The Scary Thing About Iowa

OK, conservatism had a good night, and the Trump bubble got deflated ever so slightly, maybe.

But the scariest thing to come out of Iowa is that a whole lot of people consider socialism an acceptable alternative.

Peggy Noonan:

A conservative of a certain age might say: “No, he’s a fad. Socialism is yesterday! Marx is dead, the American economic behemoth rolled over and flattened him. Socialism is an antique idea that rocks with age. America is about the future, not the past.”

I disagree. It’s back because it’s new again.

For so many, 2008 shattered faith in the system—in its fairness, usefulness and efficacy, even in its ability to endure.

As for the young, let’s say you’re 20 or 30, meaning you’ll be voting for a long time. What in your formative years would have taught you about the excellence of free markets, low taxes, “a friendly business climate”? A teacher in public high school? Maybe one—the faculty-lounge eccentric who boycotted the union meetings. And who in our colleges teaches the virtues of capitalism?

If you are 20 or 30 you probably see capitalism in terms of two dramatic themes. The first was the crash of ’08, in which heedless, irresponsible operators in business and government kited the system and scrammed. The second is income inequality. Why are some people richer than the richest kings and so many poor as serfs? Is that what capitalism gives you? Then maybe we should rethink this!

And Mr. Sanders makes it sound so easy. We’re rich, he says; we can do this with a few taxes. It is soft Marxism. And it’s not socialism now, it’s “democratic socialism” like they have in Europe. You’ve been to Europe. Aside from its refugee crisis and some EU problems, it’s a great place—a big welfare state that’s wealthy! The French take three-hour lunches.

I was about to say that younger Americans’ illiteracy about the history of socialism was a failure of the American educational system…

…but I stopped myself. To the teachers unions and most of academia, it’s a feature, not a bug.

Posted

February 4, 2016

Capitalism v Socialism

Mitch Berg

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28 responses to “The Scary Thing About Iowa”

The Big Stink

February 4, 2016

When you’re in 7th grade, you wonder why the government doesn’t just create a program to fix all societies ills. When you grow up (IF you grow up) you come to realize that government is the source of most of our ills.
Emery

February 4, 2016

Saying you’ll vote for Trump is a way to give the finger to the media, the political class, the economic elite, and that guy at work who takes politics too seriously. Actually voting for him in a contest he could conceivably win means picturing him as president, and being partially responsible for him, which is both difficult and embarrassing. A lot of Trump supporters are only in it to watch everyone else explode at the prospect; they’re not actually going to vote for him. Even after all of this time, very few take him seriously as an actual president.

Cruz will be president like Huckabee and Santorum before him; 80% of his supporters were evangelical Christians. Look for a Rubio/Kasich ticket. The result will depend on how well Clinton and Rubio grow and learn as campaigners in the next 9 months. I’d prefer to see Kasich win, but it’s hard to see that happen now. He was endorsed by the New York Times; that’s a hard thing for a Republican to recover from.
Bento Guzman

February 4, 2016

If the economy we have today was the result of capitalism, damn right I’d become a socialist. Low or negative asset growth for the middle class, no job security, persistent low workplace participation, and low wage growth.
The economy we’ve had since the Great Depression has been managed by the federal reserve and the government to keep things like the 2008 crisis from happening. The stable system was compromised by the banks so they could make more money, they were rewarded for it, everyone else got screwed.
Seflores

February 4, 2016

To many youths, both actual young people and aged types who never grew up, Socialism has never been “done right”. And the killings of 10’s, 100’s of millions of people was when Socialism was done wrong and/or wasn’t really Socialism at all. These are people who believe or at least report that the National Recovery Act is an example of Socialism done right yet won’t acknowledge Japanese Internment Camps and the Tuskeegee Experiments as Socialism as well.
Rays of Hope (if you will) from Monday night? The anti-Ethanol candidate won and Republican turnout was strong.
“Cruz will be president like Huckabee and Santorum before him; 80% of his supporters were evangelical Christians.” Not arguing (as Cruz heavily courted the Evangelical vote) but who/what is your source for “80% of his supporters were Evangelical Christians”, Emery?
Emery

February 4, 2016

Do you have data that says otherwise?
Bento Guzman

February 4, 2016

“Do you have data that says otherwise?”

Was the poison from Salon, Slate, or Huffpo, Emery?
DoggoneSmartLiberal

February 4, 2016

Thankfully, old white BIGOTS that are dying in increasing numbers are being replaced with progressive brown people from Cuba, Guatemala, El Salvidor, Mexico, Somalia, Syria. They are leaving their hateful Xtian myths behind, ha! But they are bringing their enlightened knowledge of economics with them; I have FACT-CHECKED this, so it is FACT. And Michele Bachmann? Ha! She is drowning in her own vomit. Good for her.

Also, young progressive women and feminist boys are taking their place as leaders everywhere. Soon, they will be in the 1%, and will then destroy the 1% and then marry someone of the same sex and have children who will be progressive and so on and so on until forever.

As I have proven for thousands and thousands of Penigma readers, The TRUTH has been FACTCHECKED and so is true. And RIGHT WING CLOWN CARS. Deal with it.

