Van Ostern vs. Chris Who?

I haven’t seen one Sununu sign in Exeter. There are lots for Van Ostern, in the same color as the Clinton clone’s. Van Ostern is at least as bad as Hassan. Van Ostern and Sununu speak of nothing but giving out free goodies to tax consumers.

Neither of them talks about individual liberty. Neither of them understands economics.

How will Governor Van Ostern spin this?

Sununu and Van Ostren: plastic men with no clue about economics

Van Ostren is worse than Sununu, but neither gets it. They both talk about “investing” in their own pet projects. They are not investments. They are consumption spending by bureaucrats to buy votes for the next sacrament season.

At least Van Ostren is honest about his ignorance: he repeats the tired myths to promote minimum wage laws, unionism, and government-managed health care. Sununu in some sense is worse: he calls his spending programs “public-private partnerships.” This is called corporatism and ends up being a game for the politically connected to use government power to mulct wealth from the hapless taxpayer. It is absolutely not the free market.

Van Ostren is more honest in another way. He at least talks about increasing government spending and raising taxes. Sununu talks about government spending but makes no mention of the payment method. Neither talks about cutting the budget.

Conclusion: both men are caricatures of their parties. Van Ostren probably wants to tax and spend far more than Sununu, but both think they know how to run our lives. Government is bureaucracy, not a business. We are taxpayers, not willing customers.

Neither of these candidates will promote liberty. Maybe one day they'll read something helpful.

Sununu: assertions on police without substance

This week, Chris Sununu has an opinion piece that endorses increasing the tax-funded war on drugs. The article packs in many abstract ideas in order to deify police. We should take a look to try to examine what he might mean.

First, Sununu uses the phrase "law enforcement communities." That phrase is anti-human and belies the true nature of the increasingly militarized police: to enforce laws robotically, and often to the detriment of harmless individuals. It lets a cop do something bad and use the excuse that he was "just doing his job." It would have been even better if Sununu used the now quaint description of "peace keepers."

Continuing, he makes a claim about the behavior of NH police:

"...we pride ourselves on having one of the most effective and professional law enforcement communities in the country."

He does not provide any argument to back this up. It is merely an assertion. It is unclear whether he is talking about state troopers or town police. Sununu also smuggles in a value judgment when he uses the word "effective." The word implies a goal, but what is the goal? Is it really to "keep us safe"? Then, I would argue the police aren't effective. The very existence of the "opiate crisis" is an example of police failure. In other words, if the police were "effective," there would be no crisis. (This is a general principle of government intervention. Whenever there is a failure of government, it is never admitted. Instead, it is used as an excuse to expand, at taxpayer expense, the failed policy*.) But, maybe the police are effective at other things, like beating people into submission, or treating NH residents as cattle fodder. Sununu is both vague and, assuming the best case scenario, incorrect in his judgment of police.

He goes on to describe the police as being "on the front lines." This is another phrase that suggests that they are soldiers in a war zone. Aside from the visions of ever-increasing martial law, some perspective is useful. A recent survey claims that of the most dangerous jobs in America, police is #15. Ahead of police include roofers, garbage men, farmers, steel workers, power line workers, and taxi drivers. It's time for Sununu and others to stop the fantasy that police work is such a dangerous profession, at least not before they start "reassuring" taxi drivers that they "appreciate their hard work and know that they are risking their lives for communities"

The police profession is not a noble job. Some individual cops are good and some are bad. Some policemen start out with good intentions, but the system breeds violence and waste against us non-uniformed mundanes. A person does not deserve respect because of his badge and gun. A person deserves respect as a human being. And that respect is predicated on his treatment of his fellow man. The current police system promotes the opposite. It's time to slash police budgets and allow a competitive market in police defense. The current socialist monopoly of police services will only continue to lower standards.

*Sununu cites "Operate Granite Hammer," (which I guess will smash more lives of nonviolent criminals) will mulct at least $1.5 million from the taxpayers as it was passed in a suspicious manner.