So the American Economy had negative growth in the fourth quarter of 2012 and the White House is blaming Republicans. This, along with the recent testimony of Secretary of State Clinton regarding the Benghazi boondoggle, got me to thinking. While the two things are not really related they do descend from a philosophy that permeates the left wing ideologues that hold power currently.
Essentially, left-wing ideology is built on wishful thinking.
This is most easily seen in the Benghazi affair and the events leading up to it, along with accompanying events in Egypt.
We were told by the Obama administration and career bureaucrats in the State Department that the “Arab Spring” was the rise of secular democracy in the 10-40 window, where monarchies and dictatorships had been the norm for so long. In Obama’s world, “change” is always good, especially if change moves us away from Western values and interests. In recent years, Libya’s Qaddafi, like Egypt’s Mubarak, had walked the thin line of cooperation with the West and detente with Israel, while making hard-line speeches to their people to keep their Islamic bona fides intact.
By our Western Civ., liberal democracy standards, Qaddafi and Mubarak were both horrible dictators, but it was wishful thinking on the part of liberals to believe that anything would be better than them. Conservatives who warned that the Muslim Brotherhood would fill the vacuum if the relatively moderate dictators were removed were mocked and vilified. Yet that is exactly what is happening. The Muslim Brotherhood is the only entity prepared to fill the power vacuum, so in Egypt, Morsi is clamping down in much the same way as Mubarak did, and the Egyptian revolution may have traded frying pan for fire.
In Libya, the best that can be said is that wishful thinking prevented taking action that would have protected the people on the ground from the radical Islamic elements that attacked and killed our ambassador and three others who tried to come to his aid. Pollyanna-worthy denials of additional security, lest the Muslims be offended, allowed the attack to happen and also prevented rescue. We learned recently that Marines boarding helicopters for Benghazi were forbidden to wear American military uniforms, because that would reveal that the “Arab Spring” was not what the Obama administration sorely wanted it to be.
But the wishful thinking of the left can be seen in the economy too. Unlike the robust fourth quarters during which Reagan, Clinton and George W. Bush were reelected, we were only TOLD the economy was turning around under Obama, to ensure his reelection. Now reality has reared its ugly head.
After four years of anemic growth in GDP during which the Obama administration blamed Bush for the continuing job losses and unemployment figures that appeared better than reality because they ignored people whose unemployment ran out, we at last have actual negative growth figures.
Economists are shocked!
I can’t say that I am. In economics more than anything else, Marxists tend to always believe with fanatical loyalty that their ideas will work and the Free Market will not, in spite of all evidence to the contrary. So when the dismal report came out, the White House blamed Republicans in the House of Representatives. At least they didn’t blame Bush by name.
But, the House has passed numerous bills and budgets which have gone into the black hole known as Harry Reid’s office, never to be heard from again. The House acts, the Senate does nothing and the White House calls Republicans “obstructionists”.
If only wishing would make the economy come up roses and bring world peace!
