“The enemy is not Donald Trump and never has been. The enemy is Statism. Left libertarians such as David Boaz and Tom Palmer, with their emotions raging, and outfits like the Left-funded, TDS-infested, Kamala-supporting Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism never got it and still don’t.”
Statism and intellectual elitism took a big hit in the election. Count the reasons, such as this listing distributed on social media.
It was the economy…. migrant mess…. inflation spurred by rampant spending…. green energy idiocy…. electric-everything mandates…. Left’s anti-Americanism. Men in women’s sports. Transitioning children.
Threats to the Supreme Court and the filibuster. Lawfare. Government greed. Lasting damage done to a generation of children from repressive lockdowns. Abandonment of merit in favor of identity politics. Foreign policy idiocy, such as the Afghanistan debacle and sending billions to Iran.And promised spending binges. Unjustified or excessive TDS. Rampant antisemitism. Disastrous public education system for children. Highly suspect – and telling – selection of Tim Walz rather than Josh Shapiro as Harris’s running mate.
The Deep State. Blatant lying. Open contempt for average Americans. Naked bigotry. Big Tech collusion. Censorship, speech suppression, and ministries of truth. The “coup” that installed Harris.The utter awfulness of Harris. Unqualified, unable to answer an unscripted question, lacking any track record that would suggest she’s ready for the Presidency, dithering, deceitful, disrespectful, dodging, and apparently capable only of generating word salad.”
Losing Left Politics
Bret Stephens provided a warning to the Left with his pre-election New York Times editorial, “There’s One Main Culprit if Donald Trump Wins” (October 22, 2024). He called out “the way in which leading liberal voices in government, academia and media practice politics today” and listed seven problem areas:
The politics of condescension…. The politics of name-calling…. The politics of gaslighting…. The politics of highhandedness.… The politics of Pollyanna…. The politics of selective fidelity to traditional norms.… The politics of identity over class.
Stephens’ post-election editorial, Done With Never Trump, continued his pre-election analysis (December 17, 2024):
Is it time to drop the heavy moralizing and incessant doomsaying that typified so much of the Never Trump movement — and that rendered it politically impotent and frequently obtuse? Yes, please. But Never Trumpers also overstated our case and, in doing so, defeated our purpose.
Stephens continued:
So here’s a thought for Trump’s perennial critics, including those of us on the right: Let’s enter the new year by wishing the new administration well, by giving some of Trump’s cabinet picks the benefit of the doubt, by dropping the lurid historical comparisons to past dictators, by not sounding paranoid about the ever-looming end of democracy, by hoping for the best and knowing that we need to fight the wrongs that are real and not merely what we fear, that whatever happens, this too shall pass.
Final Comment
All true. The enemy is not Donald Trump and never has been. The enemy is Statism. Left libertarians such as David Boaz and Tom Palmer, with their emotions raging, and outfits like the Left-funded, TDS-infested, Kamala-supporting Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism (publisher of The UnPopulist), never got it and still don’t. [1]
In fact, the large majority of real-world libertarians and the think tanks therein are excited about the prospects of the new Administration compared to the Road-to-Serfdom Democrats. The post-Boaz Cato Institute is back in the political game, offering insight and ideas about maximizing markets and freedom and rolling back Statism in the Trump framework.
Tom “Trumpissmo” Palmer (his slur) has blocked me on social media, so expect more emotionalism, despair, and anger toward a world where normal, hard-working Americans elected Trump (for good reason) and want to be left alone from ‘experts’–and misfit culture warriors.
Here’s to a very interesting 2025!
—————
[1] ISMA (per founder Shikha Dalmia) advertises itself as “a public policy organization committed to defending free societies and opposing the worldwide slide into illiberalism” (whatever that means). The UpPopulist (Substack) describes itself as “a publication committed to defending liberal democracy against new forms of authoritarianism in the United States and around the world.” It sees Trump as “Far Right,” but not Biden-Harris and radical progressivism as Far Left. Very strange….
I was banned from The UnPopulist comment section (“user was indefinitely suspended for this comment”) for this challenge to Tom Palmer, coauthor of this Far Right interpretation: “Your Comprehensive Guide to the Far Right: Part I.”
Tom Palmer should now write a similar piece on the Far Left. Words like authoritarianism and fascism apply. An Op-Ed in today’s NYT gave this as a potential reason for a Trump victory over Harris:
“The politics of name-calling, which happens every time Trump’s voters are told they are racists, misogynists, weird, phobic, low-information or, most recently, supporters of a fascist — and, by implication, fascists themselves. Aside from being gratuitous and self-defeating — what kind of voter is going to be won over by being called a name? — it’s also mostly wrong. Trump’s supporters overwhelmingly are people who think the Biden-Harris years have been bad for them and the country. Maybe liberals should try to engage the argument without belittling the person.
Enough said. Time to substitute scholarship for emotionalism and Statism for Trump.
The autopsy of the Left is ongoing. Here is a recent example.
https://josephklein.substack.com/p/defining-mediocrity-down
Yikes! I count myself a longtime friend of Rob Bradley Jr., Tom Palmer, and David Boaz. Politics and public policy involve trade-offs. Decades ago I was in tears trying to talk to Richie Fink about his break with Walter Grinder. Huge battles in those days about “stealing” key people (Wayne Gable, Sheldon Richman) from one free-market group to another. Of course I never quite knew what was going on or why. But, hey, in our community promoting economic freedom and the free society, there will be disagreements about strategy and trade offs. And about funding. So… the glass is half empty, or half-full. But in any case should have electrolytes to help us regain mineral balance…
On David Boaz, his TDS led to Cato shutting down/not restarting the climate and energy areas that were ‘Trumpian’. In this void, he ignored my energy work despite my decades as Cato’s most productive energy adjunct scholar–then he fired me as an adjunct scholar.
David also enabled Jerry Taylor to remain at Cato and fundraise (in a Cato position) to create the anti-libertarian Niskanen Center.
David’s Facebook posts became hateful to all things Trump. (His Twitter posts were much more balanced.) His TDS put a chill at Cato deep into the organization, which was revealed with so few coming to his final parties after his (prior, great) decades of work. A sad end.
The Lesson: do not let your emotions get the best of you. David had no check at Cato (no ‘Ed Crane’) to reign him in. The enemy was not and is not Trump. It was/is Statism.
On Tom Palmer, a different story but one where his TDS has resulted in substituting Trump Hate for the real enemy, Statism.
Palmer’s refusal to do a “Your Comprehensive Guide to the Far Left” to join his “Your Comprehensive Guide to the Far Right” speaks volumes. He seems to think that Biden-Harris was not Far Left…. http://www.theunpopulist.net/t/faq