The world’s biggest bully
People often say that the Chinese government is a big bully. And they are correct. But when it comes to bullying, no one comes close to the US government.
Yahoo news has a recent piece on the Biden’s administration’s decision to allow a gas pipeline to be built between Russia and Germany. I have no problem with the decision; what bothers me is the reporter’s implicit assumption that countries need to get permission from the US government before engaging in any sort of major economic investment:
But in May, the Biden administration served up good news for the project when Secretary of State Antony Blinken, minutes before his first meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, announced the U.S. was waiving two key congressionally mandated sanctions on Nord Stream AG, which oversees the pipeline. The decision left critics fuming, all the more when the pipeline was completed last month.
Those were “the sanctions that could have stopped it,” former U.S. Ambassador John Herbst, now director of the Eurasia Center of the Atlantic Council, told Yahoo News. “And they lifted those sanctions. For zip.”
Since when is it for the US to decide what sort of economic arrangements are made between Russia and Germany? Or France and Iran? Or Canada and Cuba? Or Japan and China? China’s government often bullies smaller countries, but can you imagine the Chinese telling the Germans that they are not allowed to build a gas pipeline to Russia? Even the Chinese government would never go that far.
Everyone interviewed by the reporter wanted the US to stop the pipeline. These experts are presumably a part of the same foreign policy “blob” that has done such an outstanding job of directing our foreign policy since the Vietnam War.
Permitting the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to become functional “is a mistake from so many angles,” said Herbst. “I understand that Biden wants to be the anti-Trump. Trump was mean to Merkel. Biden wants to make up with Merkel. That’s a good idea in principle, but not by giving Germany something that is bad for the U.S., bad for Germany and bad for Europe. It’s a strategic mistake of the first order.”
So the US is so adept at making wise foreign policy decisions that it knows better than the German government what is “bad for Germany”? The country where a recent president told Xi Jinping that it was a good idea to put a million Muslims into concentration camps? The country where the leader of one of the two major political parties no longer even accepts the outcome of democratic elections? That’s the country you want running the world?
As an aside, the gas pipeline may or may not be a good idea, but that issue has no bearing on this post.
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8. October 2021 at 17:55
Scott,
In fairness, China doesn’t make the investments in European security that the US does. One privilege we assume by spending disproportionately within NATO is voice in European affairs.
As you point out, we certainly abuse our position at times and are rightly seen as less reliable after the Iraq fiasco, and the election of Trump, but we still represent the backbone of NATO resources, including especially logistics.
I never forget, for example, that Europe couldn’t even deal with the covil war in the former Yugoslavia without US leadership and logistics. Would the situation be much different today?
Have we provided good leadership in recent years? No, but, assuming we don’t go permanently off the rails, what choice does Europe have?
8. October 2021 at 23:30
Michael, Europe could do all that, if they had to. Relying on the US is easier as long as the Americans are willing to provide.
9. October 2021 at 01:50
One of those rare posts where I agree 100% with everything in it.
@Michael: NATO exists to safeguard US interests, it is not a charity project. Get your head out of your behind.
9. October 2021 at 06:14
Agree in general , but have to wonder that so long as US provides money and defense support to Germany and other countries that it might just have a say in something that can have a probability of increasing possibility of destabilizing and military aggression by the likes of Putin.
9. October 2021 at 06:20
Questions
1) What does the phrase “no longer even accepts” mean?
2) What is more likely to be an accurate portrayal of policy——a signed bill condemning concentrations camps, or a statement by a disgruntled ex-employee stating the signee was pro concentration camps?
3) When one country sanctions another for illegal behavior (taking over Crimea) are oil pipelines to be excluded from those sanctions? And, if oil pipelines were not prevented—did bullying happen?
9. October 2021 at 06:51
PS
“Hillary Clinton urges Biden Not to Concede under any circumstances” (August 25, many sources, 2020)
“USA Today 11/02/20. “Will your vote be counted?—Experts warn of unreliable Voting Machines”
9. October 2021 at 07:29
Nice post.
Michael… it means will not accept any election he loses, always cries about being cheated and has done more to undermine peaceful transitions of power and faith in democratic institutions than any politician in the history of the United States.
