You Might Be a Liberal

by C Edmund Wright

  People in business are very sensitive to the government-knows-best mindset. They can practically smell it. Many started their own businesses for the express purpose of being independent and having control of their own destinies. This illustrates a big difference between liberals and conservatives on the notion of control. Conservatives want control of their own destinies. Liberals want control of everyone’s destiny.

  In short, liberty is often the entrepreneur’s main motivation. Accumulating money is, of course, part of that, because property is a necessary ingredient in the liberty equation, and money is a form of property. This concept was lost on the clueless Occupy protester who was against ‘property rights’ but insisted on keeping his Mac because that was a ‘personal belonging,’ which for some reason in his brain did not equate to ‘property.’

  People motivated by independence are naturally going to avoid situations that invite government interference. Under the Obama administration, running a business now invites all kinds of government interference.

  Speaking of government interference, consider the whole issue with Boeing and the NLRB. Boeing had experienced difficult labor regulations in Washington State, costing the company billions of dollars and no telling how much customer goodwill in past years. One of the angriest customers, ironically, was ultra-lib Richard Branson of Virgin Air, ticked off that Boeing missed delivery deadlines due to union strikes. I often wonder what liberals tell themselves when the very forces they support for years come back to bite them on their backsides. The study of liberals has made schadenfreude almost a constant state of mind, though we are told it is not a healthy emotion.

  To prevent ticking off liberals like Branson and other customers in the future, Boeing was doing what any sensible business should do. They decided to channel future investments into areas where those problems would not arise again. To do otherwise would be to commit economic suicide.

  Not interested in economic suicide, Boeing went to Charleston. Coincidentally, there are fewer liberals in Charleston than in Seattle. Now keep in mind that this decision was made before Obama, Reid, and Pelosi came to power, and was not only sensible but perfectly legal. There was no thought given to the idea that in America there would soon be the central planning mindset of the new regime. It was beyond thinking that this move would be challenged retroactively as illegal. Welcome to “hope and change.”

  With this in mind, is it any wonder businesses have their money “on the sidelines” now? Of course not. Business owners and investors saw what was happening to Boeing. To take a chance in such an environment would be business malpractice. You don’t have to understand complex labor law in Washington or the science of environmental law in Alaska to get this. It’s simple common sense. The best economic lessons always are, since economics is nothing more than human nature in action. Liberalism runs afoul of human nature by definition, which is why liberal economic policies are doomed to fail. And they always do.

  Part of Milton Friedman’s fame comes from the famous “pencil” example, where he describes a five-cent pencil that is literally the result of cooperation and products from multiple continents by people who can’t stand each other—or understand each other. And yet, the marketplace weaves them together through a series of self-interested decisions to produce a pencil for a nickel. It demonstrates that this miracle could only happen in the marketplace. A government-mandated system requiring products from multiple continents would no doubt produce pencils costing thousands of dollars. The market thus not only forges products and prices that central planning cannot, but the collateral benefit is cooperation from people who otherwise would not cooperate.

  To understand why our economy is not in recovery and cannot possibly get there under this administration, it’s even simpler than Friedman’s pencil. Just compare the government view of lemonade stands in Maryland versus the government view of homemade cookie kitchens in Texas. Have some cookies and lemonade. It’s all you have to know. It’s so simple, even an Ivy Leaguer can do it.

  YMBAL’S #10

  If you argue that “it is not possible to eliminate” the union position of official horseshoer for the City of Detroit, even though the city has no horses to shoe…

  If, in the name of feminist sisterhood, you have ever intervened in a Muslim couple’s grocery store dispute and been arrested for the hate crime of religious intolerance for your troubles…28

  If you’ve ever said, or even thought, that we “spend money” on tax cuts…

  If you believe that a community organizer is more “qualified to think about the economy as a whole” than someone who has helped start businesses as a private equity investor…

  If your last name is hyphenated, or you wife’s last name is hyphenated…

  If you were outraged by how out of touch Ann Romney was with her 900 dollar blouse but simply “wowed” by the style of Michelle Obama’s 6,800 dollar jacket…

  If you don’t understand that helping shareholders retain profits is also helpful in having companies healthy enough to hire people…29

  If you have ever fainted or swooned at a political rally…

  If you actually believe anyone ever REALLY fainted or swooned during Obama’s rallies…

  If you’ve ever encouraged students to “make their orgasm face” as part of a presentation to a high school…30

  If you were president of the National Council of Family Relations, chairman of the Board of Directors of Child Fund International, and yet helped protect a pedophile who was coaching football at your university…31

