I’m Still Not a Democrat
Jun. 28th, 2025 03:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ndrosenDespite having voted for some Democratic candidates lately, I do not identify as a Democrat; I voted for the Libertarian presidential candidate in every election from 2004 through 2020. Liz Wolfe’s piece about Zohran Mamdani’s agenda is a reminder of why I am not a Democrat, despite allying with Democrats in an attempt to preserve constitutional government from Trump. The Democrats seek to expand government in directions which it should not go, and to finance bloated government by crushing taxes on high earners and productive enterprises, not by appropriating land rents for public purposes, as I think should be done. I remember the Democrats smearing Paul Ryan as trying to push Grandmother off a cliff when he tried to call attention to problems with Social Security, and now the insolvency of Social Security and Medicare are approaching.
The Democrats would like to portray themselves as the party of compassion, and I believe that the median Democrat is a better human being than Stephen Miller or Mike Johnson, but I find good reason to oppose Democratic policies. For example, even if the politicians and voters who favor pouring more money into appallingly dysfunctional schools are sincerely trying to help the children, the results are often not good at all; I would rather have funding follow the child, perhaps to a neighborhood government school, perhaps to a charter school, a parochial school, or some other private school. ( And sometimes politicians are not sincere; they’re paying off the teachers’ unions and other entrenched interests, no matter what it costs the children.)
Aside from other criticisms, the Democrats have made a rod for their own back by supporting the expansion of the federal government, and the power of the president to rule by executive order and bureaucratic regulation. If the federal government were the size it was during the administration of the famously frugal Calvin Coolidge, we would have relatively little to fear from the presence of an evil fool who would be king in the Oval Office.
The Democrats would like to portray themselves as the party of compassion, and I believe that the median Democrat is a better human being than Stephen Miller or Mike Johnson, but I find good reason to oppose Democratic policies. For example, even if the politicians and voters who favor pouring more money into appallingly dysfunctional schools are sincerely trying to help the children, the results are often not good at all; I would rather have funding follow the child, perhaps to a neighborhood government school, perhaps to a charter school, a parochial school, or some other private school. ( And sometimes politicians are not sincere; they’re paying off the teachers’ unions and other entrenched interests, no matter what it costs the children.)
Aside from other criticisms, the Democrats have made a rod for their own back by supporting the expansion of the federal government, and the power of the president to rule by executive order and bureaucratic regulation. If the federal government were the size it was during the administration of the famously frugal Calvin Coolidge, we would have relatively little to fear from the presence of an evil fool who would be king in the Oval Office.
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Date: 2025-06-28 07:30 pm (UTC)Also Democrats have perfected the circular firing squad. I hate the Republicans more, but that's a very low bar. We are so desperately in need of a Extremely Moderate or Commonsense party.