From politics and war to economics and peace

Forget the Left/Right divide. It's a useful distinction when voting if the voter believes that one or the other party actually believes their rhetoric, but for the most part, the political class is made up of statists from the Right and Left, and the status quo concerns itself with power maintenance -- given this reality, it hardly matters which party is in power. The entire political realm is now in reactionary mode against a small but growing movement to limit government power and end the primacy of politics in America so that Americans can return to productive economic activity and peaceful trade with other countries rather than one ballistic intervention/entanglement after another.

The movement to limit government is coming from a libertarian strain on the Right, represented by Ron and Rand Paul and newly elected GOP candidates who pledged to limit government power and work for the implementation of free market principles. It remains to be seen if the movement can gain enough power to limit State power, but so far they've gotten the attention of establishment elements in both parties and media. Anyone associated with this limited government movement has been severely and constantly attacked and smeared. The goal of the status quo protectors is to marginalize those who are friendly with the limited government movement and to destroy anyone who's dedicated and important to the movement.

The primacy of political means in America has placed the nation at risk as our economy has basically shut-down in uncertainty while government intervenes over and over leaving investors even more uncertain what will come next. Investors, entrepreneurs and business people of all stripes have no way to calculate their costs, and consumers are also uncertain regarding their employment future, so investors don't hire and expand and consumers wait on the big purchases.

The concerned Leftist or Centrist or Left-Libertarian will tell you that economics and taxes are not primary concerns, that we should be concerned with social issues, privacy issues, minority rights issues, environmental issues, and so on. I agree that all the above are important issues, but only a comfortable and prosperous society can afford to address these issues, and when government uses political means to address these issues there's societal division calculated by statists to obtain and maintain power. Most Americans have the same societal goals even though methods might differ, but when government has trashed the economy and basic needs become a concern once again, then higher concerns are put on the back burner. Government has finally intervened to the point that the economy has siezed up. Americans will fight one another over scarce resources through the feeding trough of government -- this is the way statists have set it up, and it leads to conflict. For diversion and a sense of national unity when things get too bad, another war usually works wonders.

Limited government and free marketism lead to free choices and more productive economic activity, an end to central planning, thus less conflict and more charity and  compassion to tackle the larger societal concerns. We can deal with our problems without government interventions -- this is the idea statists have to squash, because it's an idea which threatens the political elite. The elite are threatened, and their flailings will only become more extreme. Yes, elections can still work, but they must be significant and revolutionary. We must have revolutionary change, no different from the beginning revolution.

The need for a new Old Right

The Old Right of Jay Albert Nock, Murray Rothbard, Frank Chodorov and Roy Childs stood in opposition to the statist transition of the time. Many classical liberals during this period were coaxed into a modern liberal movement influenced by socialism's popularity and the belief that a free market was too disruptive and it restricted America from becoming a Great State which could do good in the world.

In recent times, the Right has been dominated by conservatives who challenge modern liberals for control of a powerful State. Modern liberals have won the war, so far, despite the temporary and incomplete challenge during the Reagan era. Eight years of Bush represented the Right's complete shift to statism. Between the two establishment political parties we witness a battle for power, coercive power through the State. Both are two heads of a basically conservative coin which attempt to maintain a statist, status quo, each with their vision how State power should be managed. There has been criticism during the last couple of decades that the two parties are more alike than different despite the rhetoric during campaigns -- this criticism is mostly true.

The Old Right sought a different kind of power, and there's evidence a new Old Right is emerging, represented by Ron Paul, his son Rand, Gary Johnson and some of the Tea Party conservatives who seek this same kind of power. The Old Right, and I hope it's true of the new Old Right, sought the power of productivity, innovation, liberty, individuality, cooperative/competitive private sector enterprise, artistic expression, a free market of ideas, peaceful trade with other nations, limited government, charity, science, technology and reason. The Old Right fought expansion of State power and railed against interventions overseas which used young men and women as fodder for political ambitions. The Old Right sought the power of creative interaction and free choice in a private realm where individual rights are protected through government limited by the people it represents.

This next year of campaigning will reflect how much influence the new Old Right has in the political realm -- a realm still under the control, however tenuous, of powerful groups bent on central planning and social engineering. It's up to the American people, because the new Old Right should not be an effort to simply put a new face on the tired old mug of statist power -- the new Old Right should arise to empower the private sector and once again focus on nation, country, people and their rights. The new Old Right can perhaps end the deification of State power and start a new chapter in human development, less war and grand designs of power, and more cooperative and productive action in a growing global economy. America is an idea of liberty and rights, not a State, it's interventionist government and a muscle-bound army spread across the globe.

