Carl Davidson – 11/11/15

This page was last updated on November 12, 2015.

INSTANT ANALYSIS: My Two Cents; Carl Davidson; Facebook; November 11, 2015.

The Republican debate of November 10, 2015, conducted by FBN in Milwaukee, WI.

For your education and entertainment.  I feel lazy so my comments below mostly cover only things I’ve previously researched.  As always, be sure to check the debate transcript before you accept as fact anything KD – or anyone else – claims the participants said.  You’ll see why below.

Carl Davidson (KD): “INSTANT ANALYSIS: My Two Cents. Philosophy, story-telling and the politics of irrationalism—those are the three interesting features standing out last night (Nov. 10) in the GOP presidential debate in Milwaukee.

“The eight candidates, in the course of free-for-all argument, fell out into three clusters—front runners Donald Trump and Ben Carson as the rightwing populists, a second string of Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina and Ted Cruz as the Neocon hawks, and the third tier of Jeb Bush, Rand Paul and John Kasich as an odd lot of more traditional Republicans from an earlier age.

“I wouldn’t pick out any clear winners or losers in this round. Everyone more or less managed to maintain their current status in the pecking orders set up by the pollsters. There were no knockout blows or major failures, at least in their own terms. Nor was there any sustained revolt against the moderators.

“But one early comment by Rubio got my juices flowing. Criticizing vocational education, he noted that welders make more money than philosophers, and thus we need more welders. Of course, with my degree in philosophy and my certifications as computer hardware tech, if not as a welder, I have some skin in this matter. First, the country already has far more welders than philosophers, with the latter hardly being able to maintain small niches in the universities. Shrink them any more, and you’ll have to go abroad to study the subject. Second, every job I’ve ever had has been enhanced by the critical thinking skills I gained as a philosophy student.”

[RWC] Surprise, KD’s lying again.  Mr. Rubio didn’t “criticize vocational education.”  As per the debate transcript, Mr. Rubio said, “Here’s the best way to raise wages.  Make America the best place in the world to start a business or expand an existing business, tax reform and regulatory reform, bring our debt under control, fully utilize our energy resources so we can reinvigorate manufacturing, repeal and replace Obamacare, and make higher education faster and easier to access, especially vocational training.  For the life of me, I don’t know why we have stigmatized vocational education.  Welders make more money than philosophers.  We need more welders and less philosophers.”

As for “philosophers … hardly being able to maintain small niches in the universities,” International Student says “International students who are considering a philosophy major will find many strong schools throughout the U.S., but especially in the north.”  According to College Board, there are nearly twice as many schools of philosophy in the U.S. as there are schools of engineering.  Can KD tell the truth about anything?

If KD gained “critical thinking skills … as a philosophy student” at Penn State and Nebraska, it’s not obvious he uses them.  That said, perhaps philosophy defines “critical thinking skills” differently than economic qualitative/quantitative analysis and engineering.

“But what Rubio was doing was typical of the evening. First, he was telling little stories with a faux concreteness—everyone has seen a welder at work—to make selling point. Second, it didn’t matter if the stories were true; what mattered was whether they could ‘connect’. And third, they appealed to the more backward and irrational features of the American experience and character, in this case, anti-intellectualism. (In fact, political philosophers were dis-proportionally represented among the Founders of our country).”

[RWC] I think KD conflates “anti-intellectualism” with healthy skepticism of know-it-alls who think they are smarter than the rest of us and thus should run our lives.  Of the debate participants, all are college graduates, two are medical doctors, and some attended prestigious colleges like Harvard, MIT, Penn, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale.

I’m not going to waste my time checking KD’s claim about “political philosophers” and “the Founders of our country.”  Frankly, I’m surprised KD would make this claim.  After all, regardless of what they called themselves individually, “the Founders of our country” were, as a group, conservative using today’s terminology.  That’s why the U.S. Constitution spells out so few explicit federal government responsibilities.  On the other hand, KD participates in events where they fly the flag of the Soviet Union, the antithesis of the United States.  If you decide to do some fact-checking, be sure you know KD’s definition of “political philosophers,” “the Founders of our country,” and “dis-proportionally represented.”

