The events taking place in the financial market offer an illustration of the soundness of the Austrian theory of money, banking, and credit cycles, and Mises.org is your source not only for analysis of these events but also the economic theory that helps explain what is happening and what to do about it. There are many thousands of articles available, and also the full text of thousands of books as well as journal articles. It is impossible to draw attention to the full range of literature one can use to understand the crisis.
However, below we offer a brief look into the topics most discussed in these times, with extended treatments of each in the sidebar. Mises.org also offers both a blog and a community forum for reading and discussing them all.
It's never been more important to spread a sound view of money and banking, not only as a protection against the fallacies of "stabilization" and "reflation" but also as way to see what kind of reforms are essential now.
Don Feder, Coldsteel Caucus Report
I just got back from the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C., where conservatives began lining up behind a man who’s been sticking it to us for years. By a process of self-hypnosis, many have managed to convince themselves that McCain is actually one of us.
Not for nothing did Benjamin Disraeli call conservatives the stupid party.
What part of John McCain do we not get? McCain-Kennedy, McCain-Feingold, McCain-Lieberman, McCain-Edwards -- among other socialist, anti-speech, open-borders, enviro-Marxist measures he’s co-sponsored with the hardcore left of the Democratic Party over the years.
If Il Duce had served with him in the United States Senate, there would be McCain-Mussolini.
The moment Mitt Romney “suspended” his campaign and McCain became inevitable, the squawking began: “You mean you’d actually prefer Hillary or Obama (judges)? At least McCain is pro-life (judges). He’s a war hero who’ll ably lead us in the War on Terrorism (judges). Did we mention that he’ll appoint conservative judges?”
Before the chorus of amnesiac Chicken Littles drowns out the voices of reason, here are 10 reasons why conservatives should sever their right hands at the wrist before they pull the McCain lever in November...
1. Immigration – He’s not just pro-open borders, he’s Senor Amnesty – co-sponsor of McCain-Kennedy, which would have legalized 15 million illegal aliens, allowed them to bring in tens of millions of their mooching relatives (including the elderly and infirm), given them credit for past Social Security contributions, etc. The Heritage Foundation’s Robert Rector said McCain-Kennedy would have constituted the largest expansion of the welfare state in U.S. history (at an estimated cost of $2.6 trillion). A Republican who served with McNasty in the Senate said he was forever haranguing his GOP colleagues about being perceived as “xenophobes” for not supporting amnesty. At CPAC, he told conservatives he’s heard us. He’ll secure the borders first, then push amnesty – which, of course, will negate anything he does at the border. Build it (a suicidal welfare state that embraces alien intruders), and a fence won’t keep them out.
2. Multiculturalism – If his advocacy of open borders wasn’t enough, McCain has also opposed official English and supported bi-lingual education (two more issues where he’s out-of-step with the overwhelming majority of his countrymen). McCain even voted for an amendment that would have codified Clinton’s Executive Order 13166, requiring recipients of federal funding, like hospitals, to provide translation services in any language requested. (When it comes to pandering, cost is no object.) No wonder he’s a hero to LULAC (the separatist League of United Latin American Citizens), Geraldo Rivera and Juan Hernandez (his Hispanic outreach director, who says he’d like 7th. generation Mexican-Americans to think of themselves as Mexicans first). Look for President McCain to make Cinco de Mayo a national holiday, give his inaugural address in Arabic and light an annual Kwanza whatever on the White House lawn.
3. Enviro-Marxism – McCain’s supporters think he’s just the man to lead America in the War on Terrorism. What’s the principal weapon of terrorist states? Oil. What does McCain want to keep America from producing more of? Oil. In 2003, McCain was one of only 6 Republican senators to vote against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. For McCain, keeping America dependent on Middle Eastern oil is a small price to pay to make the caribou comfortable. He’s also the proud co-sponsor of McCain-Lieberman – a $660 billion monument to the myth of man-made global warming (an industry-killing cap on CO2 emissions), which would annihilate tens of thousands of American jobs and make us far less competitive. By what twisted logic does open borders, crippling U.S. industry and energy dependence equal national security?
4. Class Warfare – In the recent debate at the Reagan Library, McCain called Romney a “manager for profits” (would he prefer a businessman who managed for losses?) who has “laid people off” – thus demonstrating how little the Senator understands the market economy. Jobs aren’t permanent -- except for those who’ve served in the Senate for 21 years -- and sometimes they have to disappear so others can be created. In 2001, McCain was one of only two Republican Senators to vote against the Bush tax cuts. In 2003, he was one of only three. Now, he says it’s because there weren’t matching spending cuts. Then he called them “tax cuts for the rich.” This comes from a man who never held a private-sector job and made his money the old-fashioned way – by marrying an heiress whose father subsidized his early campaigns.
