I heard the lectures about free enterprise then realized that I wanted no part of being in the party that enabled mega-corporate pillaging of our middle class for the benefit of the Chinese communists.[1]A great quote pointing out the abdication of the Republicans, well, the entire political, financial, media, and academic swine-o-rama, when it comes to safeguarding the nation and its people. A craaaazeee concept, I know.
On the point about free enterprise being somehow joined at the hip with astronomical malfeasance and nonfeasance of the ruling toads, however, I hasten to point out that free enterprise and capitalism were never envisioned as operating in a Lord of the Flies environment. Courts were always in the picture as necessary enforcers of contract rights and laws against fraud and theft. No one wrote of the necessity of having monopolies dictate everything to suppliers and consumers, as well as drive competitors from the market. Britain's courts were famous for their honest adjudication of trade disputes and, so, guess which country became a commercial power. The law merchant also developed to facilitate trade among European nations. One didn't prosper if he did not deal fairly. I don't know if separate, informal tribunals existed to enforce that law but the law existed for a good reason.
So capitalism is a well-crafted engine with inputs of electricity, air, fuel, oil, and coolant. The dork with his foot on the accelerator all the way to the floor while the transmission in neutral is what the toads have in mind when they talk about the evils of [[[capitalism]]]. But it's a fundamentally distorted, limited, and/or downright dishonest view. Our author gets it about selling out to the Chinese communists but that's not a necessary feature of free markets. Cancer is not a necessary part of every healthy body.
With free markets someone's got to be minding the speed, direction, and maintenance to some degree. Balance of accounts trending against us? Factories shutting down and moving to Zanzibar? Maybe a tariff or different tax incentives to get us back on course?
Monopolists and fraudsters are no more necessary to free markets than axe murderers are to a Christmas party. But in the rush to adopt "socialism" it's the absolute degradation or diseased deformation of capitalism that the fools have in mind, never the beautiful engine it is. Go to a summer weekend where the car restoration guys display their work. Look at the engines they lovingly maintain. That's capitalism. The guy dumping sand into the engine isn't a capitalist, he's an enemy of capitalism.
One more great quote from Mr. Schlichter:
To reprise a cliché of my own making, Donald Trump was the avatar of our dissatisfaction with the garbage Establishment and the refusal of the useless, sclerotic and cruise-oriented losers allegedly on our side to defend our interests.Our conservative "champions" always, along with multitudes of officials at the local and state level last year, maddenlingly failed to attend to the most basic of official duties, namely, preservation of the culture and the borders and the keeping of the king's peace. They played the part to perfection of the cowardly GI that Spielberg interjected so gratuitously in the move "Saving Private Ryan." His comrade was about to be sliced up by a German troop but the GI did nothing when all he had to do was climb up another four or five stairs and blast the German with his M1.
There are encouraging signs of state Republican parties presuming to chastise some of our lords and ladies. The might be feeling the heat from the unwashed but our state party was quick to act and I think the response was genuine.
Notes
[1] "The Cons Are Alright." By Kurt Schlichter, Townhall, 2/15/21.
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