❝❝I never expected Trump to do anything except disrupt.

Pardon, but you're making the same mistake they did. You think that if the right person was in charge, everything would be okay.

Government is not your friend.

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We will have a government regardless - until we replace it. The replacement may or may not work as well, it may or may not get better, but the ability to replace is inherent in the promise of America.

We've not had a "better" government in decades. Good government is not measured by how much government controls, but by how much it doesn't. It's no accident that America's greatest advances come from places that government doesn't regulate.

Sometimes (and more times than we'd like to admit), the best way to fix something is to replace it. Sometimes the only way to replace something is to destroy it. It works that way with food, clothing, houses. It works that way with cars, companies, and marriages. And yes, sometimes it works that way with government.

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There is some opinion that NASA exists to keep other (and particularly American private interests) out of space. There a fair-to-middling novel Kings of the High Frontier, that explores that. I'm rereading it right now.

We understood the principles behind the internet years before. AT&T had adopted some of them years before to keep long-distance phone calls from being interrupted. Even after the internet became public, the real driver for bandwidth and video compression was porn. Netflix owes it's existence to horny men looking for naked pictures.

Building roads has always been easy. Maintaining roads is the hard part. There government has failed so much that "infrastructure" is a code word for raising taxes.

My faith is in the free market, not consumer capitalism.

Trump is changing things (and disrupting things), but he's only a small part of what is happening.

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First of all, they were poor before Trump was even a candidate. And they weren't helped by Obama's war on the coal industry. If you read the article, state and local authorities had a hand in there too.

I haven't looked at this in depth, but I know there wasn't much of an economic base to begin with. Despite what is claimed, that's not something that any government can create. At a minimum, it requires good ideas and private investment.

Oh, and the jobs vanishing overseas? That's something the Democrats and Republicans share the blame for.

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Like Venezuela?

I could give you pages of proof, but long story short, central control distorts the economy. The more pressure focused in one area, the bigger the disruption. On a small enough scale, you may escape second and third order functions. But if you are using a healthy economy to support massive intervention, you are pretty much guaranteeing those second and third order disruptions.

Think of it like tapping a water main without turning down the pressure. It will give way, it will require replacement, and while it is being fixed most of the system will have to be shut down. The only question is when.

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I'm not a conservative.

I picked Venezuela because in just a few short years socialism destroyed a robust, expanding, petroleum based economy.

Your other examples aren't exactly socialist either. They are more progressive than the US, but they have not nationalized their means of production. Unlike say, Venezuela.

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Have you taken a closer look at the Obama Administration? Cronyism, emotional appeal, basically everything that Trump does except it was (mostly) within the system.

Government is not your friend.

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I repeat, have you taken a look at the Obama administration? A good, long, hard, unbiased look? Have you seen how many of his contributors benefited?

Nor is the Obama administration alone.

This is what annoys me. You're all set to blame Trump and the GOP for crimes against humanity all while excusing the crimes and excesses of the Democrats. And you are still calling for more government control.

Now if you really want, we can match abuse of power against abuse of power. I can tell you horror stories about Congresscritters and technocrats. I can show how almost everything you've been told about economics is designed to confuse you and keep you quiet. I can prove that almost everything government tells you is a lie just to convince you that government is necessary and that one flavor of politics is better than the other.

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How about I tell you truths instead?

Government is not your friend.

Politics is about control, not truth, not compassion, not liberty, and not funding.

There's no Man on a White Horse riding to the rescue. You shouldn't trust anyone who looks like that because they are cosplaying.

The Republicans and the Democrats are about equally as guilty for the mess we're in. Each will blame the other, then you for not caring enough. Each will want more money and more power.

There's no objective difference between the party on the right and the party on the left. The only difference is who gets screwed now and who gets screwed tomorrow.

Blame Trump. Blame Obama. Blame Smith. It doesn't matter because government is the problem.

Government is not your friend.

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Obama didn't reduce the debt. He reduced the deficit. That means the government didn't overspend as much as it had in previous years. Oh, and by the way, they printed more currency to "cover" some of the difference which raised the inflation rate and the interest on the national debt.

Trump didn't nuke North Korea. He responded to provocation, as Presidents at least as far back as Kennedy have done. And by the way, the Norks are willing to negotiate now.

I don't remember seeing anything about Trump going after gay marriage.

Before you defend the ACA, take a look at the costs of healthcare starting when Medicare became law. It's no accident that the costs have exceeded inflation every year since. Thanks to the ACA, dozens of states are scrambling to try to cover healthcare costs. Some are opting out of the program. Legally they aren't supposed to, but there is no way they can cover costs.

I'm not familiar with Golden Valley.

Only Congress can decriminalize marijuana. Since they are exploiting an opioid crisis created by government action, I don't expect them to act soon. Basically when Obama's DoJ stopped enforcing marijuana law, they were breaking the law.

The cities and counties who have the strictest gun laws are the same cities and counties who have the highest rate of gun crimes. Pay specific attention to Chicago and Baltimore. Most of those areas have had Democrat administrations for decades.

"Vote Democrat." Why? So we can fall off the left side instead of the right side?

Government should be smaller than absolutely necessary.

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You mean the multinational corporations who pay both sides but mainly the left ones to pass laws and regulations that benefit them and shut out competition?

You mean the alt-right is a bigger threat than unaccountable race hustlers and movements like BLM who focus on events that fit the narrative and exclude things like "black" on "black" crime in the major cites?

You mean like the attacks on Christianity that happen just because someone professes their faith?

And let's not forget all those people who are only too willing to tell "white" people what they can and cannot say, what they can and cannot think, what they can and cannot do, because of "white privilege."

Government is playing all sides (not both sides, all sides) against each other, and the politicos just keep getting taxes and more power.

Like I told you before, if you want to keep the people you distrust from having power over you backed by government force, the only sure way is to drastically reduce government power. That way you can't mess with them and they can't mess with you.

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But it is possible.

Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense: “Society is produced by our wants and, government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices.”

Milton Friedman wrote: “Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from crimes against themselves or their property. When government-- in pursuit of good intentions tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the cost come in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom. Government should be a referee, not an active player.”

James Madison said: "There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."

People are perfectly capable of making their own decisions. Those choices won’t always be ones you agree with. Sometimes those choices will be bad ones with terrible consequences. Still, freedom is based on choice. Without choice, there is no freedom. Without freedom, we aren’t human.

You are perfectly capable of making your own decisions. That is your right, that is what makes you human, and f*ck all to anyone who tells you different.

KYFHO now and forever. The only protection you should get is the certainty that NO ONE ELSE can use government to control you.

But, if you expect that right for yourself, you’d better damn well defend if for others. Even if you don’t like them. Even if you don’t trust them. Especially if you don’t trust them. Otherwise you will lose your choice.

Otherwise you will lose your freedom.

It’s simple. If you want to live free, you can’t meddle in other’s lives.

The second you start meddling is the second you sacrifice your own rights.

“The greater good” is just as big a tyranny as “for you own good.”

You only think it’s fantasy because that is what you’ve been taught by those benefitting from the current power structure.❞❞

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