5. Abortion – McCain’s vaunted pro-life voting record reflects the views of his Arizona constituents more than any real commitment. He supports subsidies for embryonic stem-cell research. In 2000, he told the San Francisco Examiner that “certainly in the short term, even in the long-term I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade.” (He later reversed himself under pro-life pressure.) Most critics view McCain-Feingold as an assault on the First Amendment, which it certainly is. It’s also one of the most destructive anti-life measures ever enacted by Congress. Under this so-called Campaign Finance Reform, a pro-life group can’t run ads criticizing the record of a pro-abortion legislator within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary. Needless to say, there’s no similar gag-rule for McCain’s buddies in the mainstream media. Elsewhere on the family-values front, McCain voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment. He says it’s because he wants states to decide the definition of marriage (the only instance in which he’s on record favoring federalism), which is the same as saying he wants activist judges to decide.
6. Judicial Nominations – Though McCain denies it, columnist Robert Novak swears the frontrunner told him prior to confirmation of Justice Samuel Alito that the nominee was too conservative, and that he preferred those who “didn’t wear their conservatism on their sleeve” (like Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony Kennedy?). McCain was also part of the Gang of 14 which prevented a rules change that would have stopped unconstitutional filibusters on judicial nominations. Former New Hampshire Senator Warren Rudman was responsible for the Supreme Court nomination of David Souter -- the most disastrous Republican appointment since Earl Warren. (The play was Rudman to then-Chief of Staff John Sununu to Bush Sr.) Rudman has a prominent role in McCain’s campaign. Rudman could be President McCain’s Attorney General, giving him more say on judicial nominations than anyone other than the president. In his 1996 book, Rudman wrote that Christian conservatives include in their ranks “enough anti-abortion zealots, would-be censors, homophobes, bigots and latter-day Elmer Gantrys to discredit any party that is unwise enough” to align itself with them. With Warren Rudman at his side, it’s anyone’s guess whether McCain’s Supreme Court picks would be appreciably better than Clinton’s or Obama’s.
7. War on Terrorism – We’ve already noted McCain’s support for energy dependence and his crusade for open borders. (Besides all of the rapists, drug-dealers and gang members coming across our Southern border, terrorists are also infiltrating the United States due to the de facto surrender of national sovereignty.) McCain wants to close Guantanamo and give terrorists the same rights as enemy combatants. He opposes tough interrogation techniques that leave no scars, but have elicited the intelligence that has saved American lives. (Personally, I’d use thumbscrews and the iron maiden on this scum.) A McCain anti-terrorism policy is more likely to be shaped by his friends at the ACLU and The New York Times than by the Center for Security Policy.
8. McPsycho – McCain is famous for going postal on his Republican colleagues -- dropping the F-word, calling them f---ing idiots and worse. His dangerous inability to control his temper comes from a God-complex and an ingrained contempt for other human beings. One of his colleagues commented, “I don’t want this guy anywhere near a trigger.” Given his mental state, McCain could end up nuking Terre Haute instead of Tehran.
9. Reaching Across the Aisle – This is media-speak for a Republican sell-out who conspires with the left. McCain doesn’t reach across the aisle – he leaps. Former Senator Rick Santorum discloses: “The bottom line is that I served 12 years with him (McCain), 6 years in the United States Senate as a leader, one of the leaders of the Senate – the number-3 leader – who had the responsibility of trying to put together the conservative agenda, and at almost every turn on domestic policy, John McCain was not only against us, but leading the charge on the other side.” Republican presidents who are unsure of themselves too often try to placate the other party. For McCain, working with the left is his natural inclination. He’ll turn to the Kennedys, Feingolds and Liebermans not as a last resort, but as a first.
10. Rally or Roll-Over -- If a Democrat takes the oath of office next January, Congressional Republicans will find their principles again. From 1993 to 1995, without a majority in either House, Republicans fought Bill Clinton to a legislative standstill. They went on to win the House and Senate in the 1994 election -- for the first time in 40 years – and to hold both for a decade. If McCain is elected, it will be roll-over time for Congressional Republicans – on taxes, regulation, environmentalism, speech-suppression, internationalism, multiculturalism, civil liberties for terrorists and open-borders. (When it comes to arm-twisting, Captain Queeg would make Bush look like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.) This time, instead of losing power for a few years, the party could be permanently discredited.
Ultimately, all of this is academic. McCain’s chances of becoming the next president are none – and none. Since 1964, Republicans have won 7 of 10 presidential elections. They lost in 1976, 1992 and 1996. Each time, the party was saddled with a standard-bearer – Ford, Bush ’41, Dole – that a large part of the base couldn’t stand.
The American people are basically conservative. At some point, the Democrats always give away the game – expose themselves as the party of socialism, pacifism, racial-pandering and treason. They only win when Republicans sound an uncertain trumpet. McCain is a kazoo played by an asthmatic.
McCain is also old, abrasive and unlovable. (It was said of Bob Dole, another war hero, that he couldn’t sell beer on a troop ship. McCain couldn’t give it away.) Once the Democrats pick their nominee, McCain’s media cheerleaders will pack up their pompoms and move to the other side of the field.
President Bush – he of “compassionate conservatism,” mega-spending hikes and Hamas statehood– has just announced that John McCain is a “true conservative.”
I rest my case.
