Capitol Ideas: Politics as Sideshow
Bethell, Tom
[ ' l f : B | _9 l o l l - - _9 ' ! ;W_~I,_ by Torn Bethell Politics as Sideshow Markets and interests impose their own gridlock. S omehow it's hard to get excited. I watched the conventions,...
...The good news is that, like the Chinese Commulrists, the Democrats can no longer ignore market forces...
...The general level of economic understanding has improved...
...U nfortunately, there's another side to this coin...
...Diana Krall Jimmie 1185 Diana Krall Frim Fram Sauce 1186 Billie Holiday Them There Eyes 1187 Ella Fitzgerald TryA Little Tenderness...
...Their instinct is to apologize, shuffle their feet, promise not to do it again, and ask for a few subsidies of their own...
...Why more voters--blacks, for example, or heavily taxed working women who think Gore is "on their side," or net taxpayers in general--don't rebel and take the side of the productive against the parasites, is one of life's persistent questions...
...Government spending was said by Keynesians to "stimulate" the "private sector," by propping up demand...
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...To an unusual degree, he seems dependent on his aides for policy direction...
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...Here, it could ahnost be said that too much money is being spent...
...In case you forgot, she is the madas-hell, sick-and-tired, not-going-to-take-itanymore grandmother of two from Gardena, California...
...Constitutional government is a thing of the past...
...They, not the government, should be allowed to spend their own money...
...A shipping and handling fee on each CD and applicable state and lOCal taxes if any will be added...
...Socialist ambition must now be tempered by political realism...
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...A1 Gore could be said to represent a coalition of the aggrieved and the unproductive...
...Gore-pal David Halberstam looked chagrined, and that wrapped things up for the Gore intro...
...The Democrats, as the Wall Street Journal said, are the part?, of the state...
...Never heard of...
...Now we know that there is simply a real economy (no mere "sector"), mediated by voluntary transactions...
...Their key elements, government teachers and bureaucrats, union bosses, the Black Caucus, use government power to protect their rank and file from market forces...
...I did make a point to watch A1 Gore's acceptance speech...
...The neoconservatives who cluster around him, and around Dick Cheney, seem poised for their Finest Hour...
...They instinctively, self-interestedly, oppose any reduction in government...
...If Bush wins, they will become more vociferous in this respect...
...Especially not fundraising scandals...
...With Gore, on the other hand, they will soft-pedal the advocacy of politically disadvantageous reforms--global warming remedies, for example...
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...Politics is the mechanism for preserving their benefits, perquisites, and privileges, at the expense of the productive...
...Raise taxes and government spending too much, and markets shrivel up...
...Barbara Mikulski, in pants suit, gripping a microphone...
...Why do so many people, liberal and conservative, increasingly think of politics as a sideshow...
...In his new book about the GOP, It's My Party, Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institution emphasizes that most people avoid thinking of politics either in terms of ideology or of interest...
...The people know nothing, but the wording tips them offand they check the "disapprove" box...
...The key reason is that more and more young people see that the productive economy is the place where interesting things happen...
...That's the world we live in, and at the moment there doesn't seem to be much that can be done about it...
...At any given time, political scientists estimate, only about zo percent of voters belong to a party other than the one in which they grew up," Robinson writes...
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...Ralph Nader's Green Party, unless I am mistaken, is a form of left-wing revolt against this nod in the direction of the real world...
...He certainly would not be able to implement the draconian energy regulations required by the Kyoto global warming treaty', and he probably wouldn't try...
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...Reeducation camp is replacing boot camp...
...The tedium returned as A1 glad-handed his way to the podium...
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...Britain's Labour Party has in the same period had to learn the same lesson...
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...It's more a matter of tribal loyalty...
...When I last checked, they were all still voting Democratic, an allegiance formed in the Depression, and unaffected by the Democrats' pro-abortion litmus test...
...Whoo...
...Unreassuringly, the campaign is shaping up as one more compassion contest between those who would be generous (with other people's money) and those who would be even more generous...
...The problem with the military, however, is that it is becoming a social engineering project...
...Republicans have in recent months adopted the right strategy of passing tax cuts and inviting a veto...
...As for the prematurely sainted Joseph Lieberman, he has already shown that he is Rep...
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...It must at all times bear the burden of the state sector, mediated by coercion...
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...It's a gift that only partly comes through on television...
