Princess Arianna Joins the 20th Century

I nearly fell out of my chair laughing this morning when I read this. I'm not usually one to read the Huffington post, I get enough aggravation, but it showed up in Real Clear Politics. It seems Arianna Huffington is aghast at all this "laissez-faire capitalism" we yanks have been practising all these years.

But while laissez-faire capitalism has been a monumental failure in practice, and soundly defeated at the polls, the ideology is still alive and kicking.

There is so much wrong with this sentence, one hardly knows where to begin. Let's start with the accepted history of our country that laissez-faire went out with the railroad barons. At least that's what I was taught in 5th grade. There is an excellent argument that we never had true laissez-faire. Personally, I think the only Americans to ever practice it were the native tribes. If you would like to hear about the relative merits of freedom versus government bureaucracy, ask any Native American how he feels about the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Next we could examine the idea that one election means the end of something. As if Dwight Eisenhower's victory in 1952 spelled the end of social security; or Calvin Coolidge's election repealed the income tax. I guess everybody who voted for the other guy is going to disappear? Sorry Arianna, most of us don't qualify for the rapture either.

Not to sum up her ignorance in a single sentence, she continues:

It's time to drive the final nail into the coffin of laissez-faire capitalism by treating it like the discredited ideology it inarguably is. If not, the Dr. Frankensteins of the right will surely try to revive the monster and send it marauding through our economy once again.

Well, as long as she's pronouncing that Frankensteen, I won't be offended. For God's sake Arianna, read a book sometime will you? Frankenstein only dies in the movies. In the meantime, fire up the Jacob's ladder, Igor. We've got work to do.