Trump and Illinois...an alternative viewArchived Message
Posted by Riverbender on February 23, 2020, 11:58 am
Pulling the Ladder Away February 22, 2020 We are out in Nevada checking it out. The tsunami of taxes that my home state is enacting on us and the proposed ones are forcing us to look around. I didn’t realize the Nevada caucuses were going to happen when we were here. Unlike Illinois, politics isn’t top of mind in Nevada. I barely see yard or street signs driving around.
Illinois is fiscally bankrupt and going morally bankrupt as well. I am not going to spend the last part of my life fighting to fix it. It is beyond repair and the only thing that might change the game is the current FBI investigation that continues to bore into the corrupt Democratic Machine which has existed for a century there. As an out of the closet Republican, the level of discrimination has stepped up. Yesterday I spoke with people from California that have relocated to Las Vegas who say the same thing is happening there. It’s a different type of Jim Crow.
I didn’t support Trump the first time around but I am supporting him this time around. One reason is the way he has been continuously attacked, often unfairly and with extreme bias, by the media. The impeachment was the frosting on the cake. If you are a Democrat and foaming at the mouth, imagine if the Republicans would have used the power of Congress to impeach Obama with the exact same articles. You’d have been apoplectic.
A friend of mine put it best. He worked in the Bush administration and was no fan of Trump. But, he said, “The more I see the way he gets treated the angrier I get.” He and plenty of others will support Trump actively this time around. I certainly don’t support every single policy
That brings me to the alternative. As Bloomberg aptly put it in the debate, “This debate is showing people why they should vote for Trump.” The ideas being presented are socialism, or very socialistic. Bloomberg was also correct in calling it communism. Bernie objected, but it is what it is. Socialism can be sexy because of the words used to describe it but in practice it’s horrible.
Often, the wealthy like the tenets of socialism. It makes them feel good. They feel virtuous and think they are helping people. Policies like universal health care, universal basic income, and pro-union all crush people. They pull the ladder away. There is no way to rise. Some of the wealthy don’t mind that because it limits competition. “We can’t have those people coming to the party.” Champagne socialists or limousine liberals are what they are known as colloquially.
Funny thing is when the policies get enacted, they move to lower-tax states. A lot of very liberal celebrities are building homes in Las Vegas.
The policies that are being espoused will crush the gig economy. They will crush innovation. They will stop progress in its tracks. They have more in common with Venezuela than they do with historical American culture. There is a false equivalence being interjected. It’s not as if being a free market capitalist doesn’t mean you want no regulation and no laws. Capitalism is totally misunderstood and is not taught correctly in our nation’s schools. Capitalism desires the rule of law and certainty. Hence the affinity of capitalism and federalism. Property rights and individual liberty make capitalism work. Creative destruction is a significant part.
America is the best country in the world to have the potential to go from rags to riches. There are so many things that people misunderstand about wealth. Just because you made a lot of money one year doesn’t guarantee it is an income stream forever. People take risks to get to the top that others won’t take. It’s not just luck. I was chatting with a friend who came from a family where everyone was a teacher or farmer and they were wildly successful. They took risks that others would never have done. They earned every penny. In the Democratic debate, I was happy to see Bloomberg defend himself on wealth. He started a business and was successful. We ought to be celebrating that.
The problem with socialists is that they never go away despite the data and evidence. They are like roaches that come back in the night. When you turn the light you realize you have a problem as they scatter back into the shadows. Unfortunately, Democrats don’t have the intestinal fortitude or desire to crush it and stamp it out in their party. 30%-40% of the party believes in it.
on February 23, 2020, 11:58 am