A NEAR-FISKING

I rarely bother to fisk Leftist rubbish but there is an article here that tempts me. An evidently Leftist economist asks why the USA is more conservative (which he seems to equate -- rather narrowly -- with less welfarist) than most other countries. He says it is because the U.S. constitution makes change difficult and limits the power of the central government. He also says that Americans are less willing to spend on welfare because so many of the poor are racially different and most voters therefore have difficulty identifying with them.

The second point is undoubtedly true -- there has been research to support it -- but the rest of the article is lamebrain stuff. For a start, the author identifies the much greater Christian committment of Americans as part of their conservatism but nowhere explains how the constitution or the presence of minorities brings that about. Perhaps the great influx of Muslims into France and the Netherlands in the last 50 years has made those countries more Christian? There is no evidence of it.

And if the constitution limits the power of the central government, no-one told Abraham Lincoln. Nothing restrained him from actually making war on other Americans. And the claim that the U.S. Supreme Court tends to support conservatism would draw a horse-laugh from almost all conservatives. How many conservatives agree with the court's decisions permitting racial discrimination in favour of minorities on the specious grounds of "diversity", for instance?

The subheading of the article also proclaims that: "Europe is in the 21st century, but we remain locked in the 18th". I would have said that Europe has returned to the feudalism of the 12th century -- in that Europeans now as then are dependant on their political masters for most things -- rather than being as free to provide for themselves as Americans are.

********************************

STRAUSS AND THE NEOCONS AGAIN

I said most of what I want to say about Straussians and the neocons on 21st. but I cannot help noting again that the "neocons" generally and Straussians in particular are everybody's favourite villain at the moment. We see here (in an article by De Lorenzo) how an attack on the Straussians by a Leftist professor is being welcomed by libertarians!

It's just scapegoating of course -- something Jews are all too familiar with. Instead of blaming a huge segment of the American people for supporting the policies of President Bush, moral cowards pick on a small group of history freaks instead. Hitler did the same. Instead of blaming the German people because so many of them went "Red" after WW1, he blamed the Jews for "manipulating" them. It's all in Mein Kampf.

One of the bones of contention between libertarians and Straussians centres around the contempt which many libertarians feel for Abraham Lincoln. I share the libertarian view. A man who brought about the death of half a million Americans in order to "free the slaves" -- when every other country in the world freed the slaves without a drop of blood being spilt -- is an utter monster in my view. Straussians however take the conventional view of Lincoln as a hero. De Lorenzo is of course one of the chief proponents of the libertarian view. There is a counterblast at him over that from a Straussian here.

**************************

ELSEWHERE

The New Deal debunked (again): "Macroeconomic model builders have finally realized what Henry Hazlitt and John T. Flynn (among others) knew in the 1930s: FDR's New Deal made the Great Depression longer and deeper. It is a myth that Franklin D. Roosevelt 'got us out of the Depression' and 'saved capitalism from itself,' as generations of Americans have been taught by the state's educational establishment."

There is also a great cartoon here on how FDR's New Deal "helped" black Americans. A reader comments: "It reminds me of an old Al Capp "L'il Abner" cartoon strip. Abner's hero -- bumbling cop "Fearless Fosdick" -- meets some do-gooder liberals. They figure Fosdick is earning less than the minimum wage and promptly storm the police chief's office demanding an end to this illegality. The chief chews his cigar and looks Fearless up and down and says "Fosdick: scram, you're fired!". The liberals run off cheering and patting themselves on the back. Another injustice eliminated". There was a similar post on POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH yesterday, noting how feminist policies had "helped" women in Sweden.

Islamic democracy not so impossible after all? "Only six years after casting off the shackles of deeply-entrenched authoritarianism, Indonesians have gone to the polls three times in six months and elected themselves both a parliament and, for the first time in their history, a president.

Great stuff! Lawyers made to bear all the costs of a foolish lawsuit that they hoped to profit from: "Lawyers for a policeman who lost a court case in which he sought "hurt on duty" benefits were ordered not to charge their client yesterday, after the state's highest court called his appeal futile."

A defeat for the drug nuts: "The hemp food industry declared victory Monday in its three-year battle over the federal government's effort to ban sales and consumption of bread, protein powders and other food products made from the psychoactively benign botanical cousin of marijuana. Federal officials declined to appeal a February ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejecting the Drug Enforcement Administration's attempts to block sales and consumption of hemp foods.

"Children at the Australian International School in Jakarta are at risk from terrorists and the school will be forced to close unless Canberra boosts its security, according to the school's principal. School principal Penny Robertson has written to Prime Minister John Howard urgently calling for more funding for security at the school, which has been singled out for attacks in the past.... The school has been closed until after the Australian elections for fear it may be targeted by terrorists."

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH and SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

**************************

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the Kerry campaign. They have put up a man whose policies seem to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though they have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and big egos who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************