Has America Become An Aristocracy
The following is an excerpt from a speech by Frank Buckley, a Foundation Professor at Scalia Law School at George Mason University. I have excerpted a section of the speech given at Hillsdale College on July 11, 2016. It can be found on line at http://Hillsdale.edu.
"In a corrupt country, trust is a rare commodity. That's America today. Only 19 percent of Americans say they trust the government most of the time, down from 73 percent in 1958 according to the Pew Research Center. Sadly, that is a rational response to the way things are. America is a different country today, and a much nastier one. For politically engaged Republicans, the figure is six percent. That in a nutshell explains the Trump phenomenon and the disintegration of the Republican establishment. If the people don't trust the government, tinkering with entitlement reform is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
American legal institutions are consistently more liberal than those in Canada, and they are biased towards a privileged class of insiders who are better educated and wealthier than the average American. That's why America has become an aristocracy."
Is Mr. Buckley right? I think he is.
"In a corrupt country, trust is a rare commodity. That's America today. Only 19 percent of Americans say they trust the government most of the time, down from 73 percent in 1958 according to the Pew Research Center. Sadly, that is a rational response to the way things are. America is a different country today, and a much nastier one. For politically engaged Republicans, the figure is six percent. That in a nutshell explains the Trump phenomenon and the disintegration of the Republican establishment. If the people don't trust the government, tinkering with entitlement reform is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
American legal institutions are consistently more liberal than those in Canada, and they are biased towards a privileged class of insiders who are better educated and wealthier than the average American. That's why America has become an aristocracy."
Is Mr. Buckley right? I think he is.
Not to nitpick but as Olduglycarl and Herb knows kakistocracy is from the Greek kakistos --worst or most unprincipled leaders. Also from Kaki .....
Regards,
DOB
When I read Bernie Sanders' article in the NYT basically saying he agreed with Trump's ideas but not the mean-spiritedness, I started wondering if the political landscape will eventually shift into an activist gov't party vs. a libertarian party. In this scenario, small-gov't Republicans go libertarian. Trump Republicans and handout-supporting Democrats go to one party, strange bedfellows who agree only that someone else is responsible for their lives' problems and gov't force is part of the answer. Democrats like me who are Democrats mostly because we want nothing to do with the bigot arm of the Republicans change to libertarians. At that point we have a party in favor of the gov't doing more and a party in favor of it doing less. The thing that concerns me in this scenario is the people who want an intrusive gov't might be the solid majority.
Same as it ever was.
Most stated with a true desire to serve the public. It soon morphed into a pattern of self-service and aggrandizement.
The Washington political calss (Republican and Democrat) have more in common with each other than they do with the voting masses. Take the reaction to Mr. Trump. He received more votes in the primary season than anyone before him. The establishment is still trying to stop him from becoming President. The establishment had a favorite set of candidates and will stop at nothing to get one of them elected.
Trump and Bernie represent uncontrolled persons and needed to be stopped. The democrats succeeded in stopping Bernie, the Republicans failed to stop Trump. The Republican establishment is not seeking to stop him from being elected with their non-support support.. They would like nothing better than to see Mr. Trump beaten by 10 to 20 points in the election.
This would allow them to return to the business as usual in Washington with the "I told you so" smugness of the entitled.
Rand was a prophet, and I'd bet she'd hate it.
Everything in the "Anti-Dog-Eat-Dog Law" was already US law by the time she published AS. The "State Science Institute" stuff (EPA, mainly) is more recent here, but the Soviets already had Lysenko and had sent Kondratieff to Siberia.
There is a big overlap between Republicans and Democrats. The Republicans overlap into the right side of the Democrats and the Democrats overlap onto the left side of the Republicans. This creates the largest party of all, you might call them the "Republicrats." On the far side of each party are the Socialists on the left, and the Conservatives on the right. With just a small squeeze, it turns into the corrupt one party system.
For it came to pass that within a fortnight past at the time of the Harvest Moon that Olduglycarl sayeth unto old dino that great minds think alike.
Time out while old dino momentarily feels like the guy in the link does all the time while my great mind goes "Ummmmmmmmm!"
https://www.google.com/search?q=obama...
Smurth: a person that sucks the gases out of a dead person's body.
Too "sophisticated" for me. Can we keep it a little less gamey?
Speaking of navels, I learned on the internet that shower water does not go where bathtub water can go. So if you only take showers, you may have a stinky navel you need to wash out for the first time in years.
A man was born with a golden screw in his navel. As he got older and the price of gold rose he tried to get it out, but it wouldn't budge.After trying for many years with no success, he came across a Hindu Mystic. The Mystic told him that on a warm sunny day, he should sit under a shady tree and visualize his navel. Picture the screw unscrewing itself. The man waited until there was a warm sunny day and he hurried to his backyard and sat beneath his shady Elm tree. He did as the Mystic said. To his amazement the gold screw started unscrewing itself. It went on and on because it was a very long screw. Finally the screw fell out of his navel and the man in a moment of joy jumped up -- and his ass fell off.
Another joke but just for laughs. Came across it this afternoon and there's a claim its the funniest joke ever but me dino don't really know about that. Don't know it verbatim. Paraphrasing. Here goes~
A woman gets on a bus with a baby in her arms. The shocked bus driver tells the woman how ugly her baby is.
The woman reddens, tosses up her nose and finds a seat beside some guy for another passenger.
Furious, the woman tells the guy that she wants to go back and tell that bus driver off for an unspeakable insult no one should ever have to endure.
The guy says, "No woman should ever be insulted. Yeah, you go do that, lady! Here, allow me to hold your monkey while you tell him off!" .
Right again. In today's world, better educated means that one has specialized and met certain standards, doctor, engineer, etc. or has graduated with the ability to spell most words properly or can construct an understandable sentence.
Policy positions may exist, but I would argue from an implementation and enforcement perspective, the end result will not differ significantly. Actual, tangible, or substantial differences in results are not anything we can test or know in this presidential experiment, perhaps due to the nature of the science or perhaps we have witnessed a spectacular and deliberate drama designed to bring about some desired result.
Or I could be watching Homeland too much.
I think your observations are as correct as anyone's. Perspectives vary, but generally, when clinically observed, we are up to our chins in excrement and politicians are coming by in motorboats.
It is almost time for a New American Revolution.