9. October 2021 at 09:40
Michael, Europe spends more than enough on defense to defend itself from any plausible threat.
Having said that, I’m a huge supporter of NATO. That’s exactly why the US is wrong on this issue. That’s the point of NATO, to keep the peace. Unfortunately, Trump cast doubt about our commitment to NATO, which makes war more likely.
sk, You said:
“might just have a say”
By all means “have a say”, but don’t insist that every other country do as you say. I have no problem with the US recommending that Germany not build the pipeline.
Michael Rulle, So you are also a vote fraud nut? Why am I not surprised.
“or a statement by a disgruntled ex-employee”
LOL, as if Trump is more trustworthy than Bolton. Are you really that clueless, or just faking it?
9. October 2021 at 10:04
Professor Sumner,
This is not nearly as invasive as demanding Australia abandon freedom of press to enjoy friendly relations with China again.
9. October 2021 at 10:37
Scott,
Yes, of course western Europe can easily afford more than adequate defense, economically. The problem is With collective security.
That’s why NATO was formed. Western Europe could afford to produce more than enough military assets to keep the Soviets out. Collective security is the problem there.
9. October 2021 at 10:40
I acknowledge western Europe needed economic help immediately after World War 2, but they didn’t need us by 1980, if not earlier.
10. October 2021 at 05:58
Since other major industrial powers such as Germany, France and Britain got weaker due to two world wars, United States emerged as the sole great power. Therefore, it created an international economic order in Bretton Woods. Although it was much more fair and reasonable by any standards, Britain’s plan (which was designed by John Maynard Keynes) was not accepted by United States. In addition to economic institutions such as World Bank and IMF, political and security institutions such as UN and NATO were designed by US’s desires.
United States subsequently saw an opportunity to be a global empire after World War II. Soviet Union was the justification for becoming an empire. So the world was divided as good ones and bad ones. The good ones were democratic, capitalist countries. The bad ones were socialist and autocratic ones. And there were also hybrid regimes. Fighting against the bad ones and changing the world towards a positive direction was the divine purpose of United States. Therefore, US ruling elite since the end of World War II increasingly have been assuming that it is the United States should decide both politically and economically the way other countries live.
Although Soviet Union collapsed at 1991, the desire and will among US ruling elite to rule the world did not disappear. Therefore, US political and security institutions (including media and military industrial complex) always find excuses and justifications to sustain this paradigm. I think this imperialist mentality turned the US from a democratic republic into an oligarchic empire. And there is no a positive indication that it is moving to a good direction. It is bullying almost every country in the world at varying degrees whether they are allies or foes.
So, as you say, “People often say that the Chinese government is a big bully. And they are correct. But when it comes to bullying, no one comes close to the US government.”
We are 100% agree.
10. October 2021 at 06:41
Sven,
The end of World War 2 was the end of the imperial age for the most part, including especially the US. The US has not been an empire since World War 2 in any meaningful sense of the word.
10. October 2021 at 07:25
I am against randomly implemented, and sometimes unconstitutional, voting procedures. I also recognize the obvious point that if Trump had won, the Dem’s media wing (“the Media”) would have had their own conspiracy theories. Which I had always said would happen regardless of who won.
Re: Bolton. You say now he is more trustworthy. Did you always trust him? Did you agree with him? Did you always think he told the truth?
Still, my question was about a probability of what one’s policy is given two contradictory “facts”. A political policy implemented, or third party reference?
10. October 2021 at 07:33
@Student
That is what most people say “does not accepts” means. I agree. Hence, Trump does not “not accept” the outcome of the election.
10. October 2021 at 07:58
Well, if you tell people long enough that you are an exceptional thing ,perhaps even on some kind of hill, then at some point enough people will believe that it is so and above all their merit. And populists and politicians can rely on this belief.
10. October 2021 at 08:14
DF, I’d say it’s more invasive. Who cares if China is “friendly” toward Australia? Australia can easily ignore China’s demands, and has done so. Germany cannot ignore our sanctions, as we could severely damage their economy. Our allies almost always give in to our demands after severe sanctions are threatened. For instance, we basically control the entire international dollar denominated banking system.
And is what China did to Australia any different to what we did to Ecuador on the breast milk issue?
