04/28/2014
John Boehner mocked his own caucus last week, frankly declaring his allegiance to the American oligarchy of GOP donors lusting for cheap labor. But Democrats may get the last laugh, as political momentum is unmistakably building behind media darling Thomas Piketty’s plan for redistributive taxes on the wealthy. This is a both a dangerous crisis and a priceless opportunity for immigration patriots and National Conservatives — but they’ll need to take on a Stupid Party that seems determined to prove Karl Marx right.
After all, how can the Reds lose when the orange-skinned buffoon masquerading as the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives attacked his own colleagues for saying it was “hard” to pass Amnesty. Boehner then pretended to cry, an unfortunate tactic for a man who can’t seem to keep himself from weeping in public. It’s also the exact opposite of the political reality for House Republicans. They are under extraordinary pressure, from racial terrorism, corporate bribes, and Main Stream Media hysteria, to sell out the historic American nation.
Quin Hillyer at National Review guessed that Boehner must be stepping down after this “adolescent” attack that gave “no credit” to the good faith of his fellow Republicans. [Boehner Must Be Stepping Down as Speaker, April 25, 2014]. Even Rep. Raul Labrador, hardly a militant on the issue, expressed “disappointment” with the Speaker for “catering to the media and special interest groups.” [Labrador Slams Boehner Immigration Comments, by Eliana Johnson, National Review, April 25, 2014]
But the special interest group that is most important to Republicans like Boehner is the Donor Class. And, unfortunately for America, it is important to Conservatism Inc. too. Thus National Review published the same day some Open Borders agitprop, arguing for replacement of America’s “static” population in favor of more skilled and unskilled immigrants who show the “courage,” “selflessness,” and “risk-taking” that we evidently lack. The authors, unsurprisingly, are talk radio executive Lee Habeeb and Sheldon Adelson employee and gambling executive Mike Leven. [Immigration, America’s Advantage]. Left undiscussed, needless to say: the sweeping political transformation inevitable in the new Hispanic United States. Hispanics want, and will impose on the America they are being handed, sweeping Big Government policies that will render “limited government conservatism” irrelevant. [Forget immigration. It’s Big Government Hispanic Voters Want,By Tara Servatius, American Thinker, July 2, 2012]
For an illustration of the willful stupidity of the Republican Party on this point, check out Jared Taylor’s (polite) confrontation of a GOP candidate panel in Virginia, asking if whites should feel disturbed about becoming a minority in their own land. Each candidate robotically replied that it doesn’t matter where immigrants come from. The moderator contributed a speech about the family values of the Hispanic population (4:25) — prompting an outraged audience member to protest that they vote overwhelmingly for the Democrats. He got applause, but the moderator’s response was a startlingly loud burst of disturbing, frantic, and borderline insane laughter, before he moved on. [Will Republicans Ever Understand? American Renaissance, April 23, 2014]
In 2014, the GOP has a short-term advantage because of the “sixth year curse” and electoral gerrymandering. But the party’s refusal to confront reality courts disaster in the long run. Even aside from nonwhite contempt for “limited government,” Millennials overwhelmingly favor more government economic intervention. In response, both the GOP leadership and libertarian up and comers seem to be adopting the worst possible strategy, ensuring the American Right is defined solely by policies easily stereotyped as “tax cuts for the rich.”
This is especially disastrous as Americans are increasingly concerned about income inequality. A 2014 poll showing two-thirds are dissatisfied with wealth and income distribution in the U.S. [In U.S., 67% Dissatisfied With Income, Wealth Distribution, by Rebecca Riffkin, Gallup, January 20, 2014]. The American middle class is no longer the most prosperous in the world, contributing to a narrative that proclaims American decline [The American Dream is now just that for its middle classes, a dream, by Michael Cohen, The Guardian, April 26, 2014]. And a Princeton and Northwestern study [PDF] that ruled (perhaps a bit hyperbolically) that America is now an “oligarchy” received huge traffic on the liberal content aggregators like the Huffington Post and even the conservative press. The study “concluded that U.S. policies are formed more by special interest groups than by politicians properly representing the will of the general people, including the lower-income class.” [America is an oligarchy, not a democracy or republic, university study finds, by Cheryl Chumley, Washington Times, April 21, 2014] In other words, the wealthy essentially have a veto of public policy, meaning that even proposals with a vast amount of public support have no chance of adoption.
