Good post, Craig.
Your fourth point raises some interesting questions about distribution of wealth.
Populists as well as Marxists (I actually would classify PB as a populist most of the time - in the sense of pandering to the common man and playing on his prejudices, not Webster's definition) have tried to blame free trade, free markets and/or capitalism in general for what they consider an inequitable distribution of wealth. The main difference, IMO, is that pandering populists do it so that people who feel short-changed will be jealous of the rich and vote for the populist and Marxists do it so that those same people will hate the rich and empower the Marxists to confiscate the wealth and redistribute it (mostly to themselves). In either case, the average Joe is no better off than before.
I would also, obviously, take issue with your assessment of the current state of the nation as described in the sixth paragraph. Believe what you want, but if you really think we, as a nation and economy, are traveling to Hades in the proverbial handbag, you are mistaken.
Lastly, your final comment (implying that TR was a white supremacist bent on conquering the world for the Anglo-Saxons) deserves nothing but ridicule and scorn. But, alas, it's too late on a Friday to do more than ROTFL. |
