Author: Brandon Christensen

Brandon Vindicated (and Relieved!)

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Economics, Politics , , , ,

I read a lot of blogs in my spare time, and one of my favorites is the Monkey Cage, a blogging consortium made up of technocratic, internationalist-minded Left-wing political science professors. They rarely disappoint. I know what you’re thinking, but if I could choose which faction of the left I would want opposing libertarian policies it would be the technocratic Left. It a movement that has individual liberty in mind and is, as I mentioned, internationally-minded.

Notice also how I take into account the fact that an opposition to my own views are a necessary component of my utopia. Too many advocates of liberty don’t realize this when they argue about politics. Which factions would play the role of opposition in an anarcho-capitalist paradise, for example? It seems to me that the quality of one’s perfect opposition is actually quite a good gauge for measuring the quality of one’s political ideal (if I do say so myself!).

Anyway, Patrick Egan, of NYU, has a new post up explaining that the economy was indeed the central issue of the election, and then busts out the data to back up his argument (and help me save face!). I think this is an important point because I’ve already made the rounds around the blogosphere and many otherwise smart, competent people seem to want to chalk up Obama’s victory to something other than the economy.

From Egan’s post: Continue reading →

From the Comments: Social Conservatives Need to Go

Brandon Christensen Comments, Current Events, Politics

Longtime reader –Rick observes:

The Republicans need to re-brand and delete all social conservative positions from their platform. If the God freaks don’t like it, too bad. Let them stay home, vote Democrat or Republican as they wish. So called conservatives should be concentrating on small government, a strong military, a philosophically principled foreign policy, and a secular judiciary that ignores all religions and judges based on the facts and the rule of law.

Their new platform needs to be more inclusive, particularly with Hispanic concerns, not out of a sense of pragmatics, but if America is to develop an expanded trade relationship with Hispanics, how willing will their governments be to participate with radical xenophobes who treat their southern neighbors with disdain in juxtaposition to the favorite status given to our neighbors to the north?

It’s economics. They need jobs, we need workers and an expanded tax base as well as new trading partners. Let the Xenophobes vote with the KKK as a bloc. Their absence won’t be missed. The Constitution states that all men were created equal – not just U.S. citizens and Canadians.

However, I won’t get my hopes up that the leadership will suddenly turn rational and see the possibility of gaining 2 or 3 new voters for every one bigot they ignore in constructing their philosophical/political planks.

I couldn’t have said it any better myself. The sooner the GOP turns its back on social conservatives, the sooner it can get back to being a national political party again. Be sure to check out –Rick’s blog here.

The View from California

Brandon Christensen Liberty

In other election news, the Atlantic reports:

On Tuesday, California voters overwhelmingly approved two ballot initiatives that were sharply opposed by the very same “victims” they were allegedly designed to protect. The final vote tallies are not yet in, but it looks like there was statewide approval for new criminal penalties on prostitution-related offenses, while a Los Angeles-only proposal to mandate the use of condoms in all pornographic films shot in the county is also heading to victory.

Ouch. And then there’s this:

The entire ballot initiative process in California has long been derided because of the way it allows special interest groups to bypass the legislature and create laws themselves. It also makes ballot an jumbled mess and frustrates voters with confusing and sometimes contradictory proposals. These are just two of latest examples that will have Californians spending a lot of effort helping people who didn’t ask to be helped.

Indeed. There is more here. I almost feel guilty for not voting now. California is often acknowledged (or derided) as a state known for its social tolerance, but I haven’t seen this at all in the political arena. From banning gay marriage to demanding that porn stars wear condoms (I wonder what that will do our state’s multi-million dollar porn industry?) to imposing stiffer penalties on sex workers, Californians can hardly claim to be the socially liberal torchbearers of a brave new world. Instead, I see a state populace comfortable with both draconian tax laws and draconian social laws. Socialism has never looked so good.

On the other hand Continue reading →

The End of the Conservative Media? Or Why Brandon Was Right (Sorta)

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Politics

Conservatives should be familiar with its contours. For years, they’ve been arguing that liberal control of media and academia confers one advantage: Folks on the right can’t help but be familiar with the thinking of liberals, whereas leftists can operate entirely within a liberal cocoon. This analysis was offered to explain why liberal ideas were growing weaker and would be defeated […]

Conservatives were at a disadvantage because Romney supporters like Jennifer Rubin and Hugh Hewitt saw it as their duty to spin constantly for their favored candidate rather than being frank about his strengths and weaknesses. What conservative Washington Post readers got, when they traded in Dave Weigel for Rubin, was a lot more hackery and a lot less informed about the presidential election.

