The Democrats are really dumb. I mean like the dumbest collection of people in leadership positions of any organization maybe ever. The Republican Party is a dumpster fire of shit and the second Democrats kick their butts in the 2018 election, the loudest and the youngest democrats are incorrectly using the term Socialism in their messaging. In a time when Socialist Venezuela is burning, could the Democrats have picked a worse time?
Here’s the real problem, even the Democratic Socialists aren’t really Socialists. They just want the government to pass laws that they believe will help their constituents in their districts. That’s not socialism. I have not heard one single politician advocate for ceasing private business and giving ownership and control to the US government. That’s Socialism. Socialism is not regulating an industry to prevent certain outcomes and its certainly not Socialism to pass regulations to create certain outcomes either.
Whether enough people care about this shit or not is a different question. The United States is hardly a free market, capitalist economy. I don’t care what anyone says. It’s a mixture of things, but there’s no question that the federal government is so big and bloated that it’s grown to a point where the regulations can be so burdensome that by happenstance, only the largest companies can afford to comply with said regulations, and thus the federal government is virtually picking winners and losers. Still, that’s not Socialism.
If you want to understand what I mean, look at how California decided to regulate Marijuana after making it legal. The cost and the oversight alone disincentivizes farmers to stay in the industry – and certainly if they choose to stay in, the farmers will make less profit due to increased costs imposed by the state government. So only companies that can scale the business to overcome the cost for lawyers and CPA’s to ensure compliance can make a buck. The small time farmers who were growing illegally for decades on much smaller scales get squeezed out. That’s basically what our giagantor federal government does to most industries and that is why you see less competition and more massive corporations buying up assets and trying out different industries to find new sources of profits. But again, not Socialism.
There’s no question that middle class and poor people are completely underrepresented in Congress. It’s obvious that the current economic and political system is broken for the middle class and poor in this country. It’s even more clear that it’s not getting better. Naturally, people will turn to fringe ideas and new representatives when there’s no hope and the system has failed. We’re here now and that’s why you see the likes of AOC et al. including Bernie ascending to the top of the party in terms of messaging.
I am a free market capitalist, but I am also a realist. Libertarians know our systems are not free and because our systems are not free are therefore broken. Most Libertarians only advocate for less regulation, a more free economy and a smaller government from a macro perspective. It’s nearly impossible at this point because the federal government is completely out of control in size and influence and getting back to more free principles that stem from a smaller federal government would require an entire upheaval of the status quo. It’s necessary, but nearly impossible in the short term.
Libertarians need to argue on the micro level, they need to break with Republicans more often and they need to do so loudly. The Republican party is not the party of small government. That’s a joke The only difference between Republicans and Democrats in today’s Trump world is where to spend the money – and even then they’re pretty closely aligned.
Back to my point about Socialism, very few if any of these Democrats are actually Socialists, but they’ve adopted the talking point. Of course, the Republicans easily seized on the messaging and now the Democrats are all Socialists – even though their Republican colleagues are no better.
The “Green New Deal” has potential because historically, innovation creates opportunity. Renewable energy is no different. I heard a great analogy once. When the combustible engine was invented, our government did not bail out the horse and buggy industry. We as a nation went all in on the automobile industry and that bet shaped the next fifty years of economic hierarchy throughout the world. Renewable energy may have the same impact and provide a similar sized opportunity. And the crazy thing is, the Republicans want nothing to do with it for some reason.
Think about this, the political argument is always about whether man is causing climate change. While the Science is clear that man is certainly having a major effect on the climate, does that really matter? If green energy can reduce the amount of pollution in the air and the smog that we breathe, or if more solar can reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, WHILE ALSO CREATING NEW JOBS AND NEW WEALTH, why are we not all in to the same level as China?
And again, this isn’t Socialist at all. It’s an opportunity and we need to seize the opportunity before our country falls too far behind China. Instead, Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord and he continues to mock climate change every chance he gets. Part of California’s ascent up the world GDP rankings over the past ten years involves its commitment to green energy. The renewable energy industry has been responsible for many of the new jobs that have been created and the industry has certainly grown quickly throughout the State, helping California maintain its economic dominance over the rest of the country. So while the red state leaders continue to bow to oil, gas and coal while ignoring the environmental and economic benefits of The Green New Deal, California is thriving while most red states continue lagging behind in economic output.
And they’re not even bothering to try, preferring instead to fight the messaging war over the term Socialism and things like cow farts even though they sound stupid for conflating everything. It’s a damn shame and just another example that shows how dumb America has become.
The Reasonable Man Standard 