Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.
I was interviewed on May 4, 2016, by Sheila Liaugminas on Relevant Radio.
We discussed the GOP nominee for President, Donald J. Trump.
The audio is at this link. I am the first guest, so just start at the beginning.
Sheila kindly linked to my Chicago Boyz post entitled Why I am not worried about President Trump appointing judges, which we discussed on the show.
#NeverTrump folks, friends, do you care about gun rights?
Or do you prefer virtue signaling about how much you hate Donald Trump, and pretending he is no worse than Hillary Clinton?
Do you want the American people to become a disarmed civilian population, rendered helpless in the face of violent crime and government oppression? The kind of defenseless population that was the prey of state power in the last century?
If Clinton is elected, she will pick Scalia’s successor. When that happens we will rapidly see 5-4 SCOTUS decisions reversing Heller and McDonald.
Legally, it will be over. Repeat it will be over. The Second Amendment WILL BE GONE. Your legal right to possess lethal force to defend yourself, your family and your property WILL BE GONE.
Forever, beyond recall.
Gun confiscation is a major campaign point for Clinton. There is zero doubt about her intentions in this regard.
We will then see the Clinton Administration begin a series of actions leading to widespread gun confiscation, perhaps initially by executive order. Citizens will have zero legal recourse.
Most law abiding people will hand over their guns, rather than face arrest and imprisonment.
But here and there we will see armed resistance. That resistance in turn will justify any type of executive, emergency measures the President wants, including further eroding of civil rights against police power. This is a downward spiral which will be ruinous for freedom.
This is going to happen in America if Hillary Clinton is elected.
If through inaction and moral preening people who don’t want this outcome help to put Hillary Clinton into the White House, that is what is going to happen.
Whether or not you like Trump is irrelevant.
The only way to stop the destruction of our Second Amendment rights is to elect Donald Trump. Trump is solid on gun rights. Trump has shown a personal commitment to the right to keep and bear arms. He has a concealed carry permit, and he carries.
Disappointment is part of adult life. I have never once had the opportunity to vote for a Presidential candidate I actually liked. I gagged as I did it, but I voted for such clowns as Bob Dole and John McCain, as the only way to vote against a worse candidate.
Face the binary reality.
Third options are imaginary.
Choke down your pride.
Choose the lesser evil — if you believe Trump is evil.
Work to defeat Hillary Clinton.
#NeverHillary
Prince Andrei (in War and Peace), who is falling in love with Natasha, is talking with her sister Vera:
“Yes, that is true, Prince. In our days,” continued Vera–mentioning “our days” as people of limited intelligence are fond of doing, imagining that they have discovered and appraised the peculiarities of “our days” and that human characteristics change with the times–“in our days a girl has so much freedom that the pleasure of being courted often stifles real feeling in her.” (emphasis added)
Bingo, Leo Tolstoy! I have often observed people writing or speaking about “these days” but equally or more often about “this country” or “this society” as if they had conducted a vast comparative study. Frequently you will hear people talking about some unfortunate characteristic that is pretty much universal across space and time and attributing it the “modern American society” or simply “our society.” Few of these, I’m pretty sure, have either spent a lot of time in other societies or made a serious study thereof, nor have many of them conducted extensive historical research about other eras.
I’ll give the floor to Gilbert and Sullivan, whose Lord High Executioner was looking forward to doing away with:
The idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone
All centuries but this, and every country but his own