Conservatives were at an information disadvantage because so many right-leaning outlets wasted time on stories the rest of America dismissed as nonsense. WorldNetDaily brought you birtherism.Forbes brought you Kenyan anti-colonialism. National Review obsessed about an imaginary rejection of American exceptionalism, misrepresenting an Obama quote in the process, and Andy McCarthy was interviewed widely about his theory that Obama, aka the Drone Warrior in Chief, allied himself with our Islamist enemies in a “Grand Jihad” against America. Seriously?

Conor Friedersdorf has more here. Do read the whole thing.

I was wrong in my prediction that Romney would win, but only because I hadn’t been paying attention to the most recent jobs reports. Unemployment rates are low enough for Obama to win re-election. So my overall point that the economy trumps everything else is still spot on. Can you imagine Obama winning re-election with unemployment at 8.5%? Me neither.

The GOP could have taken a lesson from Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, though, and realized that while Americans respect wealthy people more than most other societies, such respect hardly ever translates into political success (rich people already boss us around at work, why would we want them bossing us around in the political arena as well?).

And, in case you are wondering, I didn’t vote. If I had, I would have voted for Gary Johnson, “no” to tax increases and “yes” to abolishing the death penalty.

Any Thoughts on the Election?

Brandon Christensen Politics

I made my predictions earlier this year. I stand by ’em.

Jacques Delacroix shares his thoughts here.

What about you guys?

Is the State Responsible for Declines in Violence?

Brandon Christensen Current Events

A couple of days ago Dr. Delacroix raised this question. I finally got around to critiquing it here. An excerpt:

We should be looking at what institutions have enabled the nation-state to establish itself, survive, and eventually thrive (at least in western Europe and Japan; the US is a republic, not a nation-state) in the world today.

Do read the rest, and (God forbid!) add your own two cents as well.

Jews and Palestinians: Is the Elusive Peace Close By?

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Links, Politics, Religion , , , , , , ,

A couple of days ago I came across this fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal. It’s about the expulsion of Jews from Arab lands around the same time as the expulsion of Arabs from the new state of Israel and how the Israelis have finally gotten around to bringing this issue up in negotiations. Among the excerpts:

Within 25 years [of the establishment of Israel], the Arab world lost nearly all its Jewish population. Some faced expulsion, while others suffered such economic and social hardships they had no choice but to go. Others left voluntarily because they longed to settle in Israel. Only about 4,300 Jews remain there today, mostly in Morocco and Tunisia […]

And this:

Many of the Palestinians who fled Israel wound up stranded in refugee camps. Multiple U.N. agencies were created to help them, and billions of dollars in aid flowed their way. The Arab Jews, by contrast, were quietly absorbed by their new homes. “The Arab Jews became phantoms” whose stories were “edited out” of Arab consciousness […]

I think that the Israelis were right to bring these expulsions to the forefront of the debates with the Palestinians. A lot of people on both sides have suffered and it is a good thing that the plight of the Arab world’s Jews is now being highlighted. But now that this historical fact is being highlighted by the Israeli state in its negotiations with the Palestinians, will it do any good for the peace process?

The reaction by one of the Palestinian negotiators is telling: Continue reading →

“Gold and Money”

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Economics, History, Liberty , , , , ,

That’s the title of this piece in the Freeman by our very own Dr. Gibson. In it, he suggests:

Let’s turn down the heat a bit and look into some propositions about gold. That should lead us to some reasonable ideas about whether or how gold might return.

Indeed. I’m  tempted to copy and paste the whole thing, but just check it out.

PS I’ve been a very busy man lately, but I’ve got a bunch of almost-finished writings in the works. Stay tuned!

The Year is 1534, and…

Brandon Christensen Books, History , , , , ,

…a great deal of Spanish conquistadores are trying to cut up Mexico into personal spheres of wealth and property.  I am reading Robert S. Chamberlain’s 1966 book The Conquest and Colonization of Yucatan, 1517-1550, and so far what I have gleaned from it has been great.  Check out this passage:

“Attempted conquest with small numbers and insufficient support for expeditions […] were the result of overconfidence on the part of [the would-be conquistadores…] They had a total misconception of the character of many of the Maya.  [Two of the conquistadores] had seen a few Spaniards destroy Montezuma’s imposing empire and bring it under the yoke.  They were firmly convinced of the invincibility of their arms in face of any odds, and, underestimating the determination and military capacity of the Maya, they believed they could easily be subjugated.

Furthermore, until it was too late, [the conquistadores] failed to understand that many caciques gave fealty only as a temporary expedient, and that they intended to appeal to arms at the first opportunity […] Many mistakes could have been avoided had the [conquistadores] accurately appraised the character of the people with whom he had to deal.”

Now, since the writing of Chamberlain’s book, new statistics and revision of the historical account of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (referred to by specialists as the Triple Alliance rather than the Aztec Empire) has fleshed out his writings.  Instead of a handful of Spaniards that brought down the Triple Alliance, it was a combination of Spanish forces and tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of indigenous soldiers from rival states that crushed the Triple Alliance.  The vast majority of the indigenous soldiers were commanded by indigenous military officers. Continue reading →

Around the Web: Nobel Prize Edition

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Economics, Links , , , , , , ,

I just got three of them.

