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Sunday, December 15, 2013

The Childlike Mind of a Liberal

The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America – And What We Can do to Stop It – Thom Hartmann (Twelve Books)

They say you “can’t judge a book by the cover” but you may be able to take a stab at it based on the blurbs. It is a time-honored tradition for publisher to seek “independent” opinions about the author’s work from high profile, recognizable folks. The fact that Thom Hartmann’s latest is blurbed by a disgraced former member of the Obama inner circle and self-avowed communist (Van Jones), a thug union president (Richard Trumpka, AFL-CIO), a Sixties radical and domestic terrorist organization member (Tom Hayden), the only Socialist member of the U.S. Senate (Bernie Sanders), and an actor/environmentalist wing nut (Leonardo DiCaprio) should at the very least speak volumes.

There is an almost childlike quality to the liberal thought process; and Hartmann is a classic purveyor of the boogieman under the bed approach to trying to scare people with an imagined right wing cabal out to get the American people and to destroy the country. In The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America – And What We Can do to Stop It, Hartmann certainly doesn’t break any new ground; instead choosing to trod on familiar liberal territory, laughably trying to blame the likes of Ronald Reagan, the mythological Koch Brothers and “Economic Royalists” for engaging in this secret plot.

In a simpleminded fashion, Hartmann would have you believe that this cabal of wealthy right-wingers secretly control power. Certainly money plays a huge role in the pursuit of power, but Hartmann seems to forget the staggering wealth that is controlled by liberals! Hartmann’s prescriptions for fixing the problem revolve around classic liberal thought; increase the power, size and scope of government in all of our lives.

You don’t have to look far to see how far off the mark that idea is! Aside from the obvious failings of the economic policies of the Obama administration and the genius of Democrats in Washington who believe that food stamps and extended unemployment benefits are an economic stimulator; simply look at the state of big cities in this country. The top ten cities that are in dire economic states, if not outright bankrupt, all have one thing in common; decades of Democrat control. And these are the folks and the policies that Mr. Hartmann would have you believe are the answer for fixing our economic woes…I have to wonder what it is that Hartmann is drinking? Perhaps some grape Kool-Aid?

I think my favorite simpleminded section of the book is Hartmann’s plan to eliminate billionaires in the No Billionaires chapter. Apparently Hartmann has answered the age old question, “how much do you need?” The answer is $1 Billion and no more! Little Thommie would have you believe that because a billionaire’s wealth is soooo many multiples more than the average persons and that they can’t buy and equal number of multiples worth of stuff then billionaires are not job creators. Like I said, childlike. On just the consumer side, Hartmann would have you believe that billionaires can’t buy enough to create jobs. While Warren Buffet is certainly the exception to the rule, living in his Omaha ranch house, Hartmann believes that the average billionaire doesn’t own multiple homes, cars, and just mounds of high end stuff.

The point he completely misses is that most billionaires create stuff; not just ordinary stuff, but stuff that people want and that they buy, which is why they are billionaires! It’s not like those billionaires make the stuff they sell all by themselves; they hire people to make the stuff and those people take their paychecks and go buy more stuff from other people who make stuff! This isn’t brain surgery, its trickledown economics as envisioned by the evil, vile Reagan administration. By artificially limiting the amounts of money someone can make you stifle the desire to innovate and create. Apparently Hartmann is deluded enough to think that innovation will happen out of the clear blue sky.

Hartmann believes that by limiting freedoms and stifling innovation, the cornerstone things that make this country great, we can somehow magically fix our economic problems and live happily ever after. That’s the way fairytales end and that is the way liberals think.        

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