Andy Duncan, in his rather, umm, shall we say, idiosyncratic post Ode to the future, made a very good point. He noted that we tend to obsess over the bad news here at Samizdata.
As a political professional, I can assure you that nothing turns off your audience more quickly than an unremitting diet of negativity, and nothing harms an advocate more than having only complaints without solutions. I happen to believe that, in the very big picture and the very long view, a lot of trends are running our way. Now, I enjoy complaining about the cult of the state as much as the next fellow, but I will be making a conscious effort to bring some good news to the fore. With that in mind, I give you the retirement of Senator Fritz Hollings.
This is good news, in small part, because it his seat in the US Senate will likely go from the Democratic Party to the Republican next year. As odious as the Republicans frequently are, I find that I can tolerate around 15% of their platform, as opposed to perhaps 2% of the Democratic platform, so this counts as a small plus.
The major reason that this is good news is that ol’ Fritz was perhaps the single most committed protectionist in the Senate.
“Later, in a telephone interview, Hollings said he plans to redouble his efforts before his term ends on issues ranging from budget discipline to protecting textile and other domestic industries, which were among his leading interests for years.”
He recently became known as the ‘Senator from Disney,’ after campaign contributions from that source revealed a previously unsuspected interest in extending intellectual property protections to unprecedented lengths, allowing Disney to retain income streams from Mickey Mouse far into the future.
(For the uninitiated, when a Democrat talks about “budget discipline,” they are referring to increased taxes, not reduced spending.)
Robert Clayton Dean writes:
Andy Duncan, in his rather, umm, shall we say, idiosyncratic post Ode to the future,
Hey, Charlie liked it. And that’s good enough for me! 🙂
I can assure you that nothing turns off your audience more quickly than an unremitting diet of negativity, and nothing harms an advocate more than having only complaints without solutions.
Firstly, we care about our audience (well, we keep posting on this blog) but we write about what we see. And as long we see the heavy hand of state reaching further into our minds and pockets, well, the news on Samizdata.net will not get any better…
Secondly, we do have a solution – spreading the distinction between the state and society. Also, bringing about the atrophy of the former and strenghtening the latter. Our ‘solution’ is not attached to each ‘morsel of negativity’ on this blog, since we have been repeating our position ad infinitum… and there is nothing that bores an audience more than that. 😉
I happen to believe that, in the very big picture and the very long view, a lot of trends are running our way.
Your statement is based on a belief that things are getting better. I do not share it. Your good news originates in the political party playground. As I do not see any fundamental differences between Democrats and Republicans, Tories and Labour, I do not have any reason for rejoicing.
If, however, all politicians started to sponteneously burst into flames setting the surrounding bureaucrats on fire, now that would be excellent news!
I do think that the retirement of protectionist, tax-and-spend dinosaur is good news, admittedly on a micro-scale. Of course, his replacement may be as bad or worse, but at least there is the chance for improvement.
Whether there are fundamental differences between Dems and Repubs, they are nonetheless the only real choices we have in the US the near- to mid-term. You can either abandon the field of politics altogether, and thereby resign yourself to having no affect on the management of the state in the near- to mid-term, or you can work with what you’ve got. I’m not a fan of the Republicans on many issues, but at least they cut my taxes occasionally and stick up for my rights as a gun owner. For all their flaws, their ideas about how to extend the government into my life tend to be pale imitations of the plans of the Democrats.
I believe that, in the very long term (measured over decades) and on a very large scale (the planet, really) that a number of trends are running our way. China is becoming more and more commercially free, for example, a process that is unleashing forces that the ChiComs will ultimately not be able to control. The former Soviet empire is free of Soviet domination, and while many parts of it are content to wallow in neo-feudalism, other parts have made palpable progress. Iraq is much better off now than it was even six months ago, and I believe that the current crop of dictators in the mideast has a very short half-life. In general, communism is dead as a doorknob, commercial freedom in particular is increasing, and the internet and other technologies are creating freedoms, and spreading the message of freedom, in ways our forefathers never conceived of.
Sure, there are countertrends – transnational progressivism appears to be on the rise (although I think it is one of the last gasps of collectivism), etc.
Positing the distinction between state and society as the solution is all well and good, but in my experience concrete examples of these principled stands and distinctions cannot be multiplied and reiterated too often.
