Volume 4, Issue 30
Noted author Thomas Friedman penned an article in the New York Times last week entitled, “The (G.O.P.) Party’s Over.” In the piece, he came to the conclusion that it would be better for the Democrats to sweep the elections, including the White House, Congress and the Senate, to eliminate democratic gridlock. His point is that autocratic rule is preferable to a one-party democracy wherein only one party wants to govern (i.e. the Democrats). He describes the Republican Party as a ‘mishmash of religious conservatives, angry white males who fear they are becoming a minority, those who hate trade, gun control opponents, pro-lifers, anti-regulation and free market small business owners, and pro and anti-free trade entrepreneurs.’ He describes Donald Trump as ‘an invasive species that took over the whole messy garden.’ This is quite a denouement to reach. Many of the people he describes are also cross-over Democrats. Entrepreneurs are also for financial reform. The most egregious fallacy in his analysis is to throw in free market small business owners as a small minority as part of the problem. Fifty percent of the adult non-farm workforce works for a small business of 25 employees or less. There are 30 million small businesses in the United States creating 80% of all new jobs. Many family small business owners are Democrats. Their idea of pursuit of happiness is serving their community through a needed business service. How could such an intellect as Friedman, who wrote Road to Beirut, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, and The World is Flat, understand complicated world cultures and not understand his own?
Thomas Friedman is confused about reality. His image of reality is distorted.
Mr. Friedman would have us believe that any functioning government is beneficial. This is simply not true. There are forces at work in the world today which are the antithesis to our way of life. Foreign governments that do not adhere to our principles and non-state states such as ISIS are a threat to our way of life. Less obvious is the contention of the world’s banking systems. There are three in competition. Europe centers on government managed democracy and socialism. China centers on a communist command economy that dictates rather than facilitates the supply of currencies. And the United States centers on a capitalistic, free enterprise, less government managed system. Europe is heavily in debt with little ability to restructure deficit spending. China’s communist five-year plans of a command economy have resulted in an over-valued currency (the Yuan). Only the United States still has the capability to right its ship financially and lead the world. World economic engines are not static. One system will ultimately dominate. Each of these regions of the world is roughly equal in economic output and percent of the world’s Gross Domestic Product. The European and Chinese systems expanded in the United States would eliminate family owned businesses and change our economy as we know it in the United States. Eliminating small business would not only require total restructuring of the U.S. economy, it would dramatically alter us culturally as a people. And further, immigrants would find less opportunity for employment.
Before we go to autocratic one-party rule, one must understand the vision of that party. That should be the debate in the elections, not government at any cultural cost.
In his most recent column, George Will opines that Hillary Clinton has a chance to be Ronald Reagan. Really?! Mr. Will makes the argument that Donald Trump is an angry outsider, that the last time a negative person was elected President was Andrew Jackson. He goes on to point out that Hillary Clinton has a chance to soothe the American public with optimism. Optimism for what? Again, we get this idea that a functioning government, in and of itself, is an attribute regardless of where it takes us culturally. He does state that Ronald Reagan was the outsider and the Establishment detested him. But to make the quantum leap that an insider like Hillary Clinton, who is not positive, will somehow give comfort to the electorate, and that this is Reaganesque, is beyond stretching the metaphor. It totally dismisses the purpose of Reagan’s mission to change the course of the United States of America.
George Will, in his dismay of Donald Trump, has a distorted view of a proper course for our government and therefore a distorted view of reality.
The Democratic Party primary process is part of democracy and the people’s reality that their efforts, their contributions, and their votes are equal to every other person’s like commitments. Ms. Schultz violated this reality.
Picasso trusted the concept that the simplest representation of reality revealed true reality, even if to the naked eye it didn’t appear to be natural. He felt that when art is created with these component parts, it is the true representation of reality. If art imitates life, or as Oscar Wilde said, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life,” the exercise of life is reality. A reality that allows for the true pursuit of happiness is a reality based on truth. If truth is the embodiment of eternal principles, then principles followed establish purposeful life.
Whether or not all art is a lie that leads to truth, truth built on eternal principles results in a well-founded life. Truth applied results in a government that is the will of the people. And in such reality, the circle of art and life give hope.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?