Non-leftist by contrast believe that freedom is more important that material welfare and much more important than material equality.

I myself believe that freedom is a precondition to the best possibility of improved material welfare, and that material equality doesn’t matter a-tall, for many reasons. One: my neighbor’s idea of “material welfare” is different from mine. Why would I want her version? Why would she want mine? How does she quantify the fact that she lives close to her family (at a premium, since she could live in a cheaper market if she didn’t want to be close to her parents), and how does her calculus compare with the way I quantify my choice to live in a four-season climate, in contrast to the MAYBE-two-season climate MY parents have chosen?

We can expect Putin to rebuild the Russian Empire but this time he will leave out Communism. We can expect turmoil in South and Central America and Africa. We can expect the return of the Mahdi and the rise of the Caliphate. We can expect reunification of Korea and recovery of Chinese lands lost to colonialism.

If you plan to travel to any of these places do it now while they are still there. If you have investments in these areas, get insurance.

Does he think democracy is inefficient and unjust?

Well, yes his does. Obama believes that the highest good is not freedom but material equality. In his mind, democracy is only useful to the degree it produces material equality. If it doesn’t, then he feels justified in using authoritarian means to create his desired outcome. Leftism can be boiled down to the idea that the state has a duty to use it violence monopoly to reduce the freedom of choice of various members of society for the material benefit of other members of society.

Look at how Obama regards democracy promotion. He basically said that democracy was great and all but people first had to have material security before they could start thinking about democracy. He clearly sees no link between freedom and material security and he clearly views political freedom as less important that material security.

He believes this because he views most people has something akin to children or livestock i.e. beings that he has a responsibility to care for but whose decision-making he cannot respect. He believes he has a moral responsibility to impose his superior judgment on less intellectually capable people.

Non-leftist by contrast believe that freedom is more important that material welfare and much more important than material equality. For the non-leftist, democracy becomes the highest political good because it is the best (not the perfect) real-world mechanism for defending freedom. We seek democracy and freedom first and worry about material matters second. Given history, it is clear that prosperity follows freedom.

Obama also has a pragmatic reason for cuddling up to dictators. He doesn’t want any distraction from his socialization of America. Letting dictators run wild means he doesn’t have to expend political capital dealing with them.

Unfortunately, the legislators of mankind, be they poets, philosophers, statesmen, intellectuals, have been virulently anti-democratic for over 100 years. (That the Fabians, who lived in a very free democracy praised Mussolini and Stalin…, well.) America and democracy cannot long survive in a world culture that is relentlessly anti-democratic. Only about every other president is in favor of democracy, here or abroad. Obama certainly favor tyranny.

tehag

I think we have our answer.