The Left is slowly rallying around a political theory to provide a rationale for action. French economist Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century is the #1 bestseller on Amazon.com and is receiving a vast amount of media attention [Here’s an unlikely bestseller: A 700-page book on 21st century economics, by Jia Lynn Yang, Washington Post, April 22, 2014].
Piketty writes that, as economic growth slows, income generated by wealth rapidly exceeds income generated by work, eventually leading to drastic income inequality and the domination of the society by the upper classes. His solution: redistributive income policies. Piketty argues explicitly for high tax rates for the wealthy, and, most dramatically, a global tax on wealth. [Why Liberals Have Fallen for Thomas Piketty, by Jordan Weissman, Slate, April 22, 2014]
Left unsaid by Piketty: how a global tax will lead to global institutions likely to be far more hostile to the historic American nation than even the U.S. federal government.
Conservatives are responding dismissively. Rush Limbaugh rolls his eyes at leftist “organisms” over “some French socialist, Marxist, communist, economist.” [The Left is giddy over new Marxist book, by Rush Limbaugh, RushLimbaugh.com, April 24, 2014]. More subtle critics include Michael Tanner at National Review, who says the problem “is more likely a result of too little capitalism, not too much.” [Piketty Gets It Wrong, April 23, 2014] And James Pethokoukis at AEI largely dismisses inequality as a concern and says we need more “disruptive innovation.” He approvingly quotes immigration enthusiast economist Tyler Cowen, who thinks the solution is “encouraging more housing construction.” [How to respond to Thomas Piketty’s inequality alarmism, April 22, 2014]
Whatever the truth of Piketty’s communist affiliations or the value of the Beltway Right’s policy prescriptions, this kind of rhetoric simply doesn’t work anymore. Younger Americans, who are also more likely to be non-white, actually favor socialism over capitalism by a plurality. Simply repeating slogans isn’t going to do it anymore: younger Americans are losing faith in the American Dream.
Of course, there is an alternative — actually standing up for the historic American nation by fighting mass immigration. As columnist Ann Coulter pointed out, the best thing that could be done for American workers would be an immigration moratorium. And the best way of preventing America devolving fully into an “oligarchy” is, as National Conservative hero Senator Jeff Sessions (R-America) put it, to “reject the notion…that a small cadre of CEOs can tailor the nation’s entire immigration policy to suit their narrow interests.”
Yet, oddly enough, no-one except Steve Sailer seems to be making the connection between the simultaneously rise of union-busting, cheap-labor immigration and massive income inequality — certainly not Piketty. And no one in the MSM seem interested in making the connection between the rise of “oligarchy” and the fact that Mark Zuckerberg, George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, and Sheldon Adelson all support mass immigration and middle class Americans don’t.
Bringing up the immigration issue is all it would take to beat back Piketty and the rest of the Leftists and their billionaire-owned MSM allies.
But rather than raise the obvious point, Republican leaders like Boehner have instead decided it’s a better strategy to tell the MSM that they are still hoping to pass Amnesty and betray their voters as soon as they get the opportunity.
Anything to please the donors!
Daniel Shuchman of the Wall Street Journal charged on April 21 that Thomas Piketty Revives Marx for the 21st Century. Marx thought the end of capitalism was inevitable. But I’m more reminded of his discipline Vladimir Lenin — who was said to have bragged that the capitalists would sell the rope with which they’d be hanged.
The Republican Establishment seems determined to prove him correct.
James Kirkpatrick is a Beltway veteran and a refugee from Conservatism Inc.
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