Macro versus Micro: Democrats Can't Figure It Out

As Oregon readies itself to tip the 10 percent unemployment plateau, perhaps it's informative to look at the policies that drive our friends, the Democrats.

World peace, surely. Just a quick look at the webpage for Astoria Schools points out that "our" job as parents is to make sure our kids are "citizens of the earth." Of course I don't think there is a single teacher or administrator willing to stand against this Earth Citizen thing and promote American citizenship. The standard is simply too high. It would be too harmful to kids who don't want to be American citizens. It would mean, what? Individual responsibility? Working to advance yourself? In the world view, it's easier to rely upon your neighbor. It's what tax policy and Change!™ is all about. It's easier to take from your neighbor than to make a thing yourself.

And what is the standard for Earth Citizen? Well, we look around the world and see anti-Semitism gaining a prominent lead in Earth Citizen thinking. Israel is a terrorist country seeking to keep the liberators of Hamas down. Not cool, dude. Oh, and guys like Chavez and Mugabe screwing the folks who live under their dominion? They're just trying to make sure that their citizens are Earth Citizens. You can't do good without taking away a certain amount of economic liberty.

And American Values are too patriotic. You can't expect union employees to advocate American Values, can you? The "Can Do" thing? American entrepreneurship? It's all so white, bourgeoisie and jingoistic. Not everyone has the advantage of being white. Or male. Or American.

It comes as no surprise that Astoria Schools don't want to teach American values. Much easier to teach Earth Values.

Like, LNG is bad. Corporations are bad. Capitalism is bad. We need change. (Change!™) Cheap electricity rates are bad because we need to spend more for energy--alternative energy. Did you know that your schools are actually teaching your kids that energy from shale oil, drilling, hydropower, coal and LNG are "bad" sources of energy? What kid is going to stand up to a teacher and point out that while alternative energy may mean something to a teacher, it doesn't mean much to a guy trying to build a business? You don't get ergs from Earth Citizen dreaminess.

How do they sell the dreck that passes for education today? Ah. Here's their secret. It's called "sustainability."

Check out your standard Webster's college dictionary published before 1972. You'd think an important word like "sustainability" would be in there, right? It's not. Because it's a made-up word. Look at any resource, use the word "sustainability" and you have an argument against its utilization. We can't drill for oil because it doesn't have sustainability. We can't cut trees because of issues around sustainability. We can't develop our land because it lacks sustainability. I mean, once it's developed, we lose undeveloped land.

And we can't have that. And here's where Democrats come up with their motive: Earth Citizens. It doesn't matter that we have the tenth largest state in the Union. It doesn't matter that less than 2 percent of that landmass--tenth largest in the Union--has been developed. What matters is, if we develop more land, we lose that land. It's no longer sacred, I suppose. And if we're to be good Earth Citizens we need to stop looking at the state's resources in a typically American way. You know. For use.

Because utilization of any resource lacks sustainability. Any time you use a resource, it's, um...being used! And if We as Oregonians can't protect the Earth, how can we expect others to begin protecting the Earth? And so, we must lead.

Even though Oregon's population less than 2-1/2 percent of our nation's total population. If we continue to promote sustainablity here, others will follow. You don't think our state's Democrat bosses have a group Messianic delusion? How else do you describe "Oregon, we do things differently here" theme? So, while the people of Oregon are dwarfed by the population of the world, we do things to change the world. To be good Earth Citizens. Macro results from micro efforts.

In fact the best way to describe Oregon's legislature is to compare it to scenes from "Superman", where Jar-El is standing before his state's parliament and everthing is bright and white and wonderful. Truly, Jar-El was an Earth Citizen (albeit, from Krypton.) So don't be surprised when Oregon's duly elected representatives determine that We (Oregonians) must be different from other states.

If you buy into the Vision of the Democrat party, these folks are doing good in our name. Even though the population of Oregon is point-zero-zero-zero five percent of the world's population. We are five ten thousandths of the world's population. If we were an independent country, we would be entirely inconsequential. If all countries were our size, we would be one of two-thousand countries each making independent decisions about our individual futures. And among the bable of those two thousand countries, no one would care about what one little individual country, Oregon, is doing. What do we have going for us? High unemployment? An energy policy from space. Government mandates against growth and development. And an extremely naive policy of our being Earth Citizens.

Perhaps it is due to our having only 5 ten thousandths of the world's population. After all, the atmospheric content of carbon dioxide has been measured at less than 4 ten thousands of the total value of our earth's atmosphere. (Don't look at the 9,996 ten thousands in the atmosphere. It's carbon dioxide we're worried about.) And it's important. So, why can't Oregon be important, too?

In Oregon, we are have macro effects because we say so. Never mind that certain policies actually have a macro effect. Like our national tax policy. Not good enough for Oregon, sez Oregon lawmakers. At a time when Oregon's unemployment rate is skyrocketing, and the federal government is attempting to use its powers to stimulate growth and development, Oregon lawmakers want to remove macroeconomic stimulus from Oregon's economy.

"'Part of the purpose is to clear the decks, so that we do not have to worry about the effect of what the feds might do to us while we are trying to struggle with a very difficult budget situation,' said Chairman Phil Barnhart, D-Eugene."

Cutting taxes for Americans is good economic policy. Good macroeconomic policy. But not in Oregon.

Oregon. We do things differently here.

(H/T to Max.)