Ryan I Am

Dear conservative friends,

It’s cool that you want to pick on Occupy Wall Street. They are whiney, self-entitled morons. You found someone easy to pick on and you’re taking advantage of it. Congratulations.

Keep in mind that most self-respecting progressives that believe in capitalism and liberty wouldn’t be seen within a mile of the OWS protesters.

Also, don’t forget that the right still has its own nutjob wing called the Tea Party. I don’t think you need me to pull up pictures of all those misspelled signs held up by slack-jawed yokels to remember that embarrassment.

Also keep in mind that there are some intelligent people behind OWS, just like there are some intelligent conservatives. The Economist recently posted some coherent demands written by a NYC CPA, for example.

So before you go on patting yourselves on the back on how you proved liberals to be such idiots, remember: America is mostly full of idiots. And so far, the Tea Party is much larger than OWS.

From the September 7th Republican debate:

“But I think the Republican candidates are talking about ways to transition this program, and it is a monstrous lie. It is a Ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today, you’re paying into a program that’s going to be there.” –Rick Perry

Someone on twitter pointed out that Rick Perry just told every retired person that they’re taking money from Bernie Madoff.

Social Security is a government service rendered in the form of cash, paid for by taxes. It’s no different than any other government service that is paid for by many but used by few, such as fire and police protection, food stamps, and farm subsidies. Social Security is not, and has never been purported to be,  an investment instrument, with dividends and a guaranteed or promised payout, with shares growing in value at or above the market rate.

Ironically, the funding level of the program for a given generation is directly dependent on how many children they have, so it would seem that if one wants to guarantee solvency of the program, he would encourage as many people as he can to have as many kids they can afford.

By Perry’s definition, the federal government itself is a ponzi scheme, since it collects taxes from everyone and distributes them amongst various programs. Likewise, a church that relies on donations which it then distributes to fund its operations is clearly a ponzi scheme. Even businesses collect receivables and use those payments to fund other aspects of the business. Rick Perry’s campaign is taking donations, so he himself is a ponzi scheme! Everything is a ponzi scheme!

In my last post, I wrote that we are all centrists, all political ideologies are at least partially wrong (and some are partially right), and that we should all be mathematicians. “But,” you say, “In reality, you have to fall on the scale somewhere! You can’t claim to be above the fray if you actually have a stance on an issue.”

Of course, that is correct. If you were to average out all of my political beliefs on the scale, I would fall somewhere on the moderately liberal side. Ten to fifteen years ago, that was solid Republican territory. Now, it’s Democrat land. That doesn’t mean I am moderate about everything, and it doesn’t mean I like the Democratic party today, either.

What if I was strongly in favor of gay rights, and also gun control? Does that make me a centrist? Or a polarized schizofrenic? Or perhaps that just makes me a libertarian. This is why I can’t defend or attack an ideology itself. They all have their place.

However, I have no patience for the Republican party. I used to vote Republican. I believe in capitalism, low tariffs, and gun rights. But over the last few years, the Republican Party has been hijacked by simple-minded extremists. If you’ve watched the debates, notice how Jon Huntsman appears so reasonable compared to to his peers. They’re not even his peers, they’re like monkeys fighting over a banana. And sadly, he doesn’t have a chance at winning. From pushing selfishly flawed ideas like trickle-down economics (a concept Reagan himself disproved), to head-in-the-sand refusal to listen to science on climate change, to battling monetary policy with fiscal policy arguments, much of what they say just makes no sense.

So when I bash Republicans, know that it’s not because I’m a Democrat (I’m not) or an Obama-lover (absolutely not). It’s just because they deserve it.