Dealing with Consequences

By admin On Sep 29, 2023

Dealing with Consequences – American Thinker

September 29, 2023

T.S. Eliot wrote, “Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm. But the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.” Substitute the word ‘consequences’ for ‘harm’ and you have what the sorry excuse who currently occupies the Bully Pulpit is doing today.

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Democrats argue for decisions that usually prove counterproductive. But what is crucial is the people who advocate such policies often never bother to seek evidence of results. What they advocate is favorable consequences for themselves to make themselves feel superior and/or assuage guilt. They are not interested in the unintended consequences for others and/or society. For example, I watched a YouTube video of a Wal-Mart shopper who actually thought she was entitled to steal. My first reaction was, ‘Why does this PoS have the same right I do with respect to voting? Shouldn’t some individual or group develop some decision-making process that would exclude her from voting since she decided to act as she did?’

There is precedent — sorta. Convicted felons’ right to vote are (despite Terry McAuliffe’s and Hillary Clinton’s efforts) suspended, sometimes permanently. This suspension applies only to felons (I don’t know if the Wal-Mart shopper was a felon or not, but she acted like one).

I realized that a decision process of this sort (one that could be applied to non-felons), regardless of who developed it and whether we voted on it or not, could have numerous consequences.

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I then recalled decisions made by Biden that were unhindered by the voting public. Biden issued seventeen executive orders on his first day in office. His was a mission to advance his and the far Left’s agendas. (By the way, his sixteenth executive order is ironic. It’s an order to implement an ethics pledge for all executive branch officials. The pledge included a ban on political interference with the Justice Department and on all officials using their office for personal gain. Guess he chose to ignore that that one.)

Mark Levin said, “…this man is as close to a dictator as we have ever had.” According to Justin Haskins, “…[Biden] released an executive order covering digital assets, including cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Under the far-reaching executive order, a long list of government agencies would develop plans for regulating, studying, and/or monitoring cryptocurrencies and the various exchanges where consumers buy, sell, and trade them.” Result: ”If a new digital dollar is rolled out, it could substantially reduce individual rights and give the Federal Reserve and the national government significantly more power over the U.S. economy.” Another executive order titled, ‘Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety,’ “…does more to appease far-left priorities than it does to reduce crime, improve policing, or make our communities safer…” Consider the crime wave that is currently ruining cities with Democrat mayors. Far-left Soros funded district attorneys such as Alvin Bragg and Chelsa Boudin and George Gascón have made the decision to not prosecute criminals. As a consequence, crime is rampant and ‘Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety’ are nonexistent.

To say that Biden has removed our opportunity to vote on his decisions concerning his policies would be a major understatement. But that’s only half the story. Biden is trying to create a consequence-free society. Decisions have consequences in the real world, but not in Biden-world. Making decisions without consequences is simply not possible. Every decision has consequences, be they favorable or unfavorable, expected or not, intended or unintended, or some combination thereof.

For example, consider ‘college loan debt forgiveness.’ No students were forced to sign an agreement to repay their loans. They made decisions to get an education and pay back the debts. Now many have decided they don’t want to pay off the loans. They want their decisions to have no consequences.

Biden has unilaterally decided to halt production of fossil fuels, enough oil, gas and other energy sources to make the U.S. energy independent.

On the U.S. southern border, seven million people have enter America illegally. The law is unambiguous, but Biden has decided to ignore the situation and the law.

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Concerning the student loans fiasco, the consequence for students who hadn’t paid off their loans was unfavorable. For taxpayers it was favorable, since we didn’t have to assume the enormous debt.

Considering fossil-fuel production, the consequence was favorable for ‘greenies,’ but unfavorable for the U.S. economy as Biden’s decision damaged the economy, increased prices for nearly everything, and left us begging for help. As an example of an unexpected consequence, Biden, who had promised to make Saudi Crown Prince Al Saud a pariah, instead has had to beg for more oil from Saudi Arabia. He was rebuffed. Now he is trying to get oil from Venezuela.

Considering the border, an unintended consequence is that terrorists and gang members are entering this country.

Judging the consequences of a decision depends upon perspective. Consequences may not be immediately apparent, but they’re present (a fact Democrats and the far Left don’t understand and/or won’t acknowledge). As Thomas Sowell wrote, “There is little hope of changing such people. But what the rest of us can do is stop gullibly accepting their ego trips as idealistic efforts for others. Above all, we need to stop letting them morally intimidate us into silence about the actual consequences of their crusades. The time is long overdue for us to insist that they put up or shut up in terms of hard evidence about results, rather than the pious hopes that make them feel so good.”

Our founding fathers decided the PoS Wal-Mart shopper should have the right to vote regardless of consequences. However, as John Adams said, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” We are enduring the results of a society that is less moral and less religious. Making decisions that produce favorable and/or expected and/or intended consequence decrease as levels of morals and religion decline.

So, to quote Thomas Sowell, “It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.” That’s exactly what Biden is doing today. He continues to make unvoted-on decisions and paying no consequence for them.