Aaron Clarey, Man of Steel!

So, here at the 'Watch we've been meaning to post something on, just what the hell is "Captain Capitalism Aaron Clarey's political philosophy? We've thought of it as a kind of Stalinism, exemplified by his praise of the horse sense of the common, blue-collar man coupled with a sort of contempt for him and a certainty that he shouldn't be running things, a certain, um, tendency to try to bury his past statements, a certain Belinskyesque view of how art and culture serve the state - all that. And we wanted to comment on his "libertarians for national ID cards!" writing here, where he says with regards to Mexican immigration,

Oh no, I'm completely for the free movement of labor and capital.

My issue is the issue of illegality COMBINED WITH a big movement on the left to get illegal aliens to vote.

If we had a national ID card, then I would be against the wall. But right now the sovereignty and integrity of the nation trumps any economic gains (great as they may be) of the free flow of labor. ie-capital can't vote, illegal aliens can.

I mean, that's so small-government libertarian, isn't it? My issue is, the government says it's wrong. We need a national ID card. The government needs to look out for the "integrity of the nation." Like, pure distilled Hayek, right? And we're trying to figger out how to praise this wisdom, when suddenly Aaron comes along today and gives us a great big paean to Stalinism (PDF)!

I mean, hey, yeah, who can not praise the Chinese government's great ability to do the right thing for their country by force! Like, when they take organs from all those prisoners who gave them up out of remorse for having committed the crimes the government falsely accused them of, and sell them to foreigners, that's certainly making "the right decisions," no wonder Aaron Clarey is "envious"! And he's certainly right to praise their decision to build a huge dam that may be an economic and environmental nightmare - no way to know, since of course they won't show you data. After all, what could be nearer and dearer to a conservative or a libertarian heart than the government taking away a lot of people's property to give to a state-controlled venture? What conservative couldn't praise a communist government for building walls to help keep people from fleeing starvation in totalitarian lands! Man, it's like Aaron Clarey is channeling Reagan! He's so smart! You go, China! Mr. Hu, build up that wall! And frankly North Korea is much more helpful than Mexico, no? They know how to deal with people trying to violate Chinese soveriegnty! I bet once there's a wall they'd be happy to help by patrolling their side with dogs, and guns, and maybe some kind of special secret police!

And of course, Clarey points out that it's all because they don't have to deal with a Sierra Club or ACLU. Of course, our government doesn't have to deal with those guys either, it's just that they have ways of getting their message out, whereas in China the government muzzles free speech - and here at the Clareywatch, we know how Aaron hates free speech.

Nothing to criticize there, comrades! Our only little nitpicky complaint is that once again, Aaron Clarey seems to be showing that first-grade reading comprehension with

Meanwhile it took Bush, what, 6 years to get us to AGREE to build the fence?

Uh, Bush didn't want the fence ... stupid. Bush is the guy who, as governor of Texas, stood up to Pete Wilson's maneuvers to deny services to illegal immigrants, and protected those services. Bush wants a guest worker program, and they crammed the fence down his throat.