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LBJ’s New Golden Triangle: Taxes to Welfare to Slaves
We Chauvinists have welcomed a foreign exchange student for the school year who is attending our daughters’ charter high school — classical curriculum provided by Hillsdale. All exchange students are required to take US History and American Literature. To help our exchange student warm up to the topic of US History, we showed her the movie musical, 1776, so this scene (from which the title of this post) is fresh in my mind:
It isn’t completely fair to lay the blame for what’s happened in America on LBJ. A triangle, by its nature, means multiple parties are complicit. But, I call him out because of his infamous quote, which I leave here un-redacted in the hope that we can finally have the ugly truth out:
I’ll have those niggers voting Democratic for 200 years.
Democrats haven’t changed their racist stripes — they’ve changed their strategy (h/t Bill Whittle). And it’s been working, hasn’t it?
What with Charlottesville and the cultural revolution in the process of tearing down our history, I’ve had occasion to engage with some apparently sincere liberals on Ricochet who are trying to understand what we conservatives mean when we say black Americans are living on the Democrat plantation. Consider this post a response.
Thomas Sowell can cite the numbers from memory, and, by almost every metric, blacks are worse off in the modern progressive era than they were even in FDR’s Great Depression: intact families, employment rates, income levels:
The anger and irrationality (but, I repeat myself) we’re seeing at the foot of Confederate monuments across the country is carefully cultivated by progressive “community agitators organizers” from kindergarten through graduate “studies” programs. It’s an insidious lie told to the aggrieved that they are not the masters of their lives, but must instead submit to the tender ministrations of some government master, who will stick it to the (typically white) Man and thereby improve their lives. They don’t even have to pick cotton. They just have to show up in the voting booth.
Dennis Prager recently did an Ultimate Issues Hour on Security Over Liberty. He likens government entitlements to heroin — just as addictive and life-destroying. I agree. It is human nature to take the path of least resistance — to fall for the empty promise of a comfortable, easy life at someone else’s expense, even if your own life is tragically diminished by the lack of struggle and overcoming. Democrats have been using this all too human weakness to farm votes for decades. They’ve been the authors of the worst ideas — the 16th Amendment, giving power to the government to take our property (Taxes); the Great Society, cultivating the natural inclination toward dependency to grow their voter base (Welfare); and, by breaking the Constitutional chains on government power, enslaving us all — both the taxpayers and the recipients of entitlement funds (Slaves). It’s very effective and “successful” if what you hope to achieve is centralized, unlimited power. One might even call it “diabolical.” I know I would.
Who makes up a second side of the triangle? Well, clearly the voters. It’s a false compassion that consigns others to this life of dependency just so one can feel good about “helping others” (by confiscating other people’s money and redistributing it through a ginormous bureaucracy). And, it’s foolish to think one can receive what one has not earned and lead a happy, fulfilling life. It just doesn’t work that way. There’s no free lunch.
But, I’m not finished yet. The Republicans have some culpability in this, forming the third leg. Knowing what they know about the Progressive Golden Triangle, their inability (or unwillingness) to push hard against these malicious, character destroying methods is shameful and cowardly. The stakes are certainly high enough (just look at the human wreckage in Democrat-controlled cities), that good men would be willing to wager their Lives, their Fortunes, and their Sacred Honor. That they’re not even willing to risk their next election to repeal Obamacare and reform the tax code I’m finding more and more unforgivable. It’s no longer a matter of politics. It’s a matter of justice.
Published in General
Right. It doesn’t matter how many times it fails.
No. This is where the Left always gets it wrong. It’s not about the virtue of the policy makers. I don’t care whether Nancy Pelosi takes good care of her family and has good intentions toward the little people. It’s about the effects of ideology on the virtue of a (ideally) self-governing people.
Do you deny that virtue has been badly damaged over the last many generations?
Some people think that virtue is feeling something — others think virtue is doing something.
I corrected my comment. It should say “Public Policy isn’t about virtue.”
The link does not contain data. It has a quote from his Uncommon Knowledge interview. I would like to know where Thomas Sowell got the information that the black poverty rate was 87% in 1940.
I suggest you check his books, which are annotated, although he may state his sources in an article. You’re on your own:
Furthermore, in his writings “The Vision of the Anointed” and “Economic Facts and Fallacies” and “Black Rednecks and White Liberals” he demonstrates that black families had declined from being 87% below the poverty line in 1940 to 47% below the poverty line in 1960. This supports his position that the black community was climbing out of poverty before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the War on Poverty.
I read his Black Rednecks and White Liberals and it is an eye opener. It’s almost as if the liberals and their textbooks have been deliberately lying to us for decades or something.
What have the liberals and their textbooks lied about?
I only have a 400 or 500 word limit — you’ll have to read Dennis Prager or Mark Steyn or Ann Coulter.
Could you name one thing that liberals have lied about?
Oh, dear Lord. Where to begin…
We could start with taking the name liberal.
Nope — I’m not going to do the work that you should do. Find out what conservatives think — you spend time here so why not learn something from those who influence us. Tons of places to read about conservatives. I doubt you will do this because your question isn’t motivated by curiosity, is it?
That is true. Economists do agree that in periods of high unemployment and low inflation unemployment benefits are a fast way of growing the economy. I’m not sure about those exact numbers.
You guys think just about everything in political and cultural life is a lie. You guys think that college is a lie. You guys think that the United States claiming to be a republic is a lie, that it is controlled by the “deep state.” You guys think that the economy is a lie, that something has been “rigged.” Now, all people who call themselves conservatives certainly don’t believe this. The editors of National Review don’t believe this. The writers at Commentary magazine don’t believe this.
So, asking me to do “work” on this is impossible. I bet if I were to simply write some things here that conservatives put into the pages of National Review or Commentary, people here would call those views liberal.
