Podcast: Is the Left Intentionally Tanking the Economy?

During my campaign for Congress, I was often asked the question, “Why are they doing this?” The “this” the people asking the questions were referring to was typically some new tax, regulation, or government scheme designed to empower the political-class, and the bureaucrats, and disempower Americans. While watching the GOP debate last week, it became apparent that the conservative movement needs to do a better job of exposing the agendas of many of the thought leaders on the far-left.

While the modern Democratic Party cloaks the agenda of many of its thought leaders in populist rhetoric and “hope and change”-type slogans, the real agenda of many of their intellectual oligarchs is frightening. Stanley Kurtz of National Review has written extensively on this topic and has done a wonderful job of exposing the true agenda of anti-growth advocates such as Bill McKibben who have attracted large followings.

In writing this, my hope is to make the case that Kurtz, and others who have committed their time and energy to exposing the dangerous agenda of many on the far-left, are absolutely right and we, as conservatives and libertarians, must carry the torch and help sound the alarm about what is really motivating the wizard behind the curtain. We cannot continue to allow the Left to throw out the quickie “pay your fair share,” and “it’s all about the environment” soundbites without warning America about what this really means to them.

The far-left’s sabotaging of our economy has taken many legislative and ideological forms but their goal is the same: to ensure that we revert back to a “simpler” time where the use of affordable fossil fuel energy is rare, and the allocation of scarce resources is tightly controlled by “visionary” bureaucrats. I wonder if the acolytes of anti-growth advocates like McKibben, fossil fuel “divestment,” and the anti-economic growth movement in general, are aware of this. Are they aware of the fact that in a fossil fuel scarce economy that the cost to fuel up their gas tanks is going to be dramatically higher? Are they aware that their iPhones, tablets, and all of the social media and applications that make use of the power on these devices, are not powered by wood stoves?

Look no further than the European example for a real-world model of what happens to your wallet and quality of life when anti-growth advocates force unrealistic renewable energy mandates onto the backs of their country’s citizens who are struggling to pay the bills.

Another front in the far-left’s war on economic growth and prosperity is their attack on private property rights. Again, they disguise this as an initiative designed to protect and preserve the environment but its real goal is to ensure that private property rights are diminished and bureaucratic, and backdoor control over your property is increased, destroying economic growth potential in the process. Whether at the federal level through suffocating regulations such as the EPA’s new “Clean Water” rule which, oddly enough, expands the definition of a navigable waterway to streams in your backyard that are barely “navigable” by a Polly Pocket-sized toy boat. Or, through oppressive state regulations such as the infamous “Plan Maryland” legislation, which destroyed the value of large swaths of privately held land by restricting who the land owner could sell it to by enacting numerous development restrictions, the far-left is waging a well-disguised effort against prosperity and must be called on it.

Isn’t it interesting how the mainstream media is constantly calling on conservatives to apologize for the comments and actions of anyone claiming to be a conservative whenever some real or imagined verbal faux pas occurs but, they rarely ask political figures on the Left to apologize for the actions of the Bill McKibbens and Bill Ayers of the world? You can’t have it both ways. Either political parties are responsible for the words and actions of the thought leaders behind their party curtain, or individuals running under political party banners are individuals with different ideas for legislative and leadership paths forward and should be treated as such.

It’s time we publicly call on the Democratic candidates for president to answer questions about where they stand on the anti-growth movement.  If these candidates have any guts they will condemn this nihilistic movement and ensure that this movement is positioned strictly on the fringe where they belong. Or, if they refuse, we should shout from the rafters that the “war on the economy” has begun, and the Democrats are using it as their battle cry.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the Conservative Review. The featured image of Democrat presidential primary candidate Bernie Sander is by Ringo H.W. Chiu | AP Photo.

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