I am doing my very best to limit my rants to sledding today. This sort of thing makes it hard, particularly when you combine it with my unwillingness to be charitable to people anymore.
Obama dropped almost all pretenses and made the progressive case against an American free market system, which he called “a simple theory … one that speaks to our rugged individualism and our healthy skepticism of too much government. … And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. But here’s the problem: It doesn’t work.”
Well, it’s not like this is a surprise to anyone. The surprise is why anyone was surprised when the right levied these claims against him 4 years ago. Here is how I see it: if anyone in the free-market camp really truly wants to win the day, they will have to spend the rest of their lives educating people on the ethical foundations of markets, educating people on the inconsistencies and outright failures in the Progressive ideology, has to stop promising that markets are the greatest thing since sliced bread, and has to be vigilant to remind folks the lessons of public choice economics. And then after folks have done that, they can at least be happy knowing that they fought the good fight while their neighbors continue to steal the shirts off their backs.
I heard bits and pieces of his speech today…and I was shocked! Shocked! I didn’t think that even Obama would say such outrageous things in public. Then again, its not as if I ever hear what he says, but I can’t imagine many moderate voters would listen to that ridiculous speech and still consider him as a viable president for this country. I may get my $100 after all!
WC, do you mean, “…saying markets are the greatest thing since sliced bread” is a weak sound bite? After all, free markets, secure property rights and liberty have made a lot of bread, sliced and unsliced.
I realize this is not your point.
Maybe a more evocative way of reacting to Obama on TV would be to roll up one’s trousers every time he comes on, like on CNN in the airport lounge? The faculty lounge?
It took some time to figure out RIT_Rich is on the same side of the bet as I.