 | Monday, June 29, 2009 at 6:41:14 mst
Comment ID: #1
Name: Steve D'Ippolito
It was great to see the entire room give a standing ovation, and depressing to realize that over half of them will go home still believing that America is a "Christian" nation that needs prayer in schools, creationism, and a ban on abortion.
Many will even think that Brook told them so, he was after all calling for a return to our founding principles, and these folks believe that Christianity was among them. It will never occur to them that he left that stuff out, much less that he did so for a reason.
(Mind you the failure was on the part of the audience, not on the part of Brook.)
If we ever see a rebirth of capitalist thinking in the Republican party there will ultimately be either a struggle with the Fundies with one side getting mostly tossed out of the party, or some sort of ultimately unstable alliance, where the Fundies agree to leave the capitalist politicians alone but insist they go to church on Sunday (like many politicians have to parade with yarmulkes in front of Jewish groups) and agree to vote for anti-"choice"/pro-"life" justices before they get support. The latter is the most likely outcome because most of the fundies *think* they are for capitalism even if it is not their highest priority (and given their premises, it should not be). But wait, this has already happened--LFC Republicans are just about extinct, and anyone still standing in the GOP who resists the religious right's agenda is inevitably more socialist than the rest of the GOP, as well, and deservedly gets tagged with the RINO--Republican in name only--label.
Back when I was a Republican I saw the beginning stages of this purge, at least in my local area. A very well funded group urged that only people who followed the party platform be elected to positions in the party organization. This seemed pretty appealing to me; I was sick of non-capitalist RINOs getting elected and raising taxes and adding more regulations and compromising with the Democrats. It turned out though when one looked a little deeper that all this group really was concerned about was abortion/creationism/prayer in the schools--the free market could go hang.
The Republicans have a long way to go before they are fit for an Objectivist's support. |
| Monday, June 29, 2009 at 10:42:40 mst
Comment ID: #2
Name: madmax
Steve writes:
"...and anyone still standing in the GOP who resists the religious right's agenda is inevitably more socialist than the rest of the GOP, as well, and deservedly gets tagged with the RINO..."
I've noticed this too. It seems that most (if not all) non-Objectivist secularists are collectivists. The only people in Washington who defend free markets to any extent (and their defense is always flawed) are seriously religious (ie Jim DeMint or Ron Paul). Today's secular thought systems are all based on skepticism, relativism and egalitarianism. Thus today's secularists always end up advocates of the welfare / regulatory state. Secular Republicans might be slightly less collectivist than the left but that's not saying much. Things get even worse when you realize that religious conservatives then blame "secularism" for socialism and fascism. And of course, religious conservatives always remind us that all this perverse secularism is the result of "frauds" like Charles Darwin who foisted "materialistic science" on the culture and thus destroyed the "soul" of the West by killing God which is society's "moral core".
The upshot of all this is that I have mixed feelings about Yaron Brook and ARI appealing to Republicans. I don't think they will ever abandon God. To them, without God or religion America will collapse as a healthy society needs to base itself on a divine foundation. But I realize ARI is attempting to win over active minded Republicans no matter how few in number they may be. |
| Monday, June 29, 2009 at 11:15:02 mst
Comment ID: #3
Name: Jennifer Snow
E-mail: Snowconic(at)hotmail.com
URL: http://literatrix.blogspot.com
I don't doubt that Yaron Brook knows exactly how little effect a single speech has, but he keeps on talking, and we should all do the same in whatever venues are open to us. The window may be tiny, but if we stop talking and give up in despair, it will disappear entirely.
If anyone is going to win, it's indefatigable champions like Yaron Brook. |
| Monday, June 29, 2009 at 11:55:03 mst
Comment ID: #4
Name: Brian T. Schwartz
URL: http://wakalix.com
I might not have time to watch these videos, but gosh, I *love* Yaron's passionate gesturing captured in the second video. Since he's talking to Republicans, I can imagine some funny captions. :) I suppose who ever selected that scene did it purposely. Good job! Yaron is among the most passionate speakers on free markets & individual rights that I have seen. |
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