Something to think deeply about, irrespective of where you fall on the ideological spectrum.
Written by Jason Stapleton and published at the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE):
You aren’t scared of Trump the person. Trump has been on this earth for 70 years and other than a general distaste for him, no one ever feared for their life because Trump walked the earth. He could do what he wanted because he didn’t affect your life. He had no control over you. What you fear is the power he now wields.
Republicans felt the same way eight years ago when Obama was elected, only for them, it was gun rights and religious persecution. We all remember the mass hysteria that drove gun prices up 200 even 300 percent. Obama called them bitter clingers; many others called them crazy right-wing conspiracy theorists.
Those of you on the progressive left fear Trump because he is going to have control over you. He has the power to affect your personal life and the lives of those you love and he has threatened to use that power in a way you find unthinkable.
But what if government had no power over your personal life? What if Trump could make all the threats he wanted, but had no means to act on his evil desires? See, everyone loves the benevolent dictator or even a brutal one, as long as his wrath is pointed in the other direction.
Everyone loves the advancement of their own personal agenda, as long as the not so nice parts are pointed elsewhere. We are far too quick to trade our freedoms and liberties on the promise that our compassionate leaders will crush our evil opposition. But every power used to control our political and social enemies can also be used to control us.
Progressives cheered Obama when he used his unilateral power of executive orders to fast track a left-wing agenda, circumventing our system of checks and balances, and blamed the other side for “holding back progress” and blocking government from “doing more.”
But now that same power rests in the hands of a man who may use it to persecute them. It’s scary. The liberties we trade for security and the powers we grant government are never returned. We, as a people, must be vigilant in ensuring that we are not tricked into trading away our individual liberties for the promise of a benevolent government, because one day that government may turn tyrannical and dictatorial.
So, whether you woke up the next morning with a renewed sense of hope, or one of deep despair, if we want to ensure that our elected officials never have the power to persecute those they serve, we must work together to limit the size of government and the power our officials wield. As libertarians, we believe the government has no business in telling you what you can buy, who you can love, or who you can associate with.
Our philosophy is simple and just – we don’t hurt people and we don’t take their stuff. If you believe in those ideas, even in principle, then I think you’ll find a vision of a world that you would like to live in, regardless of your political leanings and that we have far more that unites us than divides us.
Finally, let’s not forget what Obama said about legislating via executive action:
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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I stopped reading after the “religious persecution” shibboleth. That speaks volumes to me about where this guy is coming from.
Certainly, no christian has ever been persecuted for his/her faith nor denied the free exercise of their religion as guaranteed in the 1st amendment. American Muslims — not so much. Rather, it is “evangelical” sociopaths who have been persecuting others in the name of their belief system.
And Trump looks like the first Republican in half a century to not engage in or promote in this “My god can beat up your god” nonsense.
“Certainly, no christian has ever been persecuted for his/her faith nor denied the free exercise of their religion as guaranteed in the 1st amendment. American Muslims — not so much.”
recent example would be all those bakers who refused to cook for gay weddings and then lost their business and livelihood. but yeah, it never happens you’re so right
It’s not the power we fear so much as it is the power that Trump has and the things he has said and done. Obama may have been passively threatening because he was black but I don’t recall a single person or group he made threats against (drone strikes not included) nor has his administration grabbed a single gun.
The “evangelical” sociopaths have Mike Pence, that’s all they need.
You have got to be experiencing a momentary lack of memory. Obama brought us the spy state on steroids! He signed several laws into effect that most Americans don’t even know exist. Making it illegal to speak against the fact that the Govt has done just that! True! I can be labeled a Domestic Terrorist or Enemy Combatant or Dissident just for writing what I did. Fact! Obama is a grade A number one JackAss!
Are whistle blowers a group?
“Trump has and the things he has said and done”
The things or the the things that the media says he has said and done? Enforcing immigration laws- IS NOT ANTI- IMMIGRATION.
Changing the lexicon from Illegal Aliens to Undocumented Americans IS a farce. illegal= law breaking.
Curbing immigration of nation states with a large populations of KNOWN terrorists- is NOT anti- Muslim- It’s common sense border patrol!
The Obama administration tasked with laws they didn’t agree with- ignored those laws- Unfortunately that is NOT the process. Why didn’t Obama enact common sense immigration reform when he had a Democratic congress? Because simply- their Middle East regime change policy had yet to take hold. We created the Syrian civil war in an effort to remove Assad for Iran’s and Saudi Arabia’s benefit. (Odd we would do that while SA was donating 25 million to the Clinton Global (Ponzi) Initiative.
You get an “atta boy” because you’re dead on right!
