12 thoughts on “A Modest Proposal For Republicans”
For the record I did read the whole thing but it never really got to any semblance of “a lot of good ideas”.
Your old platform of capitalism and liberty and whatever no longer excites people.
Can’t really tell here if he thinks the problem is with the capitalism and liberty stuff or the whatever stuff, though it’s clear he thinks the lack of excitement is problematic. Obviously Trumps tweets were bad excitement, or not exciting enough maybe.
I hate you and you hate me. But maybe I would hate you less if you didn’t suck. Also, the more confused you are, the more you flail around sabotaging everything.
OK, I think we can conclude it’s the “whatever” part that’s bad. Too confusing. We suck, but we should strive to do so in a less confusing way. You see, I’m conflicted because I can’t clearly communicate exactly why you suck, and “capitalism and liberty” makes it even harder (you bastards), but everyone can surely agree that flailing around and sabotaging things is very bad.
Whenever an upper-class institution tried to make him (Trump) admit that they were the experts and he should bow to them, he spat in their faces instead. This was terrible; he spat in the faces of epidemiologists trying to tell him about an epidemic!
Followed by a reference to Thabo Mbeki and AIDS. The only reason I didn’t spit out coffee is because by happy coincidence I didn’t have any in my mouth at the time. I mean, there couldn’t possibly have been any epidemiologists involved in Operation Warp Speed. That whole thing was accomplished by former Star Trek scriptwriters.
The pro-Trump shift among blacks and Hispanics in 2020 proves that minorities are willing to vote Republican once someone frames the conflict in class terms. And success stories like Ben Carson, Ted Cruz and Nikki Haley prove that white Republicans are friendly to minorities once they’re convinced they share their values. All you need to do is drag both sides to the altar and tie the knot.
This is already getting long but seriously? Blacks and Hispanics are incapable of casting their votes based on how their lives have improved or not? And “white Republicans are friendly to minorities” based on values? Would you care to explore when and where they are un-friendly to minorities? I mean, you wrote those words, there’s clear evidence you’re sentient, care to expand a bit? Or is “dragging to the altar” all that’s required to get your point.
Being against the “mainstream media” sounds kind of conspiratorial. Instead, you’re against the upper-class media,
One of Glenn’s commenters made a great point: Judge the effectiveness of a term by how the left reacts to it. Based on that, “Corporate Media” wins hands down.
You’re fighting wars on all these things anyway. But now you can fight them while using the word “class”. You can have a specific target in mind: eliminating “classism”. And since you know your enemy, you can have an actual plan for victory, instead of just shouting louder and louder about how angry you are.
Good effing lord, I could probably be fairly easily convinced this guy was in some important way “not quite right” when he wrote this. Who the hell spent the last four years “shouting louder and louder about how angry you are.” But this is different you see. “Eliminate classism!!!” is different. Just make sure you don’t shout it louder than the last time you shouted it.
I’ve been reading the guy off and on for a few years; he’s sharp and usually worthwhile. There are a few cogent points here, but I get an overwhelming sense that his genius-complex went off the rails.
Kind of interesting: The piece is about class and classism, and references to upper class and lower class are frequent. Control-F on “middle”: Zero.
I think you have to read his earlier book review on Fussell to understand the labels. The colloquial understanding of middle class doesn’t seem to apply here, or rather he seems to be referring to “upper middle” and “lower middle” classes.
Good fisking! I read the first part of his piece, thought “Well, um, no.” and popped back here. He’d just reviewed Paul Fussell’s book “class” and I suppose he was trying to use Fussell’s insights to explain a quite different division. In the US, class lines don’t map with political lines. Coastal elites are very different from the upper class in fly-over country. And the same holds true all down the line, with poor urban folks in many blue states voting 90% Democrat, while the same class might vote overwhelmingly Republican in red states.
“Most of what he said was offensive, blatantly false, or alienated more people than it won”
Um, is that something your Auto-Complete generates when you type the letter “M”?
