Tag: Inequality

The Idol of Equality

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To put equality ahead of liberty is to war against human nature.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online 

447px-Alexis_de_tocqueville“There is, in fact, a manly and lawful passion for equality which excites men to wish all to be powerful and honored. This passion tends to elevate the humble to the rank of the great; but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.”

—Alexis de Tocqueville

In his famous admonition about the tyranny of the majority, Tocqueville went on to warn that “Liberty is not the chief and constant object of their desires; equality is their idol: they make rapid and sudden efforts to obtain liberty, and if they miss their aim resign themselves to their disappointment; but nothing can satisfy them except equality, and rather than lose it they resolve to perish.” Continue reading “The Idol of Equality” →

Intelligent Populism vs. Mindless Progressivism

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by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media 

New Deal Liberals Transform into the Faux Populist Radical Left

Ronald Searle’s Big Fat Cat Book via Flickr

With elections looming in 2014, it is about time for Barack Obama to gear up another progressive “war” against the rich, the limb loppers, the fat cats, the tonsil pullers, the “enemies” of Latinos, the jet junketers, the women haters, and those who knew neither when to stop profiting nor how the government had really built their businesses. We shall shortly witness some of the wealthiest and most privileged of capitalist America decrying inequality and unfairness from the 18th hole in Hawaii, the Malibu gated estate, and the Beacon Hill mansion. And the faux populism will probably work, at least if 2008 and 2012 are any indications.

It is easy to chart the evolution of the wealthy progressive elite from the occasional limousine liberal of the 1950s and 1960s to the now dominant hierarchy of the Democratic Party.

The traditional Democratic boilerplate that I grew up with (as much as a ten year old can notice much of anything in 1963) — minimum wage, 40-hour work week, overtime pay, disability insurance, fair housing, civil rights, assistance for the needy Continue reading “Intelligent Populism vs. Mindless Progressivism” →

The Inequality Smokescreen

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by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine 

Desperate for a diversion from the disasters of Obamacare, the president has conjured up the old leftist “income inequality” cliché. His court-pundits complain that “the richest nation on earth is starting to resemble a banana republic,” according toThe New Republic, while Berkeley Professor Robert Reich has thundered against “casino capitalism,” blaming it for “the greatest concentration of the nation’s income and wealth at the very top since the Gilded Age of the nineteenth century, with the richest 400 Americans owning as much as the bottom 150 million put together.” Continue reading “The Inequality Smokescreen” →

Islam on Cows, Horses Camels and Women

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by Raymond Ibrahim // FrontPage Magazine

One of the few positive developments following the rise of the Islamists

By Peter Hagyo-Kovacs

during the “Arab Spring” is that today many average and/or nominal Muslims are seeing the true face of Islam and its teachings.  And many—as evinced by the June 30 Revolution of Egypt, which saw the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood—don’t want to deal with it. Continue reading “Islam on Cows, Horses Camels and Women” →

How Dare You?! The Supremacist Nature of Muslim ‘Grievances’

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by Raymond Ibrahim // Jerusalem Post

http://www.raymondibrahim.com/
http://www.raymondibrahim.com/

In 2012 in Pakistan, as Christian children were singing carols inside their church, Muslim men from a nearby mosque barged in with an axe, destroyed the furniture, desecrated the altar, and beat the children.  Their justification for such violence?  “You are disturbing our prayers…. How dare you use the mike and speakers?” Continue reading “How Dare You?! The Supremacist Nature of Muslim ‘Grievances’” →

How to Weaken an Economy

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by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

It is not easy to ruin the American economy; doing nothing[1] usually means it repairs itself[2] and soon is healthier than before a recession. Continue reading “How to Weaken an Economy” →

Why Not Pay Higher Taxes?

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by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

The usual liberal complaint against the conservative opposition to higher income taxes is greed and the better-offs’ self-serving reluctance to pay their “fair share.” Continue reading “Why Not Pay Higher Taxes?” →

Blame Our Failing Schools for Occupy Wall Street

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by Bruce S. Thornton

FrontPage Magazine

Having taught in a state university for thirty years, I’m not surprised by the ignorance on display among the Occupy Wall Street protestors. Continue reading “Blame Our Failing Schools for Occupy Wall Street” →

Obama’s Empty Apologetics

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by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

At any time in the 2,500-year history of Western diplomacy, has a head of state been advised by his host not to apologize for a long-ago act? I cannot think offhand of any instance until, apparently, two years ago. Continue reading “Obama’s Empty Apologetics” →

Wall Street’s Disgruntles Utopians

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by Bruce S. Thornton

FrontPage Magazine

The Occupy Wall Street protesters are looking more and more like the shock troops of the Democratic Party’s electoral tactic of class warfare. Responding to a question about the protesters, the President gave an oblique endorsement when he said, “The American people understand that not everybody has been following the rules; that Wall Street is an example of that.” Continue reading “Wall Street’s Disgruntles Utopians” →