Bfgrn
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- Apr 4, 2009
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The Myth of Ronald Reagan
Excerpts:
There are two enemies of a real conservative society, thought Chesterton; one of them is State Socialism and the other is Big Business. In other words, the enemy is bigness, no matter on which side of the political spectrum it originates. Hayek, quoted by Kleinknecht, wrote something similar in his highly influential book The Road to Serfdom (1944): ... [T]he movement toward totalitarianism comes from two great vested interests: organized capital and organized labor. Probably the greatest menace of all is that the politics of these two most powerful groups point in the same direction. Such sentiments, Kleinknecht writes, were swept out of Washington in the 1980s. Relief from government regulation was one of a handful of core beliefs that really mattered to Reagan and his business supporters, and anything that stood in the way of the natural consolidation of the nations productive forces was a barrier to be removed. Or as Reagans good friend whom he appointed attorney general, William French Smith, put it, Bigness doesnt necessarily mean badness.
Reagan was the obvious enemy of the common people he claimed to represent, this empty suit who believed in flying saucers and allowed an astrologer to guide his presidential scheduling. ...
He enacted policies that helped wipe out the high-paying jobs for the working class that were the real backbone of the country. ... His legacymergers, deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy, privatization, globalizationhelped weaken the family and eradicate small-town life and sense of community.
Reaganomics did create fortunes, but mostly for those at the top of the economic ladder; it also brought a reversal in the slow gains that the working class and the poor had made in the previous two decades.
During a month when Republicans dug in against Barack Obamas stimulus plan, Kleinknechts words, written last year before the economic crash, ring clear. Reaganism replaced Enlightenment thinking with the corrupted Romanticism that portrays free-market purism as an article of religious faith that is the real meaning of America. The answer to any of the economic challenges of the twenty-first century is to do nothing. Cut taxes, eviscerate all regulation of private enterprise, and trust the market to guide our fates. If this sounds like hyperbole, then you werent listening to the Republican response to President Obamas bailout proposal.
Mere parsimony (frugality, stinginess) is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy.
Edmund Burke
Excerpts:
There are two enemies of a real conservative society, thought Chesterton; one of them is State Socialism and the other is Big Business. In other words, the enemy is bigness, no matter on which side of the political spectrum it originates. Hayek, quoted by Kleinknecht, wrote something similar in his highly influential book The Road to Serfdom (1944): ... [T]he movement toward totalitarianism comes from two great vested interests: organized capital and organized labor. Probably the greatest menace of all is that the politics of these two most powerful groups point in the same direction. Such sentiments, Kleinknecht writes, were swept out of Washington in the 1980s. Relief from government regulation was one of a handful of core beliefs that really mattered to Reagan and his business supporters, and anything that stood in the way of the natural consolidation of the nations productive forces was a barrier to be removed. Or as Reagans good friend whom he appointed attorney general, William French Smith, put it, Bigness doesnt necessarily mean badness.
Reagan was the obvious enemy of the common people he claimed to represent, this empty suit who believed in flying saucers and allowed an astrologer to guide his presidential scheduling. ...
He enacted policies that helped wipe out the high-paying jobs for the working class that were the real backbone of the country. ... His legacymergers, deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy, privatization, globalizationhelped weaken the family and eradicate small-town life and sense of community.
Reaganomics did create fortunes, but mostly for those at the top of the economic ladder; it also brought a reversal in the slow gains that the working class and the poor had made in the previous two decades.
During a month when Republicans dug in against Barack Obamas stimulus plan, Kleinknechts words, written last year before the economic crash, ring clear. Reaganism replaced Enlightenment thinking with the corrupted Romanticism that portrays free-market purism as an article of religious faith that is the real meaning of America. The answer to any of the economic challenges of the twenty-first century is to do nothing. Cut taxes, eviscerate all regulation of private enterprise, and trust the market to guide our fates. If this sounds like hyperbole, then you werent listening to the Republican response to President Obamas bailout proposal.
Mere parsimony (frugality, stinginess) is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy.
Edmund Burke
