Thursday, April 9, 2009

Newly Weds. Thomas Sowell.

This evening, I had a class with a pair newly wed students. The male and femalehad just been married. It was the second time I had a class with newly weds this month. And like the first time, the newly weds weren't married to each other...


David Warren praises the American Economist Thomas Sowell in this column. Warren sees Sowell as a hero, as do I. Sowell is part of the four percent of Black America that didn't vote for Barack Obama. Furthermore, Sowell was part of the ten percent of Black America who didn't vote for the Democrats. Being part of such a small minority, Sowell is courageous to differ from a group that is so overwhelmingly of one mind and to whom to think differently is tantamount to treason. Like Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell is often called an Uncle Tom.

That the Democrats would be the first party to elect a black man President was a surprise to me. I didn't think that a viable black candidate could ever come from the ranks of the Democrat Party. When your particular ethnic group votes 90 percent for a Leftist Party, the chances are there aren't are too many moderate centrists to be found in your midst. And to be honest there wasn't. Obama suckered enough people into thinking he was a moderate. That, a little luck, and a desire to see a black man elected no matter what, and the Democrats accomplished what I thought was impossible for them.

If only America could have elected Thomas Sowell instead. For as Sowell says: "Barack Obama seems determined to repeat every disastrous mistake of the 1930s, at home and abroad. He has already repeated Herbert Hoover's policy of raising taxes on high income earners, FDR's policy of trying to micro-manage the economy, and Neville Chamberlain's policy of seeking dialogues with hostile nations while downplaying the dangers they represent."

David Warren says this about Sowell: We learn by suffering; Sowell knows that, and has learned. We advance by finding advantages in what at first sight are only limitations and oppressions; by turning the tables on fate. This is an individual, not a collective operation; it begins with that refusal to make an excuse. In moments Sowell reminds me almost of Solzhenitsyn, turning a Siberian prison camp into an elite finishing school of hard knocks, and graduating from it, magna cum laude. I don't think you can say any of this about Obama. You can say some of those things about the much-derided Bush the younger.

In this mad world we live in, Sowell is one of the few lights.


Tony spent his second day in pre-school.

4 comments:

montag said...

"You can say some of those things about the much-derided Bush the younger."

What are you talking about? I don't know Sowell enough to comment on your words concerning him, but what on earth does GW know about overcoming limitations?

wuxi andis said...

GW at 40 was an alcoholic - the Billy Carter variety. He turned his life around. He was a successful governor of Texas. He got himself elected to a second term as president of the United States.

I suppose you resent him for having a silver spoon in his mouth. So what! Did any of FDR's sons amount to anything? The Kennedy brothers benefitted from the connections of their father who was ambassador to England.

Much-derided, Bush was, there can be no doubt. A lot of this derision said more about his detractors than it did him. Did Bush complain about? Never.

wuxi andis said...

I should say: Did Bush ever complain about it?

montag said...

Good on GW for walking away from the bottle, coke and whatever else. But turning your life around is a lot easier with Poppy in your corner.

Just sayin'.