding campaign. If it gets funded, we know that the people wanted it. If it doesn’t get funded, the people didn’t want it.  Now that’s true democracy in action!

  • Freedom or Democracy: Which Do You Prefer?

    Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority. – Federalist 10

    I’ve been told that it is the moral duty of the United States to spread freedom and democracy where it can in the world.  Spreading freedom and democracy – as if freedom and democracy are somehow intertwined, almost synonymous.  Everyone wants to live in a democracy so they can be free.

    I hate to be the one to tell you this, but, no.  Democracy does not protect your freedom.

    In 2008 and 2012, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States.  Roughly one half of the country vehemently disagreed with this politics and policies.  But they are now subject to the Affordable Care Act.  That’s not freedom.  That is authoritarianism.  In 2016, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States.  As of this writing, it remains to be seen whether or not the promise to build a wall between the US and Mexico will happen.  But if the wall gets built, it does not matter if you voted for Trump, or if you approve of the wall.  You will help pay for it.  That’s not freedom.  That is authoritarianism.

    The observation is no less acute for being misattributed to Ben Franklin: “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what is for dinner”.

    Democracy only ensures that a majority, or a plurality, or in some cases even a minority (see the election of Donald Trump) has the ability to force it’s will on the remainder.  It does not matter to me if it is a single dictator or 300 million other people who force me to do what I do not want to do.  It does not make any difference that I was able to vote for my interests, if by losing the vote, my rights are taken from me.