All Smiles

If you let in millions of illegal immigrants with low human capital, this depresses wages. If you do that, why would you have the Federal Reserve force inflation all of the time? This is going to end the hard way.

Is it just me or does anyone else hear the 80s nostalgia song about sunny Reaganism and big foreign policy speeches and just sort of zone out?

In many ways it would be great if America 2023 was the America of 1979. That America had gas lines and high inflation but didn't come with child mutilation, heavy-handed censorship, and corporate DEI/ESG departments.

But it's not 1979. I understand there are those who aren't interested in the culture war, but the culture war is interested in YOU. They are teaching your children to hate freedom, to hate intellectual curiosity and to be ashamed of themselves and their country. And much of what the left has achieved in this country in the last 40 years is directly attributable to the fact that while they were marching toward their goals you were AWOL, crouching in the fetal position mumbling something about "rising tides" and "effective marginal tax rates." You showed up to a gun fight with a pea shooter and now lament how everything turned out. Well, that's another of H&R Block's 17 Reasons™ why your most engaged base in the party turned to Donald Trump and why you can't get it back.

EJHill (View Comment):

They are teaching your children to hate freedom, to hate intellectual curiosity and to be ashamed of themselves and their country.

Don't the rest of us have a responsibility to not cede our kids to this, then? It's hard and will require sacrifices. I have two kids who will not go to public school when the time comes -- something I never thought I'd do (I'm a product of and still live in the same public school district my husband and I attended K-12). I'll probably have to get a second job to afford private school for them. But to act like parents have no agency when it comes to raising their kids is a little off-putting. Same with social media. And I don't have stats on this, but it seems like conservatives, when we're angry about something will just sit out in apathy rather than the lefties who just seem to hold noses and keep together. We talk a lot about stay and fight, but how many actually practice it? I'm the first person who laments not growing up, or having my kids grow up in a mid-20th century America. But we can't go back. But we can take the good stuff from it as a model of a mostly properly functioning civic-minded and civil society. How did one working parent families afford to do it? How was innocence maintained in kids throughout childhood? How did employees and employers keep their trust and loyalty to each other? Why were we such an optimistic, bold, and adventurous people and why did that seem to end?

I fear DJT is trying to catch lightening in a bottle twice, doubling-down on grievances when the rest of the country has moved on and wants real solutions, not excuses about being obstructed or lies. We know they're going to do it, we need to overcome it. Show a better way through leadership and the rest will follow.

I really enjoyed this episode. They're all good but this one was especially good. Thanks!

JennaStocker (View Comment):

I’ll probably have to get a second job to afford private school for them. But to act like parents have no agency when it comes to raising their kids is a little off-putting.

There is no value added from government schools. Just cut a check to the parents. The return on investment would go straight up.

Why do we have teachers unions? All they have done is commandeered the phenomenon of government schools. It serves no purpose.

EJHill (View Comment):
They are teaching your children to hate freedom, to hate intellectual curiosity and to be ashamed of themselves and their country.

JennaStocker (View Comment):

Don’t the rest of us have a responsibility to not cede our kids to this, then? It’s hard and will require sacrifices. I have two kids who will not go to public school when the time comes — something I never thought I’d do (I’m a product of and still live in the same public school district my husband and I attended K-12). I’ll probably have to get a second job to afford private school for them. But to act like parents have no agency when it comes to raising their kids is a little off-putting. Same with social media. And I don’t have stats on this, but it seems like conservatives, when we’re angry about something will just sit out in apathy rather than the lefties who just seem to hold noses and keep together. We talk a lot about stay and fight, but how many actually practice it? I’m the first person who laments not growing up, or having my kids grow up in a mid-20th century America. But we can’t go back. But we can take the good stuff from it as a model of a mostly properly functioning civic-minded and civil society. How did one working parent families afford to do it? How was innocence maintained in kids throughout childhood? How did employees and employers keep their trust and loyalty to each other? Why were we such an optimistic, bold, and adventurous people and why did that seem to end?

I fear DJT is trying to catch lightening in a bottle twice, doubling-down on grievances when the rest of the country has moved on and wants real solutions, not excuses about being obstructed or lies. We know they’re going to do it, we need to overcome it. Show a better way through leadership and the rest will follow.

I really enjoyed this episode. They’re all good but this one was especially good. Thanks!

The kind of people who subscribe to Ricochet don't cede our kids to the education blob. But the vast majority of people are not so politically engaged. They are swept up in the culture and do not swim upstream. So their children will mostly become woke zombies. And with enough zombies, humans will be swamped.