This is great.
Category Archives: History
Quantity Versus Quality
This is an old post, but it’s worth a repost with all of the nonsense this week about how Hillary should be president because she won (or is winning — I think they’re still counting) the popular vote:
It would be perfectly constitutional for the electors to be chosen by throwing darts at a phone book, by elimination from a reality show, or a mass tournament of pistols at dawn, as long as the legislature so stipulated. That was the degree to which the Founders thought that the states should have leeway in determining how they determined their electors. This is a very important point to make when arguing with modern democraphiles about ending the Electoral College and electing the president by popular vote.
Not also my broader point:
Many (in fact, many too many) in government imagine that their job is to create more government. As three examples, legislators think they’re supposed to pass legislation, diplomats think that (among other things) they’re supposed to get treaties signed and ratified, and regulators think that they’re supposed to create regulations. They are encouraged in this by many fools in the press who actually consider legislation sponsored and passed into law (particularly when it has a lawmaker’s name on it) to be a figure of merit to be touted as part of his record for reelection, or election to a higher office. Legislators who have passed lots of legislation, or secretaries of state who get lots of treaties ratified are lionized in the media, while those who do neither are denigrated as “do nothings.” All this, of course, despite whether or not the legislation passed, treaty ratified, or regulation created was actually a good idea.
But in fact, those are not their jobs. Their jobs are described in the Preamble. They are: “…to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence [common spelling at the time], promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”
Passing legislation, ratifying treaties, promulgating regulations are means to those ends but, despite the title, it is not a legislator’s job to legislate per se. It is not a diplomat’s job to ratify a treaty per se. It is not a regulator’s job to regulate per se. Those are simply tools granted them by the Constitution to carry out their true jobs, as defined above.
I’d also note that, contra the more-recent nonsense about how the Senate wasn’t “doing its job” with regard to Merrick Garland, it has no Constitutional “duty” to advise and consent. It only has the power.
In Flanders Fields
It’s hard to believe that in two years, it will have been a full century since the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, when the armistice was signed, silencing finally the guns and ending the Great War. Almost a century ago, my paternal grandfather, a recent immigrant from what is now Poland, was sent back to Europe to fight in it. Unfortunately, the war’s end only planted the seeds for another worse one, and a little over two decades later, his only child, my father, at the age of eighteen, flew in a B-25 Mitchell bomber to Italy via Ascension Island to man a radio and waist gun in it.
No one who fought in the first one is any longer with us, and the ranks of those who fought in the second one are rapidly diminishing, as it too passes out of living memory. I didn’t serve, but if I had, I’d have wanted to be a pilot in the Air Force (my prescription for eyeglasses in the third grade put an end to that). But I remain grateful to all who have.
I hope that one of Trump’s highest priorities is to fix the VA system, the lack of addressing which is one of the many things for which Barack Obama would be ashamed, if he had any shame. And if you want to see how a single-payer government healthcare system would work, just ask a vet.
[Update a while later]
The Washington Examiner agrees with me on the latter point:
Now that the long, bitter 2016 election is over, Americans are free to stop thinking about the VA scandal as a partisan issue. It’s a new day, and partisans need not become defensive about the agency’s disgraceful treatment and broken promises.
Vets will now turn to President-elect Trump with their concerns. He won many of their votes because he was willing to shine a light on the problem, rather than dismiss it, as his opponent did, as “not widespread.”
“The VA is, really you could say is almost a corrupt enterprise,” Trump declared at one point. At another: “Our vets, our most cherished people, thousands of people are dying waiting on line to see a doctor.” His simple promise: “We are going to make it efficient and good.”
Let’s hope he does. Bold words will not be enough. We sincerely hope Trump follows through ruthlessly on this promise. If so, he will have done the nation a true and necessary service, and he will deserve the gratitude even of the tens of millions who voted against him.
We’ll see.
Political Ignorance
It’s time to start taking it seriously:
You don’t have to be a libertarian skeptic about government to worry about political ignorance. Indeed, the greater the role you want democratic government to play in society, the more you have reason to worry about the quality of voter decision-making. The more powerful the state is, the greater the harm it can cause if ignorant voters entrust that power to the wrong hands. Here too, the rise of Trump is a warning we should take seriously. He is not the first or (most likely) the last demagogue of his kind.
