God is a Capitalist

Sunday, August 18, 2019

New National Conservatism Is Old Mercantilism



New National Conservatism Is Old Mercantilism
Source: AP Photo/Richard Drew
Recently some conservatives got together at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in New York City to plot the future of what they hope is a new movement. Headlined by Fox’s Tucker Carlson and Ambassador John Bolton, the meeting attempted to...

“Bring together public figures, journalists, scholars, and students who understand that the past and future of conservatism are inextricably tied to the idea of the nation, to the principle of national independence, and to the revival of the unique national traditions that alone have the power to bind a people together and bring about their flourishing."

One writer who attended the conference reported on the speech by Mary Eberstadt, an essayist and novelist at the Faith and Reason Institute. Eberstadt argued that,

“[...] We ought to ask what is actually conducive to the human flourishing of our country’s citizens.

“Libertarianism [...] is simply incapable of answering this question. It lacks the moral foundation necessary to understand the good of the human person, and it fails to develop the habit of mind that looks to the wisdom that preceded Adam Smith and Austrian economics. Because libertarianism exalts autonomy and self-determination above all else, it is willing to accept immense human suffering—such as that caused by the opioid crisis, our culture’s deep sexual disorder, the breakdown of the American family, and the scourge of racism—as so much collateral damage. To libertarianism, these things are surely regrettable, but they are ultimately an acceptable price to pay for individual freedom."

continued at Townhall Finance

Will The Democratic Conventions Be As Violent As 1968?

Source: AP Photo/Jeff Chiu


During their demonstration held Saturday, June 30, in downtown Portland, Antifa (anti-fascist) marchers swinging baseball bats beat an elderly man and one who came to his defense. Then they beat journalist Andy Ngo, leaving him with serious head injuries.

Recently, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez insisted that the US had built Nazi-style concentration camps to hold immigrants:


”The United States is running concentration camps on our southern border and that is exactly what they are – they are concentration camps – and if that doesn’t bother you,” Ocasio-Cortez ““I don’t use those words lightly. I don’t use those words to just throw bombs,” she continued. “I use the word because that’s what an administration that creates concentration camps is. A presidency that creates concentration camps is fascist and it’s very difficult to say that.”

Those seem like unrelated incidents, but they’re not. They’re all about “critical theory.” Bear with me as I explain because the left’s embrace of the theory explains why the coming party conventions may become as violent as the Democratic Convention of 1968.

Depending on who you read, critical theory can be an upstart philosophy or ancient one. This post, “Just what is ‘Critical Race Theory’ Anyway?” provides an excellent introduction with good links for those who want to go deeper. Like most nonsense, the “theory” if filled with philosophical filigree to give it the appearance of substance. Boiled down, it’s just this: power is everything and all that matters. If they’re deconstructing an ice cream cone or politics, the only thing they care about is who holds the power. In every activity, in every way and every day, someone with power is oppressing someone with less power. Nice people don’t exist; only oppressors and the oppressed.
continued at Townhall Finance.