It’s too late Mitt
Here’s the latest
The Republican National Committee is following in the footsteps of President Donald Trump and supporting Alabama senatorial candidate Roy Moore, according to an RNC official.
Gee, I wonder why they changed their minds?
And here’s Mitt Romney:
Roy Moore in the US Senate would be a stain on the GOP and on the nation. Leigh Corfman and other victims are courageous heroes. No vote, no majority is worth losing our honor, our integrity.
It’s too late Mitt.
Meanwhile the President’s press secretary is asked whether Trump thinks Muslims should be banned from Congress, and is unable to answer the question. She doesn’t know the answer. Let that sink in. Too bad they didn’t ask her whether Trump thinks gays should be put in prison; I’d guess she doesn’t know the answer to that question either.
PS. Steve Bannon opposes immigration from Asia because he believes it might change our culture, by which he means white culture, not American culture. (Blacks and Hispanics don’t count to white nationalists). Even before the election we can be pretty sure that a large majority of white Alabamans are going to vote for Bannon’s preferred Senate candidate, a guy who has said that Muslims should not be allowed to serve in Congress and gays should be put in prison. I know quite a few Asian immigrants, indeed each Saturday morning I hang out with about 40 of them. And I can confirm that they do not share the culture of whites living in Alabama. Unlike Bannon, I see that as a good thing. I am happy that Asians keep pouring into the country. I look forward to our culture changing. And there’s nothing Bannon can do to stop it.
PPS. The deficit is about to get much bigger:
The deficit will hit $1.05 trillion in 2019 and $1.1 trillion in 2020, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, if Congress passes the tax cut legislation it’s currently negotiating, along with disaster relief and other measures meant to avert arbitrary limits on spending established several years ago. The tax cuts alone would add about $150 billion to the deficit each year, on average, with other likely changes pushing that up by another $25 billion per year, or so. Deficits will only get larger, unless there are major cutbacks in spending or new taxes in the future.
I can’t wait to see the GOP bring about “major cutbacks in spending”. The deficit was $585 billion in Obama’s last year in office. Recall how the GOP insisted that Obama’s deficits would bring down our economy? Now the deficit is about to explode during a period of economic expansion, when deficits usually fall. Hey, what could go wrong?
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6. December 2017 at 12:18
It’s a curious sentiment. In my experience, bourgeois American white culture is more similar to East Asian culture than to urban black, Hispanic, or rural white culture.
Many ‘alt right’ (or erroneously labelled ‘alt right’) writers have correctly noted that some cultures are simply superior to others. Appalachian and urban black culture frankly aren’t very good, and could use a lot of improvement. Singaporean culture is much better (well, save for the caning). Incidentally, some people from inferior cultures are acutely aware of their cultures’ problems: Kevin Williamson writes a lot on the flaws of Appalachian culture; Malay Singaporeans supposedly like to boast when their kids have a lot of Chinese friends because it suggests that their in with the right crows.
It might help to have more Chinese and Indians in Appalachia and Detroit.
6. December 2017 at 12:31
Scott, how big will your nervous breakdown be, if in two years, Trumpists end chain migration and H1b visas are done away with? Do you think it will be bigger or smaller than the one you had after the election?
6. December 2017 at 13:01
“I am happy that Asians keep pouring into the country. I look forward to our culture changing. And there’s nothing Bannon can do to stop it.”
Bannon favors ethnically white people/cultures over others. Sumner favors the opposite. He favors ethnically Asian and possibly hispanic/black people/culture over whites. I don’t see the latter as having moral superiority to the former.
If it’s immoral for white/Christian identity groups in the US or Europe to want to conserve or even grow their tribal identities and cultures is it similarly immoral for various Asian identity groups to do the same thing? The dominant political voices of today seem to be grossly hypocritical along these lines, and particularly successful at excommunicating those who question this.
6. December 2017 at 13:40
“I look forward to our culture changing. And there’s nothing Bannon can do to stop it.”
-The race-mixer cries out in pain as he strikes you.
Remember, the candidate who got the most votes among Asians was Crazy Bernie.
Moore for Senate.
I see Islam as at least as great a disqualifier for office as Mormonism. Sure; allow them to serve if they win; but don’t vote for them.
6. December 2017 at 15:03
Asian immigration doesn’t bother me. Australia had its debate over this some decades ago and there does not seem to be any pressure to reverse the decision that it was fine.