I have long argued that we can best alleviate the dangers of political ignorance by limiting and decentralizing the power of government, and enabling people to make more decisions by “voting with their feet” rather than at the ballot box. Foot voters deciding where they want to live or making choices in the private sector have much stronger incentives to become well-informed than ballot box voters do. There is much we can do to enhance opportunities for foot voting, particularly among the poor and disadvantaged. Limiting and decentralizing government power could also reduce the enormous scope and complexity of the modern state, which make it virtually impossible for voters to keep track of more than a small fraction of its activities.
But I am open to considering a variety of other possible strategies for addressing the problem, including voter education initiatives, and “sortition,” directly incentivizing citizens to increase their knowledge, among others. Perhaps the best approach to is a combination of different measures, not relying on some one silver bullet.
A large part of the problem is the public-education system (and academia), which is doing a terrible job of explaining civics (and history), because the Left finds an ignorant populace not only convenient, but essential.
Post-Election Thoughts
In no particular order:
1) Despite his “approval rating,” this was an utter repudiation of the last eight years (and to a lesser degree, the previous eight years under Bush). Trump is Obama’s “legacy.”
2) I hope, and even expect, that Giuliani will be the next AG. He will take the handcuffs off the FBI, and finally get to the bottom of all of the Obama lawlessness as well as hers. In the spirit of reconciliation, Trump should offer her a pardon, on condition they shut down the foundation, and she exit our lives.
3) There will obviously be no post-election confirmation of Garland. Ginsburg and Breyer will probably be rethinking their retirement plans.
4) I assume that House Republicans have a repeal and replace plan to give to Trump in January.
5) Expect a flurry of executive orders undoing much of Obama’s lawlessness in the first week.
More anon.
[Update a few minutes later]
Will “liberals” finally discover the appeal of limited government?
[Update a few minutes later]
Predictably, embittered Democrats engage in racist outbursts. Well, this is nothing new; they have historically been the party of racism.
[Update a couple minutes later]
What "uncertainty"? It's dead, Jim. https://t.co/1UwLXbRfln
— Apostle To Morons (@Rand_Simberg) November 9, 2016
[Update a couple more minutes later]
Would’t accepting a last-minute pardon from Obama be a tacit admission that someone did something wrong? That’s why Nixon didn’t necessarily want one.
[Update a while later]
It occurs to me that now that the crime family has no favors to offer, the donations to the Clinton Crime Foundation will start to, or immediately dry up.
Unlike Hillary, @KellyannePolls is clearly a woman of high historic actual accomplishment.
— Apostle To Morons (@Rand_Simberg) November 9, 2016
[Late-morning update]
Yes, a large part of Trump’s appeal is a backlash against the fascism of political correctness.
The FBI Agents Who Stood Up For The Rule Of Law
You have to admit, it’s a pretty rare attribute in this administration.
[Update a while later]
There are five separate FBI investigations into the Clinton corruption?
I’m sure there are more than five instances of it, but you’d think they could combine them somehow. And of course, that’s just the ones we know about. There could easily be more.
Update a while later]
The Marc Rich pardon returns. As noted, the timing is interesting, but it’s certainly a useful reminder of the long-time corruption of the Clintons (not to mention Eric Holder, who should never have been confirmed as Attorney General). We may finally be seeing the leaks and drips that I expected earlier if Comey refused to recommend prosecution. I think we’re seeing a civil war both within the FBI and between FBI and the Department of Injustice. And it remains unclear which side Comey is on, other than his own.
Obama’s “Non” Scandals
Nine of them he didn’t mention.
They’re only not scandals because the media was in the tank for him (as well as her) and refused to properly report them. As Iowahawk once tweeted, the purpose of journalism is to cover stories. With a pillow. Until they stop moving.
Interstates
I’ve driven large sections of almost all of these over the decades, but none of them end to end. Closest I’ve come is I-10, but I broke off to head south on the turnpike before I got to Jacksonville. Have to say I’m surprised that they’ve never bypassed Breezewood (which I remember from the turnpike as a kid driving from Michigan to New York in the sixties). I guess tunneling the mountain would be too much of a PITA and disruptive to residents.
Bob Hoover
Rest in peace. One of the all-time great pilots. A lot of friends at Rockwell got a ride in his Mustang.
Here’s a good story from AOPA.
[Afternoon update]
Here’s the story from Air & Space. I’ll be interested to hear what, if anything, General Yeager has to say.
Steven DenBeste
He was one of the greats of early blogging, and a brilliant man in many fields. I have to confess that I feel partially responsible (though I’m sure I was far from alone) in chasing him away from blogging with an ill-thought email. I think I later apologized, but if I didn’t, Steven, if you can read this, please accept my deepest apologies.
[Tuesday-morning update]
More thoughts from Jim Geraghty.