Chesapeake Observer – Page 144 – Perspectives on public affairs from Maryland's Eastern Shore

Thinking About Things: Questions for Presidential Candidates

October 28, 2019

As an interested voter, it has been depressing to see the debate moderators continue to skim the surface of policy questions without coming close to addressing the implications of the answers to those questions. The moderators have also failed to challenge candidates on matters on which, in more normal times, one hopes the candidates would want to be challenged. Not in any divinely inspired order, here are questions that I would like to see each of the Democratic (and Republican where applicable) candidates answer. Few candidates will answer these questions but their manner of avoiding answering would itself be informative. 1. On unifying the country. The country is now seemingly more divided than at any time over the last 100 years. Some 63 million voters voted for President Trump, a great many of whom still apparently support him. Can you address them now and tell them why they should vote for you in the general election, and how it is that you will try to address their concerns and also seek to unify the country? 2. On Foreign Policy. Virtually all of you have decried the way President Trump has carried out foreign policy in this country, whether it be with respect to China, North Korea, Europe, or more recently, Turkey/Syria/the Kurds. Putting to one side, if you can, your distaste for Mr. Trump and the manner in which he uses twitter and other media to announce and effectuate policy changes, do you believe that: ... Read More

My rant is brief, and to take this discussion beyond my conclusions I am recommending a selection of articles representative of the research on which I have relied. The first is a basic survey of the growth of the managerial state, followed by DEI in military services, suppression of results at NIH, and climate policy. I end with a contrary and more optimistic point of view. My point is not how misguided policies adopted in the past four years have been -- I need not repeat that story -- but how these policies did not get or need Presidential attention in order to be adopted. They are the continued working of a self-perpetuating layer of managers.

A basic introduction to how the managers have taken over everything from elected officials

The great historian Niall Ferguson, now an invaluable columnist in the Free Press, discusses how far we have fallen under Biden-Harris-Blinken-Sullivan foreign policy.

A detailed report on how our military establishment has decided to indoctrinate future generations of admirals and generals.

How an NIH researcher is withholding results that undermine claims that sex change is good for teenagers.

A good discussion of the basic unrealism of EPA’s new regulations to mandate electric vehicles and remove natural gas and coal from electricity generation. It is complemented by this survey that few Americans even care about the climate cause or want the regulations imposed by these managers..

And to wrap up my concerns about the powers that be, a point by Matt Taibbi: “Something’s up. Suspiciously similar editorials about possible post-election emergency measures coming out in multiple publications” The managers are worried but have a plan to hold on to power.

But maybe I am wrong. Alex Gutentag and Michael Shellenberger observe how Kamala’s campaign is ”circling the drain,” in the immortal words of Bo Snerdley. Gutentag and Shellenberger describe its many pathologies that have driven pillars of my “managerial class” away from Democrats. One good line is that in Kamala’s world “shaming and belittling take precedence over actual debate. This, in the long-term, has been another losing strategy.” I have been the target of shaming and belittling, and we will see if these optimists are correct. I hope and pray they are.