What Obama has in common with Right-wing nuts.

Barack Obama was waxing eloquently on television last night -- lots of style, no substance. Mr. Obama wants the passage of a new corporatist redistribution bill passed which will rip off taxpayers to subsidize big business ventures. He assures us that it is for our own good of course.
Obama pretends that this boondoggle legislation will solve the "current crisis". He said:

If there's anyone out there who still doesn't believe this constitutes a full-blown crisis, I suggest speaking to one of the millions of Americans whose lives have been turned upside down because they don't know where their next paycheck is coming from.

Please notice the old bait-and-switch con game that Obama is playing. The question was not whether there is a "crisis" but whether the confiscation of money from the remaining productive sectors of the economy, with their redistribution to the unproductive sectors, will solve the problem.

Now consider the piece written by the morals fascist from the misnamed Republican Liberty Caucus. In that piece he basically claimed that opposition, by an Obama appointee, to the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act indicates he is a "pornography buff" who supports the sexual exploitation of children. That is the same dishonest bait-and-switch that Obama just pulled on the bailout plan.

One of the most dishonest tactics pulled by advocates of state control is to pretend that any measure they propose to solve a problem (real or imaginary) is actually going to solve the problem. They allow no room for questioning the solution. If a real advocate of human rights argues that a piece of legislation tramples on liberty and won't solve the problem they will not acknowledge that the disagreement is over how to address an issue. Instead they pretend that the opponent doesn't want to solve the problem.

If you point out that the war on drugs doesn't prevent drug use, but has numerous consequences that makes drugs more deadly and inflicts massive harm on innocent people and the economy, the drug warriors dismiss your evidence by arguing you are "soft on drugs." If you question America's interventionist foreign policy, which has done much harm and created endless enemies for us, then you are an "appeaser" or "sympathizer with terrorists".

Obama is using the same sort of tactic to smear opponents to the boondoggle that he is proposing. In this sense the lunatic Right, as exemplified in the blog from the Republican Liberty (sic) Caucus, and the “Progressive Left” of Mr. Obama are identical. Each is proposing false solutions to real issues and then damning opponents to these bad solutions. Mr. Obama is pretending that to oppose his detrimental measures is to deny the reality of the economic crisis. The RLC claimed that opposition to bad legislation indicates one is pro “child porn”.

Such tactics are inherently dishonest and used by individuals who are inherently dishonest. Mr. Obama knows full well that opposition to his bailout exists because many good economists believe the plan is deeply flawed and will drag out the recession. The RLC character didn’t seem to bother to investigate the charges he was making and merely claims “various” sources for his smear – none of which he cites in any way, making it difficult to follow up on his claims. I, however, think it fair to conclude that the chances that the Obama appointee is actually pro child porn are slim at best.

I should also note that this sort of argumentation is inherently statist – by which I mean it promotes state control over the individual. The assumption that lies under this is that the proposal is really a solution. No matter how flawed the proposal to oppose it is to either deny the problem exists or to wish to see the “problem” continue.

Libertarians know that one can oppose both illicit drugs and the war on drugs, to frown on prostitution and anti-prostitution laws, to oppose the war on terror and terrorism. The Big Government crowd like to offer us false solutions. Either you must be for the recession or support billions in corporate subsidies for the politically connected. Either you must support badly crafted laws that reach well beyond their alleged purpose, such as the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act, or you want to sexually exploit children.

False solutions are false solutions, no matter what you call them. If they don’t solve the problem, or often make them worse, they are not solutions. But these Left wing and Right wing statists pretend that calling something by a particular name seems to make it that thing. Apparently, in their little minds, calling your cat Fido will turn her into a dog.

Advocates of freedom, real advocates, not the statists in the RLC, know that a thing is what it is. Calling it something else won’t make it something else. Obama’s bailout is wrong because it will make things worse. The Child Protection Act didn’t protect children; there are plenty of laws in place that are supposed to do that already. But it did give the State a lot more control over other matters. All we can do is point out the irrationality inherent in the argumentation of both the Left and the Right and hope that some day people wise up to this con job. Underneath their Red and Blue coats the conservatives and the progressive dress alike.