“This was typical, however, of all the candidates. The unfolding of the ‘debate as spectacle’ was really an exercise in postmodernism, an approach to ideas that discounts reason and reality in favor of storytelling and narrative. Whether the stories are true or not, in postmodernism, is really beside the point. What matters is if they ‘communicate.’”

[RWC] I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when I read the previous two paragraphs; KD inadvertently described himself.  Since at least 2008, when he encounters someone who favors limited government and free markets, KD likes to spin a yarn about the origin of Brodhead Road, a local thoroughfare since at least the 1700s.  KD claims government built Brodhead Road for settlers.  KD then asks, “How’s that for state intervention where the market can’t do the job; in fact, it creates the market?”  In fact, the military built Brodhead Road to supply Fort McIntosh from Fort Pitt.  Built in 1778 at the mouth of the Beaver River, Fort McIntosh along with other new outposts was considered necessary to help defend the frontier from local Indians (British allies) and British outposts to the west.  While early settlers took advantage of the military trail (much of which followed an existing Indian trail), it was not built for them.  KD was clever; he rattled off a couple of names just about any local would recognize and then presented a “reasonable” – albeit completely wrong – explanation for the road.  Most of us would not bother to verify the story.  Unfortunately, this was only one of many “tall tales” KD would tell.  In another of his “little stories,” KD falsely claims the owners chose to “liquidate the [LTV Aliquippa] mill to speculate in oil futures.”  Some of KD’s tales are to forward his Marxist ideology (KD’s description, not mine) while others are intended to burnish his “street cred.”

“What stories do people like to hear in electoral debates? Stories about jobs and growth, especially ‘good’ jobs like welders and new small businesses. How will we get jobs? Cut our taxes and get rid of pesky regulations. Don’t increase the minimum wage. Do away with the Dept. of Commerce and the IRS. Make everyone pay 14% (Most taxpayers now pay a higher rate, although many big businesses pay zero, hence the populist appeal.)

“Of course, none of this makes any economic sense at all, and never has. But it’s a GOP postmodern narrative. It doesn’t have to make any sense.”

[RWC] Please read “Economics,” “Healthcare,” and “The Minimum Wage.”

“Trump does the same thing with immigration, claiming he will deport some 11 million people. Both Kasich and Bush called him out on it, asserting that it was an impossibility. It didn’t matter. Trump answered with a ‘story’ about Eisenhower and the handling of a million braceros in the 1950s. It didn’t make any rational sense, but it allowed Trump to re-assert dominance and ‘communicate’.

“Nearly everyone told Neocon warmongering stories on how aggressive they would be against Putin, ISIS and China, especially Fiorina and Rubio. Trump blustered a lot, but backed off a bit about invading Syria, arguing he’d get others to do the fighting. Anyone serious about US national security, even from the point of view of Empire, was probably rolling their eyes. Only Rand Paul, the libertarian with a bias toward non-intervention, noted the irony, pointing out that when it came to the military and war spending, they were all militant liberal Keynesians.

“And so it goes. The ‘meta-story’, to use a postmodernist term, is that the stage was filled with champions of the working class and expanding the middle class, all ready to overthrow the tyranny imposed on the spunky entrepreneurs plugging away in their suburban garages. They were all likewise champions of the poor, ready to free them from the bondage of increases in the minimum wage and their new access to health care.

“It’s not supposed to make sense or be true. It‘s just supposed to ‘get over.’”

[RWC] Far too many of us don’t see how dangerous it is for citizens to be made dependent on government for their livelihood, medical care, etc.  Government should be controlled by “We the People,” not the other way around.

“Now in the next round, let’s see how well we can all do at ‘deconstruction’, another tool of the postmodern academy. With a little effort, maybe we can all become philosophers, but more organic to our class, where we prefer truths over stories. If not, there’s always welding school.”

[RWC] “Where we prefer truths over stories?”  Seriously?  Presenting the truth to a leftist is like waving a cross in the face of a vampire; he cowers or bursts into flame.

What’s wrong with welding school?  Someone’s a tad snooty.

As I noted above, be sure to check the debate transcript before you accept as fact anything KD – or anyone else – claims the participants said.  I doubt KD’s lie about Mr. Rubio is an only child.

In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity. <g> 

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