So are you saying I’m incorrect when I mentioned that all countries rise and fall?
After you get done agreeing with me that all countries live and die, insert the US of A in that equation since we are a country.
You (or your hero) call it patriot vs pessimist. I call it pessimist vs optimist vs realist. You’re the optimist, I’m the realist. The realist says if we move toward the correct path, we can delay the inevitable, but we can’t remove it all together. It is like saying... if I work out and eat healthy, I can potentially live longer. The truth of the matter is, I will die eventually.
Sounds like Chesterton should have used “Peter Pan” instead of “Patriot” to denote one who lives in a fantasy land. Merely changing “optimist” to “patriot” is a silly attempt at trying to create the illusion of good. Kind of like “patriot act” as opposed to calling it “searches without judicial oversight act” which would have been more accurate.
TARP is/was a failure because it didn’t allow the big/weak to fail. The strong surviving is what makes the world go ‘round. Allowing the fat cats to survive is only putting off until tomorrow what should have been done today. Let’s let the tree continue to grow by cutting off the dying branches.
There were still companies giving loans. A friend of mine owns his own mortgage company and is about to buy a bank (since the time to buy is now when everyone else is selling). Business has been phenomenal for him during the downturn because his loans were made using sound practices. Those that didn’t use sound business practices, piss on them. Small to mid companies like his could easily pick up the slack for the dead weight.
So the MSM was against TARP? Really? They were eating it up while simultaneously blaming Bush for the problem. True conservatives (such as those on FR) were the ones sounding the alarm AND blasting Bush. Tea Parties were sounding the alarm. The MSM loved it because the Dems and moderate Repubs loved it. That also lead to the BO bailout which was again loved by the MSM.
Your beloved TARP is about to be converted to more “stimulus” and that my misinformed amigo is why TRUE conservatives were against it. Once monies (or freedoms) are freely taken from the people in a “crisis”, they are never returned. Sure, we might get some chump change out of it, but we’re still going to get hosed by TARP.
One suggestion, don’t use phrases like “bloody well”, it makes one sound like a pompous posterior, English chap. It further affirms my previous assertion and up until your last paragraph, was almost willing to think I had the wrong impression of you.
As for why the raving populists were and are against TARP, it was and is purely because it helped people richer than they are. If they cared about it harming the treasury they'd pay attention to the blatant fact that oh, right, it hasn't.
As for TARP "money" (no such thing) being "reused" on "stimulus", hasn't happened and can't happen under existing law. It takes new law to spend it, and the responsibity for any such new law lies with those advocating and passing it - if anybody does.
As for Chesterton, since you clearly don't understand his distinction, nor where optimists fit in his tri-partition, you might go read it yourself; it is the chapter "the flag of the world" in his book "Orthodoxy". You can find it online, I believe.
Countries do not die because they do not live, nor do they age, it is a metaphor pursued to stupidity. Individual human beings live. Men being free, they can form whatever groups they desire and keep them as long as they wish, or not.
As for your "we", there is nothing that unites you and I. I don't recognize your authority to speak for conservatism or Americans in any respect. To me, you are a mere interloper polluting my party, which does not need you.