Hans Hermann-Hoppe on idolizing politicians

Idolizing a politician is like believing that the stripper actually loves you.

~ Hans Hermann-Hoppe

Kevin Duffy on the nature of government, democracy and lying politicians

• Government is a heavily armed gang that terrorizes the people.
• Democracy is a scam to convince people otherwise.
• Politicians don't lie. Voters lie to themselves & politicians tell them what they want to hear.
• Voting shows tacit approval of the gang.

~ Kevin Duffy, tweet, May 21, 2024

Tom DiLorenzo on the Seven Deadly Sins of politics

All politicians everywhere, including Israel, are showcases of the Seven Deadly Sins.  Self-pride trumps humility for starters.  What member of Congress is not an egomaniac?  Envy poisons the heart of every proponent of “income redistribution” schemes, the cornerstone of welfarism everywhere. 

Wrath is what one experiences whenever one opposes the state.  Ask all the doctors who had their medical licenses cancelled after questioning the covid “vaccines.”  Even Tucker Carlson was smeared as a “Russian asset” for opposing the American financing of Ukraine in its war with Russia. 

Sloth has always been associated with government bureaucracy.  No one likes being called a “bureaucrat.”  Then of course there is greed.  Greed for power and money animates national and state capitals everywhere.  No institutions anywhere are more greedy for money than public employee unions, for example or the thousands of other “special-interest groups” that scheme endlessly to rob the treasury.

Gluttony is on display everywhere as well with the ostentatious lifestyles and conspicuous wealth of ruling classes.  Nor are politicians unfamiliar with the sin of lust, especially the lust for power over others, dubbed by Judge Andrew Napolitano as “libido dominande” or “lust to dominate.”

~ Tom DiLorenzo, "Christian Worship of the False Gold of Politics," LewRockwell.com, May 16, 2024

Sheldon Richman on politicians and freedom

Freedom is never more in peril than when politicians feel the pressure to 'do something.'

~ Sheldon Richman

Kevin Duffy compares investors to politicians

Investors, by necessity, are truth seekers.  With their own capital at risk, they are subject to relatively short feedback loops.  Deviation from reality can be costly... 

Politicians, by contrast, are truth deniers: they have little skin in the game and feedback loops tend to be much longer.  They traffic in lies, their constituents in self-deceit.  They excel at kicking the can down the road.  Still, they are not immune to the laws of economics which, when they finally exert themselves, often do so with a vengeance.

~ Kevin Duffy, "The Trouble With Conformity," The Coffee Can Portfolio, p. 3, November 2, 2020

Vasko Kohlmayer on the role of Democrats and Republicans in the 2020 riots

Perhaps more than anything, the riots revealed the dysfunctional state of our political system. One of our two major political parties openly encouraged and actively abetted the mayhem. Difficult as it may be to believe, the Democrats on all levels defended and excused the perpetrators from the very outset.

[...]

While the Democrats were busy plying their agitprop and sanctioning the vandalization of our country, the Republicans responded by doing exactly nothing. Rather than standing up for law and order in the face of violence and brazen lies, they meekly went along and silently conceded to most of the looters’ and democrats’ demands. Spineless and morally hollowed out, the Republicans completely ceded the moral ground to the criminal mobs and their abettors in the Democratic Party. Unwilling to defend the truth, justice, law enforcement and law-obeying citizens, they let the Left rule the day.

~ Vasko Kohlmayer, "America in Crisis: The Predicament," LewRockwell.com, June 25, 2020

Mark Twain on politicians and change

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.

~ Mark Twain

Alexis de Tocqueville on who goes into politics

In the United States, men of moderate desires commit themselves to the twists and turns of politics.  Men of great talent and passion in general avoid power to pursue wealth; it often comes about that only those who feel inadequate in the conduct of their own business undertake to direct the fortunes of the state.

These reasons, quite as much as any poor decisions of democracy, have to account for the great number of coarse men holding public office.  I do not know whether the people of the United States would choose men of superior qualities who might canvass their votes but it is certain that such men do not bid for office.

~ Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, p. 238

Chinatown's Noah Cross on aging

'Course I'm respectable. I'm old. Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.

~ Noah Cross, Chinatown (1974)

Murray Rothbard on how to treat politicians

But if taxation is robbery, then it follows as the night the day that those people who engage in, and live off, robbery are a gang of thieves.  Hence the government is a group of thieves, and deserves, morally, aesthetically, and philosophically, to be treated exactly as a group of less socially respectable ruffians would be treated.

~ Murray Rothbard

Thomas Paine on politicians

The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.

~ Thomas Paine

Vice President Joe Biden on Jon Corzine

Jon Corzine helped craft the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. When Barack Obama and I were sitting at a desk in a high rise in Chicago beginning to plan to get this economy out of a ditch the first guy I called was Jon Corzine. Not a joke, not a joke he is the smartest guy I know on finance and the economy. He was pushin when I was campaignin about the need for us to save or create jobs. And so if you need any evidence look at the recovery efforts of NJ and you can mirror them. They fall right on top of what we're doin so thank you Jon, thank you.

~ Vice-President Joe Biden on Jon Corzine

Heroic Hugh Hendry on politicians vs. hedge fund managers

The reality is that global macro managers like myself have been thinking about these issues and have been articulating our great fears not for 10 weeks, but for 10 years. And therefore, I'd say to the politicians, we're smarter. We actually know what their next step is before they know it.

~ Hugh Hendry, CIO, Eclectica Asset Management, GAIM International conference, June 2010

Nassim Taleb on the fragility of politicians

Robust is when you care more about the few who like your work than the multitude who dislike it (artists); fragile when you care more about the few who dislike your work than the multitude who like it (politicians).

~ Nassim Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes, p. 71

H. L. Mencken on politicians

A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.

~ H. L. Mencken

George Bernard Shaw on politicians

He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career. 

~ George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara (1907)

Jim Grant on why politicians do not attack Wall Street over the credit crunch (2008)

Wall Street is off the political agenda in 2008 for reasons we may only guess about. Possibly, in this time of widespread public participation in the stock market, "Wall Street" is really "Main Street." Or maybe Wall Street, its old self, owns both major political parties and their candidates. Or, possibly, the $4.50 gasoline price has absorbed every available erg of populist anger, or -- yet another possibility -- today's financial failures are too complex to stick in everyman's craw.

I have another theory, and that is that the old populists actually won. This is their financial system. They had demanded paper money, federally insured bank deposits and a heavy governmental hand in the distribution of credit, and now they have them. The Populist Party might have lost the elections in the hard times of the 1890s. But it won the future.

~ James Grant, "Why No Outrage?," The Wall Street Journal, July 19, 2008

George Carlin on politicians

Politicians have traditionally hidden behind three things: the flag, the Bible, and children. 

~ George Carlin, comedian (video)

Jeff Tucker on politicians vs. entrepreneurs

To compare politicians with entrepreneurs is like comparing two runners in a race, one who stands at the starting line and makes a speech, and another who runs the full distance around the track without saying a word.

~ Jeffrey Tucker, "Politicians Promise; Enterprise Delivers," InsideCatholic.com, March 4, 2008