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Daily Dose of Reason -
Politics & Government
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Written by Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D.
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Friday, 31 October 2008 00:00 |
 "If you don't believe me, just watch how Congress and Barney Frank run the
banks. If you thought they did a bad job running the post office, Amtrak, Fannie
Mae, Freddie Mac and the military, just wait till you see what they'll do with
Wall Street."
-- Arthur B. Laffer, writing in the Wall Street Journal 10/27/08
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Daily Dose of Reason -
Politics & Government
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Written by Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D.
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Thursday, 30 October 2008 00:00 |
 John McCain insists, like his opponents, that the federal government must bail out all home mortgages. He knows that this essentially means a government takeover -- a literal nationalization -- of the lending industry. If this isn't socialism, I don't know what is. Yet, at one and the same time, he condemns his opponents for supporting redistribution of wealth, socialized medicine, more arbitrary government power for union bosses, and other socialist measures. He's right in his criticisms. But how does he square these criticisms with his own very major plan for socialism? He can claim, as many Republicans do, that he doesn't WANT socialism and it will only be "temporary" socialism. But all of human history thus far, including American history from the time of the New Deal, shows exactly the opposite. This is what John McCain missed in his campaign. He feels you can challenge the premises of socialism while accepting them yourself -- in some cases, or perhaps in one major case. You can't. If you state or imply that socialism is the way to go, then you get the real deal with the Democrats. If I wanted socialism, I would vote for people who want it more than anything -- the Obama Democrats. Because I don't want socialism, I want a candidate who opposes all socialist measures and ONLY seeks to go in the opposite direction. Most Americans, I suspect, are not sure what they want. They don't want socialism but they don't want capitalism, either. So which way will they go? There's a danger they will go to the guy who's more sure of what he's talking about ... however profoundly wrong he may be.
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Daily Dose of Reason -
Politics & Government
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Written by Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D.
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Wednesday, 29 October 2008 00:00 |
 “I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black
students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and
structural feminists.”
From "Dreams From My Father," by Barack Obama, published in 2004.
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Daily Dose of Reason -
Politics & Government
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Written by Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D.
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Tuesday, 28 October 2008 09:02 |
 I think it's wonderfully refreshing that a newscaster in Florida asked the
Democratic vice-presidential nominee a question based on fundamentals. In case
you didn't hear, Senator Joseph Biden was asked to defend how Obama is NOT a
socialist, since his stated philosophy of spreading the wealth is consistent
with Karl Marx's credo, "From each according to his ability, to each according
to his need." To a great degree, both Democrats and Republicans operate on this
credo. However, Democrats do it more, and they do it with the full force of
moral reasoning behind them. They should be asked to defend their premises, and
to take responsibility for their reasoning. Instead, the Obama-Biden
administration (oh, excuse me--we're not there yet) has pulled the plug on all
future interviews with the station who employed the brave reporter who dared to
ask this question. I expect this will continue after January 20, and will be the
policy against any media outlet who dares to challenge the Anointed One in any
intellectually or politically tender area. This reaction proves the truth of
another principle of human behavior: Those who have no answer will tolerate no
dissension. |
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