I was reading this rare example of writing we can reasonably assume to actually be that of Obama, and it dawned on me that there are structural similarities between the current war on the war on the debt being waged by the parrot-(rhymes with robot)niks, and that waged by them against efforts to counter Soviet military power.
In both cases, you have a factually ungrounded argument, that appeals to naive young idealists, who simply cannot believe that what appears to be the truth, can in fact be the truth.
In the case of the debt, we are looking at financial collapse, of a sort common enough in history. They happen all the time. Such a collapse–and no amount of tax increases will prevent it, and may well hasten it–will hurt the poor and middle class the worst, PARTICULARLY if it is called a “revolution”. This is what happened in France. It is what happened in the Soviet Union. It is what happened in China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba. Yes, you can take people’s stuff. But it lasts a blink of an eye, then you are sifting through rubble looking for morsels of stale food.
The poor and middle class will not have comfortable country homes, the ability to stockpile food, or–the simplest remedy–to just move somewhere better. They will not have cushy jobs in the new government, which arrogates to itself more than enough, while others starve. Given a sizable enough collapse, starvation is conceivable even in America.
Likewise, the anti-national defense movements seemed predicated more or less on the subversion of our national sovereignty. “Better Red than dead”, they said, which also implied “better red than wealthy”, “better red than capitalist”, and “better everyone poor than anyone rich”. These things all go together.
The cynics of course knew the goal was ending American autonomy, but among them were many stupid children who thought negotiation with the Soviets was both possible and desirable in conditions other than national strength. Reagan did sign agreements with them, agreements which followed the development of good negotiating positions brought on by credible military capabilities.
If we alter “Standing against Militarism” to “Standing Against National Defense”, we get an acronym describing the actual intellectual and moral foundations upon which leftists want to erect their utopian palaces.