  1. Why we need to separate the central bank from the monetary authority.
  2. “Market Design”
  3. Noble Matching.

Maybe one of our in-house economists can share their thoughts on the award this year as well…

An Afternoon Fog

Brandon Christensen Liberty ,

Sometimes the fog from the beach

Keeps the sunlight out of my windows

During the weekends

I get to sleep in until

My roommate, a gay doctor,

Starts to crash about the apartment Continue reading →

Ron Paul and the American Right

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Politics , , , , , , ,

It boils down to foreign policy. President Obama has proved more competent than Bush in this area, but being a more competent beehive whacker does not take a whole hell of a lot of work. Most of Rep. Paul’s domestic policy proposals would have to go through that beautiful, awe-inspiring labyrinth of constitutional checks-and-balances created by the Founding Fathers of this great republic. However, Presidents have much more leeway when it comes to foreign policy. This is something that Ron Paul has talked about checking, but it is also something that could convince independents on the Left to vote for Ron Paul.

Think about it: he would (unfortunately) have a tough time getting some of his domestic policy proposals passed, but as President he commands the military, and he wants to bring our troops home.

My main concern upon writing this little blurb is the Right’s reluctance to embrace Ron Paul’s foreign policy of freedom, commerce, and honest friendship. The following is meant to convince those of you on the Right who would otherwise vote for Ron Paul if it weren’t for his foreign policy views.

The reluctance on the Right to yield to both superior reasoning and common sense on the issue of American foreign policy stems from three basic points: Continue reading →

The Myth of the Noble Savage

Brandon Christensen Books, History , , , , ,

Although most academic books and even standardized textbooks for American “students” in public schools no longer explicitly condescend to minorities in this country, there is a certain sense of condescension that still underlies the Left’s rhetoric when it comes to non-European peoples. Jacques Delacroix has given as good an explanation as any, so I’ll just outsource to him on that question, but what I’d like to do is highlight just how much human beings have in common.

When I was in Santa Cruz I found a fairly rare book that I had been looking for forever in one of that wonderful town’s many used bookstores, and it hasn’t disappointed. From Daniel K. Richter’s book The Ordeal of the Longhouse, a book about the Iroquois confederacy and how it dealt with the European factions that arrived in the Americas :

“[…] Champlain and a handful of French musketeers accompanied an army of Algonquins and Montagnais to somewhere near Ticonderoga, north of present-day Albany, to do battle with his native allies’ enemies, the Mohawks.  That hostile encounter was probably the first time [1609] an Iroquois had laid eyes on a European, but it certainly would not be the last (51).”

The French soldiers were essentially mercenaries at this point in time, and albeit mercenaries that had the blessing of the Crown.  Further along in the book, Richter writes on Iroquois slavery practices: Continue reading →

Karl Marx and Special Interests

Brandon Christensen History, Politics , , , , , , , , , ,

[Note: this is an old musing of mine written back in May of 2011. I hope it is still as fresh today as it was back then.]

Karl Marx’s economic theories have long been disproved (theoretically as soon as they came out, and practically with the fall of the Berlin Wall), and tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of individuals have perished under communist regimes.  People were either murdered, “relocated”, or starved to death through the attempts of Marx’s acolytes to remake man in their image.

Despite this horrific record, his theories continue to persist throughout modern political discourse.  In the United States his myths are still promoted in the academy and among the hard Left, but very few take them seriously (unfortunately).  However, in much of the rest of the world his ideas are still prevalent in everyday political action.  In order to go about showing you why this is may be the case, I am going to switch from Marxist economic theory (the labor theory of value is so out of step with reality and public discourse that I feel it is unnecessary to debunk it here) to Marxist political theory.

In fleshing out Marx’s political thought, I hope to show my loyal readers (all two of you) a couple of things: 1) that Marx’s ideas on political organization were nothing new (in fact Marxist thought on political organization is actually very old), and 2) that although Marxist ideas on political organization are not taken seriously by most Americans, the few who do take them seriously are very smart people in very high places.  Failure to recognize the subtle exposition of Marx’s political thought in public discourse could lead to dangerous consequences if we are not more aware of what it is that Marxists are attempting to destroy and what it is that they are attempting to replace it with. Continue reading →

Not Quite

Brandon Christensen Current Events

I just came across a fascinating read this morning. I’ve been busy as hell, so the link and the analysis will have to wait, but I’ll give you a hint: it has to do with “neoliberalism” and the authoritarian state.

I promise I’ve got a bunch of good stuff coming up. It’s all just sitting in the ‘drafts’ file of the blog, waiting to be finished up. School is a bitch this quarter though, so forgive me.