Michael, Yes, I’m a huge fan of NATO.
Michael Rulle, You asked:
“Re: Bolton. You say now he is more trustworthy. Did you always trust him?”
I always trusted him to tell the truth 100 times more than I trusted Trump. How about you? Who do you think is more honest?
And Hillary didn’t incite a mob to storm the Capitol. Stop with your insane comparisons, you are making a complete fool of yourself. Next you’ll be citing QAnon.
10. October 2021 at 09:52
Sumner admits this, yet his policies lead to the same thing he opposes.
More government. More centralization. More power within the Fed, the mega corrupt agency with no accountability.
He says he supports “individualism”, yet consistently votes for the people who use “collectivism” and “globalization”, and buzzwords like “expert” and “scientific consensus”, to bring about global tyranny.
Low and behold, scientific consensus also existed when people said the sun revolved around the earth. THEY WERE ALL WRONG! EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. European Socialism, with big institutions and government coercion, has crippled the continent. Yet, you want to follow their policies?
Sumner and the radical dems wants to close the debate and silence the opposition, but then when the opposition leaves the room, he criticizes the people who are left in the room. It doesn’t make any sense, yet post after post, policy proposal after proposal, Sumner follows the same failed path.
Just last year, you blamed Russia. The one country who stood up for international law during Obama and Clinton’s reckless crusade to transform the middle east, as a “bully”. Now you finally admit that YOU are the bully.
Those people have a right to sovereignty. And your faggot globalists should keep their faggot UN one world policies away from everyone else. Stop telling people how to live their lives. Not everyone wants the fat American faggot to tell them how to live. You are a submissive group, with no competitive industry. You have been overrun by MNC’s, who control everything. We don’t want those faggots in our country.
Bill Gates is a terrorist. You keep that loser. We’ll pass.
Case in point: The Taliban has 85% support. Duterte has 81% support.
Eastern Europe doesn’t want your one world government either.
Leave us alone, and take your one world government, under the disguise of Human Rights codes and UN dogma – a new religion – with you!
We are not brainwashed. You are!
10. October 2021 at 10:32
So you despise bullies, but voted for Biden, Clinton and Obama????
You are so full of contradictions. It’s bizarre.
Trump was the one guy who wanted to end the bullying.
He wanted to end financial aid that props up corrupt regimes. He wanted to end foreign wars & the modern religious crusades in the middle east. He had no interest in using the CIA as a weapon abroad. He was anti-MNC, which means he was anti-war. MNC’s, big bank interests, and the out of control United Nations are the results of most wars.
Instead of embracing his approach, you decided to keep voting for the bullies???
Weird!
10. October 2021 at 10:43
Doesn’t the US restrict the export of oil and natural gas to Europe? It would seem fairer for the US to offer a carrot than a stick, and end restrictions on American energy producers selling to Germany, in return for not doing business with Russia (though I doubt we should even care if Germany buys gas from Russia).
Much as I hate to weigh in on the matter of John Bolton’s credibility: he has none whatsoever. I don’t know how much you know about Bolton, but he is well established to be a full-blooded, calculating Straussian. He not only knowingly lied about WMDs repeatedly to help get the Iraq War started, but he said after the fact that he would do it again. When John Bolton says a thing, all it tells you is that John Bolton thinks you believing that thing is conducive to John Bolton’s favored foreign policy (which is usually war with some country). This is one man who should not enjoy this ‘strange new respect’ he’s acquired just for jumping on the anti-Trump bandwagon (which he did because Trump wasn’t aggressive enough on foreign policy for his taste). Bolton is one man who is worse than Trump. If Bolton were president we’d probably be at war with Iran right now and millions of people might be dead who aren’t.
10. October 2021 at 11:08
Mark Z, If you are going to argue that Trump is more trustworthy than Bolton, then I’ll just stop reading your comments. Has everyone here become a QAnon zombie?
And please provide the exact quote about Bolton’s lie about WMD.
10. October 2021 at 11:14
Professor Sumner,
Sorry I may have missed something, has the US actually sanctioned Germany because of the pipeline, like China has embargoed Australian goods? Or was that just a hypothetical? You also forgot to mention how the US could hypothetically nuke Germany more effectively than China could. I am not sure what relevance it has at all, but I am extending your argument.
