Tuesday, March 19, 2013

What a Moderate Sounds Like

Tyler Cowen on a criticism about the Tea Party:
Not altogether untrue
On one level, I appreciate this kind of balanced observation; on another, it's incredibly lame.

2 comments:

W.C. Varones said...

Moderates are who brought us to this point: Too Big To Fail banks, widespread crony capitalism and corruption, giant deficits, health care finance on track to bankrupt the country...

I'd say it's time we start tarring and feathering the moderates and run them out of town on a rail.

Tel said...

The problem with moderation, is that it is perfectly reasonable to give an inch when negotiating. However, after giving an inch you will be expected to give another, repeat forever, until it gets very unreasonable.

The problem with the Tea Party is nothing remotely like "immature, quick-triggered, and impatient" that's just plain wrong. The real problem with the Tea Party is they have not made the mental leap to connect their own position with the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. Both sides are going to need to give something up if they want to gain liberty and get their individual rights back.

The Tea Party don't like Socialism, but remain attracted to war. The OWS movement don't like war, but see Socialism as viable. Sadly, war and Socialism are two sides of the same desolate coin. Whether that be National Socialism, Stalinist Communism, or just granting "temporary" wartime powers to a Corporatist state... you get the same outcomes: loss of individual liberty, diversion of resources, and imperial brinkmanship.

Of course, we can't completely reject war. Everyone has the right to defend themselves. What we can reject is wars of aggression, the wanton meddling in other people's affairs, and deliberate destabilisation.