  If you supported Obama’s removal of the work requirement part of welfare reform…

  If you have ever panhandled to raise money for your boob job…

  If you ever thought ObamaCare would—or should—cover your boob job…

  If you’re more upset with Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan, co-written by a liberal Democrat Senator, than you are by Obama’s budgets, which have never gotten a single vote…

  If you think the only reason that all DC Mayors are corrupt is because they don’t have any higher elected office to aspire too…32

  If you really believe the government when it says that it’s “healthier” to be on food stamps…

  If you think un-employment is more Romney’s fault because he’s rich than it is Obama’s fault because he’s President…

  ...you might be a liberal. (YMBAL)

  “It is necessary to help the masses in the process of the daily struggle to find the bridge between present demands and the socialist program of the revolution. This bridge should include a system of transitional demands, stemming from today’s conditions and from today’s consciousness of wide layers of the working class and unalterably leading to one final conclusion: the conquest of power by the proletariat.”

  —Leon Trotsky

  “The free market is ugly and stupid, like going to the mall; the un-free market is just as ugly and just as stupid, except there is nothing in the mall and if you don’t go there they shoot you.”

  —P.J. O’Rourke

  11: DOES COMPETITION MEAN WE HAVE TO KEEP SCORE?

  If you can’t understand that when you pretend everybody wins, nobody wins…

  Liberals hate success for a number of reasons, including that fact that they hate competition and everything that comes with competition. You see, to a liberal, there is no such thing as true competition, and there is no such thing as learning a valuable life lesson from losing. In fact, losers—those who may say that 2+2=5 or those who might score less points than the other team—must not be told that they are ‘wrong’ or that they ‘lost,’ because to do so would hurt their precious little self esteem.

  It’s the ‘everyone gets a trophy’ syndrome that is ruining our once great American little leagues. I mean, if everyone is special, then what you are really saying is that NO ONE IS SPECIAL. Think about that for just a second.

  In their obsession to stamp out failure, the liberals have actually stamped out success. Without failure,
success is meaningless. It is a vapor. It cannot happen.

  But to the bigger point. This mindset is ruining much more than little leagues. This insidious thinking has infected our entire society up to the very top levels of industry, and even our national defense.

  This is why liberals are not merely funny—though they certainly are—but when in power they are dangerous.

  For example: We can’t have a “War on Terror” anymore because that would hurt the feelings of, well, the terrorists. We can’t call a terrorist a terrorist, and we for darned sure can’t call a spade a spade anymore, in the post-racial era of Obama. OK, so what does all of this political correctness have to do with liberals hating success? Everything. It’s all part of the same mental disorder that is liberalism. The liberals who are in charge of way too much at the moment cannot stand the idea of success, much less ‘victory,’ in anything like the War on Terror because to do so would be to accept the very premise of winners, losers, right, wrong, failure and success. They can’t abide it. Their worldview does not apprehend this.

  Take the Fort Hood massacre. Instantly, the entire nation knew exactly what had happened. Everyone, that is, but Evan Thomas at Newsweek, which might explain why Newsweek was sold for a dollar to a website. Everyone knew that an Islamic terrorist went off and killed thirteen American soldiers, who by the way were unarmed on their own military base. We can thank liberals for that stupid rule too. In the aftermath, President Obama and General Casey were visiting Fort Hood with one mission. To catch the killer? Uh, no. Keep the troops motivated? Puh-leeze. Their one mission was to prove to the world that they were open minded enough to pretend not to understand what had just happened. They were showing ‘courageous restraint’—which we think is something Obama might have learned during his study of Great French War Heroes.

  It was a sickening display, watching them come up with all kinds of tortured explanations of what had happened. They came up with all kinds of theories, but they left out the obvious: That an angry Islamic jihadist had obviously just made his down payment on his seventy-two virgins. Everybody knew it.

  But Obama and Casey, like the clueless parents at one of those “don’t keep score” little league games, pretended not to know the score. They waltzed around almost congratulating themselves on their other-worldly nonjudgmental demeanor by pretending not to know the score. You’ve seen these kinds of folks at these no score league games, I’ll bet.

  And if you have any understanding of human nature, you know that every kid in both dugouts knows exactly what the score is. The kids in the dugouts are sitting there wondering just how stupid all these adults are, pretending not to keep score. And that’s who the Fort Hood soldiers were . They were the kids in the dugout. And they knew the score, and the score was Terrorists 13 Fort Hood 0. Everyone knew the score.

  See, liberals can never admit the score. To admit the score is to admit competition, which is to admit the concept of failure on the part of someone. Which, of course, is to admit to the concept of success on the part of someone else.