10. October 2021 at 11:16
The slogan “America First” encapsulates most people’s desire to stop the government from bullying. At least 75M want to stop bullying.
The other freaks, losers, communists, and retards, whatever you want to call them, want to use the United Nations as their sword.
Dictate & Subjugate should be the new UN slogan.
10. October 2021 at 11:24
DF, Don’t know if you are being sarcastic or didn’t read the post.
10. October 2021 at 14:51
Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating
havoc of one quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the
degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them—with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people?
Still one thing more, fellow-citizens —a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor
the bread it has earned. – Thomas Jefferson
Oh, how far the apple has fallen from the tree.
Radical democrats like Sumner, destroying your liberty, Europeanizing your country, and sucking the life out of your people.
Opaque institutions with unlimited power and zero accountability are the enemy of the people.
Eliminate the federal reserve, and jail Sumner and his minions. Eliminate the UN, and Jail Schwab, gates, and the rest of the global cabal.
Return power to the people.
10. October 2021 at 16:29
“ If you are going to argue that Trump is more trustworthy than Bolton, then I’ll just stop reading your comments.”
I mean, you can always trust Bolton to do the wrong thing. Trump is so erratic that on rare occasions he gets something right, like withdrawing from Afghanistan.
10. October 2021 at 18:13
Sumner has no idea what he’s talking about.
The American constitution, and the federalist papers more specifically, are the greatest theoretical design for good government ever created.
Those men, unlike the radical Sumner, were actually Genius! Not “pseudoscience genius”, but “real genius”.
Just compare the 72,000 words of nonsense in the European constitution, to the broader 7000 words of America’s forefathers.
You are promised life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And that is it!!! That is not pitiless, crass or vulgar, it is in fact the most unselfish thing imaginable. It says, in essence, that you determine your destiny.
Nowadays, the leftward radical Sumner’s want to tell you how high your hedges can be, what foods you should eat, whether you should inject something inside your body, where to build, how to build, and where to spend your money. If it’s illegal for someone to steal from your wallet, then why is it suddenly legal for crimes to become virtue when the state steals from your paycheck? Yes, some taxes for the common defense are necessary. But loser Sumner, who sucks at life, shouldn’t be getting my money after he’s old and pathetic, and can no longer teach at bottom ranked schools like Bentley. Feeding himself is “his problem”, not mine.
Not convinced! Take a look at the constitutions more closer. The US constitution starts with “we the people”. The EU constitution, at least the amended version, starts with “His majesty the king of the Belgians”.
The US constitution was ratified by the majority of states, while the European constitution failed twice. Both the French and the Dutch rejected it.
You’d think that rejection would stop it, or at least demand a need for revisions, but for the power hungry apparatchiks – and thug academics and politicians in Europe – public opinion was only a minor obstacle. After all, the stupid “common folk” were simply “in their way”.
Brussels then said it wasn’t up for ratification, and that they would simply push it through anyway.
This is the European model. A model of institutions that removes power from the people and their representatives and places it into the hands of career apparatchiks; i.e., worthless busybodies with economic degrees from places like Bentley. What could be more “bullying” then that?
If you want America to look like that, then by all means vote democrat. Vote for Nancy, Biden, Obama, and loser Bernie – a guy who didn’t have a job until he was 40.
Either way, you’ll get what you deserve.
And China? Are you serious?
The CCP is the most corrupt, disgusting, anti-liberty organization since Nazi Germany. No comparison!
11. October 2021 at 06:55
Think its always important to remember on election bullshit Hillary did it first. She still calls Trump illegitimate. Still claims Russia interfered in 2016. Trump isn’t even smart enough to invent a big lie on his own. If Hillary hadn’t done it to him he never would have known that you could invent a big lie and get 50% of the country to believe you.
11. October 2021 at 06:58
Other commentators are correct – a vote for Trummp was a vote atleast minimize the bullying. Especially in 2016. Hillary was still launching middle east wars.
Funny thing is except for the tariffs Sumner basically agrees with Trump, but he can’t like Trump because the academic class would disown him.
11. October 2021 at 07:47
“He wanted to end financial aid that props up corrupt regimes.”
