America The Banana Republic

by Christopher Hitchens - October 9, 2008 - Vanity Fair

... in the phrasing of the first bailout request to be placed before Congress, there appeared the brazen demand that, once passed, the “package” be subject to virtually no more Congressional supervision or oversight. This extraordinary proposal shows the utter contempt in which the deliberative bodies on Capitol Hill are held by the unelected and inscrutable financial panjandrums. But welcome to another aspect of banana-republicdom. In a banana republic, the members of the national legislature will be (a) largely for sale and (b) consulted only for ceremonial and rubber-stamp purposes some time after all the truly important decisions have already been made elsewhere.

I was very struck, as the liquefaction of a fantasy-based system proceeded, to read an observation by Professor Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, of the Yale School of Management. Referring to those who had demanded—successfully—to be indemnified by the customers and clients whose trust they had betrayed, the professor phrased it like this:

These are people who want to be rewarded as if they were entrepreneurs. But they aren’t. They didn’t have anything at risk.

Christopher Hitchens and I are in agreement that the bailout proposed by Bush-Paulson is proof that we have become a banana republic. We are also in agreement that the current insanity of Wall Street controlling the Republican Party (and our country's government during both the Bush and Clinton administrations) is abhorrent.

For Hitchens it is because he disapproves of free enterprise and favors socialism as a preferred form of government. He is thus against the Republican Party even when it is true to its free enterprise roots.

For me it because I disapprove of socialism and recognize that what is called Wall Street is not a creator of wealth but a form of redistribution of wealth to those who do nothing for our nation. As noted in the quote above, they pretend to be entrepreneurs. However they are not entrepreneurs and never have been. I want the Republican Party to support free enterprise, not the "capitalism" of Wall Street. They are not the same.

I am currently sitting on the sidelines in politics because I can see no place to go. No party exists with which I agree. Republicans, by a majority, defend the socialism of Wall Street and its bizarre Bush created manifestation called "Compassionate Conservatism".

With no party that even begins to represent liberty, freedom and the economic principles that made our nation great, I find myself frustrated and depressed.

What can a patriot who loves liberty do at times like these?