Opinion Forum

The False Dichotomy of Left v. Right

January 10th, 2009

In formal logic, we are taught that if a conclusion is in error, then at least one of our premises is wrong. So it is with modern politics (well, not just modern politics). An inordinately large number of people in the United States believe in the supremacy of their party over the other guy. They believe that only their party can run a good government. Bollocks.

I am not an apologist for moderation or for cooperation between the parties. I am telling you that believing that the government is a solution to anything is the erroneous assumption from which has sprung all manner of mischief. Government, most especially one as powerful as our federal government, is the source of most of our problems. Our governors are not leaders by even the most disgusting and perverted definition of the word. If our “leaders” truly understood things as well as they would have us believe, they would all be private enterprise bazillionaires by now. Almost none of them have ever produced anything but headaches for most of us. If they were as good as they tell us they are, their names would be as iconic as those of Bill Gates, Jack Welch, Larry Ellison, or T.J. Rodgers. If you’ve never heard of Welch, Ellison or Rodgers, then you’ve been paying too much attention to the wrong things, and it is you to whom this essay is directed. If you honestly believe that it is the greedy businessman that is the cause of what currently ails us, you’re probably spending too much time in front of the lobotomy box.

Ever heard of Franklin Raines? He’s the former CEO of Fannie Mae and was reportedly a close advisor to our new king during the campaign. He’s a politician, not a businessman. Probably you’ve heard of Ken Lay. What happened to Ken Lay after his chicanery was discovered was precisely what should have happened to him and his company, Enron. But Fannie Mae? Fannie Mae is getting our tax money to stay afloat. Raines’ malfeasance and mismanagement was at least 10 times as expensive as Lay’s was. I’m not just picking on King Barry. King George has cronies involved in this as well.

But just listen to our recently elected king. Government is going to get us out of this mess. Honest, it really is. And the criminal on his way out is no better. How many suckers out there really believe that the free market can be saved by taking actions against it? Unfortunately, Bush has precedents for this sort of thing that go back to at least the Lincoln Adminstration.

What was the real difference between the old Soviet Union and the United States? The USSR had doctors, nurses, engineers, chemists, teachers, ditch-diggers, electricians, et al., just like we did and do. What they did not have was the businessman, the entrepreneur. The most certain road to disaster is to entrust our economy to men and women who have no personal stake in a productive economy. If the economy goes south, what do Barry and George lose?

They do not seem to have the temerity to so name them, but the plans of our “leaders” appear to have the same odious stench that all of Stalin’s and Chairman Mao’s five- and ten-year plans had. And they are just as likely to meet with success.

I do not trust in the benevolence of businessmen any more than I trust in the benevolence of government, but at least businesses do not have a monopoly on the use of force. If I do not buy widgets from the Acme Widget company, I do not fear an agent of the Acme Widget company showing up on my doorstep armed with guns, warrants, or subpoenas.

“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” – CS Lewis

Please, dear God, spare me from the nanny-state, angst- and guilt-ridden, maternalistic liberal and from the goose-stepping, paternalistic conservative. My birthright is freedom. I do not exist to serve the state, nor do I exist to serve the “global community.” Any claim to the contrary is uttered from the mouth of a tyrant.

Articles written by Brian Bagent
Tags: conservative, liberal
Categories: Politics | Comments (12) | Home

12 Responses to “The False Dichotomy of Left v. Right”

Chris Wysocki | January 10th, 2009 at 2:31 pm

‘The nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”‘ – Ronald Reagan.

Truer words were never spoken.

doris | January 10th, 2009 at 3:42 pm

Fantastic,Brian,I’m with you at the risk of the government hearing me.You are dead on.The only thing the Government can liberate is our wallets.The way to tell any politician is lying,yeah,his lips are moving.

Tom | January 11th, 2009 at 6:40 am

Brian, I agree with you in the sense that I prefer government to stay out of my life and my wallet. But if we didn’t have government, we’d have to invent it. I wish it were more efficient and less far-reaching. And it certainly isn’t the answer to every problem.

I think what Americans have lost in, say, the last half-century is their sense of self-reliance and individual responsibility for their own well-being. Maybe the government has become bigger and more intrusive than we would like, but in the end it’s our own fault.

BIthead | January 11th, 2009 at 11:00 am

I am not an apologist for moderation or for cooperation between the parties. I am telling you that believing that the government is a solution to anything is the erroneous assumption from which has sprung all manner of mischief.