...As long as intellectuals (from whom the media mostly take their cue) continue to pit the unproductive against the productive, and portray the political task as one of restitution for life's alleged victims, not much in politics will change...
...But if the pollster calls they'll check the right box-"concerned about the special interests...
...If Republicans can't prevail at a time of budget surpluses, we must hand it to Rather, Jennings, and Brokaw: They truly are the unacknowledged legislators of our day...
...I watched the conventions, or parts of them, but my heart wasn't in it...
...Duke Ellington Take The 'A' Train 1308 Benny Goodman Jersey Bounce 1309 Count Basle One O'Clock Jump 1311 Buddy Rich I CeverThe Waterfront 1312 Ham/James I've Heard That Song Before 1313 Stan Keuton It'sAIrightWith Me 1314 Glenn Miller In The Mood 1315 Artie Shaw What Is This Thing Called Love 1316 NIGHT SLOW AND EASY Dexter Gordon Don't Explain 1198 Chef Baker Stella By Starlight 1196 Carmen McRae The Man ] Love 1379 Johnny Hnrtman Summertime 1378 Milt Jackson I Should Care 1200 Earl Klugh Catherine 1380 Dave Koz Cara's Theme 1381 Everette Harp Norwegian Lilies 1203 Janis Siegel (Love Is) The Tender Trap 1204 SUMMER SAXOPHONE Charlie Parker Now's The l~me* 1232 John Coltrane Like Someone In Love 1233 George Howard Family Affair 1234 Sonny Rollins Sonnymoon For Two* 1235 Najee Najee'sTheme 1236 Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley Country Preacher 1238 Stan Getz Don't Worry About Me 1239 Joe Levano I've Got You Under My Skin 1240 David Sanborn & George Duke Wives And Lovers* 1241 Dave Liebman Group New Vista 1242 * live recording www.MUSICMAKER.COM/freecds FREE CD#I 1 . . . . . . : , 2...
...At the' same time, Bush is a natural politician in a way that his father never was...
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...If only people would vote their interest, politics would be a more rational exercise and our pocketbooks more secure...
...His latest book is The Noblest But they wouldn't tell the pollster...
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...With half the country now stockholders, that is not the road to reelection...
...When the pollster calls, of course, people play the good citizen...
...There is now widespread political support for a cut in the estate tax, or its outright abolition...
...In a bid for what was called "authenticity," film was replaced by a tableau of Gore-pals in the flesh, artfully posed around fake steps: Holl3~,ood's idea of Athenian philosophers grappling with life's persistent questions...
...The bad news is that the Democrats have for some time been taken over by the liberal-left, whose degree of party control was shown by Lieberman's prompt repudiation of his old positions and his Maxine-fealty...
...Buddhist-temple fundraising...
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...res#ondent...
...Not enough money is being spent, he says...
...Gore, we read, seeks to distance himself from Clinton, proving he is his own man...
...I get nervous watching George W., so I'll skip the debates...
...On prescription-drug benefits, for example, the GOP position is that it would like to expand the welfare state-slowly...
...beef...
...Some young men still don't think that women and open gays in the barracks are a good idea...
...The issue would be best framed in terms of the power of the teachers unions, who stifle all reform, put their own interest ahead of the children's, and of course dominate the Democratic Party...
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...Dimly, but unmistakably, the Democrats became aware of their parasite status, at least in the realm of the economy...
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...So they are being reeducated...
...Someone said something that set her off, and without warning she yelled: "That's our AI...
...So, perhaps this isn't a sideshow after all...
...Then there's the professoriate, which extracts large subsidies from the state, and is about as insulated from the real world as it's possible to be...
...But for that he must meet them in the flesh...
...And the news media will continue to depict the world from their perspective...
...Mo4 people simply believe what they are told, of course, and I know I will sound like a broken record when I say that the organs of publicity, otherwise known as the news media, are the relentless advocates of the unproductive...
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...We hope...
...It remains for Bush to capitalize on that...
...They will retain their power...
...They would also understand that you can't just pump in new money without causing inflation and higher interest rates...
...He has Triumph (St...
...Trial lawyers are an important new element...
...I know of a Catholic family, now elderly, who not only go to church but hunt for Latin masses...
...That is because the current beneficiaries of redistributive politics, listed above, are not going away...
...Voters know nothing about it...
