Koch Endorses Obama

Newsmax reports that Mayor Ed Koch has endorsed Barack Obama for President. Hizzoner repeats some of the now-familiar and unconvincing ex post arguments about Governor Palin, such as that she lacks experience even though she has more executive experience than Senators Obama and Biden combined, and has more experience than a number of former presidents such as Grover Cleveland, who had served two years as governor and less than one year as mayor before becoming one of history's best presidents. Mayor Koch's endorsement of Mr. Obama demonstrates that he is indifferent to inexperience because Mr. Obama has none. Nor does Mr. Obama's flip flopping on the issue of Jerusalem suggest that he has even a lay person's grasp of international issues, the Middle East or Israel's security.

Mayor Koch's endorsement has substance with respect to one important point. Allow me to quote him:

"Protecting and defending the U.S. means more than defending us from foreign attacks. It includes defending the public with respect to their civil rights, civil liberties and other needs, e.g., national health insurance, the right of abortion, the continuation of Social Security, gay rights, other rights of privacy, fair progressive taxation, and a host of other needs and rights."

Indeed, it is for these economic and social reasons, namely the threat that a Democratic president will further extend Progressivism, that I oppose Mr. Obama. While he was Mayor, Mr. Koch oversaw a city in economic decline due to Progressive, socialistic policies that Mr. Koch did nothing to reverse. These included a bloated city payroll; an incompetently run Department of Social Services (I worked there for a few weeks in the 1970s while I was a student and know about it first hand); a welfare system destructive of human dignity and the incentive to work; corrupt construction regulation; public housing that induced crime and depravity; and massive pension benefits for all city workers. As a result of New York City's pathological Progressivism, between 1960 and 1990 three quarters of the Fortune 500 firms that had been headquartered there left. Mayor Koch, although a noble, feisty soul, did nothing to reverse the People's Republic of New York's destruction of economic opportunity for future generations.

Mayor Koch and the New York Times would like to see Senator Obama impose New York City- and Chicago-style Progressivism on all of America. The result of their ideas will be a two-tiered society and declining economic opportunity for all Americans, especially the working class.

I do not doubt that Mayor Koch is an honorable man and that he truly believes that Barack Obama is capable of improving health care and social security. I happen to believe the reverse. But this disagreement has gone past the point of possible reconciliation. Mayor Koch and the Democrats have forced the nation to adopt failed policies. Now, Progressivism and Democratic Party ideology are irreconcilable with the beliefs of Americans who believe in freedom and traditional values. Either the Democrats will have to compel people like me who disagree with their theories with violence, or they cannot adopt them.

To reduce the tension that the Democrats' insistence on failed Progressive ideas is causing, I have come to the conclusion that the country needs to decentralize into two or more federal regions that offer alternative policies. The thought of social democratic health care, extension of social security, or Barack Obama's extending welfare in ways that Mayor Koch and Senator Obama consider attractive is unacceptable to me and many others. The time is past when the stupid theories of "liberals" can be rationalized as experimental or innovative. They have failed, and I am tired of paying the costs of the New York Times', Mayor Koch's and Barack Obama's dim witted ideas.

Having come from the same city as Mayor Koch, I do not feel any need to share a nation with him. He and Senator Obama are aliens to me. They can take their health care, their welfare, their dim witted programs, their incompetently run bureaucracies, and their chums on Wall Street, and keep them in New York. New York's Progressives have done enough damage as it is. I do not like the country that they envision, and I do not like the policies that they have forced me to support.

Jonah Goldberg on the American Dream

Jonah Goldberg has an excellent quote on his blog (h/t Larwyn) about the American dream. Goldberg writes that the phrase "American dream" came from a 1931 book by James Truslow Adams, The Epic of America. Here is the quote:

"The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."

Known as the "achievement motive" to management professors. Somehow, the Democrats don't seem to be familiar with it.

Similarities Between President Grover Cleveland and Sarah Palin

In 1884 Democrat Grover Cleveland defeated Republican James G. Blaine. Cleveland was what was then called a "Bourbon" Democrat, a laissez-faire liberal who favored low taxes, the gold standard, de-regulation and low tariffs. He represented honesty in government, like Sarah Palin. The elite New York and Boston Republicans, known as Mugwumps, backed Democrat Cleveland over Blaine. They were called Mugwumps because they were early "professionals" of the same kind that flowered in the twentieth century--professors, lawyers and physicians as well as businessmen. Some were independently wealthy. "Mugwump" means "Chief" in a Native American dialect, I believe Algonquin.

Here are some similarities between Grover Cleveland and Sarah Palin:

o Cleveland was governor of New York for two years before becoming president. Palin will have been governor of Alaska for two years before she swears in as vice-president.

o Cleveland was Mayor of Buffalo for less than a year before being governor. Palin was Mayor of Wasilla for four years before becoming governor.

o In 1873 Cleveland had an affair with 35-year old Maria Halpin and she bore Cleveland's son, Oscar Folsom Cleveland, out of wedlock. Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol Palin, is currently pregnant out of wedlock

o Grover Cleveland's opponent, James G. Blaine, was accused of lying about his relationship with the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad and the Northern Pacific Railroad. Barack Obama has been accused of lying about his background, in his book, about his birth certificate and about his relationship to George Soros.

o Grover Cleveland favored lower taxes and less regulation. Sarah Palin favors lower taxes and less regulation.

o Grover Cleveland attracted bolters from the Republican Party (the Mugwumps) who believed that Blaine was corrupt. Palin is attracting bolters from the Democratic Party who believe that Palin best represents women and that her opponents are corrupt.

President Grover Cleveland was the last true laissez-faire liberal to be elected to the presidency. During his presidency, the average real wage increased by 10-20%. Big business and the left complained incessantly about "depression" but millions of immigrants flocked here to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities that laissez-faire offered the poor.

New York Times Lauds CUNY Honors College

The New York Times has written an excellent article about the CUNY Honors College (h/t Sharad Karkhanis). The CUNY Honors College sports an average SAT score of 1399, 267 points higher than the average for CUNY's four-year colleges. CUNY has had an upswing in the past ten years, ever since I arrived in 1998. Just kidding. Good work by Chancellor Matt Goldstein. Oddly, the CUNY faculty union, the Professional Staff Congress, has repeatedly assaulted Chancellor Goldstein. They object to rising standards, higher SAT scores and a better reputation.