Posted on 09/29/2016 10:24:11 AM PDT by V K Lee
“Thomas Sowell, an affirmative action pseudo-intellectual who has fallen short...”
Oh bullshit, the man grew up in Harlem, dropped out of high school to enlist in the Marines, served in the Korean War, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in ‘58, got a Master’s at Columbia a year later and a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago in ‘68, he’s taught at several universities, written 30+ books and is currently a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute of Stanford University.
“...affirmative action, pseudo-intellectual...” my ass, you knuckle walking mouth breather.
The entitlement programs as currently structured are unsustainable. They will either be reformed or by law, the benefits will be reduced to current revenue levels at the time.
He’s pretty good at dispensing common sense with a 4th grade vocabulary, but he’s no Poor Richard.
“It is very difficult for someone who is 100% ideologically conservative to get behind Trump who is not an ideologue. Trump is a guy who takes action and gets results. He does not waste time navel gazing. If he makes a mistake in business he corrects, he adapts, he adjusts, he pivots. He will take a similar solution-oriented approach to fixing government.
I agree with everything you said. My question for you is what good is an idealogue?
Trump has spent his life solving business problems and making money.
Conservatives like Sowell spent their lives studying conservative principles from a historical perspective.
Those who are ideologically conservative know why Hillary’s failed ideas won’t work because we have seen them fail over and over here, in Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. (Hillary is ideologically liberal, meaning that she cannot be convinced liberalism doesn’t work. If it isn’t working, in her mind, you just aren’t using enough of it.)
Trump has never pointed out the philosophical failures of liberalism / socialism. Instead, he points out that the economy is terrible. Blacks are worse off. Crime is going up. Etc. He knows career politicians like Hillary are not doing their jobs. Notice how he did not focus on her political philosophy in his critique at the last debate. He focussed on her experience. He pointed out that it was all bad. I think most people watching can relate more to that than trying to understand the failure in the terms people like Sowell would use.
Ideologues, like myself, don’t need anecdotal evidence. We are like Rush who famously hoped Obama would fail. A lot of people misunderstood that he meant he wanted bad stuff to happen. No. We knew bad stuff would happen if Obama succeeded by implementing his plans.
Trump, as a non-ideologue problem-solver, will probably defer to those who are subject matter experts in areas where his expertise is limited, at least until he is up to speed on an issue. He has a long, successful track record of team building and executive management. Much more than Hillary.
For ideology, a better contrast than Trump and Sowell would be Trump and Cruz. Cruz is an ideologue. On most important issues he and Trump will come to the same conclusion. They just take different paths to get there.
Neither approach to solving problems is inherently better than the other, as long as the problems are solved. It is better that Trump has the nomination over Cruz though because, even though Cruz might do better in a debate performance, he would not be able to weather the media storm that has been thrown at Trump. And Trump will be able to cut through bureaucracy to get things done better than Cruz could have.
And, regarding your question, this nation was founded by ideologues. Sure, they were men of action. Sure, they were problem solvers, too. But they were mostly men who took a step back and studied political philosophy and history to see what went wrong in the past. They attempted to correct these flaws in this new form of government. That took ideologues. Trump does not have to be an ideologue. He has committed to conservative governance based on his observations and personal experiences with what works and is beneficial to society. We need both approaches, but right now Trump is the right man for the job.
America is ready to say, “You’re hired!”
“Conservatives like Sowell spent their lives studying conservative principles from a historical perspective.”
Sort of. Thomas Sowell actually started out as a Marxist.
“How and why had I changed from a young leftist to someone with my present views, which are essentially in favor of free markets and traditional values? In a sense, it was not so much a change in underlying philosophy, as in my vision of how human beings operate.
“Back in the days when I was a Marxist, my primary concern was that ordinary people deserved better, and that elites were walking all over them. That is still my primary concern, but the passing decades have taught me that political elites and cultural elites are doing far more damage than the market elites could ever get away with doing. ...:
http://capitalismmagazine.com/2002/01/from-marxism-to-the-market/
Thank you for your thoughtful and well-constructed response. Best post of the day yet.
“Thomas Sowell, an affirmative action pseudo-intellectual who has fallen short...”
Well Sowell isn’t infallible but he’s certainly not “an affirmative action pseudo-intellectual”
For one thing he graduated cum laude from Harvard more than a decade before affirmative action reared its worthless head. He was there on his merit. And his book on Marxism alone is proof of his intellectual ability.
People like to talk about Sowell’s pedigree, he has written many books, but what has he done that is useful?
Pistol instructor, U.S. Marine Corps.
Anything that little Benji Shapiro is involved in these days is suspect. He’s been busily creating a place for himself next to David Frum and David Brock.
Let’s not get too Manichean about the whole thing.
That’s pretty darned good. Thanks! But what has he done lately other than diss Trump?
That's just ignorant.
More importantly, by voting for Donald Trump the good Dr. Sowell is voting for our Constitution. Good that he realizes that for a conservative, there really is no other choice in this year’s election.
He doesn't appear to like Trump personally. I'm fine with that. He does appear to recognize that if the alternative is Hillary then it's time to make a stand. Give some of these a shot, you might be amused.
Technically, yes, but an effective vote "against Hillary" would be a vote for Trump.
Ignorance and dumb-as-a-rock often go together.
Often, but not always an affliction of the elderly.
“”If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”
Sound familiar? What do you think that means?
I’ve worked with academics. A lot. They like to think and think their thinking contributes something, but with few exceptions, it doesn’t.
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