Ever heard of Saudi Arabia? In theory he wanted to leave Afghanistan. In reality he didnt have the balls to do it while he was in office. Just like every other politician who plans for things that might go bad to start after they leave office.
Back on topic, since ewe are both in NATO I think the US gets to express our opinion about the pipeline. Germany gets to decide if they want to follow our advice. If Germany and/or other NATO countries keep acting against our advice we re-evalute our membership. NATO re-evalutes continuing without us.
Steve
11. October 2021 at 17:22
Europe is quickly becoming a side show on the world stage. Europeans are not really willing to spend the money to be world players and the Russian threat is exagerated. The Asian theater is the main theater and the 5 eyes (along with Japan & South Korea) vs. the Chinese are the players. Did France really think the Assies were going to buy their Subs when they can get American technology. Biden gave some words about being recommitted to NATO…but that lasted a couple of months. They way the Germans got treated with the Afgan pull out speaks volumes. Cruz just want them to build more LNG ports to import Texas gas as did Trump.
12. October 2021 at 06:48
@Scott
QAnon? You are often referencing this. I always forget what it is—-other than knowing it was named after the Star Trek character “Q”. So I looked it up yet again on Wikipedia—-where it says that QAnon is a “far right wing conspiracy theory created by an unknown individual (or individuals) that believe the world is run by a Cabal of Satan worshipping Cannibals who are also pedophiles and runs global child sex trafficking ring——with roots in anti-semitism and nazism.
Now, my “heuristic” analysis of this states that anything that combines Global Dictatorship Cabals, Satan, Cannibals, pedophilia, child sex rings, “far right”, anti-semites, and Nazis—-(but no racism?)—is a self evident parody written by a conservative (a friend of mine jokingly (is he joking?) thinks I am “Q”.
I mean—-literally a parody——something for the dumbest people on the left in particular to believe in—-as it fits with their view of the right as evil.
It reminds me of the physicist Alan Sokal’s 1996 parody on deconstructionism—-when he wrote his “transformative hermeneutics of quantum gravity”
The only people who believe that QAnon is not a parody are the left.
12. October 2021 at 10:06
https://americasfrontlinedoctors.org/2/frontlinenews/this-is-for-your-health-australia-surrenders-to-totalitarian-rule-as-police-brutalize-elderly-infirm-helpless/
Sumner and his thugs are coming for you.
Is USA next? Or will U.S. patriots, and freedom lovers everywhere, push back against the totalitarians?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/21/state-medical-boards-should-punish-doctors-who-spread-false-information-about-covid-vaccines/
Have a difference of opinion? Totalitarians don’t like that. They want homogeneity across the board. Difference of opinion is now “hate”. Thought is now a crime.
Don’t let the boards silence you. This is the first step to tyranny. To win, they must demonize all intellectuals who disagree as “anti-science”, or “conspiracy theorist”.
Russians know this.
Americans don’t. But you will soon.
12. October 2021 at 12:18
Front line doctors? You do know that is the group with the doctor who believes that “female problems” occur because women have dream sex with demons.
Differences in opinion? No, we actually love that. Dealing with doctors is like herding cats. However, when people start telling everyone they shouldn’t get vaccinated because it will magnetize you that is no t a difference in opinion that is just wrong. On the other, I will have to admit that the stuff about chips in the vaccine is actually true. Our head pharmacist finally admitted that to me. Its all about mind control. Now if I can just get it to work on my wife.
Steve
12. October 2021 at 14:29
Lizard, Yes, Trump does have better instincts on foreign policy than Bolton, I’ll give him that. But honesty? Let’s be serious.
Trump encouraged Xi to put a million Muslims into concentration camps. People need to accept that. He said “good” when told of death threats against GOP officials and their families who were trying to uphold the election process. People need to accept that. Trump is a monster.
Sean, You said:
“Think its always important to remember on election bullshit Hillary did it first.”
That’s a lie. She never demanded her supporters storm the Capitol to try to overturn the election. She conceded a day after the election. Stop living in a bubble.
12. October 2021 at 15:23
Dude, I just looked this guy up.
He’s an old rich white guy.
We need more black and brown economists, not old white racists.