Bernie Sanders is old and white, but he is PROGRESSIVE and so is more like a young black woman, not HATE FILLED HOMOPHOBE Sarah Palin or John Kline. Bernie has a plan to replace bigot Wall Streeters with smart PROGRESSIVES who will be HAPPY to pay 90% taxes. Everything will be free of charge, so Ayn Rand can stuff it with NO DEATH PANELS. Deal with it.

I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE THE STREETS FILLED WITH WHITE Republican BIGOTS!!

Please give Pumpkin my love, Mitch.
DoggoneSmartLiberal

February 4, 2016

OF COURSE IT IS TRUE THAT I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE THE STREETS FILLED WITH THE DEAD BODIES OF WHITE Republican BIGOTS!!
Night Writer

February 4, 2016

Communism/Socialism wasn’t a new idea in the 1920s and 30s, but it gained tremendous traction in Europe after The Crash and as a result of the Depression. The poor and working class in Europe – barely acquainted with “capitalism” and not far removed from the feudalism and constant warfare on the continent that led so many to emigrate – again suffered the most in Depression and the radical ideas seemed to make a lot of sense at the time. The people of the Czech Republic, as with many others, didn’t know just what they were in for after WW2, but they soon learned, and won’t soon forget. The Czechs even built a “Museum of Communism” in Prague as a reminder after the Velvet Revolution.
http://thenightwriterblog.com/2016/01/20/at-the-museum-of-communism/
justplainangry

February 4, 2016

Do you have data that says otherwise?

translation – “Because I said so, your uppity peasant! How dare you impugn my talking points?”
Seflores

February 4, 2016

“Do you have data that says otherwise?”
Why yes. The number I yanked out of MY ass was closer to 65%.
Good to see you’re progressing from ripping off content without attribution to just making s*** up. If your point was to discount Cruz’ victory by noting it was 4/5 Evangelical support, one should note that the Evangelical vote stayed home in ’08 and ’12*. For a Republican party that, according to the Democrat Party, needs to accept amnesty to reap the reward of the Latino vote, the Evangelical vote is far more attainable and larger than the Latino vote anyway.
*I’d give you a source for this – but unless you have data that says otherwise, screw it.
Bento Guzman

February 4, 2016

About 90% of American Muslims vote Democrat:

The trend has continued. A poll in 2008 showed Obama drawing 89 percent of Muslims. Four years later, CAIR found Obama pulling a still-dominant but much reduced 68 percent. A 2011 Pew poll found 46 percent of Muslims identified as Democrats, with another 24 leaning that way. Only 11 percent said they were Republicans.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/republicans-muslim-vote-george-w-bush-donald-trump/419481/
Bento Guzman

February 4, 2016

Q: Why do nine out of ten of Blacks vote Democrat?
A: Because they see the Democrats as best representing their interests.
Q: Why do nine out of ten Muslims vote Democrat?
A: Because they see the Democrats as best representing their interests.
Q: Why do two out of three working class whites vote Republican?
A: Because they are stupid, ignorant hillbillies who don’t know what’s good for them.
Q: Why do two out of three evangelicals vote Republican?
A: See above.
In The Mailbox, 02.04.16 : The Other McCain

February 4, 2016

[…] Wisdom: Obama Proposes $10/Barrel “Fee” On Oil For Green Cronies Shot In The Dark: The Scary Thing About Iowa STUMP: Chicago Doings – The Storm Before The Storm The Gateway Pundit: Iowa Governor Branstad […]
Emery

February 4, 2016

Ted Cruz is the most unlikable and unliked American political figure since Richard Nixon. Nixon was also a genuine centrist (of his time), and a very clever man with many insights into political and world affairs. But he repeatedly chose political expediency over what was best for the country; he had a deeply flawed character. I don’t believe that men who are despised and untrusted by most who have dealt closely with them are good candidates for positions of power. I have met several ‘Ted Cruz’ type characters in the business world, and I have learned to never expose my back to them. They will stab you in the back while explaining to you how it is all for the ‘greater good’, which is in fact simply his greater good.
Bento Guzman

February 4, 2016

So, Emery, Cruz is the Hillary Clinton of the GOP?
Emery

February 4, 2016

Don’t get me started on Clinton. I dislike Rubio because his budget ideas don’t add up, and because he’s needlessly inflammatory on Iran. I have no doubt that he would change his foreign policy tune once in office, just as Obama, Bush, and Clinton did before him, but he’d have to deliver on top rate marginal tax cuts, which is not the approach needed except as part of a much broader tax reform that preserves revenues.

