{"id":7830,"date":"2010-11-19T16:38:24","date_gmt":"2010-11-19T21:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=7830"},"modified":"2010-11-19T16:38:24","modified_gmt":"2010-11-19T21:38:24","slug":"joel-kotkin-rakes-green-liberalism-unions-over-the-coals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/7830\/joel-kotkin-rakes-green-liberalism-unions-over-the-coals\/","title":{"rendered":"Joel Kotkin Rakes Green Liberalism, Unions Over the Coals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Demographer Joel Kotkin writes <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/stories\/1110\/45376.html\" target=\"_blank\">an insightful analysis of the state of modern liberalism<\/a> for <em>Politico<\/em> today.\u00a0 As you probably guessed, the diagnosis isn\u2019t pretty.<\/p>\n<p>Admittedly, Kotkin identifies as an old-school Democrat, the kind that sees the New Deal as a model for curbing unemployment while building the kind of infrastructure that advances civilization and secures votes for a generation.\u00a0 He is not, however, a fan of the environmental left or public employee unions because they inhibit these kinds of programs for the benefit of insulated elites.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>When FDR commissioned projects such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, he literally brought light to darkened regions. The loyalty created by FDR and Truman built a base of support for liberalism that lasted for nearly a half-century.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s liberals don\u2019t show enthusiasm for airports or dams \u2014 or anything that may kick up some dirt. Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Deanna Archuleta, for example, promised a Las Vegas audience: \u201cYou will never see another federal dam.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harold Ickes, FDR\u2019s enterprising interior secretary, must be turning over in his grave.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It\u2019s also well to remember, as Kotkin does, that \u201cIn retrospect, it\u2019s easy to see why many great liberals \u2013 like FDR and New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia \u2013 detested the idea of public-sector unions.\u201d\u00a0 Indeed.\u00a0 If Kotkin can kick-start a bipartisan movement to end public employee unions, maybe we can at least get public policy\u2019s focus back on private citizens instead of enriching government workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Demographer Joel Kotkin writes an insightful analysis of the state of modern liberalism for Politico today.\u00a0 As you probably guessed, the diagnosis isn\u2019t pretty. Admittedly, Kotkin identifies as an old-school Democrat, the kind that sees the New Deal as a model for curbing unemployment while building the kind of infrastructure that advances civilization and secures [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[646,301,1027,1265,761],"class_list":["post-7830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-democratic-party","tag-environmentalism","tag-joel-kotkin","tag-new-deal","tag-public-employee-unions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7832,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7830\/revisions\/7832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}