Power Mad: The Worst of the Left

Conservatives know the Left destroys everything it touches. That destruction takes many forms. The worst is obliterating the strength of individuals in order to grow a population of weaklings.

Photo from article: Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock.com

Safe spaces, trigger warnings, and microaggressions are just a few of the ways the Left encourages weakness. Evoking fear is another. For fear to be an effective tool, the Left needs its followers to be fragile and helpless.

Although the Left’s crusade of making individuals weaker may be succeeding, mainly it shows that the Left will do anything, stoop to any level, to gain control.

The first three words of the classic The Road Less Traveled by Scott Peck are, “Life is difficult.” He then writes, “This is one of the great truths, one of the greatest truths.” It is a great truth, he explains, “Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”

If life is difficult, what’s the best response?

A difference between the Left and Right is this: the Left believes in societalresponsibility; the Right believes in individual responsibility. The Left promises that government, your protector, will always come to your rescue and make your life easy. It’s a lie. Nothing will make your life easy.

Leftists say if you fail you’re not to blame. They have zero expectations of you. They resent any ability you may have to deal with your own problems. They’re secretly pleased if a lack of self-reliance leads you toward weakness, cowardice, and dishonesty. Dishonesty suits them; honesty does not. Like life itself, honesty is difficult.

If you’re a conservative and life hits you with a low blow, you handle it. Self-reliance takes strength, courage, and honesty.

The best teachers and coaches have high expectations of individuals. They don’t tolerate excuses. They aren’t particularly sympathetic. An observer might see them as mean. Yet they are the ones whom we look back upon with gratitude.

Victimhood is a creature of the Left spawned by weakness and fear. Victims are easy to manipulate; defining yourself as a victim is an invitation to misery.

To foment fear, the Left does not rely on real problems. It invents them — catastrophic climate change, voter suppression, ubiquitous racism, toxic masculinity, white privilege, mass extinctions, peak oil, evil corporations, hate speech, and Donald Trump. Women should fear all men. Every severe weather event is proof of far worse things to come. The Left has fabricated fear after fear, all of which in retrospect were wasted worries and destroyers of happiness.

The Left makes people fear their own words. They can’t be honest with one another. They’re afraid of humor. They’re afraid of freedom. They’re afraid of the future.

Leftists don’t care one iota about the damage their policies cause. They’re not the least bit concerned if all their promises are hollow. Conservatives know that leftists simply stay hyper-focused on their ultimate goal: power.

Democrats Eat Trump’s Dust

One more reason for all their resentments.

In spite of brazen attempts by Democrats to fabricate, exaggerate, distort, sabotage, and cheat, Donald Trump has worked economic wonders.

The U.S. unemployment rate has reached its lowest level in half a century. That’s rare historically and rare relative to what’s happening in the rest of the world.

In addition, the rates for women and minorities are the lowest ever recorded — ironic accomplishments for a president whom the Democrats have repeatedly branded as a racist and a sexist.

These are achievements of enormous importance, but there has been surprisingly little celebration or even notice. One who recognizes their significance is President Trump himself. He has proclaimed numerous times that the economy has never been better. That’s not an exaggeration. As the baseball great Dizzy Dean famously said, “It ain’t braggin’ if you can do it.”

A job is a major boon to happiness. It provides a purpose in life and an income, and it makes a person a contributor rather than a burden to society. On-the-job training is the most tried and true way to enhance a person’s market value and make future raises likely, and it is especially important given the sad state of public education in America.

Low unemployment doesn’t just happen. It is the product of robust economic growth.

Why has our economic growth rate doubled since Donald Trump took office? He simply believed greater economic growth was possible. Barack Obama did not. Optimism works.

Economic growth inevitably leads to higher incomes. We are currently experiencing the first real increases in average incomes in several decades. Government welfare programs help people far less than robust economic growth.

Trump’s main contribution to all this has been to get out of the way of the creativity, innovation, energy, optimism, risk-taking, and ambition of the American people. Like Ronald Reagan, Trump’s objective has been to get government “off people’s backs.” Dealing with big government and excessive regulations is like trying to run through knee-deep mud. Like Reagan, Trump knows that the key is to do less, not more.

