The Column Heard Round The World
Environmentalism is the new socialism, and “climate science” its Trojan Horse … or so says Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer in a provocative new column that has turned the environmental debate on its ear.
Invoking the specter of previous global wealth redistribution efforts, Krauthammer alleges that the United Nations’ current efforts to ram the fuzzy science of climate change down the world’s collective throat is yet another effort to “transfer fantastic chunks of wealth from the industrialized West to the Third World.”
From his masterfully-penned opus, The New Socialism:
The (previous) idea of essentially taxing hardworking citizens of the democracies to fill the treasuries of Third World kleptocracies went nowhere, thanks mainly to Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher (and the debt crisis of the early ’80s). They put a stake through the enterprise.
But such dreams never die. The raid on the Western treasuries is on again, but today with a new rationale to fit current ideological fashion. With socialism dead, the gigantic heist is now proposed as a sacred service of the newest religion: environmentalism.
But it’s not the global “climate coup” that has Krauthammer most worried, it is the assault on liberty and free enterprise being perpetrated right here in the United States … by our government.
On the day (the UN climate conference at) Copenhagen opened, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency claimed jurisdiction over the regulation of carbon emissions by declaring them an “endangerment” to human health.
Since we operate an overwhelmingly carbon-based economy, the EPA will be regulating practically everything. No institution that emits more than 250 tons of CO2 a year will fall outside EPA control. This means more than a million building complexes, hospitals, plants, schools, businesses and similar enterprises. (The EPA proposes regulating emissions only above 25,000 tons, but it has no such authority.) Not since the creation of the Internal Revenue Service has a federal agency been given more intrusive power over every aspect of economic life.
Indeed, with President Barack Obama’s “Cap and Trade” energy tax hike going nowhere (well, with the exception of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s office), it seems clear at this point that the administration’s plan is to bypass Congress and implement whatever climate change measures it wants “by administrative fiat of EPA bureaucrats.”
Unlike so much of the nonsense spit out by nationally-syndicated columnists, Krauthammer’s column is a must read.
Sort of like 1984 …
Comments
By Carl on December 12th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Lindsay suxs…
He is a DC boi now, and he does not answer to us.
By Ynot on December 12th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
fidelity to climate change
By Liberty for Me on December 12th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
This is a scam toward total control with corporations and politicians getting rich…If they really wanted people to just use less fossil energy then they should double the price and free the market so that other forms of energy have incentives to become more efficient and competitive
By Mike Davenport on December 12th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Poor Charles Krauthammer. It’s sad, really, to see a man of such obvious great intelligence reduced to defending a delusional worldview that is riddled with hypocrisy.
His column “The new socialism” (Sat. Dec. 12) attempts to make the case that the United Nations is controlled by Third World nations intent on stealing the wealth of the “hard-working” West. He knows, or should know, that this is nonsense. The grip of the permanent members of the Security Council on real power is not in jeopardy.
But the ease with which he disdainfully dismisses centuries of colonialism and exploitation is truly breathtaking. Apparently no amount of theft of natural resources or propping up corrupt dictators can justify a single dollar’s transfer from a secret Swiss bank account to a starving Congolese orphan.
And that’s not even the delusional part. He actually claims that efforts to protect the Earth’s environment are really a plan to keep alive progressive government policies that don’t work. That must be a surprise to the “socialist” countries of northern and western Europe which enjoy a higher standard of living and much greater economic equality than the United States.
“Socialism having failed so spectacularly, the left was adrift,” he says, until they thought up the climate change hoax.
Sorry, Mr. Krauthammer, but it is Neo-conservatism that has failed spectacularly. And as a leading figure in that discredited band of war-mongering chickenhawks, he must now spend his time conjuring ever more frantic, irrational reasons for us to keep listening to him.
By Skidmarks on December 13th, 2009 at 11:37 am
“Krauthammer: My own view is that there is man-made warming. On several occasions I have written that I don’t think you can pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere indefinitely and not have a reaction.”
http://symbolic-mirage.blogspot.com/2009/10/dr-charles-krauthammer-interview.html
You can count on him to:
1) Criticize everything about President Obama.
2) Oppose everything the U.N. does.
3) Cite high gasoline taxes and nuclear energy as panaceas.
Otherwise, there’s no predicting his positions or next contradictions.
