Is NYT’s Steven Erlanger Really This Dumb?

J.J. Jackson | September 29, 2009 

I suppose I should not be all that surprised that the New York Times, a paper that can’t seem to hit the broad side of a barn despite standing inside the barn, would have a man on staff that would actually be this clueless and stupid. No kidding, Steven Erlanger is actually sounding befuddled as to why the socialists in Europe are having trouble!

Here is actually how he starts his article:

Even in the midst of one of the greatest challenges to capitalism in 75 years, involving a breakdown of the financial system due to “irrational exuberance,” greed and the weakness of regulatory systems, European Socialist parties and their left-wing cousins have not found a compelling response, let alone taken advantage of the right’s failures.

Yes, that is actually what the New York Times is paying its writers to write!

Hey Mr. Erlanger, the breakdown of the financial system was not due to capitalism! It was due to government meddling and OVER regulation (not weakness of regulation) with bureaucrats and politicians sticking their grubby little hands into every nook and cranny of our lives and our businesses! Remember Fannie Mae? Freddie Mac? Barney Frank, otherwise known as the Congressman that couldn’t see the elephant in the room when confronted with it? The left’s constant stonewalling of reforms to stop government approved (and highly encouraged) programs designed to get mortgages for homes into the hands of people who couldn’t borrow a dollar for a cheeseburger? Remember all that? That wasn’t “capitalism” there buddy boy!

Socialism caused the collapse and people are actually smart enough to know this! It is the overwhelming amounts of socialism in Europe that is dragging those countries down and the people there are even getting fed up with it! The “breakdown of the financial systems” was not caused by those you claim!

He then goes on with a stunning piece of drivel that actually disproves his own hypothesis:

Europe’s center-right parties have embraced many ideas of the left: generous welfare benefits, nationalized health care, sharp restrictions on carbon emissions, the ceding of some sovereignty to the European Union. But they have won votes by promising to deliver more efficiently than the left, while working to lower taxes, improve financial regulation, and grapple with aging populations.

Uh, hey Mr. Erlanger, if the “center-right parties” have adopted all these left wing (and down right socialist) ideas then they are not very “center-right” are they? Nope. They most certainly are not. So what he is actually saying is that socialists are not loosing in Europe but rather still winning election. It is just the socialists that call themselves what they are and honest that are losing it seems.

Because you seem a little slow Mr. Erlanger let me fill you in on what is going on in Europe. You have socialists realizing that socialism doesn’t really work all that well. But they like the power (if they are a leader) and the “free” stuff (if they are a citizen even though it isn’t really “free”) and all are unwilling to give those things up. So what they are trying to do is one of the only two options that socialists have. The first option is to say to heck with it all and go full bore communist. But since most socialists are not very committed to communism that is a hard sell. Heck, if they were then they wouldn’t be socialists! The only other option then is to introduce just enough capitalism and free market reforms to keep the failed model they love afloat and hopefully afloat until they pass from this Earth. Then they don’t care anymore. Let those left behind can figure out how to clean up the mess!

They will cut taxes as much as they can to try and grow themselves to a point where they can support all the failed socialist perks they love to have. Eventually however there will be no more taxes to cut without cutting what they spend on these perks and then the chickens will come home to roost.

But as long as they are dead by then they are more than content to let their children figure out how to clean up that mess that they have created. Real compassionate huh?


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