I won’t read anymore of his garbage. Who is a good black economist that isn’t an uncle tom like Thomas Sowell?
Anyone?
12. October 2021 at 16:42
Cats out the bag now, consessions will be long and arduous… our democracy is now in jeopardy forever more. Sad.
12. October 2021 at 16:43
It was a good run though while it lasted.
12. October 2021 at 16:47
Seriously… right, left or center… as a nation we are much weaker now than ever going forward.
12. October 2021 at 16:48
Thanks boomers.
12. October 2021 at 16:58
Boomers wrecked the institution of marriage, ransacked the family, messed up the peaceful transition of power, ran up the national debt, and murdered more of their children for monetary gain than any generation before or since. Softest generation in history. Me me me.
13. October 2021 at 12:38
Hillary launched RussiaGate which did more to damage our Democracy than one riot (of Which democrats have a few hundred riots in the last year). Taking State Capacity to delegitimize an elected regime is worse than one riot. Especially when those charges were completely fictitious. It costs Trump his Secretary of Defense Michael Flynn by blasting enough accusations to stop his nomination.
13. October 2021 at 13:46
“ Trump is a monster.”
So is Bolton, so what does it matter which one is more honest? I don’t want either of them to have any power within the government.
13. October 2021 at 13:47
Rallie—-you are an idiot and a racist–go away—or stick around–so we can mock you more
13. October 2021 at 13:52
Scott blows my mind—he is an intelligent human—thoughtful and creative—but when it co0mes to Trump—-he becomes Edward Hyde
13. October 2021 at 14:00
Lizard, You said:
“I don’t want either of them to have any power within the government.”
I agree. And someone else brought up the honesty question, not me.
Michael, Who is Edward Hyde?
13. October 2021 at 15:23
Sumner quotes “bolton’s book”.
Bolton is a neoconservative thug who, like Sumner, ran from Vietnam.
Running from the Vietnam draft is fine; it was an ideological war that the neoconservative globalists waged in an effort to silence the majority of Vietnam. Nevertheless, quoting a neoconservative thug, one who became an international war hawk, is not smart.
You weren’t in the room when Donald Trump supposedly said that Muslims should be placed in concentration camps.
In addition to that, everyone else in the room – other than the neoconservative globalist war thug – said it never happened!
So you have a she said, he said, scenario which is clearly not “evidence”.
Please do look up the word “evidence” in the oxford dictionary, and study it closely. You might learn something! You may also want to take a course in law!
The more likely scenario is that Bolton wanted to “sell a book”, and he needed some “juice” to do it.
Leave the bubble. Stop with the quackery. Read a few thousand books, and then you will finally have the capacity to analyze critically, instead of spouting arrogant nonsense from your poor man’s desk.
Critical thinking requires listening to both sides. If you have twenty people deny something occurred, and one person said it did occur, who do you believe? Do you have the logic to figure this out?
Let me help you.
You wouldn’t believe any of them!
You would ask both sides for this wonderful thing called “evidence”.
I’d say it’s a good thing you are not a judge. Your logic is awful.
13. October 2021 at 16:32
In my view, Trump is a classical liberal. I think the founders would love him.
He brought a lot of optimism to NYC during a dark age when it was nearly broke; he really dared to dream big – much bigger than his father ever thought was possible. Indeed, his father would often quip that they were just “queens men”, not capable of succeeding in posh Manhattan. Manhattans were considered a much different breed of animal, a thoroughbred if you will.
The old money in Manhattan hated him. It was obvious from the start. But with persistence, and a bit of rugged idealism and naivety, Trump succeeded.
In so many ways he embodies old classical liberalism. One that called for smaller government – not isolationist, but certainly willing to be a beacon on a hill – and one that valued individualism, liberty, and decentralization of the state.
Today, the reverse is true. And most problems in the U.S. can be attributed to this process of centralization and homogenization.
Perhaps one good example of this is the FDA’s new proposal to spend hundreds of millions of dollars forcing companies to lower there “sodium”.
Whatever happened to personal responsibility? If one wants a sodium filled hamburger, then why such resistance? It might sound “virtuous”, but it’s actually opening one more door towards centralization of power. We took this seemingly innocuous step in Europe and it led to more and more regulation, where now a small group of unelected people want to regulate the amount of beef one can eat.