The Centrist movement which basically desires to save the status quo is not what it's billed to be. We don't need cooperation within government between parties to compromise and expand the State's ability to manage our economy and the power structure of the world. We need true opposition to this State management and control in order to find cooperation and compromise and free choice management in the private realm which has been splintered by politics. Harmony and no-labels among State actors is an attempt to marginalize opposition to expansion of State power, so let there be tension and discord in government, and let opposition work to limit coercive State power and to free the private sector. It's our only way out. 

Morning Joe 10/21/2011 -- Democrat Hour of Power

At least Morning Joe hosts and guests are admitting their bias -- this morning Scarborough said that critics are calling them out on their biased slant toward Democrats. Morning does more than inflate Democrats, in fact, they don't inflate Democrats much, because they can't without calling more attention to their damaged credibility -- they simply ignore Democrat deflation. I mean, who can really defend Pelosi, Reid, Biden and the Democrat Senate without coming across as delusional? So what Morning Joe does is what they did this morning -- John Heilemann, Mika, Barnicle, Katty Kay, Carl Berstein, David Gregory and Eugene Washington pick the worse aspects of the Republican candidates for President and they gang-attack the entire party-- they single out Herman Cain and make it appear that Cain represents opposition to Democrats -- they cherry-pick verbal gaffes by Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry and play them up, while giving lip service to the other candidates, Romney, Paul, Gingrich and Huntsman -- they take a temporary poll in a Republican primary without giving complete context of ups and downs in past primaries and make it appear that this temporary fluctuation in polls is indicative of all opposition to Democrats -- they find the most ridiculous statements and focus on these statements without presenting the body of ideas on the Right which contrast with the body of ideas on the Left -- they ignore the implosion among Democrats and horrible economy which the Democrats preside over and the failed policies Democrats are pushing.

The first two hours are propaganda against Republicans, and Scarborough plays the "conservative" voice, but Scarborough is more moderate/modern liberal than limited government conservative, and Scarborough doesn't have a libertarian bone in his body -- he's a Big Government Republican who pretends to be a "small" government conservative. More than that, Scarborough is a political animal who will go wherever the political winds blow. When Morning Joe does have a Republican on the show who can articulate a limited government/free market position, the Republican is overwhelmed with opposition, and I have never seen a real libertarian on the program besides Ron Paul.

This morning on the show, they talked even more about Herman Cain accusing him of running for President to sell books and make money. Either Herman Cain threatens them, or they think it's a good strategy to make it apprear that the Republican base is extreme and wants to elect an unexperienced person for President who will endanger America because he doesn't know anything about foreign policy. You would think that we're deciding on the next Dictator who will make decisions without input from anyone else. In a way this shows how the political class thinks about Presidents and American governance. The executive branch has taken on so much importance in the minds of modern liberals and progressives, they want a Super Technocrat who can really, really manage the US from central control in DC. I mean, Obama's central, technocratic management has been astounding, right? Plus, he's single-handedly killed bin Laden, Awlaki and Ghadafi. But let's not worry about Obama -- let's focus on Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, a year out from the next election. Don't worry about unemployment, the coming financial disaster of Obamacare, the streaming regulations coming from DC and crippling small businesses or the mideast quagmires or the unilateral actions of Obama in Libya and Uganda or Solyndra or Fast and Furious or Democrat support of OWS or Democrat attempts to reward unions with more stimulus money or the stalled and uncertain business community or the continued bleeding of Fannie Mae or the Fed's destructive monetary policy or Dodd-Frank or Democrat cronyism or blocked energy production -- no, let's focus on Herman Cain and his books -- yes, Cain is the biggest issue facing America right now, and he must be stopped at all costs.

Morning Joe 10/18/2011 -- Petty lies

On Morning Joe today, Scarbourough, Mika and Halperin started out ridiculing Herman Cain again, and this time the ridicule included petty lies designed to mislead. They said Cain criticized his own 9-9-9 plan a year ago when he wrote in an op-ed that adding a federal sales tax on top of the other federal taxes is crazy. Cain's plan calls for the elimination of other federal taxes, so Cain did not criticize his own plan a year ago. Mika caught this and started to clarify when Scarborough interrupted her and continued to make fun of Cain and call him a joke. Sometimes you can get by with spinning a person's position if there is enough doubt about where the person stands, but in this instance, Scarborough's petty lying about Cain's position is so obvious it makes Scarborough look stupid, petty and dishonest.

