Leftists Launch “Currency Trutherism” Against Bachmann

Posted on Sat 03/28/2009 by PA Pundits - International

Donald Douglas.

TonyfromOz prefaces …..

I want to pick up on this article from our friend Donald Douglas on the West Coast. Why I want to do this is to point out something, that being are we seeing the rise of women in politics. Recently here in my home State we had an election, and for the first time a woman (Anna Bligh, leading the Labor Party) was elected to hold the highest Office in our State, that of Premier. (In the U.S. this is the similar post to that of State Governor.) Previously, smooth pre-election transfers had seen 2 women hold that position in other States, but at the following election, both lost power. Anna Bligh now becomes the first female State leader to win power in her own right, albeit with a reduced majority. The leader of the opposing party who in fact came half way back from previous landslide victories against them has resigned to open the way for fresh faces, and one of the contenders is also a woman. Currently at federal level, the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia is Julia Gillard, and the Deputy leader of the Opposition party is also a woman, Julie Bishop.

In the recent U.S. election we saw Governor Sarah Palin run on the Republican ticket, and even though not a first, it signals the rise of women into the more influential spheres of the top levels of politics. These are times when what might be perceived as the steadying influence of a woman, (without appearing condescending) might be worth actually looking at. This woman, Michelle Bachmann could be one of those in the vanguard on the Conservcative side of politics.

It’s such a pity that the current woman holding such a high Office in the U.S. is Nancy Pelosi, who, in the eyes of a lot of people, gives female politicians a bad name, and a sour taste in the mouth.

Are conservatives interested in standing up for Michele Bachmann? I sent out my post yesterday to a number of top bloggers but heard nothing. Maybe I’m wrong about this. Maybe she’s indeed the extremist that the leftists keep portraying her to be. Can it really be that top right-wing bloggers are willing to let Bachmann hold down the fort on her own? Not me. I don’t buy the meme that she’s dog-whistling to the black-copter crowds. Bachmann’s speaking more clearly about things that are half of the top conservative opinion makers in the Washington press corps (Brooks, Frum, etc.).

The leftosphere smells blood in the wake of Bachmann’s denunciation of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s comments suggesting an “openness” to the displacement of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Eric Kleefeld’s got a post up right now, “Bachmann Blasts Obama’s ‘Economic Marxism,’ Calls For ‘Orderly Revolution’ To Save Freedom.” Here’s the key quote from the audio:

At this point the American people – it’s like Thomas Jefferson said, a revolution every now and then is a good thing. We are at the point, Sean, of revolution. And by that, what I mean, an orderly revolution – where the people of this country wake up get up and make a decision that this is not going to happen on their watch. It won’t be our children and grandchildren that are in debt. It is we who are in debt, we who will be bankrupting this country, inside of ten years, if we don’t get a grip. And we can’t let the Democrats achieve their ends any longer.

Just so folks are clear, notice how Bachmann clarifies her point: “And by that, what I mean, an orderly revolution …”

No matter. Matthew Yglesias is on the hunt, “Bachmann and Beck Double-Down on Currency Conspiracy Theory.” And Steve Benen diagnoses Ms. Bachmann as insane:

Bachmann simply isn’t well. Were she not an elected member of the U.S. Congress, she’d probably be shouting conspiracy theories and holding cardboard signs on some sidewalk somewhere. But what I find especially interesting is that her paranoid delusions are so detached from obvious truths. If Bachmann wanted to complain that a 39.6% top rate was the epitome of Marxism, she’d be just another conservative. But she’s convinced herself that the Obama administration will “move us to an international currency,” due entirely to her breathtaking stupidity.

Gird your loins, conservatives!

Bachmann’s proposed resolution to protect the dollar as the country’s sovereign unit of exchange is perfectly justified in light of monetary history and the outlandish comments from Secretary Geithner. Advanced economies are not inoculated from supranational pressures toward monetary homogenization or unification, as the case of the European Union indicates. Once Ms. Bachmann refers to “One World Currency,” the only logical reference point is to a national currency unit that would replace current dollar hegemony worldwide. There is no alternative for circulation within borders for everday tendered transactions. More abstract currency units, for example, the IMF’s “SDRs“, do not circulate as legal tender within nations – they are accounting units for central bank transactions. For something to displace an indigenous legal tender as a means of domestic exchange, an international reserve currency would be introduced into local markets for stability and confidence. This is not unusual, as the dollar now routinely serves as the local unit of exchange in transitioning economies. If anything is outlandish in all of this, it’s the idea that Americans should take seriously the notion that China has the economic power to replace U.S. as the world’s leading economic power. This is the administration’s stupidity, not Representative Bachmann’s. She’s simply putting in place legislative protections against this administration’s transnationalists, those who are willing to consider the replacement of the dollar of the world’s reserve currency. See the discussion, for example, at the Wall Street Journal, “The Chinese Yuan: The Next World Currency?”

There’s nothing stupid about Michele Bachmann’s concern for American sovereignty or her distrust of the Democratic financial manderins in Washington. What is not so smart is how conservatives, at least as demonstrated by the lack of response to the left’s “currency trutherism” against Ms. Bachmann, aren’t taking these atacks seriously. (But thank goodness for William Jacobson’s exceptional essay, “Yet Another Cheap Attack On Michele Bachmann.)

Read more great articles from Donald Douglas at American Power