Category Archives: Democrats

Welcome To The Jungle Of Post-Constitutional America

Constitution, Democrats, Elections, Objectivism, Politics, Republicans

Nowhere has this libertarian declared in support of Donald Trump. I chronicle and analyze our politics, but, until now, I’ve refrained from partaking in it. This could change, but that’s how it is right now. Nevertheless, at least one reader has confused an analysis of The Positive Process of Trump with an endorsement of the candidate.

A careful reading of The Trump File will show that matters of process are being emphasized:

1. Differences between political incentives in operation and apolitical incentives (Trump’s) in operation. Trump cannot be compared, on the meta-level, to a politician.
2. The Constitution is a dead letter. In this post-constitutional jungle, the law of the jungle is what prevails. Do we get a benevolent authoritarian to veto Obama’s legacies, or do we continue to submit to Demopublican diktats? That’s the best we can hope for until the center falls apart and gives way to the process of secession.

Speaking of dissolving the chains that bind us to the center: Viva Catalonian secession from Spain. Good for Catalonians. They have begun the process.

TrumpCapture

The Perils Of The Female Franchise

Democrats, Elections, Feminism, Gender, Republicans

You and I know Republicans are not to be equated with freedom, smaller government or anything remotely libertarian. Ditto Democrats. It is safe to say, however, that the voting public considers a vote for a Republican to be a vote for less government and more freedom from the state. Assuming support for a Democrat is a reliable proxy for a greater proclivity for statism—we can all agree that women have been—and continue to be—a hindrance to liberty. As I once said, I’d give up my vote if all women were denied a vote.

Via CNN come the latest numbers on how the ladies lean:

Against Bush, Clinton leads 59% to 37% among women, while Bush holds an advantage among men, 51% Bush to 44% Clinton. Against Fiorina, the only woman among the major candidates for the Republican Party’s presidential nominations, women break 60% for Clinton to 39% for Fiorina, while men are about evenly divided, 48% for Fiorina, 46% for Clinton. The largest gender gap — 34 points — comes in a match-up between Clinton and Trump. Women favor Clinton by 23 points, 60% to 37%, while men break in Trump’s favor by 11 points, 53% to 42%.

‘Tis The Season For Duplicitous & Dopey Republican Pledges

Democrats, Elections, Politics, Republicans, Taxation

Government taxes you indirectly, through spending, borrowing and inflating the money supply. The upshot is that your money’s purchasing power is drastically reduced overtime. That you can take to the bank.

Every Bill the overlords pass, moreover, “requires” more hirees and more salaries in perpetuity, that is if you take into account the generous overtime payments, pensions and other benefits the oink sector awards itself. Government is a tax-increasing scheme. This is why when the Republican presidential hopefuls make a song and a dance out of pledging to Americans for Tax Reform not to raise taxes on the American people; they do so with impunity. They are, nevertheless, full of it. Besides, didn’t they make similar pledges during the previous election cycle? Or was it the midterm prior?

Chris Christie Wednesday became the latest Republican to sign a pledge to “oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes.”

Americans for Tax Reform has been urging presidential candidates to sign the pledge. In 2012, all Republicans except one, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, did.

Christie, the governor of New Jersey, is the ninth of the 17 prominent 2016 Republican candidates to agree to no tax increases. Also making the commitment are Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rick Perry, former governor of Texas, former business executive Carly Fiorina, former Sen. Rick Santorum, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, and Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas.

Christie’s fiscal record has also come in for criticism from some conservatives. The Club for Growth Tuesday didn’t list Christie as one of its acceptable 2016 candidates.

“The Club for Growth praised the governor for winning concessions from public employee unions and withdrawing from a multistate compact designed to curb emissions contributing to climate change,” reported NJ.com. But, the group added, “there are enough warning signs in Christie’s record to give fiscal conservatives pause,” such as his decision to expand Medicaid coverage as part of the Affordable Care Act.

Optics, that’s all this is.

Speaking of the season for dopey pledges, I agree with Rachel Maddow, for once, that Trump signing the GOP pledge not to run as a third-party candidate is “a giant screwup.” Trump may have lost “a lot of leverage.” Bernie Sanders, who serves as an independent in U.S. Congress, but caucuses with the Democratic Party—he has not felt the need to sign any pledge to adhere to the Democratic Party’s do’s and don’ts.

Trump Could Send The System’s Sycophants Scattering

Democrats, Elections, Media, Republicans, Ron Paul

“Trump Could Send The System’s Sycophants Scattering” is the current column, now on WND. An excerpt:

During the first primetime Republican debate, in Cleveland, Ohio, Donald Trump delivered the same slogans and failed to flesh out positions. While the man is quick and engaging; he came unprepared.

Ideas have not solidified Trump’s success, but a powerful persona, true-blue patriotism and a willingness to put his substantial estate to the service of both. Trump now enjoys more support than he had prior to Cleveland, leading in national polls and in early voting states.

Henpecked though he was by the “Murdoch Media’s” golden goose—Megyn Kelly—Trump demonstrated that he is what his constituency craves: A man in the old mold. Trump is not an excuse for a man who’ll bolt like so many rabbits when a couple of girls get in his face and grab his mic. I allude to socialist-in-Seattle Bernie Sanders (D), over whom two African-American women rode racial roughshod.

When members of the media pontificate that Trump’s ascent reflects the base’s disgust with the establishment, they fail to include themselves in that detested clique.

To befuddle viewers and malign The Base, media even fib about who the establishment is. Steve Hayes, senior writer for The Weekly Standard, a bastion of the Republican establishment, asserted on Fox News that the Koch brothers of Koch industries, big bankers for the Republicans, are not of the establishment.

Central to the media enterprise is a worldview that looks to the state and its stooges as the sole repository of the public good. The idiot’s lantern is monopolized by men and women who’re of The system and for The System. Is there any wonder they are bucking the force of nature that is threatening their equilibrium?

Donald Trump must be observed from the standpoint not of policy, but of someone who could smash apart the political system and send its sycophants scattering to the four corners of the earth.

Trump is making this stagnant political spoils system oscillate. The particles—political and media movers-and-shakers—hate him for it.

So it was that GOPer Jonah Goldberg accused Americans of throwing a tantrum at the politicians and the pundits. The word “tantrum” is meant to demean; it implies a hissy fit; a childish outburst of rage.

The establishment, Republican and Democrat, has a tendency to hunt in packs. Thus did compadre John King of the liberal network CNN offer a variation on the Goldberg theme: “The base wants to break all the glass.” (I hope J. S. Bach forgives the pairing of his sublime Goldenberg Variations with Jonah.) …

Read the complete column. “Trump Could Send The System’s Sycophants Scattering” is now on WND.

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