If that was Fuselli, I actually read his book on class and found it a set of vicious mean-spirited caricatures that carefully evaded anything resembling a serious explanation or self-reflection.
Why am I not surprised he’d put out a screed like this.
Yes, America might be due for a class war. There are one or two parasite classes that are the problem. Everyone else just wants to work for an honest living in a nation where working for an honest living doesn’t see you broken down into serfdom/slavery as punishment for your virtues. Pissing on the untermenschen isn’t going to put out any fires.
Don’t fail to notice the title of the piece, advisedly drawn from Swift’s “Modest Proposal” to kill and eat the poor.
I’ve read Scott for years but am honestly uncertain what his intention is with this piece.
Republicans should attack Democrat’s strategy. They want racial, gender, class, and ethnic divisions, so attack those divisions in their party and offer an alternative that views people as individuals in control of their own means of production with the potential to change their lives and do great things.
The worst part about this article was the starting premise: “I hate you and you hate me.”
I see the far left Democrats exude hatred for Republicans – or just anyone who disagrees with them – in horrifying quantities. I don’t see the reverse. The Left defiles the memory of Rush Limbaugh by screaming accusations that Rush “spewed” hatred – but cannot offer a single example. They accuse us of hating them – but cannot offer a single example.
I may look down on them to some degree simply for their unwillingness to think and attempt to persuade, and resort immediately to force to get their way. I may even consider them dangerous. But I can’t think of a Leftist that I hate. In fact, I can’t think of anyone that I hate. There are a few people with whom I’m very angry, but no one I hate.
I don’t understand the hatred from the Left, and have never seen anything like it before. But I can, from history, understand why blacks and other minorities in years gone by felt so threatened…
I had to read [most of it} because of the comments.
I get the “A Modest Proposal” but still “the plan” seems roughly good to me.
I think I add that illegal immigrants should be required to do jury duty- like say 10 times more then citizens {or be immediately deported}.
The Professor at Instapundit has already been hitting the “class” button for a long time so that aspect isn’t particularly new. It’s also apparent that we are in a revolution imposed from the top down, implemented by virtual oligarchs which need to be dealt with. My strategy of choice would be breaking up the big digital combines and using short term property taxes to reduce the individual oligarch’s monetary power down to less effective levels. This first part can be done inside of the context of restoring the free market. The second is something the left has been threatening forever to gain campaign money. The pro-freedom folks should help them out by actually pushing the button. Large concentrations of government power or wealth power = less individual freedom.
What do you mean by ‘short term property taxes’, and when has the left been threatening them forever? First time I’VE heard this? Some example are in order because I cannot recall any of this!
For the record I did read the whole thing but it never really got to any semblance of “a lot of good ideas”.
Can’t really tell here if he thinks the problem is with the capitalism and liberty stuff or the whatever stuff, though it’s clear he thinks the lack of excitement is problematic. Obviously Trumps tweets were bad excitement, or not exciting enough maybe.
OK, I think we can conclude it’s the “whatever” part that’s bad. Too confusing. We suck, but we should strive to do so in a less confusing way. You see, I’m conflicted because I can’t clearly communicate exactly why you suck, and “capitalism and liberty” makes it even harder (you bastards), but everyone can surely agree that flailing around and sabotaging things is very bad.
Followed by a reference to Thabo Mbeki and AIDS. The only reason I didn’t spit out coffee is because by happy coincidence I didn’t have any in my mouth at the time. I mean, there couldn’t possibly have been any epidemiologists involved in Operation Warp Speed. That whole thing was accomplished by former Star Trek scriptwriters.
This is already getting long but seriously? Blacks and Hispanics are incapable of casting their votes based on how their lives have improved or not? And “white Republicans are friendly to minorities” based on values? Would you care to explore when and where they are un-friendly to minorities? I mean, you wrote those words, there’s clear evidence you’re sentient, care to expand a bit? Or is “dragging to the altar” all that’s required to get your point.
One of Glenn’s commenters made a great point: Judge the effectiveness of a term by how the left reacts to it. Based on that, “Corporate Media” wins hands down.
