What the Midterms Mean

[Brian4Liberty]

What the Midterms Mean
By Jeff Deist

The Most Important Election of our Lifetime™ may be a referendum on Trump, Kavanaugh, #metoo, migrant caravans, or any number of manufactured outrages since the 2016 presidential election. It will not be a referendum on foreign policy, the Federal Reserve, debt, spending entitlements, spying, civil liberties, or anything important with regard to state power.

By any objective measure, the ideological and policy disagreements between the national Democrat and Republican parties are not significant. Both accept the central tenets of domestic and foreign interventionism, both accept the federal government as the chief organizing principle for American society, and both view politics simply as a fight for control of state apparatus.

Similarly, differences between policies actually enacted by Mr. Trump and the existing Congress and those likely to have been enacted by Mrs. Clinton and the same Congress are fairly small. While Mr. Trump alarms the Left with his tone and tenor, his actual views on taxes, spending, debt, trade, guns, immigration (the "Muslim ban" was neither) and war (unfortunately his good campaign rhetoric is largely abandoned) plainly comport with the general thrust of Clinton's neo-liberalism.

Today's ugly midterm elections are about style rather than substance, party rather than principle, and power rather than ideas. Americans do not much argue about whether we are governed by DC, and only slightly over how we are governed by DC. But we argue viciously about who governs us from DC.
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More: https://mises.org/wire/what-midterms-mean

[Todd]

That's really good analysis and food for thought. Puts things in a different perspective from all the crazy making. Shared...

[Ender]

What the Midterms Mean
By Jeff Deist

ON. THE. NOSE.

[clint4liberty]

Oh okay, thank you

[CCTelander]

Why does Jeff Deist hate America?

[shakey1]

[timosman]

Nancy Pelosi for the Speaker of the House!

[spudea]

A very naïve, short sighted, and blatantly false characterization. The past two years have revealed more differences than similarities, so much so it got me to vote in my first midterm.

[TheTexan]

A very naïve, short sighted, and blatantly false characterization. The past two years have revealed more differences than similarities, so much so it got me to vote in my first midterm.

Agreed. There's no way a Democrat house/senate would have passed anything remotely close to Trump's huge 0.5% income tax cut last year.

[CCTelander]

A very naïve, short sighted, and blatantly false characterization. The past two years have revealed more differences than similarities, so much so it got me to vote in my first midterm.

Of note:

Ron Paul "... when they politicize it they mean 'Well there's only two political parties,' and I'm always arguing 'I wish they'd get a second one' ..."

"...what we have today is a two party system. I think it's tragic. I think the two parties are exactly alike and when people ask me about this I say 'You know I'm waiting, they say "we need to solve this problem, we need a third party." I say no I think what we need is a second party.' " - Ron Paul

"The voting, the voting is a tricky question because, uh, people who tell me 'It's not worth it. I'm not gonna go vote.' you know this sort of thing. I respect them for that because they're not voting for the right reason. ... But then the other answer is wrong, 'You've been involved. You've been working hard to get elected.' I did and when I was doing that I was not trying to be a part of the system as much as using the system to promote something I believed in." - Ron Paul

Yeah, Deist and that senile old fool Ron Paul really need to get with the program and embrace the new intellectual and philosophical basis for the "liberty movement" which seems to go something like this:

Democrats = Bad
Republicans = Good
Trump = GREAT

A much more sophisticated and less naive approach to achieving liberty, to be sure.

[spudea]

Yeah, Deist and that senile old fool Ron Paul really need to get with the program and embrace the new intellectual and philosophical basis for the "liberty movement" which seems to go something like this:

Democrats = Bad
Republicans = Good
Trump = GREAT

A much more sophisticated and less naive approach to achieving liberty, to be sure.

Funny how everyone in the liberty movement run as republicans.

[Brian4Liberty]

Nancy Pelosi for the Speaker of the House!

Will her #Cromnibus be bigger than Paul Ryan’s?

Admittedly, it would be much easier to despise Pelosi, as she is naturally despicable. You can find out what’s in her cromnibus after she crams it down your throat.

[Brian4Liberty]

Funny how everyone in the liberty movement run as republicans.

It’s true that the liberty oriented Republicans like Rand have more influence on some issues with a GOP leadership and POTUS.

On the biggest issues such as those listed in the OP, they don’t have any influence, as the Democrats happily go along with the establishment, welfare/warfare state Republicans in leadership.

[oyarde]

Agreed. There's no way a Democrat house/senate would have passed anything remotely close to Trump's huge 0.5% income tax cut last year.

They would quadruple that as an increase and give it to the poor .

[TheTexan]

They would quadruple that as an increase and give it to the poor .

Define poor. Does that include me?

If so I'm fine with it.

[oyarde]

Define poor. Does that include me?

If so I'm fine with it.

They will tell you that but pocket it later . Shell game.

[Aratus]

Nancy Pelosi for the Speaker of the House!

Expect her to be challenged by a younger someone who is more impulsively radical. Impatient, even...