Day: April 7, 2010

Populism Vs Capitalism

Note:  This is a reprint of a piece written by Chris Ladd on the site….http://republicansunited.us….I decided to publish the whole article because there are not a lot of clicks on other sites from Info Ink….this piece is worthy of a good read and not to depend on a click to have it read in its entirety……I hope that Chris will understand….

This is a re-print of Mr. Ladds’s piece…….http://republicansunited.us……or go to my blogroll……..an excellent site….visit often you will not be disappointed………

Populism vs. Capitalism

As near as I can tell from the speeches and signs, any institution that existed prior to the crisis (except fundamentalist churches) is destroying America, and any institution which is trying to use government power to solve the crisis, whether a capitalist bastion like the Federal Reserve, or those dirty commies in Congress, is also destroying America.

If you try to make sense of these protests in terms of the old 20th century divide between liberal democracy and socialism you risk having your head explode.  In spite of all the blather from the AM radio crowd, this is not about decent hardworking Americans working to protect their capitalist economy.  This is about decent, hardworking Americans mistakenly flailing away to protect a dead, rural, notion of American identity against the growing power of global capitalism.

More than two centuries later, we still cannot get past the battle between Jefferson and Hamilton, between agrarian independence and the urban profit machine.  The battle is made more comic/tragic by the fact that few of us know which side we are on. This battle is so old and has taken on so many forms that we have mostly lost track of its origins.  But its shape is still the same.

Hamiltonian capitalism needs intelligent regulation in order to maintain transparency in markets and keep shirkers, moochers, and frauds from bringing down the system.  It needs central banking, roads, airports, canals, environmental protections, and other infrastructure.  Jeffersonian rural life just needs a national defense, a few courts, and a place to sell my cotton.

We Republicans who, at least according to our websites, are the defenders of free market capitalism, are doing everything in our power to cripple our financial institutions.  We fought government efforts last year to avert the collapse of the financial system from a collapse brought on in large part by our refusal to use the tools of government to impose reasonable rules in the financial marketplace.  We fought the stimulus package.  We are fighting efforts at job creation, efforts aimed at using capital markets for small business loans, to foster business development.

We are fighting efforts to bring even the most limited transparency to the derivatives markets that brought our banking system to its knees.  Now our Congressional leaders are waging a campaign to eviscerate the Federal Reserve, the last institution independent from Congress which can help rebuild the broken capital system.  If there were any real socialists left in our political system, they would be cheering us.

We call ourselves capitalists, but act like 19th-century, populist, Democrats.  Why?  It is not nearly as much fun to face the difficult questions of how to protect Jeffersonian values in a Hamiltonian world as it is to hunt for conspiracies.  When politics is entertainment, Beck and Coulter set the agenda.  Plus you get to go to a (tea) party.  How cool is that!

As a political party we need to decide whether we love capitalism or hate it.  Sound, vibrant markets require intelligent regulation.  When they work properly they provide the fuel for innovation and business growth that has made America a financial superpower.  We cannot have the power of capitalism with a Jeffersonian attitude toward regulation.

Jeffersonian-style limited government is to capitalism what salt water is to your goldfish – not so good.  A suspicion of central banks so strong you can taste it, resentment of capital markets, hatred toward those “fat cats,  who run things; these are not Republican values.  Marching through the streets right now to protest Marxism is like rallying against Monarchy.  Great, sure, but not all that valuable.  Are we going to be progressive, capitalist Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt and John McCain, or wallow in an updated version of 19th-century Jeffersonian populism, guided by Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin?

The outcome will determine whether we have the flexibility to lead an increasing competitive world, or shrink into paranoia and weakness.

Note:  to get to republicansunited go to my blogroll and click on it there are some excellent points of view on the site….once again I thank my friends at the site for their cooperation…..

Now Here Is An Idea!

Inkwell Institute

European Desk

Every now and then I read something from across the pond and think that it would be a good way to conduct politics in this country….maybe not exactly the same but some of the ideas are worth considering……

The main party leaders have hit the campaign trail following Gordon Brown’s announcement that he has asked the Queen to dissolve Parliament, triggering a general election on May 6.

Parliament will not be formally dissolved until Monday, with MPs spending the next three days rushing legislation through the Commons during what is known as the “wash up”.

Two polls today gave the Tories a 10-point lead, enough to form a narrow majority, while a third suggested that Labour would emerge as the largest party in a hung Parliament.

Now there is an idea I can back with all my support (as little as that may be)…….dissolve Congress and send them all home to try again…..about a month or so of campaigning….that could eliminate all the crap we get for a year or more before an election…..to be honest I have not paid a great deal of attention to the politics in Europe….that is my failing…but I am trying to rectify my lack of knowledge….

I remember back in the days of the “evil empire”, the USSR, whenever there were elections for the Duma, Russian style Congress, and 85% of the members were re-elected…the news would be about what a sham the election were in the Communists country…..but yet in the “democracy” in the US the percentage of those re-elected is somewhere close to 90….does that mean that it is also a sham?

The point I am trying desperately trying to make is that it is a good idea to dissolve Congress if they are getting NOTHING done but petty bickering…….and a month of campaigning would be money well spent and eliminate some, not all, of the campaign bullsh*t.

While I am not sure if the whole Parliament has to campaign or not (hopefully Quin of Quintessential Havoc will weigh in)….but all in all sounds like a Helluva idea….this could make the ass wads in Washington more responsible for their actions or in the case of today….inaction….

Don’t Push Me! (Warns Karzai)

Inkwell Institute

International Studies Group

For nine years we have been playing war against the Taleban and AQ…mostly the Taleban in Afghanistan…..we pick our man in Afghanistan…Karzai and we have put all our marbles in his basket and in return for all our support….after all we get him elected twice…he repays the US with threats like these….

Karzai accused foreign powers of orchestrating election fraud last year, just three days after US President Barack Obama made a secret weekend trip to Afghanistan to warn him to do more to tackle government corruption.

He went so far as to claim that such moves risked the 126,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan being seen as “invaders” — terminology used by the Taliban — and their nine-year insurgency becoming viewed as “a national resistance.”

He made that threat twice in less than a week….that if he chooses he will join forces with the Taleban and fight against “foreign invaders”….

Nice talk from a man that owes his political career to the West…without their support he would have been laid to rest years ago…..this man is trying to play both sides against the middle….maybe we should have listened to the ONLY person in the Obama admin that was dead set against giving Karzai more support….Joe Biden.

Without us Foreign fighters, Karzai is little more than the mayor of Kabul…he owes his very existence on the “foreigners”….I even heard some pundits from various think tanks that said the US should NOT nitpick on Karzai…..I say f*ck him!

I mean this is a corrupt admin running Afghanistan…..his whole family is into shady dealings from drugs to bribes to arms….why would we continue to support this person?  A good answer or at least a starting point, is to find out how much cash this “person” gets from the US and other “foreigners”……

This is all so much crap!  Our best bet was in the 80’s,when we had a substantial ally in the Northern Alliance….but that was out of the question because they are NOT Pashtun…they are mostly Tajiks….and that would have been a minority running the country….wait!….the Taleban was a minority that we handed the reins of government because Washington is STUPID!

Is there truly a government that can be best for the whole country of Afghanistan?  I have a few ideas and I will put them forth in the coming weeks and want to see how many people will agree with my assessment…..

If you truly want an answer then I suggest that you ask the Military-Industrial Complex…….keep in mind….war is good business!