Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Once Again, Democrats Believe In Democracy Until It Gets In Their Way #3

Yeah, it is getting so bad to report the Democrat party and their want to curtail democracy when it gets in their way. It is now getting into numbering these posts.
I showed how the Dems kind of don't like democracy in California in these posts last month.
Now national Democrats are getting into the act of yearning to subvert the democracy that they so espouse when convenient to their issues.
Lets start with a so-called intellectual.
The former director of the Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orszag, has an intellectual reason to cut back on democracy.You know, it just gets in the way of solving problems. You know all these people have to answer to voters what, every couple of years. Or every four years. Who knows?
Anyhow, according to Mr. Orszag, it is because we have differing points of view of the role of government, it gets in the way of "solving problems". He calls it polarization. I call it a democratic republic doing what it is supposed to do. See, it is up to the people, the voters, how they want to be governed. But, you know, that gets in the way of people like Mr. Orszag, AKA Mr. Problem Solver.
And how would Mr. Problem Solver take care of some of the most pressing problems?
Well, government by commission of course.
Take how he would like to solve one of the problems in regard to taxes. It is long, but read the whole graph:

What we need, then, are ways around our politicians. The first would be to expand automatic stabilizers—those tax and spending provisions that automatically expand when the economy weakens, thereby cushioning the blow, and automatically contract as the economy recovers, thereby helping to reduce the deficit. A progressive tax code is one such automatic stabilizer. The tax code takes less of your income as that income declines, so after-tax income tends to decline less in response to an economic shock than pre-tax income. Since spending is based on after-tax income, the impact on the economy is cushioned. Alan Auerbach of the University of California at Berkeley has found that, as a result, the tax code has, over the past 50 years, offset about 8 percent of the initial shock to GDP from economic downturns. For the same reason, making the tax code more progressive would strengthen its role as an automatic stabilizer. Unemployment insurance is another automatic stabilizer; as the economy weakens, unemployment insurance expands, providing a boost to demand right when the economy needs it.

WOW! That first sentence alone is cause for alarm. "What we need, then, are ways around our politicians." Can you imagine if, oh another director of OMB were to make such a comment. Hmm, maybe if someone like Rob Portman, now a senator from Ohio, would have made such a comment? We know what would happen.
"How dare he! Fascist! What does he mean about ways around our politicians?!"
But the fact is Mr. Orszag feels our politicians are so bad, we need to just have some automatic arbitrary tax policy that congress should not even be involved in.
And eventually, Mr. Orszag points out that his solutions kind of take the accountability factor away from our elected officials.
Gee, ya think?
And that is the reason Mr. Orszag lays out a case to take more away from congress, set up "independent" committees and or commissions as the solution to "gridlock".
Well, at least he makes an intellectual reason towards a mini-dictatorship.
The governor of North Carolina, Beverly Perdue, on the other hand just wants to put off elections for a while. Because of elections, according to Gov. Perdue, we can't "get things done and solve our problems".
Where have we heard that before?
According to this report in the Raleigh News-Observer, hardly right-wing central, Gov. Perdue made her comments in a "tone was level and she asked others to support her on the idea."
OK, read the full statement for yourself:

"You have to have more ability from Congress, I think, to work together and to get over the partisan bickering and focus on fixing things. I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that. The one good thing about Raleigh is that for so many years we worked across party lines. It's a little bit more contentious now but it's not impossible to try to do what's right in this state. You want people who don't worry about the next election."

OK, maybe reading it does not do it justice. So here is her saying her statement to the Cary, North Carolina Rotary Club.
Well, once the crap hit the fan, Gov. Perdue's minions tried various forms of damage control.
One tack was that she was joking. Yeah, sure she was. I guess Jay Leno, David Letterman or Jimmy Kimmel should be quaking in their boots for a comedienne is born in Gov. Perdue. The real kicker is that no one laughed at her comment.
Seeing that did not work, they tried the "Ahh, it is hyperbole" line. Here is Gov. Perdue's spokesminon, Chris Mackey:

"Come on. Gov. Perdue was obviously using hyperbole to highlight what we can all agree is a serious problem: Washington politicians who focus on their own election instead of what’s best for the people they serve."

It is such a problem, we should just suspend elections and not care the consequences of decisions of said elected officials.
Good Lord, what is happening to the Democrat party?
It is the stark realization that they may very well be thrown out on their ears in the 2012 election.
The fear among the Democrats is that 2010 was just an appetizer. That the conservatives and Republicans will go for the main course, the White House, and the side dish, the senate and get it next year.
So they lay out a case that it is these elections and elected officials that are the problem.
Again, if a conservative or Republican were to utter such things, said governor would be forced to resign. And or an official like a former director of OMB would never work again.
To the conspiracy crowd, this is how Team Obama will thwart next year's election. By using something to maybe try ol' Gov. Perdue's idea. Or circumvent congress as much as possible.
The real take from this is that we see the value of democracy to the left. That when the going gets tough, their inner statist rears its very ugly head.
The Founding Fathers got this.
The whole point of making the United States a republic, a democratic one, was to prevent such tyranny. The Founders did not think that elections would be suspended when it is inconvenient to one political faction over another. Nor did they envision government by committee or commission.
These examples are but a few in how the left reacts to having to debate and defend their positions. And it is not pretty.
More reason to be aware and hold those on our side accountable. And to put these statists on the sidelines where they belong.
Democracy is not cheap and expendable when inconvenient. Too bad some Democrats do not seem to get it.

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