I wonder if the Bob Jonesites realized when they invited him to speak on campus a couple of months ago that he is all for stem cell research, is pro-choice, and thinks that intelligent design is bunk. Of course, I also have to wonder if those are still his positions.
By No Name on December 13th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
It is appalling that someone who is not dumb…that would be Lindsey….has displayed such a tin ear and poor compass on many of these simple political issues.
Lindsey….or whoever you have reading FITS these days ….please pay attention to some of these counter arguments and consider changing your mind
Or I assure you the rancor of county censures will surely grow.
Although you may find it,….. Strategic to be forced into the Independent party with your good friend Joe…this State is neither Connecticut nor Vermont…
Sulking as you slip into the much-needed role of modern Defense Secretary is also not a great long-term option for being wealthy in the future.
Rahmbo just does not like you or McCain…… and as long as Michele backs him up on this…and why not as she and Barry takes arrow after arrow from
The State’s Strom Alumni Club….a club that includes Jesse Jackson by the way………..you ….Lindsey will not succeed.
1. Global warming is not pollution….pollution and or effects of pollution were what the research showed Republicans could support.
2. Global warming and the subsequent Nobel Prize was a Clinton Initiative payoff to Tipper Gore’s purse…time to stop the BS while we can.
3. Energy Independence means drilling in the U.S. and safe nuclear ……..it also means saying FU to the Arab oil players like the Saud’s and the Bush Texans they enrich.
4. Protect the borders…and fix. Immigration….. It is still an issue…. Mel Martinez and Jeb Bush’s promise that Hispanics would vote Republican proved to be folly..quit blaming Tancredo they were never going to go for the GOP…but they need a road back to Mexico now that the housing bubble has made them unemployed….that would be something to help them with.
5. Pay attention to the damn Fed and the deficit…because the economists are completely wrong and our State will suffer greatly.
You are smarter than this try a new tact.
By Marvin on December 13th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Interesting, Mike. I disagree with you, but you make an interesting case. Unlike BIN, Toyota, (aka overpaid legislative staffers and consultants), you seem to have an actual philosophy.
So in the interest of the debate, here’s what I would say: Krauthammer is making a larger case that is dead-on. Socialists couldn’t convince Americans that government decision-making was good for everyone. Now they’ve re-packaged the same idea in a way that sounds and feels good, and is easy and mindless to support. Did they sit in a room and plan it that way? Doubt it. But they knew a good thing when they saw it. Everyone feels pressured to “be green and stop global warming” without any clue what that means, and really wanting to know if it ruins the buzz.
The new socialism is about the same thing as the old: accumulation of wealth and power by greedy, sociopathic politicians and their special interest friends. They don’t care about poor people. How do we know that? Because they never consider the costs of this stuff, ever. The green movement means big-bucks for a few. Government incentives for building “green.” Manipulation of the free market by punishing competition. Subsidies for made-up alternative fuel industries. Example? How about ethanol? Taxpayer paid for that, it didn’t work and global poverty soared. Today it’s hydrogen, solar, and wind. Guess who can’t afford all this, both from a taxation standpoint and increased energy costs? Yep – poor people!
Socialism is about government control, concentrated power and wealth – at the expense of a weak, debilitated citizenry. With the environmental movement, checkmark on all three. Krauthammer’s right: we’ve seen all this before. But will enough of us recognize it to stop it?
By wade on December 13th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Let’s see…the Democrats have officially labeled “Anthropomorphic Climate Change” a national security issue.
All humans inspire oxygen and expire carbon dioxide.
Environmentalists are calling for countries to enforce one-child policies.
We all see where this is going…
Constitional rights be damned…full spead ahead!
MIKE… I get it. I get your Congalese orphan thing. Our own president has a half brother that lives in a shack without electricity or plumbing in the Kenyan slum.
Yet El Presidente drops $35 Grand on a vacation at the Vineyard whilst his own flesh and blood shivers in the cold.
Gotta love those hypocrital globalist elites!
Do as I say and not as I do!
By James the Foot Soldier on December 13th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Mr. Davenport: you wrote: “That must be a surprise to the “socialist” countries of northern and western Europe which enjoy a higher standard of living and much greater economic equality than the United States”.
Are you referring to the Northern European economic powerhouse in Scandavia that produces the vaunted Saab? Or the other Nordic powerhouse that produces Tiger Woods baby machines?
