AMERICAN CONSERVATISM IN 2008 AND BEYOND

It's an effective argument, because many conservatives hate our black president (they forget he's half white), and that re-enforces their bigoted thinking.

This opposition to Big Government engendered conservative opposition to every milestone achievement of the civil rights movement. National Review denounced Brown v. Board of Education (1954), calling it "an act of judicial usurpation," one that ran "patently counter to the intent of the Constitution" and was "shoddy and illegal in analysis, and invalid as sociology." It opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act on similar grounds. A Buckley column dismissed the former as

a federal law, artificially deduced from the Commerce Clause of the Constitution or from the 14th Amendment, whose marginal effect will be to instruct small merchants in the Deep South on how they may conduct their business.

Senator Barry Goldwater used similar reasoning to justify voting against the bill on the eve of his general election contest with Lyndon Johnson. Saying he could find "no constitutional basis for the exercise of Federal regulatory authority" over private employment or public accommodations, Goldwater called the law "a grave threat" to a "constitutional republic in which fifty sovereign states have reserved to themselves and to the people those powers not specifically granted to the central or Federal government." Goldwater arrived at this conclusion, according to Rick Perlstein's book on the 1964 campaign, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (2001), after receiving advice from two young legal advisors, William Rehnquist and Robert Bork.

Herman Cain, Thomas Sowell, Bill Cosby, Shelby Steele, Walter E. Williams, and Jesse Lee Peterson, are all blacks and are all superior to the Republican and the Democrat leadership in Congress, and especially superior to the President.

Well, in Beck's rhetoric, you can pick out the racially disadvantaged, the underserved (by healthcare, education, etc.), the chronically unemployed, those disadvantaged in any way by lack of diversity. I don't know if Beck is correct that Obama sees these 'mistreated groups' as mostly racial minorities and is focusing mostly on that, but Obama certainly does use racial minorities as the only illustration when he is speaking to groups made up of mostly minorities.

foxfyre wrote:

Well, in Beck's rhetoric, you can pick out the racially disadvantaged, the underserved (by healthcare, education, etc.), the chronically unemployed, those disadvantaged in any way by lack of diversity. I don't know if Beck is correct that Obama sees these 'mistreated groups' as mostly racial minorities and is focusing mostly on that, but Obama certainly does use racial minorities as the only illustration when he is speaking to groups made up of mostly minorities.

How then can you say that you don't read into Beck's rhetoric what wandeljw reads if you've basically paraphrased his rhetoric, and further say it has nothing to do with race?

To further clarify, what is it that you believe wandeljw is reading into Becks rhetoric?

The idea that Barack Obama is somehow different from other liberal-left politicians can only be based on his rhetoric, because his actual track record shows him to differ only in being further left than most liberals and at least as opportunistic.

His talk, however, is another story. The speech that Obama gave at the 2004 Democratic convention " the speech that put him on the national map politically " was one which has been aptly described as a speech that would have been almost equally at home if it had been delivered at the Republican national convention.

In the world of rhetoric " the world in which Obama is supreme " he is a moderate, reasonable man, reaching out to unite people and parties, dedicated to reform, opposed to special interests and a healer of the racial divide.

It is only in the real world of action that Barack Obama is the direct opposite. . . .

. . . .Obama could have allied himself with all sorts of other people. But, time and again, he allied himself with people who openly expressed their hatred of America. No amount of flags on his campaign platforms this election year can change that.

Unfortunately, all that most people know about Barack Obama is his own rhetoric and that of his critics. Moreover, some of his more irresponsible critics have made wild accusations" that he is not an American citizen or that he is a Muslim, for example.

All that such false charges do is discredit Obama's critics in general. Fortunately, there is a documented, factual account of what Barack Obama has actually been doing over the years, as distinguished from what he has been saying during this election campaign, in a new best-selling book.