BIthead | January 11th, 2009 at 11:05 am

oops.
Sorry about the above.
Let me lay this out for you quite quickly. Since reconstruction, we have had multiple democrat majorities , multiple democrat supermajorities, we’ve had 50/50 splits, we’ve had slight alterations of all of these, but the one mixture, the one political mixture we have not tried yet, this is super Republican majority.

It’s never been done. You’re quite correct when you say that believing the government as a solution to anything is itself a problem. But that’s the key to what I’m telling you. The reason that the slight republican majorities that we’ve had have leaned left, and Ford larger government, is because the slight republican majority, depends on all the members voting for smaller government. Given the number of liberal republicans in the lectern positions, RINOs , if you will, remaining on the small government straight and narrow, is nigh on impossible.

Try electing a Republican super majority in both houses and a Republican president. Arrange it so that we are not beholdin’ to the RINOs. I will guarantee you that by the end of their terms, you and I will have a lot less to argue about.

I’ll tell you something else, we have a golden opportunity to do most of that work two years from now. Trust me at the end of two years of a far leftist Democrat supermajority, that time will be ripe, indeed.

rjjrdq | January 11th, 2009 at 8:46 pm

Everyone thought Bob Barr, Alan Keyes and Ralph Nader were just fringe kooks. Even if you don’t agree with them, you have to admit, they give a damn. Take a good look. Obama is just picking up where Bush left off. Bailouts, ramping it up in Afghanistan, spending like there’s no tomorrow, blowing the borders open-that’s all straight out of Bush’s playbook…

Brian Bagent | January 12th, 2009 at 3:49 am

Tom, you’re right. I’m a small “l” libertarian. I know we need some government. Our founders knew it, too. What I simply cannot comprehend is the “there ought to be a law” mentality, and it has become pervasive enough that we now have the government that we do have. “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

The funny thing about all of the folderol over “reinventing government”, or whatever the new catchphrase happens to be, is that the form of government we have now is not new. This Republic, when it was first formed, was something new – it was a government that operated with handcuffs – a limited government. Is there a sane, rational person that really believes that this government is limited by anything? It certainly isn’t limited by the constitution. World history is full of governments with no limits. Locke, Montesquieu, Bastiat, Plato/Socrates…theirs was the new, the bold. They were mocked and threatened during their own time, and they still are today by those of the unenlightenment, of the antirennaisance.

Brian Bagent | January 12th, 2009 at 3:56 am

Bithead, I used to believe that, too. I’ve become disgusted with the GOP. They’re as guilty of spending money like drunken sailors on shore leave as the jackasses are. I can only think of 3 congresscritters that have taken their oaths seriously, and many people think they are kooks: Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, and Ron Paul. Look at the way Giulani completely mischaracterized and took out of context the things that Paul said, and he was applauded for it. There are just as many braying idiots in the GOP as there are in the Democrat party.

doris | January 12th, 2009 at 7:26 am

Look where we are now…Republican leaders…That’s certainly not the answer.Both parties basically blow,but, that’s why we have two,so they can offset the other’s stupidity.

Anonymous | January 13th, 2009 at 5:15 pm

Doris, choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil. Of the 55 men that signed the Declaration of Independence, ALL of them were wealthy merchants, farmers, and business owners. They risked EVERYTHING to separate themselves from a government of UNLIMITED power. And all but 10 or 15 of them did lose everything – their farms, their families were killed or imprisoned, their businesses, and many of them lost their lives after having lost everything else – EVERYTHING was lost for those men, except their freedom. They valued freedom above everything. Think about it. Those men had nothing material to gain from the Revolutionary War – they stood only to gain their freedom. Read anything written by Jefferson, Madison, Noah Webster, George Mason, George Washington, Ben Franklin, Sam Adams, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine and ask yourself if what you’ve read jives with ANYTHING you hear out of the mouths of what can only laughingly be called liberals.

doris | January 15th, 2009 at 8:18 am

I agree,we have nothing even closely resembling what the intent was,What do we do now? Because there is no way of getting any two people to agree on anything anymore,how do you get people to stand up for freedom from an oppressive political system?All you can possibly hope for is that the leader who will do the least harm to us is elected.There aren’t many people left who will fight and lose anything for true freedom from government opression.We all just live our little lives and gripe.

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