Why, Dems, Why?

So, the Democrats have decided to put off their gigantic Big Government plan, Build Back Better, until next year. Meanwhile they are going to push their nationwide vote-by-mail election reform bill. Because Democracy.

And we have Our Nance's January 6 committee that is making gigantic demands of cellphone records on Trump aides and staffers, because armed insurrection. Now the aides and staffers are suing.

I must say that all this rush and bustle, to take the fight to the enemy, is a bit puzzling to me.

I refer to the late great Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, who opined that you don't want to pass a big bill unless it has 70-30 support in the Senate. But you know, I can't find a reference to this in Google Search. Wait, here is a CNN transcript, with David Frum saying:

When President Clinton tried health care reform, Daniel Patrick Moynihan advised him, anything big passes the Senate 70-30, or it doesn't pass at all. The president is turning this into a political war. The Republicans are to blame, too. This is a problem America needs help with. But the parties have to deal in good faith. I am not sure the president is doing that.

Hmmm. Moynihan's point is that you don't want legislation rammed down the throat of the opposition. You want all reasonable people to agree that this is a Good Thing and so have it become part of the All American consensus.

This accords with the basic point in Buchanan and Tullock's The Calculus of Consent. Only they go a bit further. They say that the only just voting system is unanimous consent, because it forces the supporters of a piece of legislation to compensate the opposition for the costs that the legislation imposes upon them.

So, you see, for me, there is a basic practical reason for not ramming things down the throat of the opposition. It is that politics is civil war by other means. In other words, partisans can wrangle and speechify and manipulate in Congress without resorting to "speak, hands for me" as Casca says moments before the assassins plunge the daggers into Julius Caesar.

The point is: if you can't get a supermajority for your proposed legislation then all you are doing is stirring up conflict.

Now, I realize that our liberal friends don't see it that way. They see politics as a fight for justice, and their ideas are the just ideas, and the opposition is nothing but a bunch of racist-sexist-homophobic bigots and haters.

Yes, yes. And do you know, dear liberals, that every war is a just war -- to its warriors. And every religion is a true religion -- to its believers. And every cause is a just cause -- to its activists.

But whatabout the other guys? The chaps on the receiving end of the just war? The chaps on the receiving end of the true religion? The chaps on the receiving end of the just activists? Whatabout them?

Now, it is my belief, after Nazi Carl Schmitt, that politics is the friend enemy distinction. Or, as Curtis Yarvin writes, "there is no politics without an enemy."

You know, dear liberal friends, I don't think that "enemies" is a good idea. Because, as Carl Schmitt writes, when you are talking about enemies you are talking about the possibility of conflict -- and actual killing. Are we really talking about "conflict" with our fellow Americans? Even getting to killing?

Hello liberals?

Is that what you stand for, dear liberal friends, with your faith in politics and justice?

You see, I don't think of my liberal friends, or even BLM/AntiFa activists as "enemies." I think of them as fools and knaves, and I believe they Literally Know Nothing, and that they are unknowingly Making Things Worse.

But actually, I think we are experiencing another proof of God's existence, right now.

Because the Democrats are falling into a hole not because of their stupid Build Back Better or their nationalizing of vote-by-mail, but because of the sudden surge in inflation.

Golly, Democrats, I thought we had that inflation thing beat, what with MMT and all! You don't think that all the racist-sexist-homophobe conservative economists were right after all, that if you print money you get inflation?

Golly Gee Willikins! Ya think?

I mean, to me, the number one thing is Don't Do Stupid Stuff. If you are heaven's anointed, on a holy quest to bend the arc of history towards justice, then surely Job One is: Don't Do Stupid Stuff, like crank inflation up into the stratosphere.

My History of the Last Half Century is:

First, the ordinary American people reacted against LBJ's Great Society and elected Richard Nixon. But the Dems taught him a lesson. Hoo Boy!

Then the ordinary American People reacted against Jimmy Carter's "stagflation" and elected Ronald Reagan president. The Dems tried to teach him a lesson with Iran Contra but didn't quite succeed.

Then the ordinary American People reacted against Barack Obama's big government lurch and elected a GOP Congress and then elected Donald Trump. The Dems taught him a lesson and managed to defeat him in 2020. And impeached him twice in the House and went after his supporters with the January 6 committee.

I wonder what happens next?