Facts On The Ground
September 25, 2011 2 Comments
Israel is often said to pursue a strategy of encouraging ‘settlements’ (towns) in disputed areas in order to create ‘facts on the ground’ that will push the strategic situation and debate in their favor.
Another group which pursues this strategy is the Western left in advocating ‘Keynesian’ acts of ‘stimulus’ spending. How it works: at time 1 the government spends a lot of money it doesn’t have, at time 2 the left points at the resulting budget deficit (the ‘facts on the ground’ they’ve created by spending money they didn’t have) and says ‘golly, we need to raise taxes! I’m just being realistic.’
This may help to understand the apparent idiocy of ‘Keynesian’ ideas: the left doesn’t actually believe them in the first place. They just want a way to ratchet up spending in order to get to step 2 – creating advantageous facts on the ground that they hope will help them raise taxes. Because their primary goal (independent of and unreliant on all other considerations) is to raise taxes.
Folks on the left who dispute and protest that characterization are welcome to describe a real-life situation in which, of two sides debating whether to raise taxes, the left would be inclined to take the ‘no’ point of view.
That argument is clearly wrong.
Proof?
You could apply the same exact argument and say that progressives are actually communists simply because in every circumstance they will argue for more communism.
See? Ridiculous.
I stand corrected and humbled by your impeccable logic. Nicely done