Yaron Brook: 'Alexandria O. Cortez and The Principled Left'

Source:Yaron Brook- U.S. Representative Alexandria O. Cortez: self-described Democratic Socialist. 

Source:The New Democrat

"This video was created by Christian Jackson.  Clipped from The Yaron Brook Show: Jesse Lee Peterson, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, & MGTOW streamed on Jan. 13 2019."

From Yaron Brook

 I agree with Yaron Brook at least in this sense: the establishment Democratic Party has been moving left ever since the 1930s with Franklin Roosevelt when the Democratic Party started adapting progressive goals and values. It started first with public safety net for people that truly needed it with things like Social Security and Unemployment Insurance. And then moved in the 1960s to civil rights like expanding the safety net with Medicare.

With the Republican Party essentially trying to catch up and essentially saying: "yeah, we support those things too" as those policies and programs becoming popular. The Great Society and civil rights were exceptions to that where without Republicans especially in the Northwest and Midwest, civil rights and parts of of the Great Society never get passed. Because the Democratic Party still had right-wing Neo-Confederates in the party that opposed civil rights laws and saw non-Europeans in America as second-class citizens and in some cases not even as citizens or even as human beings.

But really since Ronald Reagan was President, the Republican Party has been playing catch up to the Democrats on a lot of economic issues when it comes to the safety net. And saying: "we support these things too, but we would run them differently and introduce competition to them." Instead of saying that: "we don't need these public programs at all and we should just leave the economic policies up to the private sector."

Things are different now both in the Democratic Party, but the Republican Party as well. Democrats at least the base of the party is no longer interested in the progressive safety net for people who truly need it. They want a universal, socialize welfare state where most if not ell workers benefits in this country with health care just being a part of that being provided for not just by government, but through the Federal Government. And putting the Federal Government in charge of making sure that every single American has what they would need to live well in the country and they're very honest about this.

With the Republican Leadership saying, "we believe in all of the public insurance programs that we currently have, but we want to put them on a sound financial footing and let the states run them." Instead of going into the opposite direction ( which is what Yaron Brook is arguing ) and saying that this is not the job of government, or at least not the job of the Federal Government. And we should leave it up to the private sector to handle employee benefits and take care of the needy in the country.

The Democratic Party has made it their goal to get not just every single racial and ethnic minority to vote for them, but every single woman who at least who is college educated and professional to vote for them, but they want to every single young voter to vote for them regardless of race, ethnicity, and gender. And the way to get young voters to vote for you is be being romantic and very idealist and saying that we ( meaning government ) can solve every societal problem known to man if we just put our minds to it ( meaning the Federal Government ) and promise every single social program that they can come up with and figure out the details later. Like how to pay for those programs.

With the Republican Party instead of going in the opposite direction and instead saying that: "there real limits to what government can and should try to do for the people and we can only tax so much while maintaining a strong economy." They instead try to come up with the best and most popular alternatives on the Right that they can get away with it. And try to hold onto power by trying to contain the Far-Left in the country, as well as passing so-called voter ID laws and gerrymandering to prevent young Democrats from voting in competitive races.

CATO Institute: Michael Tanner- 'Democratic Primary Voters Turn To Socialism'

Source:National Review- U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Democratic Socialist, Socialist Republic of Vermont)

Source:The New Democrat

"Outside the media and political circles that follow her every move, few probably noticed or cared when Alexandra Ocasio‐​Cortez pronounced capitalism “irredeemable.” But what are we to make of the refusal of former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper — supposedly the moderate in the Democratic field — to admit that he was a capitalist? Speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe last week, Hickenlooper turned aside several direct questions about whether he was a capitalist before allowing that “some aspects” of capitalism, like small business, “probably work.” And what about the fact that 77‐​year‐​old avowed socialist Bernie Sanders is in a statistical tie for the Democratic nomination?"

From the Cato Institute

"Democrats’ hard left turn to socialism. 2012 GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain discusses future of the Democratic Party."

Source:FOX Business- Not sure that Herman Cain is the best spokesman on the Democratic Party, but I don't work for FOX News. Thank God! 

From FOX Business

Source:FOX News- U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and U.S. Representative Alexandria O. Cortez: two self-described Democratic Socialist members of Congress 

This is a great a timely piece from CATO's Michael Tanner, because I was watching The Lead with Jake Tapper in CNN yesterday afternoon, ( you can do that when you work from your desk and office ) and they were talking about this exact same issue.

