MCViewPoint

Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Posts Tagged ‘decentralizing’

The one lesson I hoped the left would learn from Trump

Posted by M. C. on October 14, 2020

Take the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, where the government lied to black men about giving them free medical care, and instead hid the fact that they had syphilis in order to watch the progression as the disease killed them over decades.

Only when people realize that the power of the government will always be abused, and used against them eventually, can we move beyond a strong centralized state.

And that is not to say smaller government’s can’t be oppressive– of course they can. The point in decentralizing power is that at least you have choice, and this choice alone creates a marketplace for better governance.

By Joe Jarvis

Since Donald Trump is apparently rushing a COVID vaccine to production in the hopes of reelection, can I assume that the left now opposes forced government vaccinations?

Since August, the percent of people who say they are likely to get the first generation COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it is available dropped from about 47% to 39% overall.

Republicans are still less likely to want a vaccine compared to Democrats, but everyone is now more skeptical of an untested government pushed vaccine.

Black Americans are about half as likely as White Americans to immediately want the vaccine.

And it makes a lot of sense for Black Americans to be skeptical of government mandated medical care.

Take the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, where the government lied to black men about giving them free medical care, and instead hid the fact that they had syphilis in order to watch the progression as the disease killed them over decades.

This went on until 1972!

And yet older Black Americans, who can actually remember when this happened, still think they can at least trust the Democratic Party.

Data from a poll conducted by the American University Black Swing Voter Project found that younger African Americans generally have less trust in both parties.

For example, 73% of Black voters in swing states over age 60 “Trust congressional Democrats to “do what is best” for Black people.”

Only 43% of Black swing state voters from 18-29 feel the same way.

Also interesting is that 29% of these 18-29 year old swing state Black voters “Trust congressional Republicans to do “what is best” for Black people.”

And only 8% of those over 60 feel the same.

I present this data only to suggest that younger Black Americans are less trusting of either party. Based on this data, overall 81% of Black voters over 60 trust a political party to help them, while only 72% of the youngest Black voters feel the same.

I see that as a good sign.

As long as the factions maintain bases that believe their party is righteous and good, we will continue to grow the power of the state, to the detriment of all.

Only when people realize that the power of the government will always be abused, and used against them eventually, can we move beyond a strong centralized state.

And that is not to say smaller government’s can’t be oppressive– of course they can. The point in decentralizing power is that at least you have choice, and this choice alone creates a marketplace for better governance.

That was my major hope for Trump all along– that he would make the big government folks realize the folly in growing state and executive power, only to have it hijacked by someone they despise– someone they truly believe is a danger to society itself.

Well, welcome to the club. We wouldn’t be in this mess if people realized everyone with near unlimited power is a danger to a functioning prosperous society– Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Reagan too. And every one of them grew the power of the US government and the chief executive.

That is the genius of the two party system. I mean Trump has grown the government as much as the next guy, borrowing and spending more than any president in history, and expanding the already massive defense budget.

Both parties do everything they can to erase any semblance of state sovereignty, or states running their own affairs without federal intervention.

But since it is usually the Red states that have the most criticism for federal overreach, the fact that Trump targeted places like California and New York gave me hope that the left would wake up to the problem with a massive centralized government.

California, by itself the sixth largest economy in the world, could break free from the US federal government, and set the modern precedent that states can secede to form their own countries, better fit for the citizens of that area.

I certainly wouldn’t be moving to California the state or the country. But Florida as a country could be a hell of a good time, especially because it has no income tax.

And both of these states are pretty close to net neutral when it comes to federal funding. That means that taxpayers pay about as much to DC as they get back in federal spending. So divorce from DC would not have a huge impact.

Now let me get back to vaccines. This article isn’t really about vaccines themselves, I’m basically using trust in government vaccines as a stand-in for trust in government in general.

I’m not anti-vax– frankly I haven’t done enough research. But I assume some vaccinations have been very beneficial, and other carry more risk than reward. It would be absurd to believe vaccinations are 100% safe with no side effects. And the government should not be deciding the risk versus rewards for us.

But vaccine messaging actually shows us exactly how the government partners with corporations and the intelligentsia to control the narrative.

A Yale Study is already underway to test the best vaccine propaganda.

Sovereign Man had a good summary explaining:

Is guilt, self-interest, or anger the most effective way to convince people to get a Covid vaccine?

A Yale study will attempt to answer that question, by studying which message resonates most with the general population. It’s called Persuasive Messages for COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake.

There is no actual vaccine yet. But the study is already testing to see which method of propaganda will most effectively convince people to get a vaccine… whenever that happens to be.

The study will also measure how confident the propaganda makes people feel about a vaccine, and if it makes participants want to persuade others to take the vaccine.

Finally, researchers want to see if the propaganda produces fear in the unvaccinated, and how much social judgment it will cast on those who choose to remain unvaccinated.

Just in case you start to see a “spontaneous” groundswell of popular support for a brand new untested vaccine…

So forget if it is actually safe or not, the government wants to find out how to convince you it is safe– maybe with fear, or shaming, or trying to make you abandon all reason in favor of alleged “experts.”

And of course, the elite, the cabal, the government, the corporations– the mixture of these institutions which exerts control over society– they do this messaging with everything.

So if it isn’t obvious enough by now, let me spell out my point.

You shouldn’t trust one party or the other. You shouldn’t trust the government at all.

You should be a skeptic when it comes to other people trying to force you to do anything– especially when it means handing off more responsibility, and giving them more power over you life.

We know we cannot trust the current power structure. We know the pendulum of political factions will deliver nothing but more oppression, poverty, crime, and chaos.