But he’s the best of the electable Republicans right now, and I’ll judge him vs. Hilary on the basis of his governing proposals in October, not now when he’s pandering to the right wing and Hilary’s doing the same to the left. In a couple of years, he might be able to put through some sensible immigration reforms, as well. The Gang of Eight work shows he can be sensible, even if he has to disown it today.
Bento Guzman

February 5, 2016

Rubio — tax collector for the welfare state.
Rubio got rolled by the gang of eight. Conservative pundits say that Rubio is a terrible negotiator. He leaves money on the table.
I read on another site that the Hillary-Sanders debate should be settled by Hoveround jousting.
Hillary has some serious health problems, but the media won’t say anything about them. I believe that there are some powerful women in the media business who threw their lot in with Hillary a quarter century ago, and that they are providing her cover. When is the last time you heard anyone demand that Hillary release her medical records?
I will vote for any GOP candidate who is more conservative than the Dem candidate. That means I will vote for whomever the GOP nominates, unless it’s Trump.
Bento Guzman

February 5, 2016

Imagine, for a moment, the deep horror that is the relationship between the Clintons. Bill can’t stand Hillary because she limits his libido (no one even suggests that they are actually living together as man and wife these days). Hillary can’t stand Bill because he let his libido get in the way of power. He was impeached, for God’s sake, not for keeping a Mistress or some indiscretion with a super model, but basically for diddling the help.
And Bill still gets what he doesn’t want from her from women she wouldn’t let into the front door at Chappaqua.
And poor Chelsea. She is an only child because Hillary needed to be a mother for political reasons, but Hillary only had to have one child. Any more would have interfered with her career. Chelsea has a degree from Oxford, in ‘public health’ meaning she can’t put a bandaid on a skinned knee, but she can tell doctors how to do their jobs.
Chelsea is the wife of a man running a failing hedge fund, whose father was jailed for bilking investors out of money to pay for a 419 scam.
Emery

February 5, 2016

I read with some amusement the Boston Globe’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton. You would think a 1000-word endorsement by a major newspaper touting someone’s “experience” and “seasoning” would mention one or more of her accomplishments. Things she has actually, you know, done.

The New York Times endorsement makes an attempt, which winds up being even more funny. She “brought star power” to the Department of State! She “helped make it possible” (for her successor) “to impose tougher sanctions on Iran”! (Whatever that means.) She “worked to expand and deepen the dialogue with China”. But flying around the world on the taxpayer’s dime is not an achievement. Talking is not an achievement. Giving speeches to Goldman Sachs for $300,000 is not an achievement.

Intellectually honest liberals know that she is corrupt. They know her chief accomplishment as Secretary of State was to ruin the Middle East. Further ruin, I mean. Remind me again, how is Libya doing? (Of course, this might be no accident. Perhaps there is some nation, somewhere, in whose interest it is to have the bulk of the Middle East be a sea of ungovernable anarchic mess? Just not the U.S.)

These endorsements say so much more about the Globe and Times editorial boards than they do about Hillary Clinton. It is frankly refreshing to have it be so blatant. That said, I am pretty sure she will win the nomination and the Presidency for the simple reason that Goldman Sachs needs a return on their investment.
justplainangry

February 5, 2016

I have met several ‘Ted Cruz’ type characters in the business world, and I have learned to never expose my back to them

Translation: “I looked in the mirror.”

This of course coming from a person who gets his talking points from Karl Marx and extends his opinion on what Ted Cruz character is like.
Emery

February 5, 2016

The only benefit of nominating Cruz would be to disprove the idea that republicans lose because they don’t nominate conservative candidates.
justplainangry

February 5, 2016

Because nominating establishment darlings had worked out so well. Your disdain for defending the Constitution against those who want to dismantle it knows no bounds. but then what would you expect from somebody who is an AntiSemitic Soci@list.
Emery

February 5, 2016

My goal is to see a republican in the White House. In my opinion, Cruz will not attract enough crossover voters to win. What is your goal?
justplainangry

February 5, 2016

What is my goal? To restore Constitution to this country. Electing Establishment candidates does not accomplish it. In the last two cycles populace have PROVEN that they will not support them. 2010 was the year that PROVED conservatives can win.

And you are not fooling anyone, EmeryTheAntiSemiticSoci@list. Your goal is not to see republican in the White House, but to see return of Constitution delayed further so it actually dies quicker. An Establishment candidate will continue to kill Constitution by a thousand cuts, while another Soci@list turn in the White House may actually bring about a revolution to return US to its roots.

No, I have personally known your kind before, EmeryTheAntiSemiticSoci@list, and based on your rhetoric, you remain a repugnant excuse for a human being.
bikebubba

February 5, 2016

I remember a hint of liberalism in my early years–looking at the infrastructure just required to collect tolls and tickets around Chicago, I wondered if we might just do better to make transit fare free. Certainly the government education I had did not discourage me from assuming the government could make things right.

A decade around Boulder cured me of that opinion, as did a quick visit to East Berlin in 1989.
Emery

February 5, 2016

If Bernie beats Hillary, then the uneducated white Republicans will have a choice too.
But they will probably be scared into voting for their guns rather than their economic well-being.
justplainangry

February 8, 2016

If Bernie beats Hillary, then the uneducated white Republicans will have a choice too.
But they will probably be scared into voting for their guns rather than their economic well-being.

If there was ever a question what EmeryTheAntiSemiticSoci@list stands for, never fear. He does let his mask slip once in a while, like he has here. I cannot think of a more insulting and ill-informed and history-ignorant comment such as that. Don’t ever believe he is anything but a full-on Marxist and that he will be stomping and voting for Bernie all the way.