It looks like the Republican party is fracturing.  A bunch of those people got together and are making every effort to differentiate themselves from the spendthrift GWB #43 era ‘conservatives’.  I’m excited to see some more ‘cat herding’ in Conservative politics. In this way, they are becoming very much like the Democrats.

They have a new strategically elegant but tactically unworkable document they are calling the “Mount Vernon Statement.”

I’ll ignore all of the messy historical baggage just like the average “Morning in America” conservative and say that I think much of what they write works for many Americans.  I’m easily categorized as a Liberal and yet I agree with many of the principles in the rhetoric.  That is, until they turn the rhetoric into tactics and policy.

Trojan Horse Part 1

• It would be nice if they actually meant they want encourage Religious Freedom.  Tactically, their version of Freedom is called Christianity and the rest of you are going to Hell. (See “nature’s God”)
• It would be nice if ‘ordered liberty’ was meant to encourage more social and political freedom.  Tactically, they want Government to alter the lives of the people they don’t agree with.
• Government is the new Self.  It’s clear they want to alter the lives of the people who do not live according to their rules.  See “moral self-government”
• The military and Conservative pet projects win big too.  They get big budgets to spend on projects wrapped in the perfectly circular argument they will be ‘responsible.’

The bomb drop is buried near the end.  “economic reforms grounded in market solutions.”

Trojan Horse, Part 2

Let’s review some facts regarding capitalism and how the vaunted ‘market solutions’ accelerate economic disparity and lead to a weaker economy.  This ‘market solutions’ newspeak is not exclusive to the Republicans.  The Dems are using the same kind of  ‘market driven’ newspeak and they are as much to blame for the last 20 years of economic disparity.

Question: What is the rough definition of  an economic market?

Answer: A place potential Buyers and Sellers meet to possibly exchange goods and services.

Examples of markets are a car dealership, the grocery store, ebay.com.

Question: Are markets all-inclusive?

Answer: Never.  There may be lots of willing suppliers for eggs at greater than $25/dozen, but there are very few buyers.  This perfectly satisfies the political argument of ‘market solutions’ and more specifically meets the definition of a market.  Mission Accomplished!!! (GWB ironic reference)

Examples of inclusive markets are Ferrari automobiles, private American Medical Insurance policies, your grocery store with the homeless person in back digging through the trash.   Each market example has customers and the rest just stand idle.

There are at least two consequences of  ‘market solutions’ groupthink.

1. Increase economic disparity.  10+ years of unfettered capitalism in the U.S. has shown (again) that it ends up making more people poorer and few people richer.  Diminished economic activity follows.  Fewer people have disposable income as a result of increasing economic disparity.
2. Political and social instability.  People are falling out of the economy (> 10% unemployment, closer to 17%.) and probably won’t have the same kind of wages when they eventually return to work.  This creates a great deal of social and political instability.

The economic consequences of the Mount Vernon Statement are clear, it will  increase the ranks of the working poor, decrease social and political stability all of which decreases economic activity.

For those wondering why I don’t pound the Democrats as mercilessly, the Democratic Party has always been equivalent to herding cats.