There is really only one solution at this point, and that is taking matters into your own hands.

Because when you start ignoring the mass media and political theater, you realize the community around you, the people you interact with in real life on a daily basis are the ones that matter.

And if you aren’t in a good environment, put yourself in one. It’s 2020, you don’t have to be born and die in the same village.

And that is the power that people have today. The power to vote with our feet, to organize into groups of like-minded people, and more power than every before in the history of earth to put ourselves exactly into the community we want to be in, around the people we like most, in a jurisdiction that works best for us for taxes, regulations, laws, and so on.

It’s not perfect, and there needs to be far more choice when it comes to how societies are run. But this is how we get there, through individual action, not through the collective bullshit that the media, corporations, governments, and elite are trying to force on us.

Never let a good crisis go to waste is the mantra of the elites.

In tumultuous times, their tactics have extra potency. They reach for more power.

But this is also when the elite are most vulnerable.

By studying their tactics, you will be more prepared to guard against, and counter-attack the enemy.

The current crisis is being used to exploit the masses. But it also presents tremendous opportunity to take the power back, and reshape this world.

Society is entering a new period of transition, a struggle that will reveal the elites of the next generation.

Now is the time to seize your power if you intend to be among their ranks.

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There Really Is Nothing Smart about Joe Biden | Mises Institute

Posted by M. C. on September 30, 2020

The superficial nature of presidential elections may not be a new phenomenon, but it is worth noting that this was not always the state of American politics. Once upon a time, party platforms offered substantive analysis of important issues and candidates were expected to have an operational understanding of serious questions. During the election of 1896, for example, the gold standard was such a prominent election issue that it was featured prominently in both campaign literature and candidate posters.

https://mises.org/power-market/there-really-nothing-smart-about-joe-biden?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=9a69b44fd2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_9_21_2018_9_59_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-9a69b44fd2-228343965

The big winner of last night’s presidential debate may have been H.L. Mencken, as his opinion of democracy seemed to be embraced by Americans all across the nation.

On one side you had President Trump staying true to his WWE persona, unlike his milder first performance four years ago with President-Assumed Hillary Clinton. On the other, you had Joe Biden, whose combination of short temper and low energy makes him resemble a disappointing Chinese firecracker. In the middle, you had Chris Wallace reduced to begging the participants to follow the rules of the whole affair.

Nothing of real substance was discussed, of course. We still do not know if Joe Biden stands with the mainstream of his party when it comes to stacking the courts and eliminating the senate filibuster (though we can be confident that his opinion on the subject would matter, even if elected). We do not know if President Trump recognizes the fragility of the debt-fueled economic recovery, though in the eyes of Chris Wallace this is “free market ideology.” We do not know if anyone watching these debates is even capable of having their mind changed, or whether the goal is simply to not discourage any would-be supporter from mailing in a ballot (or two).

We do however know two things: people are recognizing the failures of American democracy, and there really is nothing smart about Joe Biden.

The first point is important. First of all, the act of “recognizing” a problem does not mean that the problem is a new one.

While the media will predictably spin last night’s circus as the latest example of Donald Trump embarrassing the presidency, the truth is that presidential debates have long been farces. The 2012 debates were defined by an inaccurate fact check by Serious Journalist Candy Crowley and the phrase “binders full of women” taken out of context. Prior to that, SNL skits ended up doing more for framing candidates than any debate performance (perhaps the decline of SNL is the real tragedy in American politics).

The superficial nature of presidential elections may not be a new phenomenon, but it is worth noting that this was not always the state of American politics. Once upon a time, party platforms offered substantive analysis of important issues and candidates were expected to have an operational understanding of serious questions. During the election of 1896, for example, the gold standard was such a prominent election issue that it was featured prominently in both campaign literature and candidate posters.

Unfortunately, there tends to be an inverse relationship between democratization and serious political campaigns. In much the same way that products intended for mass consumption on the marketplace tend to be of lesser quality than those of specialty niche stores, a political system based on who can convince simply the majority of American adults to vote for them can resemble an intellectual race to the bottom.

This is not true with every election, however. For example, the single issue of school choice was found to have had a decisive impact in Florida’s 2018 gubernatorial election. Studies found that Republican Ron DeSantis won 18 percent of the female black vote, even while running against what would have been the first black governor of the state. The recognition that Andrew Gillum’s defense of traditional state schooling would have a direct impact on the quality of their children’s education was enough to transcend a lot of the typical tribalist instincts that tend to shape national politics.

For those interested in improving governance in America, this is a strong argument in favor of decentralizing democracy. (For those not interested in improving governance, there is another option.)

The second point may seem petty, but it’s also important—Joe Biden is an example of the sort of mediocre talent rewarded by the current political system. Prior to his 47-year career in elected office, he had a brief career as a lawyer with the ambitions of being elected senator and president. To achieve those ends, he falsified his resume to appear far more talented than he was.

His record in the Senate was significant, but he has spent most of his presidential campaign running against the positions he once had. Understandably so. His history of prior presidential runs did more for television comedians than his own legacy. His greatest asset was his relationship with Barack Obama, though much of the Democratic Party is far to the left of the former president. His instincts are so good that he picked for vice president someone who appears to be a true sociopath and is the elected Democrat who has made the most personal attacks on his record.

Of course, none of this matters to Biden true believers who seem to view the former vice president as a shortcut to reviving the nostalgia of the fictional West Wing. The alliance of former Bush and Obama administration officials wants voters to believe that Biden is a return to normalcy.

These are the very same people that mock red America for being gullible.

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