  We see the same mentality with the Chevy Volt. The Volt is a monument to the idea that we can’t have success or failure or keep score on anything. This vehicle really is the result of many things that liberals hate. The V-8 and oil have been incredible successes, which led to more successes with the Suburban and the Expedition and F-series pick up trucks. These, of course, led to successes in family vacations and boating and freedom and contractor fleet management in all kinds of industries.

  Well hell, we can’t have all that success going on out there. With all that success, who needs the government? (Ruh-roh, this could be the key to explaining everything liberals believe in actually). And few things have proven to be a bigger and more expensive failure than the Chevy Volt. Which is why it is so important to understand everything that liberals hate, because when liberals start to hate something, they are going to assuage their hatred with the only salve they know—more government intervention into your life.

  In other words, when liberals hate something and they are in power, you are about to lose some of your liberty and some of your property. (Come to think of it, we could make a case that liberals hate you and I.)

  The Volt has been an incredibly effective weapon for liberals in their battle against success. For one thing, the liberals have hated the success of the oil industry so much that they have almost stopped it in this country. This has led to artificially high gas prices, which in turn has created a potential phony demand for phony little cars like the Volt.

  Yet, even with the phony high gas prices leading to a phony demand for the phony little Volts, the demand for the Volts has remained tiny. Only a few hundred of these stupid little Tonka toys—no offense to Tonka intended—get sold in a month’s time. Upon further review, we often find out that many of those that are sold are sold to GE and Jeffrey Immelt, so he can have his sycophantic little GE bureaucrats drive around with what amounts to an electric pink ribbon that shouts ‘look at me, I care.’

  Now of course, Immelt and GE are so against success that their tax returns indicate NO SUCCESS so they can continue not to pay any corporate tax. They also want to contribute to this phony notion of the success of green cars for all kinds of demented liberal reasons. In fact, if there’s one real problem that comes from a hatred of success, it’s a never ending crusade to change the very definition of it.

  Which is what the liberals have done with the Volt. The liberals in power awarded the very failed United Auto Workers of GM with ownership of the very company they destroyed. Those same liberals then demanded that GM start to produce the very kinds of cars that also led to the failure, chief among them is the greenest of them all: The Volt. In the meantime, these same liberals destroyed the value of GM’s bondholders, producing artificial failure in what is normally a successful way for a company to capitalize.

  Meanwhile, the failure of GM to produce a car that people want, at a price they are willing to pay, has been hidden by some phony sales success due to tax subsidies of the Volt. Yes, you and I pay something along the lines of eight grand for every Volt sold. And we found out in late summer of 2012 that most of GM’s sales since 2011 were funded by sub-prime lending. Sub-prime lending is itself a notion founded on the perversion of keeping the right score.

  And on and on it goes with the Volt and with GM—a product and a company that you and I are paying for as a result of liberals’ hatred of true success. Meanwhile, the true successes of the Suburban and the Expedition and of pleasure power boats and of the oil industry continue to be crushed under the weight of liberals in power.

  YMBAL’S #11

  If you had a twenty-hour a week job paying you $120,000, and suddenly, when your husband becomes a senator and your employer got a huge government earmark, that job becomes a $317,000 job…33

  If you showed up as an empty seat for Joe Biden’s speech during the NAACP convention…

  If “working people” to you includes government employees and union members who work forty hours a week, yet does not include business owners who work eighty hours a week…

  If you say it’s racist to “talk about entrepreneurship and savings accounts to black people” in protest of Mitt Romney at the NAACP convention…34

  If, as a Gallup pollster, you ask questions about “Romney’s wealth of over $200 million” but it never dawned on you to ask such a question about John Kerry…

  If you insist a women can have an abortion under “the right to privacy” while on your way to video track Republican candidates in their homes for the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee…

  If you ever submitted sixteen straight years of faulty financials and then wondered why your city is “suddenly” out of money…35

  If you ever opposed fracking but accidently voted to allow it anyway and wanted a “do over?”…36

  If as a city manager you ever clamped down so hard on lawn watering and car washing that your city water department almost went broke because folks
didn’t buy enough water…37

  If as a Democrat mayor you ever counted on selling a sewer system to pull your city out of financial straits and then realized your city didn’t own that system…38

  If you thought for the past twenty years that as, a garbage collector, you would be able to retire at fifty with 90% of your salary and full health care…

  If you’ve been voting straight Democrat for decades in California and can’t figure out what in the world keeps going wrong with the state’s budget…

  If you were the government bureaucrat who mandated that drive thru ATM machines have a Braille functionality…