If you are waiting for the revolution in order to see progress, you will have a very long wait. Incremental gains are gains nonetheless, and nothing builds momentum like the perception of progress. I’m no pollyanna, but neither am I a cassandra. Where I see good news, I will try to spread the word, rather than grousing that the millenium hasn’t arrived.
Re: Hollings’ retirement, one thing he’s promised to do is to go on the attack against Bush et al on behalf of the Democrats. The Dems really want to take back the South & he’s respected there. Be interesting to see how that plays out.
If you are waiting for the revolution in order to see progress, you will have a very long wait.
Who said anything about revolutions?! What do you mean? I thought strenghtening society and engaging in a spot of meta-contextual discourse is anything but a revolution… I also thought we make our approach and our disdain for politics clear on Samizdata.net. Oh, well. As far as I am concerned we can’t change the news but can change the way people read them…
I fully agree with Robert Clayton Dean. A lot of things are changing to the better. A lot of former statist countries are becoming more open, on an economical as well as on a social basis. Last time I was in Beijing, some months ago, I found a whole bunch of Chinese punk cd’s, and one of them had lyrics that openly displayed criticism of the regime (one song was called “We don’t need your f*cking rules!”.
However, I didn’t know Robert Clayton Dean was a libertarian politician. I thought he was a labour lawyer.
Today is my birthday. My wife rented a pontoon boat for us to take the kids fishing. We caught several nice panfish. It was a very good day
I know I can be a cranky old fart some or most of the time, so I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to anyone I might have insulted or offended. I enjoy this site due to the people and ideas I encounter here, and I sincerely hope I do not abuse your good graces with some of my comments.
Happy fishing birthday to me.
A v. happy birthday, v. retired.
Can we assume from the outpouring of affection and contrition that celebrations included liberal application of adult beverages?
Gabriel, since we are unlikely to make any but small incremental steps toward liberty in the foreseeable future, I am merely proposing that we note those steps as they occur.
No advancement of liberty will be possible without engaging vigorously in politics at some level. Party politics is grubby stuff, to be sure, and I would not like to see the clear air of Samizdata.net clogged with the fumes of partisan bickering, but if we can listen to you Brits argue about Tories v. New Labor (or is it Labour?) v. Conservatives, I think the occasional Democrat-bashing from this side of the pond is not entirely out of order.
Really, if the best my search for good news can come up with is the retirement of one old statist party hack (likely to be replaced with more of the same), then your more pessimistic assessment may be the more accurate.
And a happy birthday to you, Mr. Retired.
I agree with Gabriel’s gloom-and-doom assessment — at least I would if I were a libertarian (which I’m not). Prospects for relief from “the heavy hand of the state” have rarely been so inauspicious. Libertarianism in my country (the US) is a political non-starter: something with hardly greater appeal than theocracy or anarchy. I sense things are not much different in the U.K.
Happy birthday, veryretired. 🙂
Many happy returns of the day, v. retired. If you were ever offensive I failed to notice. Probably too busy pissing people off myself.
As for Hollings’ career and its end, two points worth making. First, his protectionism was structural more than ideological (S. Carolina has been slow to relinquish its deathgrip on low-wage textile manufacturing), was shared by the other (recently deceased, Republican) bag-o-bones Senator, Strom Thurmond, and is likely to be continued by whoever takes the seat next.
Speaking of which (second point), doesn’t Fritz have a son or daughter to whom he wishes to bequeath his powers? This is the creeping menace I wish more concerned citizens (Libertarian and non) would get their panties in a twist over. Washington in positively awash with wives/children/siblings of the powerful who have silently slipped into lucrative and important posts on little more than a wink and a nod.
Speaking of which (second point), doesn’t Fritz have a son or daughter to whom he wishes to bequeath his powers?
Perhaps he does, Kelli. But this is 2003, after all. The state of South Carolina is no longer feudal. (I live in North Carolina.) And in particular, S. Carolina is no longer Democratic (upper-case “D”). The Republicans in the US Senate will be picking up one here. Count on it.
(Straight to the bone)
Look, all this “solution” nonsense is quite simple. It is comprised of the very opposite of nearly everything in view today.
Beyond that, I say only that a foolish optimism never won anything good.
Stop it. Face the bleedin’ music, already.
Ok