My position on immigration remains what has always been — what a majority of the citizens are comfortable with is fine. I have views on how immigration should be managed, but that is the bottom line. What I am very much against is trying to make concerns “unsayable” — i.e. interfering with the democratic bargaining process at its root.
6. December 2017 at 15:15
@Mark,
You reference ethnic stereotypes of Chinese and Malay residents of Singapore. You criticize white Appalachian culture and black urban culture. These kind of broad ethnic group rankings and criticisms are controversial and impossible to discuss honestly. Kevin Williamson was comfortable criticizing ethnic whites. Sumner is doing the same. They could not and would not criticize other ethnic groups in the same way.
6. December 2017 at 15:17
I think it’s likely that a lot of “Bannons”, Asians, Hispanics, and Black might join forces in the future. They are often very conservative at heart. And the color of their skin won’t matter forever.
6. December 2017 at 17:48
Mark, I don’t think anything is gained in ranking cultures.
Baldwin, Where to start?
1. I lose every election, I’m a libertarian. There are few things in the world that I lose less sleep over than elections. Before the election I said I was more interested in who was elected President of the Philippines than America. Get a life.
2. Commenters like Harding may be fascist scum, but at least they have figured out after a year in office that Trump’s promises meant nothing. If a president doesn’t act on a promise in the first yer, you can pretty much write it off.
3. Trump doesn’t have the power to stop immigration, it’s Congress that set policy on family reunification. I predicted that immigration would stay at 1,000,000/year under Trump, and I’ve been right. You better just accept that your dream of keeping out Asians is going to fail.
I don’t recall you commenting here before. Next time try to come prepared, and don’t make a complete fool of yourself.
Massimo, You said:
“Bannon favors ethnically white people/cultures over others. Sumner favors the opposite.”
You really are an idiot. I was mocking Bannon—I have nothing against white people.
Lorenzo, Finally, a voice of reason.
6. December 2017 at 18:27
Are large projected budget deficits making you rethink your prediction that interest rates will remain low?
6. December 2017 at 18:51
I wish arguments about which culture is superior…would not happen.
Import Asian culture to the US to improve it?
You mean the caste system in India? That is better than America?
President Xi Jinping says that Han Chinese culture translates into party control of large enterprises in mainland China, and no civil, speech nor legal rights. Xi Jinping certainly knows more about Han culture than I do—is he right?
Islam Asia and the treatment of women and gays—The US wants to import that?
You see how silly arguments are that some cultures are superior to others.
6. December 2017 at 19:21
“Mark, I don’t think anything is gained in ranking cultures.”
Then why did you do it?
Right here:
“And I can confirm that they do not share the culture of whites living in Alabama. Unlike Bannon, I see that as a good thing. I am happy that Asians keep pouring into the country. I look forward to our culture changing.”
I don’t see how you think that’s not what you’re doing. It makes me wonder if, for once, Massimo is right, and that you’re fine with asserting one culture is superior to another, as long as the one designated as inferior (whites in Alabama) is white. Incidentally, I think you’re right about Asian vs. white Alabama culture. But there’s no logical reason why the same think can’t or shouldn’t be said about white northern suburban culture vs. black inner-city Detroit culture. Do you really believe in this double standard?
Also, is there anything to be gained from ranking economies? Individuals? Some cultures are better at some things than other cultures. Just like individuals. Just like some families are more or less abusive than others or produce more or less productive or happy individuals. Perhaps you would object to the ranking of families if someone were to criticize a family for the practice of neglecting or abusing its children by pretending that such a family is not inferior to one that doesn’t do those things. Perhaps you even imagine that you’d be helping the children in the abusive family by tacitly defending the notion that all families are equal, thereby abetting the continuation of their harmful and defective child-rearing practices.
6. December 2017 at 19:27
Benjamen,
That’s a poor argument. Who’s smarter, John von Neumann or me? Sure Neumann did all kinds of physics and math and economics stuff, but I’m better at Sudoku puzzles, so it kind of all evens out, right? No. It doesn’t. Sure, all cultures have defects, but that does not mean all defects are equal. The violent anti-Semitism of continental European culture was a worse defect that the tendency toward poor oral hygiene in English culture.
6. December 2017 at 20:08
I, not the people benefiting from these deficits, will have to pay for them over my next (hopefully) 70 years. The young should turn out to vote more often.
