The Alternative

By: 
Fritz Groszkruger

None of the above
 
     Hillary is still in the news. What rates her more newsworthy than the people who are spraying graffiti around Hampton can only be that we know who she is. The really big news should be that there is a mainstream politician running for president who admits to being a socialist.
     Imagine that, after hundreds of socialists have run for president, we finally have one who claims the title. I thought it would be interesting to describe what the politicians really are rather than what they claim to promise.
     I’ll start with Bernie in honor of my fellow ex-hippies. Bernie wants it fair for everyone. He sees “the rich” as undeserving, so he sees government as the great equalizer. Bernie wants everyone to be poor. He wants there to be no entry level jobs. He hates small business and looks at entrepreneurship as exploitation.
     But Trump is making all the headlines. Jeb Bush listed all his fairly recent positions that would disqualify him as a legitimate conservative in a video. Most important among them was his past support for Hillary Clinton, not a policy idea that would require thought.
     Illegal immigration has been Trump’s big issue. If there is anything Americans hate, it’s competition. We don’t want foreigners stealing our handouts or doing a better job for lower pay. So in this case being a conservative and family friendly means having a government strong and intrusive enough to deport (as George Will pointed out) 10 percent of California and 13 percent of California’s K-12 students. It would take a massive police state to accomplish Trump’s goal. After 80 years of a war on drugs with no dent in supply, does he really think a police action could cleanse our country of unwanted foreigners? I doubt there would be any workers left to furnish Americans with the necessities of life.
     The same goes for trade. Trump proposes a 35 percent import tax. Out of one side of his mouth he derides favors to special interests while calling for the ultimate favor to special interests, making it too expensive to buy goods that compete with (yep) special interests. A fellow called Hannity the other day brought up the fact Trump wants to do what Republicans complained Obama did; raise taxes on imports (tires). Hannity said, “we have to fight back,” a fitting answer from a show whose advertisers promise to improve manhood and eliminate “rotten food and toxic sludge” from our bloated bellies.
     Ted Cruz and anyone else who complains about “amnesty” is basically saying they want a huge police state that would rival the Stasi of East Germany. Incredibly, these same candidates rail against big government when the policies they promote require big government.
     These are the same people who would have our soldiers occupy the Middle East to keep us safe here. Can you imagine how many U.S. soldiers it would take to make the Middle East stable and safe enough that no threat emanated from there to us in America?
     The illegal immigration issue is a perfect example of misapplied government. We have troops all over the world, leaving our borders unregulated. Then the answers from the candidates all involve more government.
     The establishment Republicans are absolutely freaking out over Trump, but I think it is all a big show. Trump poses no threat to their love of corporate control of government or our funding of it. He is one of them. He drums up crises with more government as the only solution when people get along just fine if left to iron things out alone.
     Any comments on this column are welcome as a letter to the editor or directly to me at 4selfgovernment@gmail.com, or join the discussion at my website: www.alternativebyfritz.com.. 

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