Okay. Never mind.
If you think we’re so unreasonable, why are you here?
And, btw, you don’t have a clue what we think.
Moderator Note:
Insulting generalization about fellow membersThere are many reasonable people here who are consistent in their beliefs; [redacted]
I agree, Larry. The last time I dug up the data for a Leftist friend, she proceeded to say that it was 30 years old and maybe there was more recent data–for the 1960s. In other words, she blew me off because she didn’t like the data. @viruscop, good luck.
Name calling is not necessary. And your “you guys” argument is deeply flawed. Just because you don’t like our challenges to do your own work doesn’t make us kooks. It makes us wise.
Moderator Note:
Do not call other members "kooky". Take issue with their posts all you want, but do not call names.So you wouldn’t call this post kooky? Not even the part where the OP links to a site that compares Lincoln to Hitler?
@robertmcreynolds is one of our most intelligent and talented writers. I don’t always agree with him, but he regularly finds creative ways to explore a topic. No, I wouldn’t call it kooky.
I think there is a fundamental disconnect in part of your argument. The quote attributed to LBJ was allegedly made in the context of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, about which Ricochetti are fond of frequently pointing out more Republicans voted for than Democrats. It is separate, and apart from, the Great Society programs enacted in 1965-66 which appear to be the subject of your post.
If your argument is that the Great Society programs and other, more general changes in our culture prompted by liberal led changes in society, had negative impacts on African Americans I would agree, though I would disagree that anyone would prefer the state of African Americans in 1940 to that today.
I’d also note that the accuracy of the statement you quote is still debated. LBJ is alleged to have also said, at the same time, that the Civil Rights Act would cost the Democrats the Southern states for decades; another statement like the one you quote about which the accuracy is debated.
The Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, whether supported by Republicans or Democrats, were primarily motivated by an effort to remedy an an outrageous situation in our society.
My father’s wife thinks Trump needs to stop tweeting forever. Why? Because the only tweets she ever sees are the ones that make it to the morning shows, or perhaps the evening news.
Do you follow both POTUS and realDonaldTrump on Twitter? I’ll bet almost nobody on Ricochet does, like I do. So the only tweets people see are the ones that get shown on the news, and those are almost NEVER the best and almost ALWAYS the “bad ones”. If he started tweeting about blacks getting bamboozled by the Democrats, it would be broadcast to the world in pure racist terms.
As far as what can we the voters do, I don’t think any of us are going to go knocking on doors in black neighborhoods and telling anyone who answers the door that they’re stupid for blindly pulling the ‘D’ lever every election. No, I’m afraid we have lost most of the minorities to the Democrats and there is no way to fix it as long as the DNC-led MSM controls the narrative. George W. Bush did one of the greatest favors possible to poor blacks with the massive reduction in taxes that he championed. I’ve done the numbers; millions actually stopped paying taxes completely, and many more got their taxes reduced so close to zero as to BE zero. But what was one of the ways that B. Hussein won the Presidency in 2008? By screaming at every campaign stop about the “Bush Tax Cuts For The Rich”. Do you remember? Those minorities sitting there with hundreds more dollars in their pockets screamed their lungs out with hatred for the “Bush Tax Cuts For The Rich”.
I really dislike disagreeing with you here, but we can only win them back by Making America Great Again, getting them all good, high-paying jobs, helping them buy homes and cars, and getting a taste of the American Dream. As long as they think the only way they can survive is with Pelosi-Schumer handouts, we can’t win with minorities.
Yes, that’s it. But, not just on blacks.
My complaint isn’t primarily racial (although, I find it absurd that conservatives who want everyone treated equally before the law are the “racists”, and leftists who want favors doled out to their captured
constituenciesvictim groups are not…) — it’s cultural. I think the advantage blacks of the 1940s had over those of today (and, obviously I’m talking about the underclass) is one of character and values, not material condition. Also, the trends for black advancement were good up until the Great Society. Sowell talks about this whenever he addresses the race issue.But, my overall point is that many of our people have lost their way in life. They lack purpose and meaning. Their aimlessness soils their God-given dignity. And there’s nothing about conservative ideas which can explain it. It’s not like out-of-wedlock births have become the norm because conservatives don’t want to pay for birth control and abortions. People seem to be able to come by those things despite our wishes (and often at our expense).
No, the degeneracy is the result of being taught that you are not to blame (responsible) for the poor decisions you make, and that you are owed a better life (failure proof) at the expense of people who’ve made better decisions. It’s the blame-shifting and the scapegoating.
I didn’t learn much in twelve years of CCD, but one teacher said something that stuck: “It’s not what happens to you in life that matters. It’s how you respond.” People are being taught the opposite today. The only thing that matters is what happens to you, and you can rationalize any response based on the “unfairness” of it all — even a violent one.
The Left’s ideology is all about identifying the oppressed and their oppressors. About setting up the conflict between various identity groups in order to right the injustices of “inequality.” Some of us have come to believe that the progressive solutions always result in the aggregation of more power in progressive hands is no accident. Call us cynical.
This will not end well.
Yes, this business of asking leading questions doesn’t come from a desire to discuss things — it is simply to argue with whatever is said. No learning and no honest discussion can take place in this way.
So when you see the words of Hitler and compare them to the same sentiments of Lincoln, that states should submit to the force of a centralized governing power, you see kookiness? I see parallels. You and I are different. But here’s the thing: you can’t refute the parallel that Lincoln and Hitler held similar views about the structure of governments, so you resort to name calling. When Leftists resort to calling me names, that usually means I have taken the day.
Thank you Mrs. Quinn. (I assume that you are married.)
I am. But you can call me Susan.
It may not be kooky, but it is ridiculous history.