If Scarborough has a problem with Cain's positions, then he ought to simply show how they are flawed, but Scarborough engages in ad hominem attacks. Why? What has Cain done to deserve such ridicule and petty smearing? He's a successful man who has overcome many obstacles. I don't understand the pettiness coming from Scarborough and others in the media. Cain must be a threat to their worldview.

Scarborough lately has had on show the same old tired guests, Harold Ford, Richard Haas, Mark Halperin, so they mainly laugh at Scarborough's jokes as he holds court. I think Scarborough feels his faction of the Republican Party is slipping into obscurity -- the Centrists -- so he's doing his clown act to get attention. Scarborough desperately wants to be relevant. It must be tough for Scarborough to realize the little political world in which he flutters about is not as important as he thought. Herman Cain is in the lead? Oh my, Scarborough is offended! We could have had Jeb Bush, Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, even Scarborough himself, but we get Herman Cain? A gospel singing pizza flipper with a simplistic tax plan? It's too much to bear -- why, Cain is not mainstream! What will the world think?

The unintentional humor on Morning Joe makes it worth watching. But when you really look at what Scarborough and others like him are doing, it's not funny. The status quo, professional politicians got us into this mess -- high unemployment, foreign entanglements, stagnant economy, crushing debt, unfunded liabilities, business strangling regulations, government controlled healthcare, and the specter of higher and higher taxes -- we are in national decline. Cain is not the answer, but neither is yearning for a mainstream Republican moderate. Rather than spitting on Cain, the political class should assess their own ignorance, and how the status quo political realm has destroyed the American economy.

We need radical change, and at least Cain is putting forward ideas regarding some of our fundamental problems like the US tax code. Scarborough is a loud fool, the worst kind.

Morning Joe 8/4/2011 -- Statist failure

The Morning Joe crowd should be put on suicide alert -- they made themselves depressed with all the news reflecting statist failure. Scarborough has the 3 step answer, though -- make billionaires pay the same rate of taxes as their secretaries, end the wars and deal with long term debt issues. In order to make billionaires pay the same tax rate as their secretaries, government would need to raise the capital gains tax, or lower income tax to the current capital gains rate -- I choose the second, but I'm assuming Scarborough means the first option. Scarborough really doesn't mean we should raise the capital gains tax rate, he's just talking and not considering that billionaires mostly pay capital gains tax -- it's a confused populist message aimed at stirring up resentment toward the rich. It sounds good to imply that billionaires are somehow getting a break that no one else gets, but this isn't typically the case -- it's just that billionaires don't receive a paycheck each week with income taxes taken out.

I agree with Scarborough that we need to end the wars, but that's in the works already -- we have to to go further and develope a non-interventionist doctrine which keeps us out of places like Libya, Yemen, Pakistan and all the other nations where we interfere. We should also close all the military bases around the world and announce our retirement as Global Cops.

Addressing long term debt is a very good idea -- this means reforming entitlements. Rick Stengel was on from Times Mag, and he was praising an ariticle written by Fareed Zakaria in which Zakaria does his international dissing of America, making fun of the American people who "want Big Government and low taxes". Entitlements in America were designed and enforced by politicans a long time ago, and money has been forcefully taken out of the paychecks of workers -- then Big Government spent way more than it's taken in. To blame the American people for this is a tad condescending and arrogant. Actually, people don't want Big Government, but if they are forced to pay into a government program that promises benefits for paying in, then, yes, people expect the promises to be kept.

So, how do you deal with entitlements? Currently, the Democrats are only dealing with Medicaid and Medicare by cutting what healthcare providers can receive -- price control. This never works, and it will create a situation where in order for Obamacare to work, government will have to take on complete control of healthcare. Scarborough surely rejects privatizing the healthcare industry and the entire welfare state, but aside from privatization, nothing will work in the political realm, and the consequences of intervention will lead to more government control and more money extracted from the private realm.

Rick Stengel and Harold Ford said a big problem is that a minority of extremists in government, the Tea Party reps, guided the whole debt ceiling battle, and that these extremists are dangerous to America. Ford said that the TP reps will lose in the next election. Mika, to her credit, said that the TP reps didn't hold a gun to anyone's head, and they are backed by their constituents. Actually, all of them are wrong, because the premise is wrong. The TP reps didn't get what they wanted -- the status quo establishment types got what they wanted -- a bill that does nothing but raise the debt ceiling by a record amount. This on Morning Joe is what passes as political analysis -- spin, obscurantism and the attempt to marginalize the one group in DC with integrity, the TP, limited government reps. Incredible.

Underneath the dishonesty of the Morning Joe participants, practically all from the Left and center, though, is a depressing realization that statism is failing, but this is what they can't admit.