A liberal told me yesterday that I am not as good a thinker as Barack Obama.
Perhaps that is so; perhaps it is not.
But I know this, and Barack Obama doesn’t:
(1) Keynesian economics is a great failure. Massive government spending is not the engine that drives a thriving economy, and it is not the path to prosperity. Neither is a crushing national debt.
(2) Demand-side economics does not produce goods and services in the same lush way as does supply-side economics, which means that if you want sound policy you ought to read Arthur Laffer, not J. M. Keynes.
(3) Amassing 16 trillion dollars in debt leads to credit downgrades, higher interest rates, and a lethargic marketplace characterized by reduced investment and higher unemployment, not to economic prosperity.
(4) You cannot be safe if you have porous borders. Neither can your border agents.
(5) No nation has ever been attacked because it was too strong, but many have been attacked because they were too weak and could not mount an effective defense. Peace comes through strength; weakness invites attack.
(6) We have deadly enemies who cannot be appeased. Our deadly enemies are Israel’s deadly enemies. The US and Israel, therefore, need to stand together.
(7) Ideas do not die simply because they have been refuted roundly, soundly, and repeatedly. Communism is not dead and it will not die. It simply and continually re-organizes. Vladimir Putin and his ideological allies in China and North Korea are up to no good. Never trust them to have your best interests at heart -- never.
(8) A nation that cannot or will not acknowledge God inevitably thinks that government is the highest power; that self-satisfaction is the highest good; and that self-indulgence is the best path to it.
(9) A nation that slaughters its young cannot be trusted to know the right thing or to do it. It cannot be trusted to make the heavy sacrifices necessary to maintain freedom. That nation falters because it has severed the connection between duty and liberty. Without the higher calling and higher morality that only life under God brings, nothing more profound than mere orgasm rules the citizens’ actions.
(10) Neither private virtue nor public duty has any suitable substitute. Either you do the right thing or you slide downhill. No other option exists.
4 comments:
Thank you for sharing. I really appreciate your insight.
I won't comment on the economics, because that's not my area of interest so I don't know enough to comment intelligently, but foreign policy and geopolitics is, and I'm not sure I agree with some of what you know. I'll post my thoughts using the same numeral as the thought of yours which I am responding to.
4) Border agents have died on the job under every president in recent history. It's hardly fair to attribute our presently porous borders to President Obama.
5) Empires are attacked precisely because they occupy the position of power and prominence and the challengers wish to supplant them. Persia, Rome, and Britain were all attacked frequently by powers weaker than them who wished to assert a regional dominance. The peace that comes through strength is a peace won through frequent combat.
6) The enemies we face that are common to Israel are not deadly to us (nor are they likely to be deadly to Israel), and they actually can be appeased. Our geopolitical objectives are not the same as Israel's and we should not tie ourselves to another nation's agenda.
7) Russia's play for power has nothing to do with China, communism, or anything else like that and everything to do with moving it's borders away from it's vulnerable, easy-to-invade heartland and across to the other side of the Urals. Success or failure there for the US is built not no lumping them in with the "other communists" but in providing nations on the fringe of their sphere of influence with a credible alternative to Russian subservience. North Korea is about as threatening to America as a plastic bag (they don't have a functional delivery vehicle, and even if they did, there's a large stretch of technology between building a nuclear bomb and building a nuclear bomb deliverable via missile). North Korea is certainly threatening to South Korea, but not in an existential way by any stretch. If North Korea seriously thought they could threaten Seoul's existence, I would have a picture of Kim Il Sung up in my classroom here in Seoul, if I were even allowed to teach here at all. And China faces systemic internal issues which necessitate management by the US, but not direct intervention or rhetoric.
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Jonathan,
Because my reply is too long, I'll post it as a blog entry. Let me just say here that I appreciate your comment and the good will behind it. Please feel free to contribute here whenever you wish.
Best.
MB
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