The Watcher’s Council has announced its winners for the past week. This week the winner in the Council post category was Bookworm Room’s “The Communist Cat is out of the Climate Change Bagâ€, a reaction to President Obama’s speech on Afghanistan. Sharing second place honors were Wolf Howling’s “The Democrats’ Assault On Deliberative Democracy” and my own “The Healthcare Reform House of Cards”.
The winning non-Council post was Michael Yon’s“Arghandab & The Battle for Kandahar”. Taking second place was The Doctor Is In’s “Our Gnostic Masters”.
The winners are very depressing as a rule. Communists? Even the real Communists arent communists anymore.
Steve
Although I didn’t vote for it, I thought there was a grain of truth in it, one that’s been pointed out by others.
The underlying question is one of centralized control vs. decentralization. After the collapse of the Soviet Union there were still plenty of people who longed for greater centralized control and the rise of the climate change movement at least in part reflects the transfer of loyalties of those who would have formerly support soviet communism to climate change as a vehicle for promoting central control.
I genuinely wish that we could separate the political objectives from the actual merits of the climate change argument. In my view that’s a key source of the opposition to what would otherwise be reasonable proposals from both sides.
What is it that makes cap-and-trade politically possible but a carbon tax politically impossible? I would submit that part of the impossibility is that a carbon tax provides fewer opportunities for political gain.
I also feel that I should point out that the Council used to be significantly more moderate than it is now. Consider the list of former members. Marc Schulman of American Future, Andrew Olmsted, Joe Gandelman of The Moderate Voice, Rick Moran of Rightwing Nut House, and Callimachus of Done With Mirrors all had an approach to events more consistent with mine than some recent Council members have had.
Agreed. There is almost always some grain of truth in even the most far out posts. While I also slightly favor a carbon tax over cap and trade, the point has been made (DeLong?) that a carbon tax will also be subject to same of the same political issues. It is possible to end up with a carbon tax that is just as bad as cap and trade. Still, I think a carbon tax just simpler, so that is my preference.
Dont mean to sound like I am busting on you, sorry if I did. It is good to read representative readings from the right that I might otherwise miss, especially posts that are considered very good.
Steve
I didn’t think you were “busting on” me. I do feel a need to explain myself, though.