Tapper, asked Conservative CNN political analyst  Amanda Carpenter basically the exact same question and she responded something to the effect of why the Democratic Party is now embracing socialism and she talked about the primary voters in the Democratic Party and their support of socialism.

Karen Finney, who is a respected Democratic strategist and CNN political analyst said something like: "This is not true since only one declared Democratic presidential candidate is a Socialist." That person being Senator Bernie Sanders, who is no longer the only self-described Democratic Socialist in Congress with several Democratic Socialists getting elected to the House last year. He's not even the only Socialist in the Senate, just the only self-described Socialist. which is very different.

CNN's Karen Finney, completely missed the point yesterday ( perhaps intentionally ) about Socialists and socialism in the Democratic Party. I realize that socialist and socialism are still scary words within the Democratic Party Leadership and establishment that Finney is part of, because when they think of those two words they remember George McGovern and the McGovernites in the 1970s and the rise of the New-Left in the late 60s and 70s. And all the negative stereotypes that come from being both a Socialist and a Democrat, especially Socialist-Democrat.

But socialist and socialism are not scary words with young Democrats and young Independents who are considering voting Democratic in 2020 and voted Democratic overwhelmingly in 2018.

When your current frontrunner at least as far as your declared presidential candidates is polling at 30% and leads every one else by at least double figures which is what Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders is doing right now for 2020, you not just have more than one Socialist in your party, but you have a someone who probably represents 30% of the party if not 1/3 or more than that if the Jill Stein voters were to come out for Senator Sanders next year instead of Dr. Stein, you not only just have more than one Socialist in your party, which is stating the obvious anyway since the Democratic Party has always had Socialists in their party whether they're self-described or not, but you have a socialist faction inside of your party.

The Democratic Party today now has a large block of Democrats including Democratic Socialists voters, who embrace the ideas of Socialists and socialism and want to see those policies put into place in this country. That's just the state of the Democratic Party right now whether the Karen Finney's and other members of the Democratic Party Leadership are ready to acknowledge that or not.

The Atlantic: Adam Harris: 'What's The Deal With Free College?'

Source:The Atlantic Magazine- Adam Harris, on so-called free college. 

Source:The New Democrat 

“Every day now, it seems, another Democratic candidate announces his or her 2020 presidential run. Among the most popular ideas these hopefuls campaign for is a tuition-free secondary education. “A free-college proposal has practically become an entrance fee,” says writer Adam Harris.

In a new Atlantic Argument, Harris explains that while this is an intriguing idea, it is also a vague and sweeping one, and voters want policy specifics. “The nuts and bolts of education proposals in the 2020 election,” Harris says, “are critical to understanding whether or not, six years from now, the student-debt bubble reaches $2.5 trillion, or even $3 trillion.”

From The Atlantic

From Adam Harris: “Every day now, it seems, another Democratic candidate announces his or her 2020 presidential run. Among the most popular ideas these hopefuls campaign for is a tuition-free secondary education. A free-college proposal has practically become an entrance fee, says writer Adam Harris.

In a new Atlantic Argument, Harris explains that while this is an intriguing idea, it is also a vague and sweeping one, and voters want policy specifics. The nuts and bolts of education proposals in the 2020 election, Harris says, “are critical to understanding whether or not, six years from now, the student-debt bubble reaches $2.5 trillion, or even $3 trillion.”

“What’s the deal with free college?” I believe is the perfect question in this debate, since it’s basically like asking: What the deal with flying trucks?” Since neither exists or ever existed. When you get something for free from wherever it might be, it means you didn’t pay anything for the service that you supposedly received for free. And government is the perfect example of that.

If you’re going to ask, what’s the deal with free college, you better know the answer to: “What’s the deal with taxes?” As well as: “Why do we pay taxes?” And: “Where does government get the revenue to pay for the services that we receive?”

If you already know the answers to these questions, then you know if government starts to not only get into the college financing business, because it’s already there with Adam Harris already explaining that in the video, but if government were to go further and essentially take over the business or be such a player in to that it’s now paying for the college education of every single American who is eligible to go to college in America, you will know how government is paying for everybody’s college education which of course is through taxes. And not just on wealthy people, but for every single American who works for a living.