Sad!
6. December 2017 at 20:27
The young don’t exactly vote for lower deficits.
7. December 2017 at 08:04
Cameron, No, but it makes me think they’ll be slightly less low.
Mark, It’s called “sarcasm”
7. December 2017 at 08:54
Federal deficits:
FY2015: $438bn
FY2016: $585bn
FY2017: $666bn
No significant legislation, wars winding down?, 4.5 million more people working, wages up, but in the past two years, we’ve seen the deficit increase by $228bn.
But a tax law that increases the deficit $100bn and suddenly everybody’s all fiscal conservative. Nobody really cares how we are casually screwing our children.
7. December 2017 at 09:09
Re FY2017: $666bn
Normally I steer clear of such observations but it really seems like evangelicals would have wanted to steer clear of that number, given their recent “wins”.
7. December 2017 at 15:19
@Mark, some cultures/ethnic demographics are better on different measures than others. It’s mean to call someone fat or ugly, even when it’s accurate. This isn’t denial of facts or reality, it’s courtesy; celebrate other people’s successes and either ignore or sympathize with their failures. The same goes for ethnic/cultural group averages.
Mark proposed immigration and cultural/demographic replacement as a kind of cultural optimization strategy. Sumner proposed this but then backtracked and said he was merely mocking Steve Bannon.
I would support some objective global cultural optimization process. What I see is global anti-white ideology.
7. December 2017 at 19:49
Harding did you just use “race-mixer” as an insult?
That is some gross, racist bullshit my dude.
7. December 2017 at 23:29
I don’t think that meets the definition of sarcasm, but whatever.
9. December 2017 at 18:29
Brian, It will increase the deficit by far more than $100 billion.
Mark, It’s the alt-right nuts who are obsessed with culture–I’m just pointing to the implication of that obsession. (Personally, I couldn’t care less.) Maybe we should root for the white race dying out and being replaced by Asians? After all, the crime rate is lower among Asian immigrants and the SAT scores are higher.
Is the sarcasm clear yet?
9. December 2017 at 22:21
“I lose every election, I’m a libertarian. There are few things in the world that I lose less sleep over than elections.”
Both of these are obvious lies (unless by “libertarian” he means some skeevy Republican governor).
I’m not a fascist, much like Sumner is not a libertarian. My favorite representatives are Massie and Amash; my favorite Senator is Paul. My favorite journalists are Tracey and Greenwald. I support Corbyn for 2020.
“but at least they have figured out after a year in office that Trump’s promises meant nothing”
Yes and no. The promises about Wall Street, presidential demeanor, and Russia were inaccurate; the promises about the courts, the EPA, and ISIS were highly accurate. The promises about immigration have had a mixed record. Trump’s not my biggest cup of tea, and I do not approve of his performance as President. But to deny that he has done far more for the right than George W. Bush has is to engage in a great distortion of history.
9. December 2017 at 22:32
“Maybe we should root for the white race dying out and being replaced by Asians? After all, the crime rate is lower among Asian immigrants and the SAT scores are higher.”
East Asians have their own problems; they are best not emulated. Rather, they tend to emulate the West far, far more than the reverse. They emulate too much; they innovate too little. I’d take Japan to, say, West Virginia or Ukraine (or even Sweden/Spain), but these aren’t great examples of “the white race”.
Asian wives are a very strong sign of inability to get good White ones. I understand the impulse, but I also understand laziness, obliviousness, and insecurity are bad.
9. December 2017 at 23:10
Can’t we say that the Fed will offset the bigger deficit, increasing our borrowing costs substantially and crowding out other spending?
Western culture is fading fast. For all its (racial and other) flaws, it would surprise me if we didn’t wish we still had it once it’s gone. Asian cultures have many admirable traits that the west could benefit from, such as [your list here, but I’d mention thrift and respect for education]. Still, the continuing flow of immigrants from Asia indicates that on balance, West is best.
11. December 2017 at 21:22
That’s peculiar. If the Asian culture is so superior, why are they all coming to a country with an inferior one. Shouldn’t they enjoy their superior culture back home?
12. December 2017 at 18:23
Krzys, Talk about missing the point! I was being sarcastic. Do I need to use green font?
15. December 2017 at 14:57
@ssumner
yes; you should use it in all your trump posts