What happened to standing up for the glorious ideals of your founders?
I find it strange that a libertarian economist would reject the values of DJT when he is the politician most closely aligned with American values. I think America’s problem, at least from what I’ve observed, is that it’s conservative/libertarian intellectuals are not very intellectual. You have what Carter called a “Crisis of Conscience”. You’ve totally and completely forgotten who you are. And to make matters worse, you don’t have a Roger Scruton, a Peterson, or a Murray. You have an aging Thomas Sowell, who is without question America’s greatest living philosopher, but you have not been able to produce anyone of significance.
As a result of this intellectual void, your classical libertarians have turned into neo-libertarians that vote for bigger and bigger govt. You are not even a Noam Chomsky anarcho syndicalist which, at the very least, upholds individualism and limited govt.
I think America is in a very dark place, because it no longer represents the ideals that made it great. It’s descending toward a supranational, European model. One that I can guarantee you will regret.
13. October 2021 at 17:55
xsu, I have to give you credit, that’s one of the funniest comments I’ve seen in 12 years of blogging. This might be my favorite part:
“But with persistence, and a bit of rugged idealism and naivety, Trump succeeded.”
In case you haven’t been paying attention, Trump is trying to abolish democracy in America and make himself dictator. He is literally trying to overturn the 2020 election.
13. October 2021 at 21:19
@rallie
I just want to take a moment to admire your comment. You wandered on to the site, came to the conclusion that we all needed to be warned that Scott is an old white guy and then slandered Thomas Sowell as an uncle Tom. I am just so grateful you took the time between drinks to do that.
14. October 2021 at 07:26
Daily reminder that Sumner’s radical left party is trying to destroy your liberty.
They now believe “two parent households” are “racist” (as seen in Federalist)
Biden FDA further seeking restrictions on what you are permitted to eat.
Medical experts that don’t align with Schwab and the “build back better” campaign are being threatened by medical boards.
Biden calls parents engaging in local democratic processes “domestic terrorists”. Just like in Russia, one cannot ask questions to these almighty gods of state. The Biden/Sumner politburo’s are coming for you….
Don’t let them destroy the American dream.
Fight for your liberty.
14. October 2021 at 07:34
@Scott
Robert Louis Stevenson——“The Strange Case of Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde”
“Edward Hyde” was the “alternative “evil” personality” of Henry/Harry Jekyl
No I am not calling you evil—just using it as (“humorous”?) analogy
16. October 2021 at 02:14
“Don’t let them destroy the American dream.”
‘This’ ‘dream’
“Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens
Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page
Each of four theoretical traditions in the study of American politics—which can be characterized as theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic-Elite Domination, and two types of interest-group pluralism, Majoritarian Pluralism and Biased Pluralism—offers different predictions about which sets of actors have how much influence over public policy: average citizens; economic elites; and organized interest groups, mass-based or business-oriented. A great deal of empirical research speaks to the policy influence of one or another set of actors, but until recently it has not been possible to test these contrasting theoretical predictions against each other within a single statistical model. We report on an effort to do so, using a unique data set that includes measures of the key variables for 1,779 policy issues. Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism. “
https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf
Time to ‘wake up’?
20. October 2021 at 14:42
Sumner shows absolutely no support for my people in India, who for the last two years have had to send our boys to protect our northern lands from Chinese aggression.
America is NOT a bully. And radical lefts will not change that. America has foreign interests, just like every other country. But they don’t build bases on other countries islands, and fish within their national territory. They don’t send the military to the Mexican border, cross over, kill a few people, then blame it on someone else.
Intelligence operations are what they are. Every powerful country has an intel force that tries to influence elections, and gain an advantage. Often times they fight each other. But that is part of the ethical game. What is not ethical is invasion, threatening rhetoric, ignoring trade rules, etc, etc.
And no communist Sumner, Guam doesn’t count as “stolen”. Guam was part of Spain, and it became part of the U.S. after the U.S. beat Spain in a war. It’s called “compensation”, and both sides agreed as part of the peace treaty.
Stop defending Hitler 2.0.
You are wrong. like usual.