That book is titled "The Case Against Barack Obama" by David Freddoso. He starts off in the introduction by repudiating those critics of Obama who "have been content merely to slander him" to claim falsely that he refuses to salute the U.S. flag or was sworn into office on a Koran, or that he was born in a foreign country."

This is a serious book with 35 pages of documentation in the back to support the things said in the main text. In other words, if you don't believe what the author says, he lets you know where you can go check it out.

Barack Obama's being the first serious black candidate for President of the United States is what most people consider remarkable but how he got there is at least equally surprising.

The story of Obama's political career is not a pretty story. He won his first political victory by being the only candidate on the ballot" after hiring someone skilled at disqualifying the signers of opposing candidates' petitions, on whatever technicality he could come up with.

Despite his words today about "change" and "cleaning up the mess in Washington," Obama was not on the side of reformers who were trying to change the status quo of corrupt, machine politics in Chicago and clean up the mess there. Obama came out in favor of the Daley machine and against reform candidates.

Senator Obama is running on an image that is directly the opposite of what he has been doing for two decades. His escapes from his past have been as remarkable as the great escapes of Houdini. . . .

From a series of essays titled "The Real Obama" by Thomas Sowell
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell100708.php3
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell100808.php3
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell100908.php3
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell100908.php3

Sowell is obviously a racist.

Nah, he's just half the intellectual he thinks he is. His pieces are riddled with both factual and logical errors.

McGentrix wrote:

Sowell is obviously a racist.

Nah, he's just half the intellectual he thinks he is. His pieces are riddled with both factual and logical errors.

But, he supports Conservative positions, so to you guys, he's the best!

Cycloptichorn

Thomas Sowell
Born June 30, 1930 (1930-06-30) (age 79)
North Carolina
Nationality United States
Fields Economics, Education, Politics, History, Race relations, Child Development
Institutions Hoover Institution
Alma mater Howard University
Harvard College
Columbia University
University of Chicago

Academic advisors George Stigler
Influenced Clarence Thomas

Thomas Sowell (born June 30, 1930), is an American economist, social commentator, and author of dozens of books. He often writes from an economically laissez-faire perspective. He is currently a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. In 1990, he won the Francis Boyer Award, presented by the American Enterprise Institute. In 2002 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal for prolific scholarship melding history, economics, and political science. In 2003, he was awarded the Bradley Prize for intellectual achievement[1].

Biography
Sowell was born in North Carolina. His father died before he was born. In his autobiography, A Personal Odyssey, he recalled that his encounters with Caucasians were so limited he didn't believe that "yellow" was a hair color. He moved to Harlem, New York City with his mother's sister (who, at the time, he believed was his mother). Sowell attended Stuyvesant High School, but dropped out at age 17 because of financial difficulties and a deteriorating home environment.[2] To support himself he worked at various jobs, including in a machine shop and as a delivery man for Western Union. He applied to enter the Civil Service and was eventually accepted, which prompted a move to Washington DC. He was drafted in 1951, during the Korean War, and was assigned to the US Marine Corps. Due to prior experience in photography, he worked in a photography unit.

After discharge, Sowell passed the GED examination and enrolled at Howard University. He transferred to Harvard University, where in 1958 he graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. He received a Master of Arts in Economics from Columbia University in 1959, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Economics from the University of Chicago. Sowell initially chose Columbia University because he wanted to study under George Stigler. After arriving at Columbia and learning that Stigler had moved to Chicago, he followed him there.[3]

Sowell has taught Economics at Howard University, Cornell University, Brandeis University, and UCLA. Since 1980 he has been a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he holds a fellowship named after Rose and Milton Friedman.[4]

Career highlights
Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, September 1980 - present
Professor of Economics, UCLA, July 1974 - June 1980
Visiting Professor of Economics, Amherst College, September- December 1977
Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, April- August 1977
Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, July 1976 - March 1977
Project Director, The Urban Institute, August 1972 - July 1974
Associate Professor of Economics, UCLA, September 1970 - June 1972
Associate Professor of Economics, Brandeis University, September 1969 - June 1970
Assistant Professor of Economics, Cornell University, September 1965 - June 1969
Economic Analyst, American Telephone & Telegraph Co., June 1964 - August 1965
Lecturer in Economics, Howard University, September 1963 - June 1964
Instructor in Economics, Douglass College, Rutgers University, September 1962 - June 1963
Labor Economist, U.S. Department of Labor, June 1961 - August 1962

Writings
Sowell is both a syndicated columnist and an academic economist.

