My Head Hurts

[jmatonak]

I've been reading a lot of libertarian blogs. (I know, that means I did it to myself as far as the headache things go.) They all make a big show about how evenhanded they are, and then sit there and say how Obama's gonna get out of Iraq instantly and screw everything up, and particularly how he's gonna take everyone's money and give it to people who just don't wanna work, God bless 'em! (Sorry, a little Ned Flanders snuck in there.)

If you are going to assume every word out of Obama's mouth is a lie, please don't tell me how "evenhanded" and "nonpartisan" you are. If you mean that, over the long term, Obama's stated policies will impoverish us all, say that. But:



1. Goddammit, the man is not a socialist. You know how I know? My socialist parents feel as though they are being cruelly teased when they hear the claim he is. But, seriously, the man has written voluminously , he has a million policy papers and an entire goddamned book, and his agreement with what may loosely be termed "the socialist plantform" is, as the phrase goes, spotty at best.

2. Obama has explicitly said that, if you make less than $200,000 a year, your taxes are going down. If you examine his positions as he articulates them, rather than assuming he is a monster from under the bed, he isn't "redistributing" by taking money away from the workers. If stopping a transfer of wealth to the already-rich is socialism, I guess you got him.

3. Everyone who has ever looked at the Constitution, and particularly every law professor, has spotted flaws in it. They are always different. This projective game of assuming you know what Obama sees as a flaw (he's a closet socialist!) is bullshit. Press him for clarification, fine. Using it as proof of a political position he never claimed is a pile of crap.

4. He lards his discussions of Iraq with caveats about how he doesn't want things to degenerate and he's for responsible withdrawal etc etc. The people who favor the position of total withdrawal soonest are probably going to be the ones unhappy at him. (And, on behalf of us, waah!)



I could go on and on, and that's kind of the point. Partisanship is great. Just own it.

Comments

[digital-eraser.livejournal.com]

2. Obama has explicitly said that, if you make less than $200,000 a year, your taxes are going down. If you examine his positions as he articulates them, rather than assuming he is a monster from under the bed, he isn't "redistributing" by taking money away from the workers. If stopping a transfer of wealth to the already-rich is socialism, I guess you got him.

This is the one that really annoys me as well.

[jmatonak.livejournal.com]

Doesn't it kind of really really suck?

[rahirah]

I don't think people in the US know what 'socialist' even means any more. It's just a word to throw around.

[jmatonak.livejournal.com]

Yeah, apparently so, since the mojo ran out of "liberal." Escalation was required, it seems. :)

[jmatonak.livejournal.com]

I've known some Libertarians that were poor as churchmice. "You earn it, you keep it" seems fair on the face of it. Then you ask about the problem of the commons. Then you ask about the difference between taking $6,000 a year from someone who makes $30,000, and taking $50k a year from someone who makes $200k.

Then they tell you to fuck off, or (in the case of my friends) remind you of their drug policy positions.

Libertarianism is a great political philosophy, until you think about it a little.