Donald Trump also knows that the source of economic growth and prosperity resides in the private sector, not the government. Democrats accuse him of being power-hungry, but the opposite is true. He recognizes the limitations of the presidency.

Economic growth has always been the exception, not the rule. Throughout most of human history it was nonexistent. It only started in earnest about 250 years ago.

Never has there been a setting as conducive to ambition and talent as is the United States of America today. It’s probably the main reason why so many want to immigrate here. The U.S. is the wealthiest nation in history because it is the best environment for creativity and wealth creation. That environment can be made even better, allowing even faster economic growth. That is just what Donald Trump would like to do.

In most societies, individual creativity and ambition have been suppressed rather than unleashed. Three current, extreme examples are Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea. The economies of these socialist countries are shrinking, not growing.

Why with a booming economy aren’t we seeing more inflation? One factor is that the U.S. economy is more competitive than ever before. The competition for consumers’ dollars, the array of choices available, has never been so great, and the availability and accessibility of information are wider than ever.

A market is any setting where buyers and sellers connect and allow voluntary exchange to happen. The internet has expanded the ways buyers find sellers, and sellers find buyers — eBay, craigslist, Uber, and Airbnb, just to name a few. Uber and Lyft represent the first real competition taxicabs have faced in a hundred years. Anyone wanting to get from point A to point B now has faster, cheaper alternatives. The technology used by such companies puts their hidebound competitors to shame.

The number of ways people have to spend their money has increased exponentially. With consumers having much easier access to information about prices and alternatives, it’s much harder for vendors to raise prices.

Another major contributor to stable prices and economic growth has been the greater supply of oil and natural gas, primarily due to fracking and horizontal drilling, both of which are American innovations. They have increased energy abundance around the globe (but not in New York state, where fracking is outlawed).

Energy prices are equivalent to a “super-price” that reverberates throughout the economy. Low energy prices benefit the bottom line of virtually every enterprise and ease the budget of every consumer.

During Bill Clinton’s first presidential run, his campaign manager, James Carville, often proclaimed, “It’s the economy, stupid.” The Democrats must hope it’s no longer true, but there’s no reason to think it isn’t.

Although they can’t admit it, the Democrats have now put themselves in the strange position of hoping for a recession; they camouflage their hope as a prediction. There is not a single compelling indication, however, that a recession is on the horizon. Predicting anything as massive, decentralized, and complex as the U.S. economy is impossible.

Democrats can’t allow themselves to celebrate the deaths of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his second-in-command because they happened while Donald Trump was commander-in-chief, and they can’t mention the historic good health of the American economy for the same reason.

The Democrat Party has become an agglomeration of Debbie Downers. Their debates have been spectacles of gloom and pessimism. The Trump rallies are the exact opposite — happy, enthusiastic, and fun, with twice as many people wanting to attend as can be admitted even at a large venue.

This Thanksgiving, just be thankful you’re not a Democrat! ____________________

◼ link November 2, 2019

Ron Ross Ph.D. is a former economics professor and author of The Unbeatable Market. Ron resides in Arcata, California and is a founder of Premier Financial Group, a wealth management firm located in Eureka, California. He is a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma and can be reached at rossecon@gmail.com.

Donald Trump’s Art of the Strategy

Why he wins against all haters and comers.

Donald Trump is a master strategist. His opponents are at an enormous disadvantage.

He is relentless. They can’t keep up with him. Every day he does something they deem unacceptable. He keeps them perpetually confused. He has boundless energy. He never backs down.

He takes them so far out of their comfort zone that they have no idea how to get back. They’ve given up trying to understand him. They can’t even understand his humor. They can’t begin to derive effective counter-strategies.

In contrast to Obama, Trump loves his country. He has stimulated a patriotic rebirth. People feel good about their own love of their country, and they love him for making that popular again. Trump makes his followers feel good. The Democrats make their followers feel bad.

Trump gets his opponents to self-destruct. He sets traps for them that should be obvious, but somehow they cannot resist walking right into them.

