tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post3158961286452693091..comments2024-03-29T02:03:49.151-04:00Comments on History Unfolding: The Crisis in the USDavid Kaiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05020082243968071584noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-47721884217234888852011-12-27T21:56:02.694-05:002011-12-27T21:56:02.694-05:00To Mr. Winsor (and everyone else) I strongly recom...To Mr. Winsor (and everyone else) I strongly recommend the superb article on the current state of the Republican Party and different strains of conservatism by Mark Lilla, a former conservative activist, at http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jan/12/republicans-revolution/ . He would not say I overstated the case. Perhaps I will try to do the post you suggest sometime. . .David Kaiserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05020082243968071584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-46356108546570912082011-12-27T15:48:18.422-05:002011-12-27T15:48:18.422-05:00David
Always enjoy your blog posts. Am a conserva...David<br /><br />Always enjoy your blog posts. Am a conservative Republican but love your even-handedness and historical perspective. I was a bit surprised to see your comment above re: Republican's 'mindless hatred of all government' and supposed desire for 'no regulation'. I think you may be using something you normally don't: hyperbole (in an emotional way).<br /><br />Republicans have, I think, a mindful desire for 'less government' and for 'less regulation' of business and personal activities. I know of no Republican (nay..nor Libertarian) who 'hates' all government. Regulations, both on a macro scale as well as micro, are at the point of suffocating many of the activities we used to do well decades ago. Try building a new or replacement bridge (see Barrington-Warren bridges)...construction of two tiny bridges between the two towns took over 6 years in thwe 1990s. Comparatively, the 17.5 mile Chesapeake Bay Bridges each took only 3-1/2 years in the 1960s, and the Mt. Hope suspension bridge took less than 3 years.<br /><br />Milton Friedman said in a debate lon ago at the U. of Chicago: he believed 'less government' is preferable to 'big' government because there is less opportunity for Big Business to corrupt and take over government; that when Big Business does corrupt Bog Government, it forms a coalition of the two that is detrimental to the worker and the consumer. Isn't this exactly where we are today? Maybe there is something to 'less government'.<br /><br />David, could you do a blog post on <br />this topic some day from a historical perspective? Less gov't vs. more...and Big Business' part in the process.Steve Winsornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-633525508186792392011-12-22T23:54:14.892-05:002011-12-22T23:54:14.892-05:00I think not so much of Belgium as I do of France i...I think not so much of Belgium as I do of France in the 1930s: the polity so fractured by the agitations of extreme Left and extreme Right that nobody cared whether the resurgent German threat came or not. <br /><br />And some actually were willing to have the Germans come in: the far Left to get rid of the Third Republic and the far Right to have the Nazis eliminate the Communists in France as they had in Germany. <br /><br />And for so many of the Citizenry the only response was 'Pour qui et pour quoi?' And then in 1940 Petain – for whom I hold no brief – saying to Franco as the Marechal left the ambassadorship to Spain to return and head up Vichy: “My country has been beaten, this is the result of 30 years of Marxism”.<br /> <br />We’ve had 40 years of it here: as Catharine MacKinnon crowed as early as 1989 in “Toward a Feminist Theory of the State”, Marx is the core inspiration of radical feminisim (which she says is the only true feminism), although she and others would go even further than he did, substituting ‘women’ for ‘proletariat’ and galloping on from there, dividing The People up along the axis of gender, rather than economic-class.<br /> <br />Slyly, she neglected to mention the adoption of Gramsci’s Method for attacking “hegemonic culture” in the service of the success of the Leninist “vanguard elites”; nor did she mention Alinskyite praxis; and always referred only to Marx and never to Lenin, and even then always referred to Marx as a “socialist” to avoid the far too dangerously revelatory “Communist”.<br /> <br />Yes, the Beltway seems unable to govern. But I would say that it has ‘deconstructed’ itself along with so much of the American culture and economy. Like a Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the political class unleashed Leviathan (Leviatha?) thinking to control it for its own political gain.<br /> <br />And as it pandered to Big Money by de-regulating financial affairs, so it pandered to Big Identity by cutting it loose from any requirement to be boundaried by the sobering realities of carefully effecting change in a national culture and society.<br /> <br />The culture and the Framing Vision were gutted, the Constitution considered merely a piece of fiction which – in postmodern lit crit – could be considered play-dough by any subsequent reader, who’s own ‘feelings’ were to be considered as seriously as the author’s own intentions.