Stupidity, Evil, and Our Government

There's a saying, "Never attribute to malice what can be explained by mere incompetence."  But there's just so much stupidity around these days, it's really hard to continue to believe that there's not intentional evil behind it all.

As the great Thomas Sowell does from time to time, here's a list of things that don't particularly have anything to do with each other.  Or - maybe they do?

War on Poverty - Poverty Won

50 years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson (D) declared "unconditional war on poverty."  Instead of focusing on creating opportunities for poor people to increase their earnings as Mr. Johnson promised, our welfare programs now lock people into poverty.

The Democrats know that their programs encourage women to have babies who'll grow up poor, but that's OK - people who're dependent on the government tend to vote for Democrats.  Their programs have doomed millions to multi-generation poverty.  That's one reason we call them the evil party.  Our guys hardly ever publicly point this out, which is why we're the stupid party.

Class Warfare

The Democrats whine about "income inequality," claiming that the share of our national wealth held by the top 1% keeps increasing.  They don't admit that membership in the top 1% is volatile - although there are a few repeaters, most people on the Forbes "400 richest" list get there for a year or two and then fall off.  The 1% keeps churning, but Democrats act as if it's a stable group and try to get voters to envy people who have more than they do.  Stirring up envy and strive within our nation is another reason to call them the evil party.  We don't point this out, which is another reason we're the stupid party.

Taxing the Rich

Democrats complain that rich people don't pay their "fair share" of taxes.  New York's Mayor Michael Blomberg was more honest: "One percent of the households that file in this city pay something like 50% of the taxes.  In the city, that's something like 40,000 people.  If a handful left, any raise would make it revenue neutral.  The question is what's fair.  If 1% are paying 50% of the taxes, you want to make it even more?"  Deliberately stirring up hatred between Americans is, as noted, a reason to call the Democrats the evil party.  We don't publicize Mayor Blomberg's honestly; that makes us the stupid party.

What's more, taxing the rich is a double lie because the rich don't have enough money to run the government for very long.  Our government is far, far larger than even the richest of men: if we confiscated every last cent Bill Gates has and left him standing shivering in his whitey-tighties, all that money would run the government for only a few days.  Any government growth will have to tax the middle class because that's where the money is - yet nobody on the left since Walter Mondale has had the honestly to say so.

Sabotaging Education

No matter what you believe about income inequality, it's clear that education matters to income.  The better educated a person is, the more money that person makes.  You have to address education if you're serious about doing anything about income inequality.

Instead of worrying about making education better to increase economic opportunity, however, Democrats support teachers unions which operate disastrous public schools in our inner cities.  The unions pay bribes to Democrat politicians in the form of campaign contributions in return for the right to have poor kids grow up ignorant.  That's a good reason to call Democrats the evil party.  Our stupid party doesn't point this out to poor Democrat voters, so they remain just that.

Letting teachers unions promote ignorance is a twofold win for the Democrats - ignorant kids grow up to be welfare recipients who tend to vote for higher taxes and more spending.

Food Price Inflation

Back when he was running for the Democratic nomination for President, Al Gore promised Iowa corn farmers that he'd require gasoline refiners to blend ethanol made from corn into their fuel and force us to buy it.  Feeding our corn to automobiles instead of to people has raised food prices all over the world, cut our miles per gallon, and increased carbon emissions in the name of "Saving the Planet."  Lying about the ethanol subsidies is evil; not yelling about it is stupid.

Disarming Victims

Democrats keep wanting to take guns away from responsible citizens.  Chicago, which has some of the strongest anti-gun rules in the nation, has one of the highest murder rates.  They can't blame Republicans for the carnage: there aren't any Republican officeholders in Chicago and precious few in the Illinois statehouse.  Disarming potential victims is evil; not yelling about it is stupid.

Stealing Money

When GM and Chrysler went bankrupt, the Obama administration awarded ownership of the new companies to the United Auto Workers union whose members had supported Mr. Obama's campaign for the presidency instead of to the senior creditors as required by bankruptcy law.  When pruning the dealer networks, Mr. Obama's staff shut down Republican GM and Chrysler dealers in preference to Democrats regardless of their size or contribution to sales.  Such naked political payback is typical of the evil party; not pointing this out makes us the stupid party.

Politicizing the IRS

IRS employees broke the law by giving a conservative organization's donor list to their liberal opponents; the head of the Cincinnati office where this seems to have originated took the 5th amendment instead of telling Congress what had happened.  The FBI recently declared that they could find no wrongdoing at the IRS even though they hadn't even bothered to interview anyone at the conservative organizations who had been mistreated.  Politicizing the tax collection process and the FBI is evil; our letting the FBI sweep it under the rug is stupid.

Ignoring the Law

Instead of enforcing the law of the land as he swore to do, Mr. Obama simply ignores laws he doesn't like.  He's instructed our immigration agencies not to deport certain types of illegals, he's arbitrarily postponed parts of the Obamacare law, and he's giving health care subsidies to Congresspersons, Senators, and their aides even though they earn far too much money to qualify for subsidies and the Obamacare law specifically banned them from getting any.  Ignoring the law is typical of the evil party, but the stupid party doesn't call him on it, so why shouldn't he do as he desires?

Gangster Government

During the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama administration ignored the laws which told what should be done in the event of an oil spill.  Instead of waiting for the courts to work, the Obama administration extorted $20 billion from BP by threatening to bring criminal charges against their upper management.  BP has been buying full-page advertisements discussing millions and millions that have been paid out of this slush fund to politically-connected businesses who had no involvement in the spill at all.  This evil behavior reminds us of "Chicago Al" Capone's observation, "Nice little business you've got there, too bad if anything happens to it."

For once, however, not pointing this out to America's voters is perhaps a recognition of reality rather than rank stupidity.  The unilaterally leftist media would doubtless portray Republicans as the defenders of Those Evil White Oil-Drilling Businessmen while completely ignoring truth, justice and what once was the American way as they usually do.

Murdering American Citizens

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Obama administration is considering another drone attack against an American citizen against whom no charges have been brought.  The CIA believes that this citizen's activities meet the criteria for a drone strike, but we haven't been told the individual's name nor the criteria for deciding which citizens to murder.  Mr. Obama claims that Americans won't be targeted without due process, but he hasn't explained the "due process" he uses to decide whom to tell the military to kill.

There's no reason for Mr. Obama to make up new processes.  The Constitution couldn't be more clear:

The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed.

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

This part of the Constitution explains "due process" and shows plainly that Mr. Obama's economic exactions are improper as mentioned above.  The Constitution also tells what to do when the accused person isn't available to stand trial before a jury:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

The Congress shall have power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.

Telling the military to kill American citizens without bringing the matter before Congress or a jury is not only unconstitutional, it's murder in the first degree.  That's undoubtedly evil.

For Republicans to not work in a bipartisan with with Rep. Kucinich in criticizing Mr. Obama for directing the military to murder Americans is not only stupid, it's neglect of duty - and that goes for citizens and the news media, as well as elected officials.

So: it's one thing to say that our government is run by idiots.  Even a stopped clock is right twice a day, though, whereas our government hasn't made the right decision in years.  Still think it's just stupidity?