Government services of course are not free. Even if you’re not working you’ve already paid for the public assistance or retirement that other Americans got when you were working. And if you’re not working right now, but will be in the future you’re paying for the public assistance, or retirement, or unemployment that Americans will receive in the future.

As the great economics professor Milton Friedman once said: “No such thing as a free lunch.” He was referring to the public services that we receive from government that we all pay for. The only way to go to college for free is by winning a college scholarship either through athletics or academics, or have parents or grandparents that can afford to send you to college with their own money. Otherwise you’ll be pay for your college education one way or another. 

Tom Woods: 'Remember When Conservatives Didn't Make You Pull Your Hair Out?'

Source:Player FM- Conservatives or anti-Conservatives?

Source:The New Democrat

"Remember when conservatives used to be antiwar, opposed centralized power, and actually wanted to eliminate government agencies rather than just take them over? Yes, such people once existed. Robert Nisbet, whom you'll never hear mentioned on right-wing radio, but who was one of the great thinkers of that tradition, was one of them. I resurrect him -- not literally, so don't get your hopes up -- in this episode.  Subscribe to the Tom Woods Show:"

Source:Tom Woods

"Remember when conservatives used to be antiwar, opposed centralized power, and actually wanted to eliminate government agencies rather than just take them over? Yes, such people once existed. Robert Nisbet, whom you'll never hear mentioned on right-wing radio, but who was one of the great thinkers of that tradition, was one of them. I resurrect him -- not literally, so don't get your hopes up -- in this episode.  Subscribe to the Tom Woods Show:"

This is a great conservation because when I think of Conservatives as a Liberal ( or Classical Liberal, if you prefer ) I don't think of people who try to pull my hair out. Maybe that's just me not seeing any Conservatives at my barber shop, ( ha, ha ) but I think of people as a Liberal that I actually have a lot of things in common with. People who are anti-Communist and anti-authoritarian all together, as well as anti-Socialist, but people who believe in not just the republic, but the federal republic and not people who want theocracy regardless of what religion a theocratic government would come from.

Conservatives, actually are people who believe in fiscal responsibility, regardless of what the current Republican Party is saying today. Ass well as a strong, but responsible and limited national defense. Not Neoconservatives who believe that it's the job of America to force democracy on the rest of the world that doesn't currently have it, or believe that deficits don't matter. That expansionist deficits and debt are worth having a strong national defense and that tax cuts pay for themselves. The Lindsay Graham's of the world and other Neoconservatives in Congress who actually believe in this.

When I think of Conservatives, I think of people who believe in limited government based on the U.S. Constitution. who believe in conserving our individual rights and that the best way to do that is to limit governmental power especially at the Federal level and decentralizing governmental power, which is one of the main reasons for having a federal republic unlike a unitarian government where most of the governmental power in the country is centralized in the national government especially with the executive.

The people that Tom Woods was talking about that he was calling Conservatives, aren't actually Conservatives at least when a Republican is President. The so-called Constitutional Conservatives from the Tea Party era from earlier this decade only applied to President Barack Obama. Once President Obama was out of office the Constitution no longer mattered that much to them ( if at all ) except as it related to executive power and believing that the President has the power to do basically anything, just as long as these anti-conservatives ( as I call them ) or Nationalists actually agree with what the President is doing. This is no longer about Constitutionalism or Republicanism when it comes to today's Republican Party, but about short-term partisanship and short-term political convenience.

The reason why we have a Libertarian Party and a Conservative-Libertarian movement today, is because we have a Republican Party that no longer believes in limited government and Constitutionalism. Who now believe that executive essentially has unlimited power just as long as the executive is doing what they want him to do and the executive is a Republican. I believe those are the people that Tom Woods is talking about when he talks about "Conservatives who don't make him want to pull your hair out."

But to me Conservatives are people who would never want me to make me pull my hair out, because they tend to have principles that I agree with. The beliefs in the U.S. Constitution, limited government, individual rights, strong but limited and responsible national defense., and fiscal responsibility. I obviously don't agree with Conservatives on everything as a Liberal, but we once had a strong Conservative-Libertarian movement, that was a great alternative to Liberals and Progressives in America. And I wish the Republican Party would at some point get back to that, especially when there's a Republican in the White House.