The very same weapons the Democrats and Rinos created will backfire at them which targeted and marginalized their political enemies e.g. tea party, nuns, far right people, etc. Remember Obamer vehemently defended the Muslim brotherhood and the Islam, heavy shaming Christianity and bashing christians around the world, using the IRS to target many tea party members across the country, marginalizing and killing people who disagreeing with their communistic agenda, socialistic ideals, feminism, etc. It is not surprising that fear only grows in time. I hope justice will prevail against evil doers and God Almighty protects and watches over his people.
The elites realised economics was the route to get the system working for them.
Today’s economics is rentier economics.
Neoliberalism is based on neoclassical economics.
The Classical Economists came to all sorts of unpleasant conclusions by observing the world of small state, raw capitalism around them in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
They saw how the wealthy maintained themselves in idleness and leisure.
Adam smith observed:
“The Labour and time of the poor is in civilised countries sacrificed to the maintaining of the rich in ease and luxury. The Landlord is maintained in idleness and luxury by the labour of his tenants. The moneyed man is supported by his extractions from the industrious merchant and the needy who are obliged to support him in ease by a return for the use of his money. But every savage has the full fruits of his own labours; there are no landlords, no usurers and no tax gatherers.”
Today we think capitalism trickles down!
The conclusions of the Classical Economists were buried at the end of the 19th Century and the differentiation between “earned” and “unearned” income was lost. It was buried by neoclassical economics that was backed tirelessly by the rentier class.
What was hidden has been revealed.
Most of the UK now dreams of giving up work and living off the “unearned” income from a BTL portfolio, extracting the “earned” income of generation rent.
The UK dream is to be like the idle rich, rentier, living off “unearned” income and doing nothing productive.
Neoclassical economics reveals who it favours, the idle rentier.
It led to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, its back and it’s exactly the same.
1920s/2000s – high inequality, high banker pay, low regulation, low taxes for the wealthy, robber barons (CEOs), reckless bankers, globalisation phase
1929/2008 – Wall Street crash
1930s/2010s – Global recession, currency wars, rising nationalism and extremism
Its ideas failed miserably in the Great Depression and it took Keynes’s New Deal to kick start things in the US.
Even after this failure, neoclassical economics didn’t die; the rentier class didn’t want to lose their baby. Milton Freidman and Hayek worked on it and modified it ready to bring it back when the opportunity arose.
They tried it out in Chile with the military dictatorship of Pinochet. It made a few very wealthy and there was widespread poverty. Torture, concentration camps and terror were needed to keep this harsh system in place.
Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan got the ball rolling in the West with a mild version.
Milton Freidman wanted Thatcher to go further as he had done in Chile but she knew she would never get away with it.
Its flawed rentier economics, though improved, has played out in the same way as it had before with a Wall Street Crash and global recession.
The gun lobby and as you say those in control of the rentier economics are in the drivers seat. If the Trumpster Rumpster actually kicked out ten million people then who is he and his landlord buddies going to rent to. Yes, we need boundaries but I think his rational mind will keep his rentals full. Certainly Obama is and was one of the best presidents of the modern era. Given the results of the election I am willing to give Trumpster Rumpster the same chance.
Clearly the Stapleton article had little effect on its intended audience, based on the comments so far.
Exactly. The can’t even follow a simple argument. We are doomed.
You people are your own worst enemies, you actually believe your own propaganda and lies. Who, do you believe financed Hillary’s run for presidency? Saudi Arabia, the land where being gay is a death penalty and women have no rights, donated $20-Million to Hillary’s campaign. Wall Street, all of the ‘too big to fail’ banks and the military industrial complex invested nearly $130-million in her. And they invested in her, not because they loved you and your progressive racism, your bigotry and intolerance of others as expressed through your cultural Marxist, SJW hate speech, they donated to her because she was one of them Trump and America stood against them. You people need to grow up.
You’re right. They invested in her because she and Bill would tow the line. And as terrible as it may seem…it is entirely possible Trump may end up doing the same. We really don’t know. There are bigger than Trump powerful string pullers in the world.
Stapleton makes a very astute point, that we shouldn’t be so blinded by team loyalty and selfishness that we lose our civil liberties right under our nose. Unfortunately, these folks in the comment section can’t seem to understand a simple argument long enough to learn something. To borrow a Trump phrase- sad!
I’ll guess the few that commented on commentors are what….sore losers? I don’t see any validity in either of your posts. You claim what exactly? The comments didn’t jive with your take away of the article? How would you then prefer to see comments? And why should we care? Cheap shots don’t really serve any purpose…so enlighten us…be specific.
People cheering obama can not be called progressives. Neither the democrats nor the republicans are progressives, there is no such thing as a progressive or leftist mainstream political party in the usa, since exceptionalism, militarism, imperialism and capitalism which both parties are cheering are incompatible with progress.