Zombie Reagan vs. The Green RINO

Who is more MAGA? Who is more Reactionary?

OK, it's time to wind up Rule 11: Exploit the Environmentalists with a bang. And maybe even a POW! And a BIFF!

As I have been teaching since Rule 8, the overall Reactionary Agenda must be carried out by a diverse array of politicians. The complete agenda is popular in few districts. Parts of the agenda are popular in nearly every political district. The Woke Left is Borg. They/them can be unified with a contradictory agenda; they compromise their personal values for The Cause. We are not Borg. We need different sorts of candidates for different districts.

Currently, we have three schools of Republicans:

1. The Zombie Reagan School: those who think the Reagan agenda of the 1980s is still relevant today.

2. The Country Club School: remoras and those who are in it for civility and tax cuts for the rich.

3. The Trump School: those who embrace Trump's populist agenda, and usually Trump himself.

I would like to add two more schools to the mix:

1. Green RINOs: those who mix pretty deep environmentalism with a mix of libertarian and conservative values.

2. Black RINOs: those who run with the subset of libertarian, conservative, and populist ideas which intersect with the current interests of our Black citizenry.

I use the RINO designation for these categories to emphasize that both of these categories will deviate from the official Republican platform publicly and significantly. (Also, the term works for making fun AI imagery...)

I submit, however, that my two classes of RINO are more MAGA and Reactionary than Zombie Reagan or the Country Clubbers. Indeed, at times they out MAGA Trump himself. Today, I'll focus on The Green RINO, and compare his program with the other Republicans on a wide variety of issues.

Gas Prices

In a display of generous steelmanning, I freely admit that Zombie Reagan beats the Green RINO on gasoline prices. While the Green RINO opposes CAFE standards, Energy Star mandates, ethanol mandates, and electric car mandates, the Green RINO favors carbon taxes. This is part of a general shift away from taxing labor. Note that under the Green RINO we get something in return for the continued high gas prices: either deficit reduction or cuts in labor taxes. Both Zombie Reagan and the Green RINO give America energy self-sufficiency. But the Green RINO puts in place a stable economic incentive to develop fossil fuel alternatives.

Immigration

Ronald Reagan himself signed an amnesty bill. Reagan was all about screwing over the labor unions. Meanwhile the Green RINO is Trumpier than Trump on this subject. The Green RINO calls for lowering legal immigration as well as enforcing the border. Freedom and environmentalism are considerably easier to mix together with a stable population -- which the rich countries of the world would have if they closed their borders. Ecotopia and open borders do not mix.

Trade

Zombie Reagan is all about Free Trade. The Green RINO has constituents who are into Buy Local. Also, the Green RINO knows that outsourcing to China is often simply a way to bypass environmental regulations. Building things here creates a market for second-order eco-technology: how to manufacture without polluting the environment. This technology can then trickle down to the poorer countries of the world.

Woke Campuses

Both Zombie Reagan and the Green RINO beat Trump here. Trump's blue collar style is incredibly off-putting to the effete, and at least during his first term, Trump neglected some of the serious social rot promoted by the bureaucrats. Ronald Reagan had genteel charm. He was a real life Simon the Likeable.

Even those who loathed his policies begrudgingly like Reagan.

Furthermore, Reagan shoveled mass quantities of research money to STEM departments in order to develop Strategic Defense Initiative technology. It was possible to be conservative and a college professor back in the Reagan era.

The Green RINO also has something for the STEM departments: acknowledgment that there is some science going on in the Climate Science departments. And he has some money to hand out for developing economically viable energy alternatives. Also, he's ready to shovel out some serious money to the life sciences departments to figure out what's causing our epidemics of autism, allergies, and sexual confusion.

The antidote to Woke pseudoscience is real science. The Green RINO is the hero we need to give real scientists on campus license to speak up.

Woke Corporations

The Reaganites gutted antitrust law and funneled huge amounts of money into managed funds via the shift to 401(k) plans. This put incredible power into the hands of a few players on Wall St. We are seeing the results.

As I will delve into when I get to Rule 13: Reinvent Antitrust, every workplace is hostile to somebody. The solution to hostile workplace environments is to have a diversity of workplaces. Judge Bork and company gutted antitrust on the theory that consumers can benefit from economies of scale more than they lose from lack of competition. The problem with Bork's theory is that workers lost choice during the Reagan era merger mania.

And now, free agents are losing choice. If you cannot sell your book on Amazon, where do you sell it? If Google or AWS won't host your cloud application, what do you do?

The Green RINO likes local. Small is beautiful. While big corporations and the federal government have their place, local is better when feasible. The Green RINO favors measures that create more corporations, more capitalists. The antidote to wokeness is true diversity.