Besides scholarly writing, Sowell has written books, articles and syndicated columns for a general audience, in such publications as Forbes Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and major newspapers. Sowell primarily writes on economic subjects, generally advocating a free market approach to capitalism. Sowell, a former Marxist, now opposes Marxism, providing a critique in his book Marxism: Philosophy and Economics. He also argues that, contrary to popular perception, Marx never held to a labor theory of value.

Sowell also writes on racial topics and is a critic of affirmative action.[5][6] While often described as a "black conservative", he prefers not to be labeled, and considers himself more libertarian than conservative.[7]

In another departure from economics, Sowell wrote The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late, a follow-up to his Late-Talking Children. This book investigates the phenomenon of late-talking children, frequently misdiagnosed with autism or pervasive developmental disorder. He includes the research of " among others " Professor Stephen Camarata, Ph.D., of Vanderbilt University and Professor Steven Pinker, Ph.D., of Harvard University in this overview of a poorly understood developmental trait. It is a trait which he says affected many historical figures. He includes famous late-talkers such as physicists Albert Einstein, Edward Teller and Richard Feynman; mathematician Julia Robinson; and musicians Arthur Rubenstein and Clara Schumann. The book and its contributing researchers make a case for the theory that some children develop unevenly (asynchronous development) for a period in childhood due to rapid and extraordinary development in the analytical functions of the brain. This may temporarily "rob resources" from neighboring functions such as language development.

The book contradicts speculation by Simon Baron-Cohen that Einstein may have had Asperger syndrome (see also people speculated to have been autistic).

Columns
Sowell regularly writes a nationally syndicated column that appears in various newspapers, as well as online on websites such as the conservative Townhall.com and The Jewish World Review

Those influenced by Sowell
Sowell's book Race and Economics greatly influenced Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Thomas read the book in 1975, and later said that the book changed his life.[44]
Bates College in Maine has an endowed professorship in economics named after Sowell.[45]
Playwright David Mamet has called Sowell "our greatest contemporary philosopher".[46]
British Historian Paul Johnson shares Mamet's opinion in his book A History of the American People. [47]
Rush Limbaugh is an admirer of Sowell's writing and considers him an "honest Thinker". [48]
Mark Levin said, "Sowell is always worth conferring," and very much appreciates his views on politics, rhetoric, and economics as stated on his program on October 30, 2008. (Podcast minute 47)