Trump has hypnotized his opponents. It’s as if he has selected for them the worst imaginable presidential candidates and then tricked those candidates into advocating bizarre policies, policies that are wildly unpopular and will doom any chance they have of winning. Worst of all for them, he has tricked them into being honest about who they are and what they believe.

His opponents’ outlandish behavior doesn’t just happen. Trump is largely responsible for their descent into insanity. It is as though a mole has infiltrated the Democrat Party and set off a neutron bomb, destroying their judgment but leaving their bodies intact.

Trump’s values and objectives have been consistent for decades. He has set records for how many of his campaign promises he has kept, or at least tried hard to keep. The demented Democrats change so often and abruptly that it gives their supporters whiplash.

Unlike the Democrats, Trump entertains people. Even his opponents are unable to look away. His over-the-top rhetoric is irresistible. When the smartest tactic would be to ignore him, nobody can. That allows him to monopolize the news.

Trump’s opponents have been compared to the Road Runner cartoon character Wile E. Coyote. They never learn. How many times have the Democrats promised their acolytes that they had Trump dead to rights? The Democrats’ learning curve has a negative slope. Why they have any credibility left is a mystery.

Trump is emotionally bulletproof. As Victor Davis Hanson has observed, after three years of vicious attacks, the wonder is not merely that he’s still president; it’s that he’s still standing.

Trump’s opponents hate him with a passion. They hate him because he threatens their most cherished obsessions. Before their very eyes they are witnessing the dismemberment of the swamp, climate hysteria, political correctness, economic stagnation, excessive regulations, unlimited abortion, the corrupt media, and illegal immigration. In other words, they hate Donald Trump because his strategies work. ____________________

◼ Donald Trump’s Art of the Strategy October 4, 2019

Ron Ross Ph.D. is a former economics professor and author of The Unbeatable Market. Ron resides in Arcata, California and is a founder of Premier Financial Group, a wealth management firm located in Eureka, California. He is a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma and can be reached at rossecon@gmail.com.

Certainty: A Malady of the Forlorn

“We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.” –Eric Hoffer

Sometimes the behaviors that cause us the most grief aren’t obvious. An especially harmful habit, for example, is an attitude of certainty. It is a habit that creates problems.

Intolerance. When you’re absolutely certain you’re right about something, it means anyone who does not hold the same view has to be wrong.

Something you have probably noticed about those who are hysterical about “catastrophic climate change” is their dead certainty that it is already happening and that it is entirely the result of human activity. Every extreme weather event proves that climate change is here and humanity is the guilty party. The climate change alarmists latch on to assertions such as “settled science” and “consensus,” both of which are variations of certainty. As with leftist attitudes in general, the possibility that they might be wrong never enters their minds. There is a total absence of doubt.

The climate change alarmists despise all who do not share their certitude. They refer to those people not as doubters or skeptics but with the hateful epithet “deniers.” Skepticism about man-made climate change is equivalent to asserting the Holocaust is a myth. Their knee-jerk certainty about this and other issues has ended long-term friendships and even split family bonds.

Arrogance. Certainty and arrogance are joined at the hip, and arrogance stems from an ignorance of complexity. Complexity is a feature of every element of reality. No human brain, no computer, no matter how powerful can come anywhere close to grasping or dealing with the immense number of variables and interrelationships present in the earth’s atmosphere. Being certain about something so complex verges on insanity. That applies as well to any other complex system, such as the economy, life, or society. There is little appreciation for the limits of human knowledge. What we know is a trillionth of what we don’t know.

It’s ironic that the most arrogant people know next to nothing about that of which they are certain. And what they do know is typically only one side of an issue. As John Stuart Mill wrote, “He who knows only his own side of a case knows little of that.”

Hatred of our history has become a habit on the left. Anyone who hates our history ignores its complexity. Our Founding Fathers, for example, like all other human beings, were not perfect. During their lifetimes they committed both good and bad deeds. Their good deeds, however, were some of the most beneficial ever. To villainize such people is naïve and narrow-minded.

