Why Democrats are in trouble
The so-called “Rising American Electorate” appears to hanker for, among other things, larger investments in education, “protection” of Social Security and Medicare and fairness for women. Thomas B. Edsall, in the New York Times, calls attention to a Pew Research Center poll showing rising support for socialism as the remedy for capitalism.
Yes, yes, fine. Let’s see how it all works out. To put it another way: Let’s see what works out in practice and not just post-campaign rhetoric. The instant temptation, from the conservative side, is to go all weepy at such news. I would counsel resistance to such temptation: this, for a couple of reasons. …
Shall we try socialism? What a great idea — Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela as our models and pole stars! Ought to be an effective formula for weight loss.
A continuing problem with left-wingery — a problem not grasped by some of the analysts — is that it doesn’t work. Socialists, as Maggie Thatcher astutely observed, always run out of other people’s money. They can’t replace it of course with their own. Socialism isn’t about creating wealth; it’s about grabbing someone else’s.
Blowback
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Because they sold even more of their souls to win a Pyrrhic victory?
thebrokenrattle on November 21, 2012 at 9:20 AM
But those other countries weren’t doing it right. Obama is so much more intelligent than those other socialists, so it will work this time! And since they don’t actually come out and admit it’s socialism, the stupid people think it’s just a matter of fairness, and who doesn’t want that?
Night Owl on November 21, 2012 at 9:20 AM
Our system of government is to the right of Canada. According to conservative logic, Canada is socialist. How’s Canada doing these days?
libfreeordie on November 21, 2012 at 9:28 AM
According to conservative logic, Germany is socialist. How’s Germany doing these days?
libfreeordie on November 21, 2012 at 9:29 AM
This country as we have known it is finished. I am just going to accept that and let the chips fall where they may.
We deserve the government we get.
NJ Red on November 21, 2012 at 9:29 AM
The problem is that once the levers of Big Government (socialism, statism, whatever you want to call it) are firmly entrenched it is almost impossible to get rid of them.
You can’t just “vote out” Big Government. The culture is already ruined.
Look at the Soviet Union. Decades after the collapse of communism they are still a hellhole. You can’t just “undo” socialism. The entrenched bureaucracies, moochers, looters, rent-seekers and cronies are going to fight tooth-and-nail to keep what’s “theirs.”
In other words, once the train has left the station, it’s sadly too late.
visions on November 21, 2012 at 9:29 AM
What’s really funny is how the business community — the Cheap Labor lobby — is wanting more amnesty for more socialists who will take their wealth and power away from them when they get the first chance.
Punchenko on November 21, 2012 at 9:30 AM
Basically.
LET IT BURN.
Started my Australia job search. Nothing big, but a little look to see what is out there. Get rid of my payments to the leeches. And we will be closer to the Philippines so my wife can visit more often likely.
astonerii on November 21, 2012 at 9:31 AM
libfreeordie on November 21, 2012 at 9:28 AM
Um…the Canadian government doesn’t choose to turn their vast resources into a national park. We do. They’ve learned their lesson with socialism. We still have to learn ours.
You will have to feel the pain in order to see the light.
NJ Red on November 21, 2012 at 9:31 AM
Canada has loads and loads of oil and natural gas that it can tap into.
Illinidiva on November 21, 2012 at 9:32 AM
Canada is moving towards conservative, thus the shackles being unleashed allow for faster expansion. Guess that proves you are wrong. They are also more conservative with respect to reaping their natural resources, and those resources create vast amounts of wealth, guess that too proves you are wrong. But keep up the good fight for socialism, I for one am no longer to fight to stop you from suffering from your own dreams. OWN it and LIVE it.
astonerii on November 21, 2012 at 9:33 AM
What exactly is our system of government now? Why, if socialism is so great, doesn’t the left come out and admit that is what it is?
Night Owl on November 21, 2012 at 9:34 AM
“Remedy for capitalism”? Capitalism isn’t the cause of our problems, it’s the solution.
As government has taken over the economy we have become less and less prosperous.
Government run industries aren’t capitalist, they’re fascist.
single stack on November 21, 2012 at 9:35 AM
Very good article..
Dire Straits on November 21, 2012 at 9:36 AM
Oh, of course not. Nothing that drastic. Just nominate another squishy moderate who’ll win independents and still lose. It’s what the GOP is best at these days: losing.
ddrintn on November 21, 2012 at 9:37 AM
Spot on.
When I see headlines of them disagreeing, it gives me a little hope…since our side is a bit messy as well.
22044 on November 21, 2012 at 9:38 AM
The problem is Democrats have an unlimited number of excuses and that their propagandists in the media are all too eager to push them unto the gullible masses.
Look at California. Are the electing Republicans now that their state has sufficiently become a basket case? They just elected a Democrat supermajority to their legislature.
The only solution is economic see session, which hopefully leads to a peaceful political divorce.
The Count on November 21, 2012 at 9:38 AM
Canada is starting to be more free than the United States.