Books by Sowell
Sowell, Thomas (2009). The Housing Boom and Bust. Basic Books. pp. 184 pages. ISBN 978-0465018802.
Sowell, Thomas (2008). Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One (2nd edition ed.). Basic Books. pp. 400 pages. ISBN 978-0465003457.
Sowell, Thomas (2007). Economic Facts and Fallacies. Basic Books. pp. 262 pages. ISBN 978-0465003495.
Sowell, Thomas (2007). Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy (3rd edition ed.). Cambridge, Mass: Perseus Books Group. pp. 627 pages. ISBN 978-0465002603.
Sowell, Thomas (2007). A Man of Letters. San Francisco: Encounter Books. pp. 320 pages. ISBN 978-1594031960.
Sowell, Thomas (2006). Ever Wonder Why? And Other Controversial Essays. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press. pp. 460 pages. ISBN 978-0817947521.
Sowell, Thomas (2006). On Classical Economics. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press. pp. 320 pages. ISBN 978-0300126068.
Sowell, Thomas (2005). Black Rednecks and White Liberals: And Other Cultural And Ethnic Issues. San Francisco: Encounter Books. pp. 360 pages. ISBN 978-1594030864.
Sowell, Thomas (2004). Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press. pp. 256 pages. ISBN 978-0300107753.
2004. Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy, revised and expanded ed. Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-08145-2 (1st ed. 2000)
2003. Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One, ISBN 0-465-08143-6
2003. Inside American Education, ISBN 0-7432-5408-2
2002. The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late, ISBN 0-465-08141-X
2002. Controversial Essays, ISBN 0-8179-2992-4
2002. A Personal Odyssey, ISBN 0-684-86465-7
2002. The Quest For Cosmic Justice, ISBN 0-684-86463-0
1998. Conquests and Cultures: An International History, ISBN 0-465-01400-3
1996. Migrations and Cultures: A World View, ISBN 0-465-04589-8
1996. The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation As a Basis for Social Policy. Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-08995-X
1995. Race and Culture: A World View. Description & chapter previews. ISBN 0-465-06796-4
1987. A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles. William Morrow, ISBN 0-688-06912-6
1987. Compassion Versus Guilt and Other Essays. William Morrow, ISBN 0688-07114-7
1986. Marxism: Philosophy and Economics. Quill, ISBN 0-688-06426-4
1984. Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality? William Morrow, ISBN 0-688-03113-7
1983. The Economics and Politics of Race. William Morrow, ISBN 0-688-01891-2
1981. Ethnic America: A History. Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-02074-7
1981. Markets and Minorities. Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-04399-2
1980. Knowledge and Decisions. Basic Books.
1975. Race and Economics. David McKay Company Inc, ISBN 0-679-30262-X

Articles and interviews
"10 Questions With Thomas Sowell", John Hawkins, Right Wing News. Sowell on flat-tax vs. progressive tax, rent-control, balanced budget amendments, protectionist tariffs, poverty & welfare, profit-restriction, illegal immigration, a weak dollar vs. a strong dollar, affirmative action, and reparations.
'Q&A' Interview (April 17, 2005)
'Booknotes' Interview (June 10, 1990)
'Uncommon Knowledge' discussion of affirmative action
Thomas Sowell- Columns on Jewish World Review website
"Race and IQ" Detailed discussion of Race and IQ including techniques that have masked the improvement of black IQ scores.
"Choosing a College" - discusses benefits and costs including college quality, size, specialty, intellectual rigor, social, political and sexual environment of today's campuses. Recommends hard-nosed parental analysis (including campus visits) that ignores PR fluff and focuses on the bottom line
"Affirmative Action around the World" - critical analysis of Affirmative Action and its failures worldwide.
Salon interview with Sowell
Audio interview with National Review Online
Sowell on Economic Facts and Fallacies: Audio interview
Sowell en español
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sowell

George Joseph Stigler
born Jan. 17, 1911, Renton, Wash., U.S.
died Dec. 1, 1991, Chicago, Ill.

American economist whose incisive and unorthodox studies of marketplace behaviour and the effects of government regulation won him the 1982 Nobel Prize for Economics.

After graduating from the University of Washington in 1931, Stigler took a business degree at Northwestern University in 1932 and a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Chicago in 1938. He taught at Iowa State College in 1936"38, the University of Minnesota in 1938"46, Brown University in 1946"47, Columbia University in 1947"58, and the University of Chicago from 1958. From 1963 he was Charles R. Walgreen distinguished service professor of American institutions, becoming emeritus in 1981. At Chicago he founded in 1977 the Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.

Among Stigler’s notable contributions to economics were his study of the economics of information, an important elaboration of the traditional understanding of how efficient markets operate, and his studies of public regulation, in which he concluded that at best it has little influence and that it is usually detrimental to consumer interests. Stigler’s publications include The Theory of Price (1942), a textbook of microeconomics; The Intellectual and the Market Place (1964); Essays in the History of Economic Thought (1965); The Citizen and the State (1975); and The Economist as Preacher, and Other Essays (1982).
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/566215/George-J-Stigler

Here's Dr. Sowell's biography and some of his accomplishments. Why don't you post yours so we can see that your credentials qualify you....

