A response to comments on Politicker.NJ by Mr. Schilp… Joe Schilp couldn’t be more right! (and correct)
Lonegan’s flat tax is means to a political end – just as Obama’s tax plan is – they’re just opposite ends. Lonegan wants all citizens to have a stake in an effective and frugal government. Obama wants to pit tax recipients against tax payers in a divide and conquer strategy that would create a permanent Democrat Ruling Class – can you picture that - some constituencies voting for a set of politicians because they believe that those politicians have promised them money from other people’s pockets? Is there a better description of New Jersey education funding? The problem is that the “other people’s money” never seems to deliver the positive good promised - except to those who are presumed to be delivering the goods. The real net impact is to; 1) Elect Democrats, 2) make the lives of those who are taxed poorer and, 3) convince those who are receiving taxes that failure (urban education, public housing, you-name-it) means they just haven’t had enough of other people’s money.
TS Eliot nailed it: “half the harm done in the world is due to people who just want to feel important. They don’t want to do harm, but the harm does not interest them, or they do not see it, because they are absorbed it the endless struggle to think well of themselves.”
Chris Christie is buying into the liberal’s “endless struggle to think well of themselves” and fails to realize that they (the lefty press and their followers) will never think well of people that have a hard-headed, clear-eyed assessment of the harm done by a wasteful and ineffective government. This is true because for them, its not about results – its about the good intentions. So Republicans can bow down to the left’s idols all day long – they will never be treated well by the left (media) and to play for their “good reviews” is to fall into the trap of the endless, unwinable, and very harmful struggle to “be thought well of”. Liberal Republicans always enjoy a honeymoon in primary season and can never quite understand what hit them in the fall when the left/media team up to smear them – it makes the left/media feel so good about themselves.
Lonegan and true conservatives reject that type of popularity in favor of ideas and policies which lead to personal autonomy and prosperity. Welfare reform is a great example and so is the Flat Tax. Christie can contribute to the endless rule of the left in the politics of New Jersey, but we prefer a break with past and a move toward ideas of economic liberty such as those championed by Steve Forbes and exemplified by Steve Lonegan.
