03.05.09
He’s wrecking it on purpose
Shortly after my ideological conversion a little over twenty years ago, I began engaging in a mental exercise that I continue to this day. It’s simply my attempt, through observing the behavior of people of various personality types and demographics who all have a basic worldview in common, to answer the question, What motivates a leftist?
It sometimes seems as if there are a couple or a few different motivations. Clearly, some leftists are determined to amass and maximize power. Conversely, some are content to harbor their zeal for a more fair and equitable society without desiring to put themselves in position of influence of any consequence.
Still, these people do sign up to serve on boards, petition governmental bodies, march or stage arts events with unmistakable political overtones. So maybe it’s a matter of degree.
Perhaps we’ll never know. Was Napoleon the Pig in Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, or his real-life counterpart, Joseph Stalin, merely interested in the kind of status as a tyrant enjoyed by despots of pervious ages, or were they convinced in their hearts even after they’d plunged their empires into darkness that they were bringing the dream of a gleaming new type of societal organization into being?
The question comes to the fore again in present-day America. We now have an example right before our eyes that we can examine. One thing that the current situation, as has been the case with past instances, pretty well demonstrates, is that whether it’s pure power-lust or whether some degree of utopian zeal remains part of it once the national ruin gets underway, such leftist rulers do hold the conviction that they need maximum power to achieve the transformation about which they’ve spoken since their days as – well, community organizers. It was what differentiated the Bolsheviks from the Mensheviks in the Russian revolution. Lenin said to the Mensheviks, “No, you fools. We don’t wait for a democratic election. We seize power as the vanguard of the masses and impose the new structure as quickly as possible.”
Roger Kimball is convinced that TCM is this kind of figure. I must go on record as agreeing with him, as frightened as I am of my own conclusion. That is, I, along with Kimball and some people he cites in his piece, am sure that he’s not just a bumbler with vague notions of fairness and environmental improvement. A while back, a BN commenter took me to task for calling TCM not just a Marxist, but a Marxist-Leninist. I considered the commenter’s argument, and agreed to refrain from further use of the latter term for the time being. I hereby reinstate it with full belief in its accuracy. TCM sees himself and his administration as the vanguard of the masses, and he’s proceeding full-tilt toward the “fundamental transformation” on an institutional level of which he openly spoke.
The original question remains: Is he just interested in power of a totalitarian magnitude for its own sake or does he really believe that, by becoming an absolute despot, he can transform America and humankind and usher in a gleaming and unprecedented age of well-being, peace and harmony? I’m not sure we can know, but it’s now clear that, whatever his deepest motives, he wants that kind of power.
MR. Dings said,
March 5, 2009 at 9:49 pm
I am watching the love fest that is the RX for Health Care Reform–Summit focuses on reducing costs, boosting cov. now. On CSpan. How authoratative!
Bentnotesmanhisself said,
March 6, 2009 at 3:36 am
Thankfully, I had to work and wasn’t available to subject myself to it.
MR. Dings said,
March 6, 2009 at 5:32 am
You woulda been puking. I almost was, and I think I kinda support universal health care. Pukiest line was when this black chick asked for his “marching orders.”
Bentnotesmanhisself said,
March 6, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Neil Cavuto likened TCM and his priorities to a college student obsessing about a paper due in eight weeks when he hasn’t even begun studying for two exams coming up tomorrow.
He’s jacking around with renewable energy and health care while the US – indeed, world – financial system melts down by the hour.
One wants to bitch-slap him and scream ‘Get a clue, Mr. President!” until one comes to the awful truth that is the subject of this post.
Now, re: health care: remember, it’s not a right. Rights are irreducible human conditions that government can guarantee but not provide. It doesn’t cost your fellow citizens anything for you to have your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. It damn sure would cost them for you to be guaranteed health care. Plus, who gets to define that term?
What you do have a right to, as a subset of your right to the pursuit of happiness, is the right to go shopping for the best deal on the health care you deem to be right for you.
MR. Dings said,
March 6, 2009 at 4:13 pm
As your post title indicates, I am beginning to think he wants the Dow to trash to implement his, let’s call it his “Best Deal.” I never was in his corner but after his election I wanted to believe. I still want to believe we can get this fixed, bring the Dow up (legitimately, not blowing another big bubble) and I can at least look forward to retirement at the already planned age of 70. I want to believe that the Fed Reserve Chairman and the Treasury Secretary know how to fix this and that they are working closely with Wall Street and the Republican opposition. Those in his corner are largely those with nothing to lose. Didn’t somebody define that as freedom somewhere? I wrote down his answers to the young lady of color’s question about marching orders (when she finished she flashed that body language of awe):
1) All groups NEED to STAY involved. (what’s that mean, don’t quit on him when he refuses to budge?)
2) Reports on break-out sessions will be distributed to the public (are you sure? We never got to review the Economic Recovery Act like you said we would)
3) Nancy Pelosi et al are interested in moving this thing forward. I want to make sure I don’t get in the way. We have some STRONG ideas, but we have no monopoly on “good” ideas. (Just read between the lines here and it’s not even a damn marching order; neither is # 2.
Oh to be young again, when nonsense made some sense. If I listen long enough to him, can I find a way to believe that it’s all true? Knowing, that he lied, straight face while I cried? I’m getting through with finding reasons to believe…..
MR. Dings said,
March 6, 2009 at 4:46 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KHWxg_TqDw
Bentnotesmanhisself said,
March 6, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Sounds like somebody has a case of resentment over seeing their Ameriprise fund go south.
These things happen. My Ameriprise fund has gone south.
Such bad patches used to end and good times would return, before we went communist.
MR. Dings said,
March 6, 2009 at 4:56 pm
There were representatives of both the health insurance industry and the medical profession in attendance; some of them want reform too, and, so far, so do I. The current system is not working any better than the free market greed that brought us to this juncture.
