Posted on 03/28/2014 11:31:15 AM PDT by Kaslin
Leland Yee, a Democratic state senator and candidate for secretary of state in California, has been a longtime champion of gun control. This week he was arrested on numerous charges, including conspiracy to deal firearms without a license and conspiracy to illegally transport firearms. Yee, a prominent foe of assault weapons, allegedly took bribes to set up a meeting between an undercover agent and an international arms dealer to broker the sale of automatic weapons and shoulder-fired missiles. A lengthy FBI affidavit also describes Yee's ties to a Chinese triad and his desire to help out Islamist militants.
In short, the story makes for what journalists call "good copy."
And yet, so far no reporter has raised the possibility that Yee supported tighter restrictions on guns in order to keep gun prices high and Yee's services in demand. Economist Bruce Yandle popularized the idea of the "Bootleggers and Baptists" coalition. The apocryphal Baptists want to ban alcohol. Bootleggers don't make much money when liquor can be bought legally at a grocery store or bar. So the bootleggers bankroll the Baptists' effort to ban booze.
Now I sincerely doubt that Yee was that clever. The more likely explanation is that he believes in gun control and he's a greedy hypocrite (and maybe not too bright either). The fact that gun-control policies are to his advantage is just a happy coincidence.
What's interesting -- and vexing -- to me is that this sort of analysis is all the rage when it comes to conservatives and Republicans, and utterly incomprehensible to most journalists when it comes to liberals and Democrats.
Consider the Koch brothers, the billionaire businessmen and philanthropists. The Democratic Party raises vast sums off demonizing the Koch brothers. (Slate's David Weigel reports that fundraising e-mails mentioning the Kochs raised roughly three times as much as those that didn't mention them.) This explains why Sen. Majority leader Harry Reid calls the Kochs "un-American" and liars every chance he gets.
Meanwhile, many media outlets are all too willing to take their cues from Democratic talking points. For instance, the Washington Post recently ran a shockingly shabby story insinuating that the Kochs have a lot to gain from the Keystone pipeline. The story was utterly debunked by John Hinderaker of the website Powerline. (The Kochs have no stake in the pipeline, and even if they did, so what?) But the Post's piece was typical of the media's fascination with the idea that the Kochs' political activities are simply cover for their desire to maximize profits.
Here's the problem. The profit motives of the Koch brothers are by far the least interesting thing about them. Charles and David Koch are worth about $40 billion -- apiece! Could they make even more money in a more libertarian America? Who knows? But let's say yes. The idea that they are going to all of this bother just to be worth $50 billion instead of $40 billion is pretty silly when you think about it.
Profit maximization hardly explains why they've given hundreds of millions of dollars to cancer research, hospitals and the arts. And profit lust probably has little to do with why Charles Koch co-founded the nonprofit libertarian think tank the Cato Institute either. It certainly doesn't explain why Charles Koch wrote a book on "market-based management." (Koch's time is more valuable seeking something other than book royalties, of which I'm sure there were few, if any.) Maybe there's a profit motive lurking somewhere in the millions that the Kochs have spent helping GOP politicians, but there are far cheaper and smarter ways for billionaires to buy laws and regulations to their liking.
I have no problem with journalistic skepticism or the search for ulterior motives. I just object to the idea that only Republicans might have them.
Al Gore reportedly left government with a net worth of less than $2 million; he's now worth more than $200 million, in part by profiting from climate policies he lobbies for. Gore surely believes in those policies, but why does he get the benefit of the doubt? GE spent millions on politics in exchange for "green energy" policies that generate billions in profits that wouldn't exist in a free market. Matthew Continetti of the Washington Free Beacon recently chronicled how George Soros and new liberal golden-boy fat cat Tom Steyer have financial interests at stake in their own preferred public policies. And yet they get glowing treatment from the press as idealists sacrificing profit for principles.
The irony is that it'd be in the media's business interest to report on the seedy underbelly of liberal politics, too. But they don't, because they actually do put their liberal principles before profits.
Thanks Kaslin.
Don’t Assume Liberals Always Put Principles Before Profits
s/b
Don’t Assume Liberals Ever Put Principles Before Profits
or
Liberals Always Put Personal Gain First
Uh... other than first, always, libtard, what principles?
A league jump from pressure cookers Yee????
There are two kinds of leftists - the elitists and the sheeperal.
The elitists are simply after personal power. Whatever it takes to get them more power, they’ll do. That’s the only overriding principle that they have. They will feign interest in “helping” others, and that’s where they get the support of the sheeperal.
The sheeperal have one primary motivation - to feel good about themselves as “good people”. The elitists rope them in with “if you support XYZ, you’ll be helping people or showing you care about people or the erf”. And the bonus attraction for the sheeperal is that they don’t have to personally sacrifice ANYTHING except their support of the person desiring power.
Very interesting article.
An oxymoron, really. Socialists NEVER put principles first, becasue their whole schtick is to figure out different ways of legalizing extortion so they can steal your money.
Liberals hate profit, except for them.
Profits are the liberal principles. The party of anti-capitalism just practicing its own form of capitalism.
Why is this vexing? Its understood and expected that liberals will fail. And when they do - they get a free pass. If this happens to conservatives, we get labeled as hypocrites. Its the old double standard. Been going on since forever.
BOOKMARK
I have never in my life awarded the label principle to a libtard.
This is a trick headline.
Every patriot and sane person knows that liberals have no principles.
“And yet, so far no reporter has raised the possibility that Yee supported tighter restrictions on guns in order to keep gun prices high and Yee’s services in demand.”
In this case reporters, who aren’t known for possessing a lick of sense, are still one step ahead of Jonah Goldberg.
Yee was smuggling fully automatic weapons. They are already restricted.
I can name two.
Advancement of elitist power.
Punishment of Christians.
LOL! I don’t ever make that assumption!
Example #1: Al Gore selling his “network” to Al Jazeera
Liberal politicians NEVER put ANYTHING before their own personal gain.
The only time their ‘principles’ come before profits is when the profitable activity in question provides no benefit to THEM.
Postmodern ideology has eliminated accountability.
Once you throw truth out the window, nothing really matters. This is what being liberal means.
Who would ever ever assume anything so stupid? Politics is all they care about and everything is about politics to them
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