Back in the '80s, liberal Sovietologists swore that Reagan would strengthen the hand of Kremlin hardliners and make the Cold War much more dangerous. Instead, we got Gorbachev, a major peace offensive, glasnost, perestroika, and the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union.
Liberal economists swore that tax cuts would dry up credit, increase inflation, and, by the '90s, make us a nation of hamburger flippers. Instead, we had a big boom, inflation kept going down, and, by the '90s, we had an historically low unemployment rate with lots of decent jobs.
When NAFTA passed, economists favorable to the labor movement predicted that it would devastate the US economy. In fact, it helped the economy somewhat, but not as much as supporters predicted, to be fair.
When welfare reform passed, there were woeful predictions of people being tossed out on the street. In fact, welfare reform seems to have worked pretty well, and there has been no tidal wave of suffering as a result.
When we invaded Afghanistan, and then again when we invaded Iraq, there were predictions by those opposed to the use of force that we were playing into the hands of the terrorists, who would unleash wave upon wave of strikes against us, as new recruits clammered to sacrifice themselves in attacking us. In fact, we have foiled all plots thus far, and there has not been a direct attack on US soil since 9/11.
Why are we supposed to give special credence to these people? They may have a point sometimes, but they have been very fallible....... |
