Saturday, January 17, 2009

American Democracy, RIP

America was a bold experiment, but it has failed. It has failed for the reasons that the Founding Fathers, specifically Hamilton and Madison in the Federalist Papers, feared an excessively democratic nation would fail: faction and the use of democratic power to redistribute wealth in favor of special interests. Hamilton did not anticipate that Wall Street and a central bank would prove crucial in this regard. Nevertheless, the public's stupidity in supporting Wall Street's looting in the name of socialist rhetoric (the "bailout") leaves me with a cliche--a people gets the government and economy it deserves.

Socialism is a failed philosophy, and a socialist America is a moribund nation. A poster on this blog raised the question of whether a majority can be wrong. Well yes, a majority cannot repeal the law of gravity; and they cannot make socialism function as well or as fairly as capitalism. A majority of Americans cannot motivate progress or productivity through income redistribution; and a majority of Americans cannot say that government stealing is not theft. A majority of Americans cannot invent a cure for cancer. But the majority has been able to slow medical, economic and technological progress. They have managed to create an economy where new firms cannot form and old ones flee. They have harmed the nation and themselves.

Thus, Americans are going through a period of economic decline due to the policies for which the majority has voted since 1932. Your children are going to be hoisted by the American voters' petard. They are going to be hoisted by an illusory faith in democracy at the expense of liberalism and liberal government; of mob rule at the expense of freedom. Happily, I have no children on whom to inflict America's dismal future, made dismal by the democratic mob.

George W. Bush's socialization of banking, the massive bailout, the recent tripling of Federal Reserve Bank Credit and monetary reserves suggests the probability of serious economic instability. This is occurring in front of the faces of the American voter. Yet Americans vote for ever more government.

Today, few Americans are familiar with the principles on which the nation was founded; few are familiar with Locke or the laissez faire principles of Jefferson and Adam Smith. Few understand the reasons why America became the most technologically advanced nation. The universities are bastions of ignorance. They advocate failed, stupid, reactionary ideologies like socialism no matter how many times socialism has failed and how many people it has killed.

There is little to look forward to as America declines. I pity future generations of Americans, who might have led exceptional lives, but instead will lead impoverished lives because their ancestors were duped by the socialist argument.

American democracy, RIP.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi Mitchell -
I am as shocked as you are that w. pulled such a socialist stunt by giving out these bailouts. So uncharacteristic, it would seem! But - perhaps - he is crazy like a fox. By the tiem Obama enters office, peopel will be so sick & tired - and opposed - to bailouts, perhaps it will save us from the greater and more waste that might have been. Just a thought.
You might be interested as well on how and why social policy change can - and will - get us out of this socialist decline by 2012 if we can implement some moderate ideas by then - and we can. I invite you to visit htbaird.wordpress.com, authored by philosopher, journalist and international poet Holly Foote Baird.
Thanks again for your opinions...quite thought-provoking!