Western Europe? Spain? Higher standard of living? Show us the money.
By SnakeMD on December 13th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Marvin, you make some interesting points in your post above. However, I think we must go back and trace the origins of this “Green Movement.” This GM just didn’t pop up overnight. I am a political conservative, but I feel strongly that we must protect our environment and leave it in good shape for our future generations. I’m not onboard 100% with global warming, but I do believe in global crowding. Our planet is somewhat like a birdcage or an aquarium and we have to keep it clean and learn to take care of it. (over simplified analogy)
This Green Movement is scientific Socialism and Marxism morphed into one, set to oppose capitalism. Marx praised capitalism for having at least rescued “a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life.” From the French Revolution till the middle of the 1800’s the peasants of western and central Europe were gradually freed from feudal servitude. What is ironic is that the peasants themselves played only a minor role in their emancipation. Changes (heard this lately?) were fueled by the “intelligentsia”–the young liberals imbued with 18th century humanitarian philosophy. Marxism was essentially and industrial policy for the transformation of industrial societies.
Political movements are much like religious movements they grow and evolve and take on believers. I personally believe that is what is happening to our country today. The Green Movement is anti-capitalism and President Obama is pushing the wheelbarrow, with all of us peasants in it, to something that Marx would be proud to call his own. IMHO
By Liberty For Me on December 13th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Mike Davenport…. You have a bad case or irrational cranium rectumitis.
Cap and trade policies will hurt the poor and third world countries the most.What will happen to those who can barely pay for what they have now?Cap and trade will kill thousands of people who will be forced to burn biomass to stay warm or to cook..It makes the poor poorer so the rich can get richer…So were are all the Democrats???for it??HMMMMMM..seems like the true Democrat agenda does not really care about the poor,its all about money and control.GEE that does sound like even furthering socialism doesn’t it?
By Mike at the beach on December 13th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Davenport,
Well written, but wrong-headed. Marvin hit most of it so I won’t re-hash here, but to say that the UN Security Council has little to do with this debate; likewise for any “failure” of the neo-con movement (a contrived “movement” if ever was one, and one certainly not on a scale as to enter a conversation about the relative merits of capitalism and socialism).
A little common sense goes a long way here. Just follow the money and examine who’s on what bandwagon. It’s no coincidence that the vast majority of real Global Warming kooks are the same tired collection of leftist radicals, academics, and bureaucrats who all share but one trait: They all stand to gain something, whether it’s grant/research money (the same money everyone has forgotten that we spent on Global Cooling and the coming Ice Age in the 70’s and 80’s), green profits, fighting capitalism, or plain ol’ “stickin’ it to the man.”
Skidmarks,
Krauthammer is a bright guy; he’s not confused or duplicitous. Pulling a quote out of context, however, is one or the other. Krauthammer went on in the passage to which you linked to explain with perfect, cold logic how even IF warming exists, the Global Warming crowd’s approach is wrong and won’t address the problem. It’s a shell game.
By Btok on December 27th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Rasmussen Poll on Global Warming
Public Opinion polls are a curious beastie that mean little as far as the science itself is concerned. What is remarkable here is that the public is moving firmly out of any support for the global warming theory and is certain to punish political types that hang unto the program. This has occurred in the face of almost blind levels of media support for the theory and no end of pro theory propaganda. The anti theory crowd has been fighting a battle to get their side out and in fact has almost been feeble.
Yet the public is in complete revolt if these numbers hold up. Of course, the cause of public skepticism is the unrelenting lack of cooperation from the weather. Two cold winters in a row and a complete reversal of the warming trend line is impossible to cover over and explanations are shallow and not been strongly promoted since the proponents are also now covering their backside.
We’ve got to stop playing with our Sovereignty, democracy and freedom, do you realize that every time our Government attends one of these that our very futures are at stake here?
Now Mexico has got headlines, “Mexico Wants Climate Accord”, after the fraud and wrangling to get free Sovereign nations to sign away their freedoms to the UN and IMF, I for one have had enough of this gambling with our lives! We’ve got to say “NO” to this now proven Fraud of Climate Change, it has nothing to do with climate – it is about the IMF, United Nations and it’s agents claiming control of every facet of our lives! Is that what you want? Look at what the United Nations has been planning all these years while we’ve been sleeping! We have to get out of “The United Nations”
Re: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ArUoyuDd74