22044 on November 21, 2012 at 9:39 AM
They’ve had Brian Harper and the conservatives. We’ve had Teh One. I don’t think you really want to look at the differences all that closely.
ddrintn on November 21, 2012 at 9:40 AM
* oops, Stephen Harper, sorry.
ddrintn on November 21, 2012 at 9:41 AM
Germany has been manufacturing all that equipment being installed in Chinese factories over the past decade.
Did you actually think that it was Germany’s system of government that was causing it’s economic activity?
Do you actually believe that socialistic policies are good for economic activity simply because two countries to the left of the US happen to be be doing better right now?
Idiots like you probably point to a car going downhill and say, “Look that car is going fast despite the fact that it has a tiny engine, therefore tiny engines make cars go faster.”
blink on November 21, 2012 at 9:42 AM
Well, what we seem to have is an aristocracy in practice. They do whatever they want and force us to pay for it. They ignore the will of the governed or we would not have obamunistcare. The socialists knew we didn’t want it, yet they seized their chance at power.
Effectively we are in a very socialist place at the moment. Way left of center.
dogsoldier on November 21, 2012 at 9:42 AM
Oil sands, baby. That’s something Obama would never allow. Heck, he won’t even allow a simple pipeline to be built.
blink on November 21, 2012 at 9:44 AM
They’re headed for the same cliff we are and they (and the rest of the Eurozone) will be down it before we will.
ddrintn on November 21, 2012 at 9:44 AM
Well let’s also forget the fact that libfree might not want ot reflect on the differences between Angela Merkel and her party, and Teh One and the Democrats. Obama I remember was urging Merkel and her government to start spending like drunken sailors; Merkel told Obama to go pound sand.
ddrintn on November 21, 2012 at 9:47 AM
Which is why you have to couch your language instead of using the term “socialism”, because it’s so damn popular.
Just like when you grabbed on to “progressive” after “liberal” became toxic.
Bishop on November 21, 2012 at 9:48 AM
By the way, our system of government is not to the right of Canada, nor to its left nor in the center.
ddrintn on November 21, 2012 at 9:50 AM
As far as I know German wealth is sinking into the Aegean Sea by the billions as we speak. Come to think of it, it looks indeed like a model for American liberalism!
Valkyriepundit on November 21, 2012 at 9:50 AM
His argument seems to be there is no way they can do what they promised…so they are screwed.
I thought that in 2008 as well.
ChrisL on November 21, 2012 at 9:56 AM
What with the Executive Orders and the Regulatory Agencies, Obama is set for another four years of going around Congress altogether, and it seems our elected representatives have neither the power or the will to stop it. Also, the will of the governed seems to have changed. I just wish there was a way they would be the only ones to suffer.
Night Owl on November 21, 2012 at 9:56 AM
Well, the Democrooks want to give away even more money just as it’s about to run out. Is that “trouble”? Let’s watch Europe and Japan to find out.
Anyone who remembers the 1980s will remember how Japan was going to dominate the world. They were savers, not spenders, they had the governmental system, the work ethic, the leadership…
Thirty years later, they are in one helluva mess. They are about to be swamped with debt (they know the answer that Obama doesn’t – the number that comes after trillion is quadrillion) due to too many silly stimuli, social programs, etc, etc. The people have not gotten stupider or lazier but demographics and the lure of free stuff is causing a slow-motion implosion.
As for Europe, the smoke you smell is from that direction.
This is where the Democrooks/socialists want to take us. They’re not only in trouble, we’re ALL in trouble.
Marxism is for dummies on November 21, 2012 at 9:57 AM
When you run out of other people’s money, eventually you hit the wall, and in a nation of 50 semi-autonomous states, some areas are going to hit the wall faster than others. That’s when the problems will sink in for Democrats.
California’s going to need to be bailed out because of their spending far earlier than, say, Texas, and even faster than the federal government, since the feds can always crank up the printing press to kick the can down the road. And Blue State pols in Washington and elsewhere would love it if they could just tell Red States like Texas that California (or Illinois, or New York) needs a bailout, so hand over your spare money. But when the first Blue State hits the wall, that’s not how it’s going to happen.
All 49 states are going to be asked to pony up by Democrats in Washington and Sacramento, and that’s when the fiscal stuff hits the fan, because Blue State voters may want the government to give them free stuff, but they aren’t going to want the feds to give some other state free stuff possibly at the expense of their free goodies. When it becomes Blue State vs. Blue State looking for handouts from Uncle Sugar, the Democratic model collapses, because a large part of the model is making voters angry and envious over other people supposedly getting something for nothing. Only pols in the bluest districts of the bluest states will dare vote to give the candy store to someone thousands of miles away.
jon1979 on November 21, 2012 at 9:57 AM
I agree..
