Friends, the Left keeps getting loonier and loonier. Four years ago President Obama and the two main Democratic candidates for President had the good sense not to touch the concept of "reparations" for the descendants of slaves with a ten-foot pole. Heck, even Bernie knew better! Now, though, to compete for the votes of the party faithful, apparently you have to embrace any and every left-wing proposal, no matter how unrealistic, no matter how expensive, and no matter how deeply unpopular. Democrats are backing themselves into a corner, and they're making President Trump's task of winning re-election easier by the day (not that I imagine it will be all that easy, in the final analysis).
My latest article explores in some detail the sheer futility and wrongheadedness of the concept of reparations. Thanks to Townhall for publishing it!
https://townhall.com/columnists/nicholaswaddy/2019/02/27/the-reparations-boondoggle-n2542299
Dr. Waddy: Excellent article; I especially value your point about the support for reparations asserted by some of the Dem hopefuls being disingenuous and of bad will and a caution that a true leftist fanatic among them might tip his or her destructive hand by standing for this now.
ReplyDeleteGood point about other wronged groups demanding similar compensation and of the near impossibility of determining culpability.
If the search for historical responsibility for oppression is carried out objectively, there will be among those groups perceived oppressed many who might be perceived as deserving condemnation themselves. What about Arabs and Blacks who supported the slave trade? What about affluent Blacks now(undeserving as they would be of such doubt)? What about those Native American tribes who viciously conquered their neighbors? What about Santa Anna's repeated massacres? The Alamo was far from his first abomination and would have characterized his administration over both Anglos and Hispanics in a conquered Texas. If "the legacy of oppression" is argued, then so too must the continuing legacy of the monumental efforts to mitigate past wrongs, advanced with good will and sometime sacrifice as they so often were and are(eg civil rights statutes and well intentioned though badly administered "affirmative action" efforts). And witness greatly reduced black unemployment rates now, due to the policies of a President tuned in to proven American values and opportunity. The guarantee of equal opportunity before the law of any willing to live a positive life is all a society may justly provide. (Sorry, leftists, but the alternative was tried by your progenitors and the result was Vorkuta and myriad other frozen work camps). The rest is up to the individual and there is no viable job market for the willfully unproductive no matter how exalted by the distant, detached and privileged radical cadre of the moment.
The chief argument against reparations in my view: its proponents, all leftists, have more than amply demonstrated the impossibility of their ever being satisfied.Their Marxist role models proved that in the 20th century by their theretofore unimaginably murderous quest for human perfection. They must never be given a second chance at the societal annihilation they clearly purpose, with "reparations" yet another weapon they wield. These are the people who believe our country FUNDAMENTALLY unjust and deserving of complete transformation, no matter the cost. Go ahead, do "reparations" and it will quickly be denounced as inadequate and just a starting point.
One plan I read advanced for the practical administration of reparations would mandate the transmission to all judged to be of "privileged class", the addresses of families and individuals resident in "oppressed classes", to whom they would obligated, on pain of prosecution, to remit monthly "appropriate" cash payments. Okay!
David Horowitz, who I believe to be the true and heroic sage of conservative values and the radical onslaught on them, wrote a characteristically well argued and documented exposition against reparations in his book Uncivil Wars and is reflexively and viciously excoriated by leftists for his courageous, unbearably objective and unstinting evisceration of their presumptuous and disingenuous views and their totalitarian intentions. He has repeatedly argued his criticism of reparations in public and that can be accessed on line.
Well said, Jack! You cut to the quick, as usual. You're right -- the greatest flaw of all in the reparations "boondoggle" is the idea that it will somehow satisfy leftist race-baiters, and thereafter we will all "get along". Of course that's nonsense. In fact, from the black perspective, I suspect any vaguely realistic program of reparations would be greeted with a shrug, or would more likely be seen as an insult. That the Dems would even think to open this can of worms shocks me. It can only end badly for America, and it's 99% sure to end badly for them.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: I agree with you and yet in considering the history of the Bolshevik ascension and the many times it approached repulse and still survived, I think we must assume, for our country and our culture's sake, that they could triumph. That possibility must needs concentrate our efforts to ensuring their defeat, by resolute support for President Trump, who has demonstrated, in his courage and his moxie, the way. Its a simple thing; follow his lead.
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