Friday, May 28, 2010

Ron Johnson's 72% Doctrine

Here's a paragraph from George Will's recent piece on Ron Johnson:
"The most basic right," Johnson says, "is the right to keep your property." Remembering the golden age when, thanks to Ronald Reagan, the top income tax rate was 28 percent, Johnson says: "For a brief moment we were 72 percent free."
Let's pause for a moment a consider the ramifications of this flaccid and callow comment.

The most obvious consequence of what Johnson is saying is that "freedom" can be measured by the amount one pays in federal income taxes. This would mean that one is only 100% free when one is not paying any taxes to Uncle Sam.

Since Johnson has stated that his campaign is going to about "freedom" I assume that, should he be elected to office, he will accept no salary and pay for his office expenses and staff out of pocket to ensure the complete freedom of his constituents. Obviously, no one in America can be 100% "free" until we are free from the shackles of taxes. If no one is paying any taxes, then there can't be any revenue flowing into federal government. If that's the case, Johnson can expects to run an office with a budget of $0.

Of course, it's not just Johnson's office that will suffer from a lack of funding. Other federal institutions will feel the crunch too, institutions that actually -- and according to Johnson, paradoxically -- defend Americans' freedom with the very money that apparently subjugates them, like the armed forces. Call us crazy, but since members of the military do far more actual defending of Americans' freedoms than "oppressed tax-payers" we think they deserve a decent paycheck and other minor things likes health care and body armor.

This is not the statement that comes from someone who is serious about the complexities of governance. If Johnson keeps up rhetoric like this he accomplish the impossible: actually making Russ Feingold look like a hawk when it comes to national security.

Here's the point: mature political philosophies don't come with such glaring inconsistencies. I'm not suggesting that a perfectly cohesive political philosophy be a prerequisite for holding office (in fact, we'd argue that a perfectly consistent political philosophy is impossible), but this is amateur hour. This is a statement as oblivious as Rand Paul's idiotic statement on the Civil Rights Act in so far as it simply does not comprehend the consequences of the policy being promoted.

This seems to be common trait among the tea party clique.

4 comments:

stew said...

Nicely expressed Mr. Chief

Since you keep nailin' it you probably shoulda called yourself The Carpenter

Anonymous said...

Then Terrence Wall has been free for years.

Stewius Bloviatus said...

Actually I believe Ron's remark is totally unsupported by "science"
I am sure that when ti comes to "human rights" and basic human needs Property is really far down the list of "basics".
as I recall the first BASIC human need is to maintain the "Integrity of the Body"
Then follow a bunch of things related to mental and physical health, Good relationships, self esteem meaningful work etc.

WAY before property. Humans are very territorial and tribal, but amassing property and investments as in the Republican Religion is handled in a variety of ways by different cultures and personality types ( news flash - not everyone has the exact same needs and desires)
But any retard can see that a whole lotta stuff has to come before you can even HAVE an economy, and why the right feels so excited over pretending all that stuff does not exist or is taken care of my magic is beyond me (well actually I have theories but anyway...)

So the way old Johnson starts to Sport Wood over Property is not a real Basic Right. More like a basic Doctrine in his Religion (so I guess you are right and he isn't REALLY a Lutheran, he actually and OPENLY! serves Mammon)

SO that means that HEALTH CARE and a variety of other human services supported by Democrats (and others) are far more in line with REALITY than the delusions and fantasies that the right hold over how this planet and human beings actually are. It is infantile in the extreme to be the mental equivalent of an infant in it's crib relating to everyone and everything it sees in a Gimme Gimme Gimme fashion. That is a position of intellectual inferiority and not a quality of leadership.

and no I am not a Socialist, I'm just not a greedy jackass

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