...Some political issues, one hopes, the people can still understand...
...It isn't the Peace Corps (in fact, the philosophy of those who joined the Peace Corps--good intentions are good enough--only made things worse for the Third World...
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...Add in many retirees, who receive more from the common pool of the budget than they put in...
...Same with campaign finance reform-the most mysterious subject in politics...
...His approach has been that of the Democrat...
...And if Bill Clinton's name were on the TOM BETHELL is TAS's Washington cor- ballot, I think they'd pull that lever, too...
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...More to the point, it is now accepted almost without discussion that a new and unheard of company just might create something that will change the world, or at least simpli~' life for everyone...
...If insulted, they don't just say sorry, like Republicans...
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...They are now siphoning offso ranch money, even before 18 O c t o b e r 2 o o o ' The American Spectator THE ART OF THE BALLAD "~ Billie Holiday Lover Man 1377 Grant Green Idle Moments 1257 Lee Morgan Ceora 1259 Benny Green Summer Nights 1295 Ranee Lee Summer Knows 1296 Art Farmer Like Someone In Love 1261 Eric Dolphy Something Sweet Something Tender 1262 Lee Konit7JCharlie Haden/ Brad Mehldau Body and Soul 1263 Nancy Wilson Lush Life 1294 TOP BRASS Lee Morgan The Rumproller 1267 Donald Byrd Fuego 1268 Kenny Durham El Matador 1269 Freddie Hubbard Hubtones 1270 Miles DavisWoody'n You 1271 Miles Davis Donna 1272 Clifford Brown Cookin' 1273 Dizzy Gillespie Oop Bop Sh'Bam 1396 Art Farmer Mox Nix 1275 Chet Baker Imagination 1290 Art Farmer Blue Bossa* 1291 Oraette Coleman Morning Song* 1292 SMOOTH GROOVES Pieces of a Dream Mr...
...George W. Bush is somewhat boring...
...These lessons have all been learned quite recently, perhaps in the last 1~ years...
...Millions must have felt the same way...
...This is bad for morale and bad for discipline...
...Bush has raised the issue of national defense, but ineffectively...
...Disapprove...
...their phone number, after alt...
...You feel he could slip on an icy patch at any moment...
...A1 Gore is definitely boring...
...He may not wear well as his own man...
...Before he appeared there was a moment of high absurdity that aroused my interest...
...It's a good thing that Bill Clinton is leaving, because--I hate to say it--whatever else he may be, he isn't boring...
...Leadership, effectiveness, and a framework for the future...
...The motive isn't just money, either, although it is a factor, as any well-educated college graduate must realize...
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...Approve...
...Even AI Gore's advisers know that tax increases and massive new economic regulations would harm, not help, the economy...
...That is a battle that Republicans probably cannot win...
...The last thing we need now is interesting politicians...
...He has the mysterious gift, shared by all successful pols, of making people he meets for the first time feel that he already knows them...
...Finally, tax cuts...
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...Would Bush dare to say that...
...They were forced to acknowledge that there are these unforgiving things called markets...
...Maxine Waters's man...
...As a matter of practical politics, neither candidate is likely to be able to change very much-beyond the (admittedly important) composition of the Supreme Court...
...I don't think so...
...But as the New York Times's Frank Rich said, it's not Clinton the people are tired of, it's A1 Gore...
...His grasp of the issues seems very insecure...
...Here's another reason for the ennui...
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...Martin's Press...
...The latter, daffy denounced for their greed and selfishness, have little in the way of intellectual fire power on their side...
...Bush might surprise liberals by his criticisms of government schooling...
...If that is lost, then America is headed for a future indistinguishable from that of Western Europe, where governments don't represent, but rule the sheeple...
...And thank goodness for that...
...But a big political change did appear for the first time in the Clinton years...
...Earlier-perhaps until Soviet Communisnl collapsed--the left denied there was any conflict between their ambitions and the general prosperity...
...The Republicans wou]d not be able to change much, either...
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...There sat the comely figure of Sen...
...I don't think people care much about the moral shortcomings of the Clinton administration...
...He may have been more effective with this issue, but again he has promised to spend more...
...Therefore a President Gore, horrible though it is to contemplate that prospect, would not be able to do much...
...Years ago, someone truly said that democracy is government by publicity...
...Markets rule...
...They sulk...
Vol. 33 • October 2000 • No. 8
