The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week's Watcher's Council match up.
"You know, when Republicans were in charge, we doubled the debt. But, now, our concern is the Democrats are in charge and they're tripling the debt. So, really, our concern is that we want smaller government. - Rand Paul
"We believe, as our founders did, that 'the pursuit of happiness' depends upon individual liberty; and individual liberty requires limited government." - Paul Ryan, GOP Speaker of the House
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. ” - Goethe
This week's winning essay,Bookworm Room's Because government is a force multiplier for evil, a vote for the small government candidate is a vote for good is her look at the virtues of limited government. Here's a slice:
I was struggling to explain to a Bernie supporter why his “compassionate” politics will not stop the risks to Americans from further socializing and therefore growing American government. In military terminology, a force multiplier is a single capability that, when added to an enterprise, dramatically increases the effect.
The problem with government is that, as it grows, no matter the original good intentions behind it, it invariably becomes a force multiplier for evil. Thus, once government power passes a certain point, government becomes the equivalent of a bull in a china shop, with its every motion causing massive damage. Incidentally, the china in that shop is always you — the individual.
I defy any one of you reading this to identify a huge government that has not eventually done great damage to its citizens. This is true whether the government was an imperial monarchy (Rome or China), a theocracy (Iran), a military dictatorship (every tin pot tyrant in Latin America), a socialist government (Greece), a communist government (USSR or China), or a demagogic cult of personality (a la, say, Mugabe in Zimbabwe).
Individuals can be stupid and even unbelievably cruel. Every day the media is filled with stories from around the world of people killing or harming each other, whether through carelessness or deliberate action. Reading these stories, we may long for a strong hand from above to create order. If you’re an environmentalist, you want government to beat down the polluters and the deniers. If you’re devoutly religious, you want leadership that stops blasphemy, premarital sex, abortion, and pornography. If you’re a feminist, you want to bring to heel men who demean women. People with strong ideals believe that they are being good when they seek an equally strong government that will enforce those beliefs.
There’s actually nothing wrong with voters within a small community enacting regulations that allow government to enforce their beliefs. Small governments are close to and responsive to the voters, making them ideal laboratories of democracy. For example, Colorado is a perfect test case for marijuana legalization. Local voters asked for it, it’s being implemented, and an interested America can see whether legalizing pot is a good thing or a bad thing. Because the experiment’s scale is finite, the ensuing damage is limited, those who hate the law’s effects can move elsewhere without leaving their country, and a local law is more easily reversed than something enacted and enforced at a national level.
Likewise, if California voters elect legislators who think that green cars will save the world, and therefore give enormous subsidies to rich people for buying electric cars at a discount . . . well, go for it. Smart, wealthy Californians will buy the subsidized car and then head for a low-tax state. Those who can’t afford the cars and resent the subsidies can also move. Meanwhile, the rest of America can marvel at a state with the highest poverty rate in America that subsidizes rich people’s toys.
When things happen at a national level, where governments are increasingly removed from their representatives (not to mention entirely removed from ideologically-driven Supreme Court justices) they rapidly become anti-democratic. This is most obvious when it comes to money because anything that involves the federal government involves money — incredibly vast sums of money. Where there’s money, there’s corruption. That’s how it came about that, during a painful recession, taxpayers across America find themselves funding Solyndra and related entities — not because doing so was good business, but because the government put its thumb on the scale. When those companies failed, there was nowhere for ripped-off Americans to go, short of emigrating.
More at the link.
In our non-Council category, the winner was Garry Kasparov in the Daily Beast with submitted by Bookworm Room. Chess champion Kasparov has a few things to say here to Bernie Sanders about socialism, having experienced it first hand....
Here are this week’s full results:
Council Winners
- *First place with 3 votes!-Bookworm Room – Because government is a force multiplier for evil, a vote for the small government candidate is a vote for good
- Second place with 2 2/3 votes –Puma By Design – NYPD Morale at Historic Low under Bill de Blasio
- Third place with 2 votes –Stately McDaniel Manor – The Obama CIA: Spying From Behind
- Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –The Daley Gator – Two words for those offended, butt hurt, or aggrieved by the views expressed by me on this humble blog
- Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –The Noisy Room – American Spring – Bread And Circuses
- Fifth place *t* with 1 vote –The Right Planet – Sargon of Akkad on the Regressive Left
- Fifth place *t* with 1 vote –GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – The Collapse Of Red China
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote –The Glittering Eye -Everything I Needed to Know About the Trump Campaign…
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote –Nice Deb – Michelle Fields Doubles Down: Breitbart Knew the Truth From The Very Beginning
Non-Council Winners
- First place with 3 1/3 votes! –Garry Kasparov/The Daily Beast-Garry Kasparov: Hey, Bernie, Don’t Lecture Me About Socialism. I Lived Through It.submitted by Bookworm Room
- Second place with 3 votes –Caroline Glick –The subversion of American Evangelicals submitted by The Noisy Room
- Third place with 1 2/3 votes –John C. Kluge/NY Post – Why I support Trump — and resent the elites trying to destroy him submitted by Joshuapundit
- Fourth place *t* with 1 vote –Jeff Greenfield/Politico – What’s Wrong With Hillary? submitted by The Glittering Eye
- Fourth place *t* with 1 vote –Bearing Arms – Trump's Primary victories a Yuge Blow To The Second Amendment submitted by Stately McDaniel Manor
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes - Stella Morabito/The Federalist –Socialism’s Bloody History Shows Millennials Should Think Twice Before Supporting It submitted by Puma By Design
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes - Kori Schake/The Atlantic – Obama: Fighting Wars He Believes Unwinnable submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Ben Shapiro/The Daily Wire - Donald Trump Is A Liar submitted by Nice Deb
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Tyler Durden/Zero Hedge – The Coming Collapse Of Saudi Arabia submitted by The Watcher
- Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote -The Rationalists – The Ideological Lens submitted by The Right Planet
- Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Roger L. Simon/PJ Media – GOP Should Use Trump, Not Abuse Trump submitted by The Watcher
See you next week!
Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum. and every Tuesday morning, when we reveal the weeks' nominees for Weasel of the Week!
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