Crime

Reagan and his zombie successors were/are really tough on crime -- and tougher on criminals. Alas, that latter feature has produced backlash. The only thing surprising about the Black Lives Matter riots is that it took so long for them to happen. The young Black male incarceration rate has been terrible for decades.

The Green RINO would be at least as tough on crime, but softer on criminals. High crime cities are not bicycle friendly. On the other hand, for those running in urban districts, there are lots of constituents with relatives in prison. An emphasis on rehabilitation and alternatives to the crime as a career are in order.

Ecotopia provides plenty of jobs for high school dropouts. It doesn't take a high school degree to pull weeds or give back rubs to free range turkeys. In a sane economy such jobs should pay higher than Marxist sociology professor, and the Green RINO is game to make it so.

Also, the Green RINO would focus on real crime. The Green RINO has a bunch of aging hippies in his district, so he's not going to send storm troopers into people's houses at 3am in order to confiscate a stash of weed. Indeed, the Green RINO is game with outright legalization of the softer recreational drugs. But that doesn't mean free needles or fentanyl vending machines. Even Timothy Leary believed that using the harder drugs should require a license.

Family Values

Reagan did try to crack down on pornography and crude music lyrics. And we could use a fresh crackdown today. It's WAY too easy for elementary school children to access super hard core pornography these days. Every smart phone is a mini X rated movie theater.

But on another front Reagan and Zombie Reagan were/are terrible when it comes to family values. Their policy of favoring capital over labor made/make early family formation unaffordable. Delayed marriage plus easy birth control leads to years of shacking up or outright promiscuity.

Sustainable economics, a closed border, and a return to more natural farming methods lead to real jobs for the young, including those who aren't all that good at symbol manipulation.

Youth Vote

Reagan himself was inspiring. He could paint a beautiful word picture. This offset the fact that his policies screwed over the younger generations.

Zombie Reagan lacks that level of charm. When Zombie Reagan mortgages the future for tax cuts for the rich, the youth notice. When Zombie Reagan ignores impending environmental problems for near term economic growth, those who will be living in that long term notice.

The Green RINO has a much better shot at getting the youth vote, because he actually cares about their future fate.

Tax Simplification

Ronald Reagan did much to simplify the tax code and Zombie Reagan continues that tradition. The Trump tax cuts were really the Zombie Reagan tax cuts. And they did simplify tax filing significantly.

I'll give this issue to Zombie Reagan. There are tax simplifications in the Green RINO's toolkit, but there are also some new complications, such as excise taxes on toxic chemicals. If you read this series in full, you will see bits of the simplifications. You will find more whenever I get to Rule 10: Tax Thine Enemies. Stay tuned.

Regulation

Zombie Reagan wins this one. Reagan was a great deregulator. And you cannot protect the environment without some regulating.

Mind you, it is possible to cut back on the Back Seat Driving types of government regulations. The Green RINO would eliminate CAFE standards on automobiles so it becomes possible to buy a small pickup truck again. And you could buy a large sedan with a decent trunk instead of a crew cab pickup if you need real trunk space. Eliminating counterproductive regulations is part of a truly green agenda.

But applying Innocent Until Proven Guilty to novel chemicals was probably a bad idea. Today's whackdoodle politics are not just due to cultural Marxists. We have a serious mental health epidemic going on. Whether it's from toxins, microwaves, birth control pills, or excessive vaccines is unknown to me. But given what has happened to this country, the Precautionary Principle is looking pretty good in hindsight.

Peace

Reagan gave us Peace Through Strength -- and some serious persuasion. The two Bushes squandered the resulting Peace Dividend through unnecessary meddling in the Middle East. And alas, many of the Zombie Reagan school are also meddling neocons.

The Green RINO's program is compatible with peace. The combination of legalizing the softer drugs and blocking the bad stuff at the border means we don't have to fight the Drug War in other countries. This is peaceful.

If we are energy self-sufficient and less dependent on imports generally, we can sit out some conflicts.

And while solar energy is not a great solution for high latitude First World countries, it is a potentially good option for the sunnier countries of the world. And the sunnier countries tend to be the most politically unstable. Solar is suitable for isolated villages and even for nomads needing to charge electronic devices. No need for power lines -- which are easy targets for insurgents.

Eco hippies like peace. I have seen this first hand when running a Ron Paul meetup in a hippie town. Many tie-dyed progressives came out to support Ron Paul, despite Dr. Paul being personally very conservative. They came out despite Ron Paul having a history of relying on Southern partisans and outright racists for his fundraising base over the years.

Peace sells. Mix in some environmental goodness and you have a winning combination.

Who wants to win back the Left Coast and college towns?