Category archive: Politicians

What Will Happen When the People Realize that the Constitution Is No More?

by Chuck Rogér What can we expect when a majority of Americans finally comes to terms with a disgusting reality that H.L. Mencken exposed 71 years ago? In an article titled “The Suicide of Democracy,”1 Mencken wrote: In an ideal democracy, [the citizen] learns, property is at the disposal, not of its owners, but of [...]

Dissecting progressive arrogance, Part IV

The Clear Thinking blog is on hiatus and will return with new posts on July 18, 2011. Meanwhile, please enjoy this re-post of the “Dissecting progressive arrogance” series. More “Dissecting Progressive Arrogance” I, II, III, V, VI, VII By Chuck Rogér Today we return to the well of progressive wisdom known as Clive Crook, Financial Times columnist. [...]

Politicians and Foreign Trade: An Unholy Combination

By Chuck Rogér Do politicians influence how Americans feel about foreign trade? In other words, can a politician, hell-bent on reelection, lie convincingly enough to whip voters into a frenzy against China, who surely is “stealing” American jobs? Would voters fall for politicians who promise to ”save American jobs?” Let’s look at a table containing data [...]

By Chuck Rogér In 1994, Newt Gingrich complained vigorously about a Democrat-controlled Congress’s fiscal irresponsibility. Representative Gingrich led a successful campaign by Republicans to take over the House and Senate in the 1994 Election. At the heart of the Republican game plan was the Contract with America, a key element of which was the Fiscal [...]

The greediest politicians in history

Reflecting on the massive debt run up by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, I recently recalled something that I’d read in Thomas Sowell’s Intellectuals and Society. At the bottom of page 110, Sowell made the following assessment. The intelligentsia have led outraged outcries when oil companies’ profits rose, though the amount of profits in [...]

Memo to GOP: Avoid Newt Gingrich like the plague

Would Republicans nominate a presidential candidate who pushes thoroughly-debunked biofuel nonsense? Were the party to select Newt Gingrich, it will have nominated, in The Wall Street Journal‘s words, “Professor Cornpone.” Professor Cornpone hasn’t yet officially announced, but he is running for President. In a recent speech to ethanol lobbyists, Gingrich alleged that criticism of the [...]

Behold the audacity of dishonesty: bipartisan biofuel insanity

Truth means nothing to ideologues. For instance, people that hate guns are aware that study after study prove that gun ownership and right-to-carry laws decrease violent crime. But most gun haters would still like to see guns confiscated from law-abiding Americans. When confronted with real-world data, gun alarmists opt for dead victims littered across areas [...]

Dissecting progressive arrogance, Part IV

More “Dissecting Progressive Arrogance” I, II, III, V, VI, VII Today we return to the well of progressive wisdom known as Clive Crook, Financial Times columnist. In my October 18th post, I analyzed part of an article in which Crook flaunted his inability to understand why voters would reject what Obama and the Democrats are doing to [...]

Liberal Preachiness Takes a Name: Bloomberg Syndrome

Originally in American Thinker, September 8, 2010. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants Americans to embrace the Ground Zero Mosque as a step toward “building an interfaith community.” The Mayor believes that the mosque would “bring [New York] City even closer together and help repudiate the false and repugnant idea that the attacks of [...]

Democrats can be trusted to behave morally?

Rasmussen recently conducted a poll to see which political party the voters trust more. Here is a table summarizing the results, which indicate the percentage of voters who trust the respective political party in several key areas. Two surveys of 1,000 Likely Voters each were conducted by Rasmussen Reports June 23-24 & June 29-30, 2010. [...]

Integrity’s moment of truth

Feel-good ideology has dealt us a mess. And sadly, it would be hard to find more arrogant, self-serving, ineffective problem solvers than the herd currently grazing Capitol Hill. Americans are witnessing historic dishonesty and unaccountability. The actions of politicians who created the subprime mortgage fiasco and of those trying to find solutions will determine whether history paints [...]

The strange case of Mr. McCain and the baffled biologist

While the creature’s front appears elephant-like, its rear presents a puzzle. The dazed biologist lowers her binoculars. Senator John McCain tosses around wealth envy and junk science as freely as any liberal. He wants to go after poorly performing companies that present stockholders with losses while handsomely paying their executives. McCain seeks caps on “greenhouse [...]