Dire Straits on November 21, 2012 at 9:58 AM
Germany is tied to Europe, genius. If Europe goes, so does Germany. They are tottering right on the precipice – France is their firewall, and France is starting to fail. http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-11-09/germanys-fear-and-desperation-leak-out
Don’t even get me started on the billions in bad debt Germany’s been forced to swallow to keep the insolvent states of Greece and Spain afloat.
Doomberg on November 21, 2012 at 10:01 AM
The producers haven’t quite been bled dry yet so 2012 wasn’t the “Holy shiite we need to do something!” election everyone thought it was going to be.
1 or 2 years from now, yeah, there won’t be anything left, just the last bitter scrapings to be gleaned from an exhausted populace. Then the real fun begins.
Bishop on November 21, 2012 at 10:02 AM
Canada, Germany and everybody else in the world’s socialism appears to work because of the economic giant captialist consumer that is The United States of America. Along with it’s superpower military, it does the heavy lifting for the western world keeping shipping and trade relatively secure. If we go totally sociailist as we apparently are, our economy and military will shrink, and who then, is the giant consumer based economic superpower that will feed the rest of the world? European socialism only works with an economically powerful America.
Pqlyur1 on November 21, 2012 at 10:05 AM
34 million people vs. 300 million people.
16% minority population vs. 37% minority population
Largest minority group Chinese and South Asian vs. African American and Mexican
120,000 illegal immigrants vs. 40 million illegal immigrants
But other than that, yeah, totally the same.
Rational Thought on November 21, 2012 at 10:07 AM
New York City residents have been told for decades that they send more to Washington than they get back, and there’s never been a hint of a tax revolt against the feds. If blue states start defaulting there will just be a push to raise federal taxes, and if the people who get nailed the hardest happen to live in places like Texas, so much the better.
In any case, can you think of any country that voluntarily and systematically repudiated socialism because it didn’t work? And don’t say Eastern Europe’s, because socialism there was intertwined with foreign domination, such that freer markets could be linked to national independence. Then (as also in Russia itself) people began to equate free markets with unsavory plutocracy or, worse, “international finance capitalism,” and we’ll see where that leads in the future, as it has in the past.
Historically intrusive government is the global norm. Its victims learn from their mistakes after it is too late. At best the state becomes so bloated and inefficient that citizens manage to bribe it to leave them alone, or, with luck, scurry under the radar. Oh well, maybe the sexy outer space aliens read Hayek and Friedman.
Seth Halpern on November 21, 2012 at 10:33 AM
At the moment, both Germany and Canada are to the right of the U.S.. They already made the mistakes that the U.S. wants to make now.
If you want to see what America will look like in 15 years, watch Greece, Spain, Portugal and France.
Gelsomina on November 21, 2012 at 10:50 AM
Basically, this is one of those calm the masses stories, to keep the pot temperature slowly rising so the frogs do not get worried and jump out.
It seems to be getting warmer, but it is ok, long before you die, it will start to cool back down… nice frog, nice frog!
astonerii on November 21, 2012 at 11:03 AM
Revolving door:
davidk on November 21, 2012 at 11:11 AM
Remember, as Oliver Stone will tell you:
True Communism hasn’t really been tried anywhere yet!
victor82 on November 21, 2012 at 11:22 AM
Perfect. This election just means we get to that painful realization sooner, rather than later.
hawksruleva on November 21, 2012 at 11:23 AM
No, it’s not. It’s one of those, ‘America is doomed’ stories. Democrats are in trouble because their policies won’t work. So eventually, people will either turn to conservatism, or we’ll turn into a much scarier version of Greece.
hawksruleva on November 21, 2012 at 11:26 AM
What jon said above.
Obama’s Achilles’ Heel is his inability to ride herd on members of his Looters’ Coalition.
It ain’t California. It will be California AND Illionois, and the SHTF when both of these Warsaw Pact states go belly up at about the same time.
When that happens, and Blue States like NY which are slowly getting their act together are asked to pony up to save Democratic regimes in the Pact states, you’ll see a deep fissure in the Democratic Coalition Of the Looting.
victor82 on November 21, 2012 at 11:27 AM
One could hope.
But Democrats are not in trouble in any scenario. A turn to Conservatism is nothing more than making the Republican party the tax collector for the welfare state. Because people will not become CONSERVATIVE, they will just turn to conservatives to keep their welfare checks coming. Then it is right back to voting for Democrats. Nothing to worry about really.
Do not worry Conservatives, the water is not that hot yet, and it will cool down in a little while… HEH HEH HEH LOL RAAAARG
astonerii on November 21, 2012 at 11:33 AM
Canada has a lower corporate tax rate than we do. In many respects, America is to the left of Canada these days.
hawksruleva on November 21, 2012 at 11:50 AM
It’s more of a “let it burn” story. Granted, that take on voter psychology didn’t quite pan out this year. But maybe in four years… or eight… or twelve… anyway one day conservatives will strike electoral gold.
I’ll say this much, if it burns there’ll be more talk about climate change.
Seth Halpern on November 21, 2012 at 11:53 AM