I still largely agree with these sentiments here, although he trashes your fat sloppy, thrice-married, poorly educated boor of a hero. Still it’s “Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.” Sun Tzu
There is a war, all right. We are witnessing the worst debacle of unfettered capitalism in our lifetime brought on by — you got it, capitalism at its worst. It cannibalized itself. Government, sad to say, had nothing to do with it — except for criminal neglect of oversight.
Now that government has been forced to the rescue, just who is insisting on taxpayer bailouts? Who is in line for handouts? Who is saying that only government can save capitalism? The very leaders of unregulated markets who injected this poison into the economy, the very plutocrats that Limbaugh celebrates.
And, of course, let us never forget that the bailouts of banks and insurance companies were initiated by the Republican president Limbaugh defended for eight years.
MR. Dings said,
March 6, 2009 at 5:17 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL2OOyZvFKY&feature=related
Bentnotesmanhisself said,
March 6, 2009 at 8:55 pm
THis is pretty dire. We need all brains on board. Don’t you think it’s time you quit with the self-delusion about “unfettered capitalism” and “greed?” It’s time to grow up and remember how to love your freedom.
Bentnotesmanhisself said,
March 6, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Plus. that’s utter horsehit that Rush defended W. He castigated him at least as often as he praised him. Certainly he was not on board with bailouts.
Bentnotesmanhisself said,
March 6, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Your advocacy of government limitation of our economic freedom might have some credibility if you’d ever provide some sepcific examples of the kind of regulation you think might have been applied to these perceived problems of “greed’ and “unfettered capitalism” that you incessantly trot out.
You know what BN prescribes. I’d get on a plane to Washington this afternoon and go kiss TCM’s behind if he’d
- go for Mike Pence’s spending freeze
- reverse course on the W tax cuts and make them permanent
- reduce the capital gains tax rate to somewhere around ten percent
- give up all government involvement in anything “green”
- get all his advice on health care from the specialists in the subject at Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Insitute and Competitive Enterprise Institute
- reverse his Interior Secretary’s recent disastrous moves and allow gas exploration in Utah and oil drilling in ANWR, Nroth Dakota and Florida
- end all bailouts for banks, insurance companies and car companies
- end all government invovlement in mortgages
If he announced such a package – all at once, not peicemeal – today, within a week, we’d have a soaring, rocking economy.
But, of course, he’s a Stalinist, so that’s the exact opposite of what he wants.
Bentnotesmanhisself said,
March 6, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Plus, would you care to name some of these free-marketeers whom you claim are plutocrats crying for government rescue? Remember, we’re looking for honest-to-God free marketeers who are doing this.
MR. Dings said,
March 6, 2009 at 11:57 pm
You act like we elected Fred Thompson. Deal with it. If that means protesting, have at it. Protest is patriotism. It’s about time you found that out after 6 years of defending Bush (admit it, you were crushed in the ‘06 Congressional elections, pale and crestfallen the morning after, check your blogposts back then. Get cracking getting honest to God free marketers elected. BO and his folks got ‘er done. For him. Boo hoo.
Bentnotesmanhisself said,
March 7, 2009 at 3:13 am
Not sure what your point is here. This blog is doing what I set it up to do – observe and comment on American culture, economics and the world stage, defend what I know to be always correct, true and right, and have some fun.
MR. Dings said,
March 7, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Guess you never saw Hopper in Blue Velvet. A film made after the 50s.
MR. Dings said,
March 7, 2009 at 1:52 pm
After all the fraud and mismanagement of too many corporate entities than I can keep track of, we bail them out, which I agree with you we should stop doing, but dammit, we ain’t cutting free marketers any slack any more. You had your chances and you blew it. Free markets work only if there is basic honesty. That went out the door a long time ago. You keep defending the corporate arm.
MR. Dings said,
March 7, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Crap like this goes on and on:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/business/06layoffs.html?em
Big companies also routinely carry out scattered layoffs that are small enough to stay under the radar, contributing to an unemployment rate that keeps climbing, as Friday’s monthly jobs report is likely to show.
I.B.M. is one such company. It reported surprisingly strong quarterly profits in January, and in an e-mail message to employees, Samuel J. Palmisano, the chief executive, said that while other companies were cutting back, his would not. “Most importantly, we will invest in our people,” he wrote. But the next day, more than 1,400 employees in I.B.M.’s sales and distribution division in the United States and Canada were told their jobs would be eliminated in a month. More cuts followed, and over all, I.B.M. has told about 4,600 North American employees in recent weeks that their jobs are vanishing.
MR. Dings said,
March 7, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Obamatons Respond
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/opinion/06brooks.html?em
Bottom line, from a commentator critical of the budget:
Nonetheless, the White House made a case that was sophisticated and fact-based. These people know how to lead a discussion and set a tone of friendly cooperation. I’m more optimistic that if Senate moderates can get their act together and come up with their own proactive plan, they can help shape a budget that allays their anxieties while meeting the president’s goals.
Bentnotesmanhisself said,
March 7, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Boy, now there’s a bunch I really could never understand – moderates, centrists. This whole idea – which is where Brooks seems to be coming from – of “Well, this side seems to have some good ideas on these issues and this side seems to have some good ideas on these issues.”
As I read in some column recently, where are the think tanks and flagship magazines and talk-show hosts upholding “moderation” or “centrism”?
MR. Dings said,
March 8, 2009 at 12:58 am
You’re dialoguing with one.
Bentnotesmanhisself said,
March 8, 2009 at 2:29 am
Eu contraire. Check out the rich bounty of links in posts and the side bar this blog provides. It’s an exquisite cornucopia of truth and possibility.