Good effing lord, I could probably be fairly easily convinced this guy was in some important way “not quite right” when he wrote this. Who the hell spent the last four years “shouting louder and louder about how angry you are.” But this is different you see. “Eliminate classism!!!” is different. Just make sure you don’t shout it louder than the last time you shouted it.
I’ve been reading the guy off and on for a few years; he’s sharp and usually worthwhile. There are a few cogent points here, but I get an overwhelming sense that his genius-complex went off the rails.
Kind of interesting: The piece is about class and classism, and references to upper class and lower class are frequent. Control-F on “middle”: Zero.
I think you have to read his earlier book review on Fussell to understand the labels. The colloquial understanding of middle class doesn’t seem to apply here, or rather he seems to be referring to “upper middle” and “lower middle” classes.
Good fisking! I read the first part of his piece, thought “Well, um, no.” and popped back here. He’d just reviewed Paul Fussell’s book “class” and I suppose he was trying to use Fussell’s insights to explain a quite different division. In the US, class lines don’t map with political lines. Coastal elites are very different from the upper class in fly-over country. And the same holds true all down the line, with poor urban folks in many blue states voting 90% Democrat, while the same class might vote overwhelmingly Republican in red states.
“Most of what he said was offensive, blatantly false, or alienated more people than it won”
Um, is that something your Auto-Complete generates when you type the letter “M”?
If that was Fuselli, I actually read his book on class and found it a set of vicious mean-spirited caricatures that carefully evaded anything resembling a serious explanation or self-reflection.
Why am I not surprised he’d put out a screed like this.
Yes, America might be due for a class war. There are one or two parasite classes that are the problem. Everyone else just wants to work for an honest living in a nation where working for an honest living doesn’t see you broken down into serfdom/slavery as punishment for your virtues. Pissing on the untermenschen isn’t going to put out any fires.
Don’t fail to notice the title of the piece, advisedly drawn from Swift’s “Modest Proposal” to kill and eat the poor.
I’ve read Scott for years but am honestly uncertain what his intention is with this piece.
Republicans should attack Democrat’s strategy. They want racial, gender, class, and ethnic divisions, so attack those divisions in their party and offer an alternative that views people as individuals in control of their own means of production with the potential to change their lives and do great things.
The worst part about this article was the starting premise: “I hate you and you hate me.”
I see the far left Democrats exude hatred for Republicans – or just anyone who disagrees with them – in horrifying quantities. I don’t see the reverse. The Left defiles the memory of Rush Limbaugh by screaming accusations that Rush “spewed” hatred – but cannot offer a single example. They accuse us of hating them – but cannot offer a single example.
I may look down on them to some degree simply for their unwillingness to think and attempt to persuade, and resort immediately to force to get their way. I may even consider them dangerous. But I can’t think of a Leftist that I hate. In fact, I can’t think of anyone that I hate. There are a few people with whom I’m very angry, but no one I hate.
I don’t understand the hatred from the Left, and have never seen anything like it before. But I can, from history, understand why blacks and other minorities in years gone by felt so threatened…
I had to read [most of it} because of the comments.
I get the “A Modest Proposal” but still “the plan” seems roughly good to me.
I think I add that illegal immigrants should be required to do jury duty- like say 10 times more then citizens {or be immediately deported}.
The Professor at Instapundit has already been hitting the “class” button for a long time so that aspect isn’t particularly new. It’s also apparent that we are in a revolution imposed from the top down, implemented by virtual oligarchs which need to be dealt with. My strategy of choice would be breaking up the big digital combines and using short term property taxes to reduce the individual oligarch’s monetary power down to less effective levels. This first part can be done inside of the context of restoring the free market. The second is something the left has been threatening forever to gain campaign money. The pro-freedom folks should help them out by actually pushing the button. Large concentrations of government power or wealth power = less individual freedom.
What do you mean by ‘short term property taxes’, and when has the left been threatening them forever? First time I’VE heard this? Some example are in order because I cannot recall any of this!