While you're at it, you might point out to Thomas that Sowell is not a Republican and has been highly critical of the Republican Party for some time now.

Home › Opinion › Syndicated Columnists
THOMAS SOWELL | Discussing Health Care, or Control?

As someone who was once rushed to a hospital in the middle of the night after taking a medication that millions of people take every day without the slightest problem, I have a special horror of life and death medical decisions being made by bureaucrats in Washington, about patients they have never laid eyes on.

On another occasion, I was told by a doctor that I would have died if I had not gotten to him in time, after an allergic reaction to eating one of the most healthful foods around. On still another occasion, I was treated with a medication that causes many people big problems and was urged to come back to the hospital immediately if I had a really bad reaction. But I had no reaction at all, went home, felt fine and slept soundly through the night.

My point is that everybody is different. Millions of children eat peanut butter sandwiches every day but some children can die from eating peanut butter. Some vaccines and medications that save many lives can also kill some people.

Are decisions made by doctors who have treated the same patient for years to be overruled by bureaucrats sitting in front of computer screens in Washington, following guidelines drawn up with the idea of “bringing down the cost of medical care”?

The idea is even more absurd than the idea that you can add millions of people to a government medical care plan without increasing the costs. It is also more dangerous.

What is both dangerous and mindless is rushing a massive new medical care scheme through Congress so fast that members of Congress do not even have time to read it before voting on it. Legislation that is far less sweeping in its effects can get months of hearings before Congressional committees, followed by debates in the Senate and the House of Representatives, with all sorts of people voicing their views in the media and in letters to Congress, while ads from people on both sides of the issue appear in newspapers and on television.

If this new medical scheme is so wonderful, why can’t it stand the light of day or a little time to think about it?

The obvious answer is that the administration doesn’t want us to know what it is all about or else we would not go along with it. Far better to say that we can’t wait, that things are just too urgent. This tactic worked with whizzing the “stimulus” package through Congress, even though the stimulus package itself has not worked.

Any serious discussion of government-run medical care would have to look at other countries where there is government-run medical care. As someone who has done some research on this for my book “Applied Economics,” I can tell you that the actual consequences of government-controlled medical care is not a pretty picture, however inspiring the rhetoric that accompanies it.

Thirty thousand Canadians are passing up free medical care at home to go to some other country where they have to pay for it. People don’t do that without a reason.

But Canadians are better off than people in some other countries with government-controlled medical care, because they have the United States right next door, in case their medical problems get too serious to rely on their own system.

But where are Americans to turn if we become like Canada? Where are we to go when we need better medical treatment than Washington bureaucrats will let us have? Mexico? The Caribbean?

Many people do not understand that it is not just a question of whether government bureaucrats will agree to pay for particular medical treatments. The same government-control mindset that decides what should and should not be paid for can also decide that the medical technology or pharmaceutical drugs that they control should not be for sale to those who are willing to pay their own money.

Right now, medications or treatments that have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration are medications or treatments that you are not allowed to buy with your own money, no matter how desperate your medical condition, and no matter how many years these medications or treatments may have been used without dire effects in other countries.

The crucial word is not “care” but “control.”

Thomas Sowell’s Web site is www.tsowell.com.

Read more: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2009/aug/06/thomas-sowell-discussing-health-care-or-control/#ixzz0O09H4CXE

1996. Migrations and Cultures: A World View, ISBN 0-465-04589-8
1996. The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation As a Basis for Social Policy. Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-08995-X
1995. Race and Culture: A World View. Description & chapter previews. ISBN 0-465-06796-4
1989. Why I am a racist and only support the Republicans. ISBN 0-754-03448-2
1987. A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles. William Morrow, ISBN 0-688-06912-6
1987. Compassion Versus Guilt and Other Essays. William Morrow, ISBN 0688-07114-7