John Nolte: Root Causes

Sarah Palin Lays Out Governing Philosophy that Should Worry Both Sides of the Aisle
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In her TEA Party keynote speech Saturday in Iowa, Gov. Palin did something no other presidential candidate or potential candidate has done, observed John Nolte at Big Government. The former Alaska Governor made history three years ago as the first woman to be nominated as the Republican Party's vice presidential candidate, and now she's blazing another new trail as a potential presidential contender by making “crony capitalism” an issue in the 2012 campaign. Nolte says the practice of “the moneyed and powerful” getting “preferential treatment from our political class in exchange for the financial support that puts and keeps the political class in charge of the rest of us” is one of his pet peeves, and he had long been waiting to hear a “serious GOP contender” speak out on the subject:

This is the vicious circle currently tanking our economy and Palin’s own words sum it up best:

“Corporate welfare is just socialism for the very wealthy.”

Indeed.

And while Governor Palin rightfully trained most of her rhetorical fire on President Obama (the most corporatist president of my lifetime), she also took on Republican members of that “permanent political class” who selfishly dole out our hard-earned money to those who keep them in power.

This is nothing more than a racket and it’s a disgusting one at that that explains why deficits and wasteful spending occurs regardless of which party is in charge — it is, as the Governor made clear, the disease that’s killing our free market economy. But she has a cure that will both cut these insidious ties and create jobs: end loopholes, end corporate welfare, end bailouts (amen) AND end the corporate income tax. In other words: Corporate America — we’ll get out of your way but you are now on your own.

When you see Obama cozying up to General Electric and in turn see GE embracing Obama and his stupid “green solutions,” what you’re witnessing is a scheme designed to snuff competition. GE isn’t stupid, they know “green energy” is nonsense, but they also know they’re “too big to fail” and that they can afford to pay for burdensome taxes (if they pay taxes at all) and environmental regulations. But do you want to know who can’t? Up and coming companies, upstarts who might someday put GE out of business. If you know the government’s going to bail you out and snuff your competition, where’s the downside in “going green”?

(As a movie guy who speaks that language best, if you want to know of what I speak, rent “Tucker: The Man and His Dream.”)

What I’m saying is that Big Business can be every bit as corrupt and harmful to our economy as Big Government and Sarah Palin not only understands this, but while she was Alaska’s governor, she fought and beat Big Oil and the political cronies who gave them the upper hand over what was best for her State and its people. This isn’t a folk tale and it’s not political legend. It’s a fact and it’s what sets her apart from way too many on our side.

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The issue of “crony capitalism” should serve as a measure of how much influence Sarah Palin has on the national dialog. Let's see if the media will do its job for a change, and ask the announced candidates in the GOP debates and on the Sunday morning talk shows where they stand on this issue. It seems much more relevant to the national debate than the frivolous “Coke or Pepsi?” questions we have seen thus far which have reduced the election cycle down to a political silly season.

- JP