The courage to defend capitalism

Star Parker:

Decades ago, Winston Churchill observed that "the inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." His words apply well to the choice in the 2012 presidential election.

Note, for example, how the young black Democratic mayor of Newark, N.J., Cory Booker, was strongly repudiated by the Obama campaign, including the president himself, when he insolently suggested that Bain Capital, the investment firm once headed by Mitt Romney, might actually do positive things.

Booker, an Obama campaign surrogate, went off script on "Meet the Press" when he refused to justify a campaign attack ad depicting the evils of Bain. "I'm not about to sit here and indict private equity. ... Especially that I know I live in a state where pension funds, unions and other people are investing in companies like Bain Capital."

This was more than insubordination to Booker's campaign handlers. It was unmitigated heresy, driving to the core of the Obama campaign message. The narrative, telescoping the theme of four years of this presidency, is that the American economy collapsed because of unbridled capitalism. To recover, the narrative continues, we must allow all-knowing, all-powerful, compassionate political leadership in Washington to rearrange the American economy and make sure businessmen never steamroller Americans again.

But Booker, educated at Stanford, Oxford and Yale Law School, is a new breed of young black politician -- the kind who is actually trying to make a difference. And he is too close to realities on the ground to deny the truth he sees.

As mayor of Newark, Booker governs a city that is more than 50 percent black with a 25 percent poverty rate. It's clear what Newark needs is more business and investment, not more government.

George Mason University economist Walter Williams recently noted America's poorest cities with populations greater than 250,000 - Detroit, Buffalo, N.Y., Cincinnati, Cleveland, Miami, St. Louis, El Paso, Texas, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Newark - have one common characteristic. For decades, they have been run by liberal, Democratic administrations. The mayors of six of them have been black.

The big government, high taxation, overreaching regulation model of governing has been a saga of failure in America's cities. And it certainly has not served well the black populations that disproportionately populate them.

... 

She notes that the same blacks who vote for the losers are now leaving to return to the south.  But it has become clear to everyone but liberals that the big government, high taxation, high regulation model is a ticket to poverty and decline.  Just look at Illinois and California on the state level and contrast them with Texas.