Broken Promises
They say, "never assume malice for something more easily explained by incompetence". But they also say, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!" What we know is that on the big issues, the left is almost never right. And for some reason, that creates trust issues for the self aware, and it doesn't for the biased and polemic. This is a list of big things that the progressives got wrong, to support the point. Of course I'm not claiming that they never get anything right. Just that there's a good reason for folks to be skeptical and remain critical thinkers whenever a politician is promising something. Doubly so, if that politician is a lefty or progressive.
Contents
List of things that progressives got wrong
Social Programs
- The welfare state would reduce the poverty rate, help the poor, and help with crime
- Medicare costs were vastly underestimated
- “Investing” more taxpayer money in the primary and secondary school systems would result in better outcomes.
- Headstart would result in permanent gains and better scores for poor children
Foreign Policy
- Afganistan and Vietnam would be easy
- Defending Kuwait and Iraq would result in tens of thousands of American lives lost... or more
- The threat is from “al-Qaeda” not from Islamic jihadism
- Overthrowing Ghadaffi would lead to a stable ally and not get any Americans killed
- We should reset relations and do business with Russia (they'll love us)
- Capitulating and being nice to North Korea would persuade them to end their Nuclear ambitions
- Capitulating and being nice to Iran would persuade them to end their Nuclear ambitions ~ Pending
Economics
- Cash for clunkers would stimulate more car buying
- Lowering taxes – especially the top marginal rate – would reduce tax revenues; (Raising them would raise them).
- Forcing lenders to make home loans to unqualified borrowers would be good for the economy;
- The Dodd Frank legislation would break up the big banks and reduce their market share; stop too big to fail.
- The economy would crash if Donald Trump was elected and remain at no more than 2% growth for the for seeable future
- Keynesianism: everything about it has been wrong
Misc
- Every malthusian claim about over-population, food supply, the environment or the future
- apocalyptic climate change predictions that have not happened;
- Trump would lose, Hillary would win
- Gun control, or assault weapon bans would help
- Eliminate of gun control (or liberal conceal and carry laws) would result in the OK Corral across this country; in Florida, D.C., Chicago, Austin, and so on
Obama election promises
- Obamacare would cut healthcare costs (by $2,500), offer universal coverage, not include a mandate, you could keep your doctor/plan, it wouldn't have death panels or cover illegal aliens, it would be so popular that Democrats would be a lock in for the next election and the Republicans would have to remake the party entirely
- to unite us more as a nation, be bipartisan, and improve race relations, all of the above energy policy
- to not raise taxes on the middle class, improve government efficiency, be a fiscal conservative and cut back on spending
- to put waiting periods on major legislation, "unprecedented transparency", to "nail shut" the revolving door of lobbyists
- to make immigration a top priority and pass comprehensive reform in his first year (including a legal pathway to citizenship)
- to improve our standing in the world, to close Gitmo (though I was on the other side of that one), get Iran to stop funding terrorism
- to get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan -- and pulling out of Iraq (or arming terrorists in Syria) wouldn't lead to a fanatical caliphate (ISIS)
- And of course just the absurd promises that I really didn't take seriously: create 1M new manufacturing jobs, lead the world in college graduates, double exports, create a 2 state solution in Israel, halve deficits, slow the rise of the oceans, and other absurdities that the rational never bought but the supporters assured people would happen
Lies, Lies, Lies
The problem is that as the Democrats broke promises, or got exactly what they wanted, they couldn't own mistakes -- they had to lie about the failures. And usually that involved blaming the other side. Not delivering on a promise, just makes you incompetent or self deluded. You shouldn't be given power once you've demonstrated that repeatedly, but it's still not malice. But when you lie and say things that an even slightly informed person would know is not true, that takes it to another level. You're not just incompetent, but evil and dishonest. Things like:
- Obamacare was modeled after a Republican Plan
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You often hear advocates claiming, "if it wasn't for progressives, you wouldn't have X...", then they explain without progressives, we wouldn't have roads, schools, police, fireman, military, or some other thing we had for decades or centuries before progressives. But I wanted to compile the other side of the equation (the balances). Here's a reminder of what they gave us that wasn't so great, or started off fine but entropied into something bad, so people can decide if jumping on every new big-government bandwagon is a good idea… or if a little prudence, caution and research is warranted before gobbling up the bandwagon fallacy and putting on that Che Guevara T-Shirt. The short list of losers would include the following:
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