<br /> <br />In the pursuit of their excited illuminations, watertight bulkheads were punctured or done away with in the name of greater ‘liberation’ and ease of ‘mobility’.<br /> <br />The country resembles 'Titanic' now, originally designed well, but then vitiated by a callow company owner more interested in comfort and appearances than in watertight integrity.<br /> <br />And clearly there aren’t enough lifeboats for all the souls aboard.<br /> <br />We have much more to fear now than fear itself; and our own generations’ ‘rendezvous with destiny’ promises to be far more dangerous than anything we faced in 1941.<br /> <br />Souls will be tried; this will be no time for the ‘summer Citizen’, to adapt a phrase.Publionhttp://chezodysseus.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-25407896416258904962011-12-21T08:24:02.227-05:002011-12-21T08:24:02.227-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Bozonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18078858723231122013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-49807313146245992712011-12-19T07:26:11.556-05:002011-12-19T07:26:11.556-05:00I guess I have a much dimmer view of Republicans t...I guess I have a much dimmer view of Republicans than you do. I never thought the “much-ballyhooed agreement, reached I believe in 2007, not to filibuster nominees for federal judgeships” was worth any more than the paper it was printed on. Actually it wasn’t printed on paper, so it was completely worthless.<br /><br />Unless, of course, a Republican had won in 2008. Then, I dare say, conservatives would consider the agreement set in stone.David Patinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-74804665908387536172011-12-18T04:31:57.383-05:002011-12-18T04:31:57.383-05:00Dear Mr. Kaiser,
There is something very true in ...Dear Mr. Kaiser,<br /><br />There is something very true in your remark about the Maoist appearance of Republican party gatherings. Actually this Stalinist/Maoist repressive tolerance occurence spreads like wildfire through our society. It is apparent in television shows in which singers have to have exactly the 'right' kind of voice to win a contest, in the way every actress/singer/showman looks exactly the same, or politicians walking a thin line of political correctness; a new kind of political correctness in the guise of incorrectness. There are so many dominant patterns forced upon us, and especially on the young these days, that it's simply hard to retain your basic humanity. 'Everybody has to do something, to be somebody', Charles Bukowski once wrote, and it presses harder on today's society than ever before. I guess it's the flip side of the coin of the Arab Spring, people getting more and more connected. They won't tolerate intransparent policy, but at the same time force their own (shared) opinion on anything that occurs.<br />The modern methods of communication seem to have forged the 'new man', that marxism and fascism strived for. It remains to be seen where that leads us.PJ Catshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14792450374711478295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-70660297020502217842011-12-17T12:49:07.373-05:002011-12-17T12:49:07.373-05:00Belgium operated for over a year without a nationa...Belgium operated for over a year without a national government because the political parties couldn't agree on how to form the coalition. But no one noticed much because first, this was Belgium, and second both local government and the levels of unelected bureaucracy are quite robust in Europe, robust enough to keep things functioning even if the politicians drop the ball. My point is that this sort of political paralysis is not limited these days to the U.S., though obviously it will have more impact here.Ednoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-4917164565159374912011-12-17T12:03:29.271-05:002011-12-17T12:03:29.271-05:00Belgium had 1.5 years without a government. Their ...Belgium had 1.5 years without a government. Their waste is enormous but life went on as normal. It took a downgrade to force politicians' hands. Something like 9/11 could bring Washington together again, like Iran or China attacks. I recall an article from the last several weeks with some numbers saying that boomers dominate completely senate and house/banking/industry giving numbers like 60% for Senate boomers and bankers and similar so that till end of Decade they rule supreme riding us through the crisis. This does not bode well. The ages and lengths of leadership are longer and older than previously due to general medical advances so things will remain as is until lots of boomers get really old and go inot retirement. However wealthy people in leadership positions can afford health care and have cushy jobs so even if they are bad people it looks like current policies if presumably based primarily on theri attitudes are here for a long time. And if an external crisis or debt collapse comes they will hardly deal with it in a balnced and sensible way if what we have seen until now is normal for them as a group.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com