Idaho Libertarian Times

kleptocracy USA Visualization of United States debt

You have to look at this, it graphically represents the true scope of how deep the problem is. 

 

What 14.8 Trillion looks like piled up in front of you

We're Back, with Persuasion Power Point #311

Persuasion Power Point #311 by Michael Cloud

Will This Pynchon Insight Make You a More Persuasive Libertarian?

"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." -- Thomas Pynchon, 1973.

    "If you can get people asking the right questions, you don't have to worry about the answers." -- Michael Cloud, 1994.

Are some questions really this powerful and important? Are they really crucial and fundamental??

Answer: Yes.

• Questions initiate and direct thinking.
  
• They focus and drive and sustain it (thought process).
  
• Questions frame and limit the answers we consider and arrive at.
• Some questions control the kinds of answers that are even possible.

    Apply Pynchon's Insight to politics:

     'If Big Government believers can get Americans asking the wrong political questions, they don't have to worry about their answers.'

How about these wrong Big Government questions they want us asking?

• "If we cut federal spending by 10%, how will we pay for these desperately needed programs, workers, or benefits that the 10% currently funds?"
• "If we cut federal spending by 15%, what will happen to the hundreds of thousands of Americans depending on that funding?"
• "If we end or cut federal bailouts of financially struggling states, how will they provide the roads and bridges and hospitals and firefighters and police they desperately need?" * "If we repeal ObamaCare, how will we care for the 30 million Americans who will lose their health care coverage?"

Please note that these Big Government questions rig the discussion -- and drive us toward Big Government answers. Now apply Cloud's Corollary to politics:

"If libertarians can get Americans asking the right political questions, we don't have to worry about the answers."

How about these small-government, libertarian questions we want others asking?

• "Would you rather have the federal government spending $3.7 trillion, with huge deficits and high taxes like we have now -- or federal spending 10% lower, with lower deficits and lower taxes?
• "Which would you prefer: the federal government giving bailouts to multi-billion dollar Wall Street corporations, multi-billion dollar state governments, and foreign governments -- or eliminating all bailouts and using every dollar saved to cut federal deficits and taxes?"
• "Which would you choose: to totally and immediately repeal Obamacare -- with all of its costs and alleged benefits, all of its rules, regulations, mandates, spending and alleged improvements -- or keep Obamacare?"
• "Which would be better for more Americans: today's $3.7 trillion Big Government -- with its high spending, high deficit, and high taxes -- or a federal government 10% or 20% smaller -- with lower spending, a lower deficit, and lower taxes?"

    Are you asking other people the right questions?

    Which small-government, libertarian questions are you planting in the hearts and minds of others?

    Which government-shrinking, liberty-expanding answers will grow and bloom because of the questions you ask today? * * * * * * * *

Michael Cloud is author of the acclaimed book Secrets of Libertarian Persuasion, available exclusively from the Advocates.

In 2000, Michael was honored with the Thomas Paine Award as the Most Persuasive Libertarian Communicator in America.

taken from the : The Liberator Online, Volume 16, No. 11, July 12, 2011