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Individual Blog Post From Aaron Smith
Sunday, July 13th 2014
E.J. Dionne gives up the game and defines liberalism
Posted Sun Jul 13 2014 22:51
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We need to call 911. E.J. Dionne just had a column that mentioned Glenn Beck and Christians with a minimum of sneering. I believe his head must have exploded
Aside from creating a situation which calls for all of Barack's horses and all of Barack's men to see if they can put poor E.J. Dionne together again, Mr. Dionne gives us a money quote that defines the liberal philosophy:
The back story is about the anti-trafficking laws that comes up in yet another round of "It's Bush's fault" when confronting a failure of the Obama administration. Mr. Dionne does not point out that the explosion of unaccompanied minors came not after Bush signed a re-authorization of a Clinton-era law but two years after Obama decided to re-write the law all by his lonesome.
So here we are with thousands of kids flooding the border and Mr. Dionne says that the policy that created a situation where children are being transported through incredibly dangerous conditions, overloading our infrastructure cannot be changed because the authors' hearts were in the right place.
Can we ask for a better definition of liberalism?
Conservatives have long pointed out that liberals ignore economic incentives and second order effects.
Mr. Dionne proves we are too generous. Liberals just don't care about second order effects. Consequences are not an afterthought, they are not given thought.
Kids die in the desert, maybe after the coyotes decide to play with them? Who cares?
American schools and social services crash under the weight of a world trying to escape the failed choices of their collapsing governments? Who cares?
Diseases once thought historical footnotes now immigrating here and infecting people that Americans just wouldn't do? Who cares?
E.J. Dionne feels good. That is the definition of a policy success in his world. And that folks is why we are in a culture war and why the term culture war has to be taken out of the context of social issues. It is the entire question of what culture we have: freedom versus socialism.
We cannot reason with people who hold no particular regard for reason. We can only win.