From nudge to push to beat down

After Cass Sunstein explained to us how an enlightened government must nudge American dummies who don't know what's best their lives, some of us warned that the nudge would eventually become something more forceful. Yesterday, we saw Congress muscle the Apple CEO because he hasn't paid his fair share of taxes according to the politicians. Government wasn't content with media smears on Tea Partiers that were meant to nudge them to the margins, so the IRS attacked them with paperwork that threatened their existence. Not all reporters responded to nudges by the administration to stop with leaks, so the administration violated their privacy rights and stole phone records and emails. When nudge doesn't work, government has to get serious so that subjects obey and act right.

With Obamacare coming out, the mindset in government is to do what it takes to implement the program. When young people pay fines rather than buy policies, what do you think government will do? They will force young people to subsidize old people by any means necessary, because government has decided it's best for the whole. What will happen when businesses push employees to the exchanges? Government will do whatever it takes to make businesses pay their "fair share". When Obamacare starts to implode, government will make the case for single payer nationalized healthcare, and then  push it through. Taxes will go up tremendously. Then watch how the Senate beats down any company not paying the amount of taxes government demands it pay. By God, Government tried nudging, and we wouldn't respond correctly, so now we must face the consequences. If you don't want a beat down, then start acting right.

We can't believe the administration or media

Some reporters and journalists in the media have tried to maintain integrity, but way too many have intentionally overlooked the lies told by the administration regarding Benghazi, the IRS attacks on Tea Party groups and the spying on reporters that the administration wants to silence. Not only are many in media overlooking the lies, they're apologizing for the administration, spinning information to make it look like the President and his high level administration personell are guilt-free.

The President and his administration can't be trusted. A large part of media can't be trusted. Lying has consequences. Partisans will excuse any behavior, I guess, but there are still Americans who expect more than lies from their President and the administration he represents.

Demand that US withdraw from the Mideast

Perhaps when the American people find out just how corrupt and incompetent our statist system of government has become, they will apply appropriate scepticism to foreign policy and military operations. Obama will certainly run to foreign policy as more is revealed about the AP First Amendment violations and the IRS attacks on conservatives and libertarians.

The American people can't afford to let their respect for the military cause further entanglements in the Mideast. In order to save our military from abuse (see Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Egypt and Libya) by this administration and neo-con Republicans, and to show sincere respect, the American people must demand a withdrawal from the Mideast. Afghanistan has become a political situation, not a war to protect national security. Syria is a Mideast battle between rich oil dictators and power-mongers positioning themselves in the region. America's role is one of political manipulation, and our manipulations in the Mideast have never worked out. Plus, America must return to her principled stance of non-interventionism, if we're ever going to return to peace and prosperity after decades of wars and statism. We can't let Obama play Global Machiavellia to hide from his lies and deceptions at home.

The administration sets up its own criticism

The administration likely does it on purpose so that media will slam Republicans for overreacting. When the President says he found out about the IRS scandal on tv like everyone elese, what does he expect? What's expected is criticism and disbelief. Even Democrats are showing disbelief, but when Republicans call BS, the media wrings its hands worried if the GOP will over-react.

When administration officials say laws are irrelevant, or that terrorist attacks were random acts of violence caused by a Youtube video, what does the administration expect? They expect a Republican reaction, because the reaction is called for -- but then an Obama operative goes out to the media and criticizes Mitch McConnell or some other Republican politician because there are concerns about the lies being told to the American people.

We have to come up with a new term for this tactic, because Orwellian is too trite.

America divided

Over the weekend, one of the hot media stories was that Obama's popularity is rising in the midst of scandals. See, there's no problem. America has been effectively politicized and divided, and this is good news to media and the political class. Progressive  have criticized those who promote limited government and a free market because they are focused on economics. The political class accuses the Austrian types of assigning economic motives to everyone.

Mises, the main Austrian economist, never made this claim. What Mises claimed is in stark contrast to what his critics say he claimed. Mises said economics is the study of human action. In a free market, individuals interact in many diverse ways, with cooperation being the main link that makes it all work. Like the human body with all its diverse parts, it's the cooperation between the parts that makes the body work as it does. When there is no meddling, a free society whose rights are protected by the rule of law works together, makes progress and solves problems which cause friction. I'm simplifying for the purpose of a blog post to make a point. Read Mises' Human Action.

In our statist system, government meddling breaks society apart, dividing the country in two politically. Government interventions are creating high unemployment, but the State is satisfied giving food stamps and unemployment checks, or giving disability benefits. Unemployment harms those who want to be a part of, want to produce and be active. Those working below their abilities feel demeaned. Those who work part time are worried about their jobs, especially as government interventions in healthcare cause small business layoffs or closings.

Government is meddling in energy production and the money supply, causing high gas prices. The artificial suppression of interest rates hurts those who wish to save. Government meddling hurts Americans in thousands of different ways, but mainly through interference in cooperation between individuals. This is not a new problem. Government interference in the economy has been going on for close to a hundred years, but now the accumulated consequences are threatening the existence of the nation. America's people were so good at cooperating and producing, it took a long time to finally break enough bonds to cripple the nation.  Another empire is about to collapse.

But what does media and the political class discuss? They discuss popularity polls, and they look to a stock market manipulated by the Federal Reserve to the benefit of government cronies and say that all is well. Yes, as long Obama is popular and the stock market is rising, who cares about Americans out of work, the lack of cooperative production/innovation/creativity or all broken ties in society?