OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE ELECTION
What does the Republican party gaining control of the Senate, increasing their majority in the House, and winning Governorships in Democratic strongholds like Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland tell us?
-Maybe a growing number of individuals are finally seeing what big Government central planning really looks like, and they don’t like it. The President’s interventionist policies over the last 6 years made him the face of big Government. This made it possible for Republicans to run against him specifically, instead of running against a faceless entity called big Government.
– When the President said “his policies were on the ballot”, no truer statement has ever come out of his mouth. In his press conference the day after the election though, he tried to spin his way out of that statement. It didn’t work. He said the election showed ” the people” wanted their Government to “get stuff done”. No Mr. President, with all due respect, many people want You to get out of their lives and leave them alone. They want the Government to stop “doing stuff”, and/or repeal “the stuff” you have already implemented.
-I love how politicians say “the people” as if it’s a monolithic entity that has a single mind. “The People” is made up of millions of unique individuals. This fact is the reason why Big Government central planning won’t work, because one plan can’t please millions of individuals. Individuals are only happy when they are allowed to make choices based on what they value, not “the” choice that some totalitarian politician tries to force on them.
-If Republicans think that “the people” are now on their side, they are sadly mistaken. I think many individuals understood that the only way to stop the current Government intervention into their lives was to vote in Republicans and try to hold their feet to the fire. Many of us know there is no chance that the Democrat party will ever be for smaller Government. But that doesn’t mean the Republicans are for smaller Government. If establishment Republicans don’t try to stop the growth of Government, if they won’t stand up to the President, guess what happens in the next election.
-If the implementation of Obamacares employer mandate had been implemented in 2014, instead of unconstitutionally delaying it until 2015; if the shale oil revolution hadn’t created a vast majority of the new jobs the President is taking credit for; how much worse would Nov. 4th had been.
-Republican analysts moan about the fact that Romney got 4 million fewer Republican votes than Bush got in 2004, and crow about the fact that they got 5% more votes from Independents than Obama. They say if the Republicans had turned out, they would have won. Did they ever consider that the 4 million Republican votes they didn’t get are actually the 5% increase in independents. Many Independents used to be Republicans and probably still vote Republican.
-The Republican establishment doesn’t like the tea party and the libertarian wing of their party. Why? Because the tea party and the libertarians want Government to shrink while the establishment just wants to win elections so it can take big Government for a test drive. Do we realize that we are putting individuals in power and asking them to give up some of the power they wield? How hard is it to get rid of entitlements? Being in power is the ultimate entitlement.
-Alaska (69%), Arkansas (65%), South Dakota (55%), and Nebraska ((59%), all passed laws that increased the minimum wage. How can voters in these states who voted against expanding Government on the one hand, vote for Government intervention on the other? We know that economic reality won’t allow minimum wage laws to work like the central planners planned (Read: Minimum Wage Laws Create Unemployment). But, from The stand point of individual liberty, do these voters understand that they are interfering with a contract to which the employer and the employee voluntarily agreed. Do they realize that on the same ballot they voted to intervene in individuals lives, and to stop individuals in Government from interfering into their own lives. We have a lot of work to do in educating individuals about economics and individual liberty.
-It has taken 100 years of progressivism to get to this point in time where Government is involved In every aspect of our lives. How long do you think it will take to turn the ship around? It will take more than a few elections cycles. As F. A. Hayek said, “The battle for freedom must be won over and over again, the socialists of all parties must be persuaded or defeated if they and we are to remain free men“. The battle for individual freedom is going to be won at the state and local levels. Governors have to have the stones to stand up to the Federal Government. Rolling back Government is going to happen from the bottom up not from the top down in D.C.
LET’S LAUGH!
AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT 