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OK, Tea Party/Libertarians: End the Smithsonian?

Get rid of the Smithsonian?

  • I'm TP/Lib and say yes

  • I was TP/Lib but now I see the point, they're wrong, I vote no

  • I'm TP/Lib and just hypocritical/illogical/inconsistent, and vote no for things I like

  • I'm not TP/Lib, but dammit, give me a vote

Results are only viewable after voting.
C

Craig234

Lifer
This is a poll for Tea Party and Libertarian people.

Do you support ending the Smithsonian?

If the public wants a big museum, let them pay for one from a private company.

Saying 'yes' means that there will be no more funding for the Smithsonian.

All buildings and all belongings will be sold at auction within one year.

That means 'national treasures'; it means things like tens of millions of mammal bodies, hundreds of millions of invertebrates, and so on.

Where there's any market for them, they'll be sold for money for one purpose, to pay off our debt in part; if not, destroyed.

I don't care for 'but it's not that much money of our budget' answers. Everyone says that about 'their' programs they like.

This one clearly fits the Tea Party/Libertarian ideology of 'the government shouldn't do that, the private sector can.'

If the public doesn't want it enough to pay the private sector for it, get rid of it.

There's no room in the Tea Party/Libertarian ideology for 'we as a community want this service, but want it paid for by holding guns to people's heads extracting their money'.

Now, I'm not voting, this is a poll for those groups. If I did, I'd vote not to end the Smithsonian, but I get to, I support democracy being able to pay for it.

This is an educational thread for Tea Party and Libertarian members to hopefully get them to understand that sometimes, this democracy approach works better.

That the price is too high for getting rid of the things they say they want to under their ideology. Little hope, but it at least makes a point and gives them some info.
 
How about if we sell off the Library of Congress, the National Archives and the entire National Park system while we are at it? :awe:
 
Again Craig is determined to link the Tea Party and libertarianism, and to then demonize them both in one fell swoop. Posting in a troll thread.
 
I must have missed something, was there a news article or statement from a Tea Party candidate advocating removing taxpayer funds from the Smithsonian? Or is he just trolling liberal BS as usual?

Quick Google search has 1/3rd of the Smithsonian's expenses coming from private donations already. http://www.si.edu/giving/ Could likely get more details, but this will do for now.

techs said:
You guys are going to win. And you will go down with the rest of us.
Click to expand...

Need the GOP to enable the private sector to create some jobs for you guys. Less time to complain and whine about politics when you're working. 😛
 
Craig, the day you "educate" me is the day I revert back to being 12... because that's about as simplistic as your "logic."

There are many libertarian minded/leaning people who do not follow the party line.

I know, it's hard for you to understand independent thought, or how someone can have such thoughts, but we do.

So... go post your strawman partyline talking points elsewhere. Grownups are talking.
 
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Craig234 said:
This is an educational thread for Tea Party and Libertarian members to hopefully get them to understand that sometimes, this democracy approach works better.
Click to expand...

You heard it folks, according to Emperor Craig, if you don't support government run museums you don't support democracy!! You Fascist Nazi Communist Bastards! 😀 D:
 
Vic Vega said:
You heard it folks, according to Emperor Craig, if you don't support government run museums you don't support democracy!! You Fascist Nazi Communist Bastards! 😀 D:
Click to expand...

No, you have it backwards. If you DO support government funding for the Smithsonian, you are not following the radical ideology the tea party/libertarians spout.

There's an old saying, 'don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind the tree'.

For the many TP/Libs who don't want THEIR favored programs cut, replace 'tax' with 'cut the favorite programs of' in the above.

But they can take their principled stand here now. So far, it's gibberish posts I've seen.
 
Craig234 said:
No, you have it backwards. If you DO support government funding for the Smithsonian, you are not following the radical ideology the tea party/libertarians spout.

There's an old saying, 'don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind the tree'.

For the many TP/Libs who don't want THEIR favored programs cut, replace 'tax' with 'cut the favorite programs of' in the above.

But they can take their principled stand here now. So far, it's gibberish posts I've seen.
Click to expand...

Your words, pal.
 
I love the Smithsonian museums, but it's mostly ridiculous that people in Kansas pay taxes to support them when they don't live within 1000 miles of any of the museums. What would be the problem with a private company/companies/non-profit group taking over management of the museums? There are plenty of museums around the country which are funded entirely by private donations, and I have a feeling that these could be as well or, at the outside, people would actually have to pay some small entry fee to see them. Oh the humanity!
 
CycloWizard said:
I love the Smithsonian museums, but it's mostly ridiculous that people in Kansas pay taxes to support them when they don't live within 1000 miles of any of the museums. What would be the problem with a private company/companies/non-profit group taking over management of the museums? There are plenty of museums around the country which are funded entirely by private donations, and I have a feeling that these could be as well or, at the outside, people would actually have to pay some small entry fee to see them. Oh the humanity!
Click to expand...

This is a point - the lack of a sense of community/society/nation by many on the right, so that it being 'our' national museum we are proud of doesn't count for much.

(Other times, they have too much sense of 'the nation', when it comes to waving flags or thinking of themselves as members of the human race after Americans).

Another is the point your post leads to but does not say: that the scope/quality of the museum would greatly be reduced as a 'private' museum.

As simply a practical issue, there are things people will pay for as taxpayer that they won't put money in a cup for if asked as individuals.

Putting a man on the moon is an example - people might say 'I'm so proud we did it', but if you asked them to put real money in a cup, we'd have not had the budget.

That's just a practical issue with how a society has to pay for some things.
 
Craig234 said:
Some things that the government spends money on are good.

There by, everything the government spends money on is good.

So it follows, the more money government spends, the more good it does.

In conclusion, if you oppose any government spending, you are an idiot.
Click to expand...

I wish you weren't a liar, Craig.
 
Craig, the idiot, is wrong as usual. Libertarians aren't anarchists. They aren't against all government spending. Would getting museums off the federal budget be an option? Sure it would. But given that museums are probably less than 1/10 of 1% of the budget, it's hard to get too worked up about them. If the federal government had 25% of the budget it did now and used the money wisely, people would probably have far less concern about what they did with that money. Taking in 20% of GDP and wasting massive chunks of it is what riles some of us up.
 
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