{"id":84,"date":"2017-06-21T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/wordpress\/almostclassical\/?p=84"},"modified":"2023-11-25T22:33:13","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T04:33:13","slug":"trump-and-brownback-and-the-gop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/almostclassical\/2017\/06\/21\/trump-and-brownback-and-the-gop\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and Brownback and the GOP"},"content":{"rendered":"

If socialists and statists wanted to damage limited government and republicanism they could not have chosen better men as Manchurians than Donald Trump<\/a> and Sam Brownback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump is the poster child for crony capitalism and everything against the ideals of a free and open society you could imagine. Open: as in trade, borders, tolerance, speech….<\/p>\n

Brownback apparently never completed a serious economics course and certainly never read Adam Smith<\/a>, Hayek<\/a>, or Milton Friedman<\/a>. His knowledge of economics is superficial and based on slogans, not reason. You balance budgets with mildly progressive taxes that recognize the commons must be funded or the middle-class<\/strong>\u00a0will revolt. (Smith noted all rebellions in English politics are from the monied classes, not the bottom.)<\/p>\n

Low taxes are ideal. As low as the community will tolerate, ideally. Low and fair, rewarding hard work. But you cannot cut taxes without a plan to determine what should be funded and why.<\/p>\n

In my ideal world, only first-responders and a handful of other priorities are funded through taxes. As little as possible, but enough that people don’t revolt. You prove some things can be and should be privatized.<\/p>\n

Basically, as even Keynes wrote, you balance the budget first in a stable economy, and then decide which path to take from there (more or less welfare). You only go into debt for emergencies. Keynes argued debts should be short-term.<\/p>\n

The Republicans did this to themselves. Every step of the way. Every time they embraced ignorant talking heads and pundits with no economic, philosophical, historical, or scientific perspectives.<\/p>\n

Read Hayek’s\u00a0Road to Serfdom<\/a><\/em>. Curiously, the GOP is heading right into this anti-democratic, anti-republican abyss led by a Tweeting billionaire with an Ivy League degree and no actual interest in knowledge.<\/p>\n

Hayek noted… liberalism doesn’t need to be democratic. It needs to be educated and moral.<\/p>\n

No wonder young people believe socialism must be better <\/em><\/strong><\/a>in various polls. Keep this up, GOP, and you\u2019ll elect someone to the left of Bernie Sanders<\/a> next time. This won\u2019t end well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If socialists and statists wanted to damage limited government and republicanism they could not have chosen better men as Manchurians than Donald Trump and Sam…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"iawp_total_views":6,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,36,8,30],"tags":[323,80,379,370,391,130,29],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-econ","category-history","category-politics","category-taxes","tag-adam-smith","tag-trump","tag-hayek","tag-keynes","tag-milton-friedman","tag-political-parties","tag-republicans","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump and Brownback and the GOP - Almost Classical<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/almostclassical\/2017\/06\/21\/trump-and-brownback-and-the-gop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump and Brownback and the GOP - Almost Classical\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If socialists and statists wanted to damage limited government and republicanism they could not have chosen better men as Manchurians than Donald Trump and Sam…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/almostclassical\/2017\/06\/21\/trump-and-brownback-and-the-gop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Almost Classical\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-06-21T11:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-26T04:33:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tameri.com\/almostclassical\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/03\/AC_Banner_Gray_1200x630.png?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Almost Classical\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Almost Classical\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tameri.com\\\/almostclassical\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/21\\\/trump-and-brownback-and-the-gop\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tameri.com\\\/almostclassical\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/21\\\/trump-and-brownback-and-the-gop\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Almost Classical\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tameri.com\\\/almostclassical\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/78697276a1b434544903a9af9a51c9ff\"},\"headline\":\"Trump and Brownback and the GOP\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-21T11:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-26T04:33:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tameri.com\\\/almostclassical\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/21\\\/trump-and-brownback-and-the-gop\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":347,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tameri.com\\\/almostclassical\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/78697276a1b434544903a9af9a51c9ff\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tameri.com\\\/almostclassical\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/21\\\/trump-and-brownback-and-the-gop\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.tameri.com\\\/almostclassical\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/AC_Banner_Gray_1200x630.png?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1\",\"keywords\":[\"Adam Smith\",\"Donald Trump\",\"F. 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