Anyone who has an attitude of certainty has to be unaware of just how many times in history humans have been abysmally wrong. Decades ago, for example, all physicians believed that ulcers were caused by stress and worry. None hold that opinion now. That’s just one of a myriad of notions that were once believed by everyone but are now believed by no one. Think about that: from everyone to no one.

On the left and in the media the rejection of complexity often appears as a reliance on “experts.” There are countless “experts” on every topic, and they do not all agree. It’s the easiest thing in the world to “expert shop” until you find one who will say what you want said. It’s the media’s favorite way to hide its biases.

Democrats have been writhing in deep anguish since Donald Trump won the presidency. They and their experts had convinced themselves that Hillary Clinton was certain to win and that a Trump victory was impossible. They were dead wrong, and they still can’t accept it. Their certainty has been like salt in their wounds.

To be certain about everything is a miserable way to live your life. Awareness of complexity leads to humility. Humility is like gratitude; it’s impossible to be truly happy without it. ____________________

◼ Certainty: A Malady of the Forlorn September 12, 2019

Ron Ross Ph.D. is a former economics professor and author of The Unbeatable Market. Ron resides in Arcata, California and is a founder of Premier Financial Group, a wealth management firm located in Eureka, California. He is a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma and can be reached at rossecon@gmail.com.

A Fellowship of Losers

Marxism — never has there been anything so destructive yet so alluring … to the modern Democrat.

If you’ve wondered where the beliefs of the modern Democrat Party originated, the answer can be found in 28 pages. They comprise The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848.

The Communist Manifesto is the greatest monument to erroneous thinking but profound persuasion in the history of thought. Marx was an extremely talented propagandist. He was a grossly incompetent economist.

A theme of the Manifesto is that oppression permeates all societies. Initially it was about the oppression of workers (the proletariat) by owners (the bourgeoisie). Now leftists view all societal relationships through the prism of oppression — only the placeholders change: one race against another, Palestinians versus Israelis, male versus female. (“The bourgeois sees in his wife a mere instrument of production.”)

The world is divided between the oppressors and the oppressed. This view provides the foundation for identity politics and also makes it easy to accuse people of racism.

Some of the Manifesto’s most famous quotes demonstrate how influential it has been on leftism and today’s Democrat Party:

Workers of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains! (Also etched on Marx’s gravestone.) A specter is haunting Europe — the specter of Communism. The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. But whatever form they may have taken, one fact is common to all past ages … the exploitation of one part of society by the other. Modern bourgeois private property is the final and most complete expression of the system of producing and appropriating products that is based on class antagonisms, on the exploitation of the many by the few. What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, is its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable. The theory of the communist party may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property. The communists are further reproached with desiring to abolish countries and nationality.

The following are some of the specific policy goals listed in the Manifesto:

A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.

The opening and most famous words of the Manifesto are, “A specter is haunting Europe — the specter of communism.” For several decades after the Manifesto was published not a single country converted to communism. Communism did not take root until 69 years later, in Russia, of all places. Marx predicted that communism would occur after the highest stage of capitalism had been reached, not in an impoverished, feudal economy such as early-20th-century Russia. China adopted communism in 1949, North Korea in 1948, Cuba in 1959, and Venezuela in 1998.

The Manifesto and Das Capital are not about how communism works. They are, rather, about why a market economy cannot work. “Internal contradictions” such as “declining rates of profit” and “increasing immiserization of the bourgeoisie” were already locked into place and would guarantee capitalism’s demise.

Marx was possibly the first “globalist.” He argued that workers should realize their interests lie with their fellow workers throughout the world. He believed patriotism was a trick to distract workers from their true loyalties.

Marx’s magnum opus was Das Kapital. It is three volumes in length. It was, in part, an attempt to refute Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, or simply The Wealth of Nations. More than coincidentally, Smith’s book was published in 1776, the same year as our Declaration of Independence. Although he was a Scot, Smith deserves to be thought of as one of our Founding Fathers.

Smith did not invent the free-market system, but he provided an explanation of how one works. He was correct in almost everything he wrote, and his insights are still relevant to our economy today. Smith advocated voluntary exchange; Marx believed in force.

The U.S. and England followed Smith’s advice. The freedom and economic growth it has made possible have far exceeded anything else in human history.

