Posted by
JDComments on Saturday, November 25, 2006 11:14:30 AM
As the euphoria of their victory begins to wear off, and their nominal attempts at being magnanimous and bipartisan fade, some of the guiding lights of the Liberal party are putting forth the lessons they have learned and the solutions they perceive are required to right the terrible wrongs perpetrated throughout the world during the reign of the horrible conservatives, and, no big surprise, these include more power for and faith in the UN and a blatant rejection of any kind of centrism and the imposition of hard left economic policies. The horror show begins.
In the international arena, Jeffrey Sachs, a man who once was a realistic proponent of market based solutions to the problems facing the newly liberated Eastern European countries has reversed directions and become a proponent of more and more foreign aid being the cure all for what plagues third world nations. As a new Secretary General of the UN gets ready to take power, Mr. Sachs
hails his country of South Korea as one of the practitioners of the new paradigm of diplomacy and economic incentives needed to sooth the trouble spots that sanctions and force have failed to bring to heel. I know I get all warm inside thinking about what a good job the Koreans have done in moderating and pacifying Kim Jong Il, who now tests nuclear bombs while threatening to attack those who defy him, all this as his people starve to death. Job well done I say! I can't wait to see how this approach plays out with the Iranians, Syrians, Sudanese and others. Maybe we should just give them all nuclear weapons and all the money they want right now, and save ourselves the trial of torture by a thousand cuts. What is Sachs thinking? All studies have shown that just throwing money at corrupt governments make matters worse, not better, and depending on diplomacy while removing the threat of force is like having police officers with no guns or jails; let's just say credibility is missing. How can Liberals be so blind in understanding how the world works?
Which brings us to Robert Kuttner, a man I place just a little to the left of Marx. In a diatribe in the Boston Globe, Mr. Kuttner
analyzes the result of the elections, announces it was an economic referendum, even though most polls I saw of voter concerns came up with single digit interest in an economy that has added millions of jobs, reached record stock market heights, and produced a rate of growth unmatched in the industrial world, and decides that any attempts at centrism or bipartisanship is futile. Instead, he calls for "a progressive politics far more robust than we've seen in decades ", codewords for Socialism, and the decades he refers to is probably seven, going back to the Depression. In announcing this oracular decree, Kuttner feels that Robert Rubin, who is advocating tax increases, and Barney Franks, who is trying to widen health care coverage and increase the minimum wage and union power, are not going nearly far enough at all, and he even lumps Rubin in with the supporters of a "globalized casino economy", harsh words for the man Clintonites felt did such a bang up job as Secretary of the Treasury.
As this rant proves, Kuttner is a raving Socialist who has never met a position he couldn't get to the left of , and the question now is how much will the Democratic party kowtow to the likes of him as they seek to reshape the US in the mold of the Socialism of Europe? While I harbor hopes that even the party of Pelosi has to realize how wacky the ideas of Kuttner and his ilk are, the damage they can cause even if only slightly implemented keeps me up nights in a cold sweat. We are entering dark times, and while national security is the prime concern, the dangers we face also threaten our financial well being and way of life. We can be hurt with legislation that destroys our economy just as badly as by a bomb , if not worse. At the risk of sounding paranoid, our enemies are everywhere.