Long Live the Trouble Makers
by Jim Buckley
Long Live the Troublemakers
The Perons (Juan and his self-absorbed and wildly popular – at least with the female public – wife, Eva (Evita) brought both populism and economic ruin to what had been until then a prosperous Argentina. By promising free stuff to voters, and Evita’s promotion of female suffrage – she was hugely influential in winning the right to vote for women – 51-year-old Army Colonel Juan Peron was elected President of Argentina in 1946, and his 27-year-old radio-actress wife became the country’s darling.
But the economic system he championed (printing money to cover the bills) eventually impoverished the country. Argentina became the poster child of how to create hyper-inflation and has defaulted on its national debt several times. This year’s inflation is near 160% and voters have finally said “No mas” to the Peronistas who’ve cratered their economy. They have elected a wild-haired, chainsaw-wielding libertarian economist – Javier Milei – to turn things around. He has promised to “put an end to Argentina’s decay.”
Milei captured 56% of the vote: more votes than anyone, ever, in any presidential election in Argentina’s history. His opponent, Sergio Massa, received 44%, mostly from the over 40% of the population whose income is derived from government. Milei’s tactics resemble those of another non-politician who won a presidency, as he makes fun of and belittles his opponents, and seems to have no filter on what he says publicly. He has called Pope Francis, for example, both “evil” and a “filthy leftist”; his party’s slogan is “Make Argentina Great Again” (MAGA).
Milei and his Freedom Advances party offered voters a three-part promise to “Reduce the Size of Government, Restore the Sanctity of Private Property, and to Promote Free Trade.” He also promised to dismantle the Central Bank, to “dollarize” the economy, and to restrict immigration.
The interesting thing with his agenda is how closely it resembles what’s going on in the U.S., which is indeed “printing money to pay its bills.” That the U.S. dollar is the world’s backup currency prevents it from falling into an Argentinian-like abyss, but, well, things can change quickly if we’re not more careful. Argentina is burdened with a $40-plus billion International Monetary Fund loan it cannot realistically keep up payments for, and a national debt that approaches 100% of its yearly GDP. The U.S. is facing a $34 trillion national debt that soars upwards at a $3-billion-a-day pace and issues debt instruments that it too cannot realistically keep pace with.
Milei’s political base is made up of a core of young men and women of both college-educated and working-class twenty-to-forty-somethings seeking to create a different future, a real future, for themselves and their extended families other than the road to poverty the Peronistas have delivered over the past 50 years. I see the same things taking place in the U.S., as a large and growing group of young men and women are beginning to turn on the protracted socialism of the Democrat Party. Social issues aside (they are still extremely liberal on most of those issues), they are likely to vote for radical changes in the upcoming 2024 election.
Which bring us to our list of new friends, most of whom have come from the left. And, one must not forget, the best, most forceful, most effective, “conservatives” have always come from the left. Many of the “conservatives” I’ve met who claim they have always been conservative, often quiver in the face of what they see as “radical” change. What former leftists see as a fight to return to the norm, the weak-willed “conservatives” see as needless confrontation (think Mitt Romney); they seem ready to “reach across the aisle” and to “compromise” with their left-wing opponents (John McCain). All of which has, I’m sure you’ve noticed, brought the U.S. to its current shaky “prosperity.”
The List
There are some politicians, such as Hungary’s longtime Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose support of various positions do not always conform to what could be called conservative, but whose programs overall represent a radical move away from much of the world-wide socialist agenda. Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s Prime Minister, and Holland’s newly elected Geert Wilders are two others who I believe we can safely call “friends,” though in both cases their resistance to overwhelming immigration is what gets them the “right-wing” label. Otherwise, they are middle-of-the-road vaguely “liberal” politicians whose singular hard-line stances put them at odds with their globalist-minded opponents.
Geert Wilders has been condemned to death by various Islamic mullahs and – again, much as the Democrat Party here in the U.S. has done with Trump – the major Dutch parties have refused to even consider including members of his Party for Freedom in any government or position under consideration. Wilders is not really a “right-winger,” as his other policies are in line with those of the rest of Dutch politics, but his stance against what he deems a Muslim invasion of his country is what sets him apart.
Wilders is also a “trouble maker,” and there’s a special place in my heart for all the world’s troublemakers – Jesus Christ, Martin Luther, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Lech Walesa, Martin Luther King Jr, Aayan Hirsi Ali, Christy Lozano (I know, I know, she calls herself a “problem solver”) – come to mind immediately but there are so many others whose revolt against the norm have made life better, sometimes a lot better.
I also have a special place in my heart for Mr. Wilders because upon a visit to California a decade ago or so, he signed my copy of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard’s award-winning drawing of Muhammad wearing a bomb-encased turban.
Most importantly, it’s in the U.S. media and entertainment industries where we find a growing list of new friends. I only have space to list their names; their changes of heart and/or steadfastness in the face of imminent danger to their selves and others, will have to wait for next week’s columns.
But, hey, that’s what keeps you coming back, right?
Our New Heroes:
William Cogswell
Bill Maher
Naomi Wolf
Matt Taibbi
Michael Shellenberger
Elon Musk
Aayan Hirsi Ali
Bari Weiss
Piers Morgan
Their stories next week.
Jim is Editor-in-Chief of Santa Barbara Current. He can be reached via jimb.substack.com
Super article Mr. Jim Buckley! Curious why Tucker C. was not on the list. Anyway, he was recently in Spain to denounce the fraudulent election of a new dictator. We are going to have to keep an eye on Mr. Sanchez.
Always enjoyable (in the sense of hope-which can be a strategy) and informative (in the sense of facts) articles, thanks.