Marx wanted the “state” to make choices. That model for organizing society has led to the Soviet Union, Communist China, Cuba, and Venezuela.

What Marx wrote was wrong when he wrote it, and it is wrong now. Nevertheless, today’s Democrat Party prefers Karl Marx to Adam Smith. Everyone needs to recognize that there is no real difference between Karl Marx and Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. ____________________

◼ A Fellowship of Losers August 29, 2019

Ron Ross Ph.D. is a former economics professor and author of The Unbeatable Market. Ron resides in Arcata, California and is a founder of Premier Financial Group, a wealth management firm located in Eureka, California. He is a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma and can be reached at rossecon@gmail.com.

There’s Always 2024

Question: Why are the Democrats so crazy? Answer: Donald Trump.

On every issue the Democrats have gotten more extreme — on immigration, abortion, health care, everything. To anyone in his right mind their policies and objectives are unrealistic, unaffordable, and wildly unpopular. They might work on some other planet, but not on Earth. What explains the party’s hard-left turn? The concise answer is … Donald Trump. His policies and demeanor are far beyond the party’s ability to cope. He has cast a spell on his opponents. They can’t stop thinking about him and that keeps them from thinking about anything else.

Perhaps the primary unintended consequence of the Democrat’s hard-left turn is a huge increase in clarity. That’s definitely not going to help the Democrats. Their inability to deal with Trump has caused them to reveal more than ever before who they really are. They have always managed to hide their true nature from voters in the past. That’s over.

An ancient proverb says, “Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.” In this context “mad” has two meanings: angry and insane. It could also be said that whom the gods would destroy they first make hate. Hate is not a formula for winning friends and influencing people or, more importantly, increasing your voter base.

Democrats’ visceral hatred for Trump generates much of their ugly behavior. They perceive reality through a prism of contempt for him.

Amazingly, Trump does not return their hatred. He is not fazed or distracted. He maintains his happy warrior attitude, and that frustrates the hell out of his opponents. He’s the energizer president. It is a sight to behold.

Democrats despise any Trump accomplishments, such as robust economic growth, simply because the person they hate accomplished them. They cannot allow themselves to enjoy anything positive happening to the country if Trump is in any way associated with it. What a sad state of affairs. Trump supporters are having the times of their lives while his opponents are miserable.

One of Donald Trump’s good fortunes is the opponents he’s been blessed with, both in regard to quality and quantity. A dilemma for the Democrats is the sheer number of their presidential candidates. Trump is the first president in history who has two dozen challengers (if they can be described as such). The Democratic Party has what you might call an embarrassment of riches — emphasis on embarrassment. The Democrats have the largest number of strange people ever assembled in a single party.

A handicap for the Democrats and the media is their lack of self-awareness. That prevents them from learning from their mistakes. They seem totally unware and unconcerned about how silly they’re making themselves look.

Consider for the sake of discussion that there are three voting groups: left, middle, and right. The pivotal battleground for the future of American politics will likely occur in the middle. Those are the voters who care relatively little about politics and therefore pay much less attention. (That might also make them the smartest.)

What do these voters think about what’s happening with the Democrats? Are the Democrats behaving so strangely that even this part of the population can’t help but notice?

Through their constant attacks, Democrats hope to separate Trump from his supporters. All indications are that the opposite is happening. They are more bonded to him than ever. It is Trump supporters who are most aghast at the behavior of the Democratic Party and who are put off by the constant criticism and negative press.

Trump pays absolutely no attention to the advice of his opponents, for example, “Stop tweeting,” “Don’t meet with dictators,” and “Stop giving your opponents insulting nicknames.” That’s like telling Samson to get a haircut.

Trump is playing three-dimensional chess. His opponents do not know how to play that game and are not interested in learning how. Their inability to understand what he’s doing leaves them gobsmacked, muttering to themselves with only their hatred to comfort them.

Jonathan Chait, a leftist columnist, recently titled a column, “Democratic Presidential Candidates Need to Stop Taking Unpopular Stances.” You don’t say! Unfortunately they are too far gone to heed that advice.

____________________

◼ There’s Always 2024 July 13, 2019

Ron Ross Ph.D. is a former economics professor and author of The Unbeatable Market. Ron resides in Arcata, California and is a founder of Premier Financial Group, a wealth management firm located in Eureka, California. He is a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma and can be reached at rossecon@gmail.com.

A Grotesque Political Party

The Democrat Party has descended into weirdness, emptiness, and obsession.

The United States has a long tradition of reliance on a two-party political structure. For that structure to function effectively both parties need to be competent and responsible. Unfortunately, that is not the case now.

The lineup of Democrat presidential candidates currently stands at 25 and growing. Conrad Black has aptly described them as “unelectable non-entities.” The long and growing list is more like a tower of babel than a collection of credible leaders. Evidence of that is that leading the race currently is former senator and vice president Joe Biden.

Beyond the confines of the Democrat Party the reaction to Biden’s candidacy is typically, “Is this a joke?” Joe Biden? The guy is a goof. He is known primarily for his gaffes, flip-flops, plagiarism, and unwelcome advances toward women. The very fact he is leading the race is a sad indictment on all the other candidates.

The unreality of all the candidates’ policy positions, e.g. the Green New Deal, sanctuary cities, open borders, unlimited taxpayer-funded abortions, should be obvious to all sentient beings.

Democrats label all Trump supporters as racists, just as Hillary Clinton labeled them all “deplorables.” Trump supporters are seen as homogeneous members of a collective. It’s another variation on the Party’s addiction to identity politics and also a good definition of bigotry.

I don’t know about you but I don’t appreciate being labeled a racist by people who’ve never met me and know nothing about me. Racism is one of the ugliest of all slurs, one that is almost impossible to defend against. It is a Democrat proclivity that will surely shrink their voter base.

Furthermore, what is their definition of a racist? It must include every person who’s ever had a fleeting thought of racial differences. That’s the only way you could get tens of millions of “racists.” The entire party has become a bunch of Jussie Smollett clones.

Why do they rely so much on accusations of racism? Because it works, because they have nothing else, and because they have no shame.

Democrats also have the annoying habit of making wild, unsubstantiated exaggerations. Three examples are the significance and prevalence of “white supremacy,” “Russian meddling,” and “voter suppression.” Such accusations are never defined and never quantified.

The dearth of leaders for the party is nothing new. Consider who their previous nominees were — Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton. What a strange collection of characters. To paraphrase William F. Buckley, “I’d rather be governed by the first 24 names in the phone book than any of these people.”

Hillary Clinton was an incredibly bad candidate. Why was she nominated? Amazingly, it was because she was the best they had! We can thank our lucky stars she’s not president and Bill is not the “first gentleman.”

Nancy Pelosi is currently the most powerful Democrat. She is the face of the party (as well as the hands). Is she someone who will inspire independents to become Democrats? Democrats love her. Conservatives can barely stand to look at her.

The most incompetently managed, crime-ridden cities in the country are run solely by Democrats. If they can’t run cities why would anyone want them to run the country? Those cities should be seen as canaries in the coal mine.

“Impeach Trump!” Would you mind telling me for what, specifically? Could you name just one of his “crimes and misdemeanors?” They’ve offered nothing but a bunch of vacuous accusations, e.g. he’s “unfit” to be president.

The Mueller report took 22 months and could not find any collusion or obstruction. It was based on something so flimsy and ludicrous it should not have taken more than 22 minutes to evaluate and reject. Even now the Democrats cannot let go of it.

To Democrats way of thinking the very thought of Donald Trump being president is simply too horrible to contemplate. He has driven the Democrats to distraction.

As Victor Davis Hanson wrote recently, “One way of envisioning the Democratic obsession with Trump is as an addiction.” Unfortunately, there are no rehab programs for political parties.

____________________

◼ A Grotesque Political Party June 14, 2019

Ron Ross Ph.D. is a former economics professor and author of The Unbeatable Market. Ron resides in Arcata, California and is a founder of Premier Financial Group, a wealth management firm located in Eureka, California. He is a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma and can be reached at rossecon@gmail.com.