It seems like such a simple concept -- if one rewards bad behavior, one gets more of it. Yet our government, under both Democrat and Republican administrations, has continually violated this premise in both domestic and foreign policy. It did not take me hours to come up with the following examples of this lunacy:
- North Korea has, since the mid 1990's been offered all sorts of foreign aid and forgiveness in order to dissuade it from becoming a nuclear and ballistic missile threat to Japan, South Korea and, yes, even the United States. This foreign policy clearly has had just the opposite effect.
- In many American cities and universities, but particularly recently in Baltimore and Berkeley, civil disobedience, rioting, looting, and assault on innocent people has been forgiven as being "maybe" justified ... and the arrested perpetrators released without punishment. Today, even the slightest imagined affront is an excuse to knock over liquor stores, pharmacies and other targets of opportunity.
-There is a rapidly growing threat to the solvency of our Social Security System due to the rapidly growing disability (SSI) population. Now such silliness as AD/HD, fatty liver, anxiety, and even obesity are rewarded. There are agencies and doctors who specialize in qualifying often able-bodied people to hop onto this gravy train. This will eventually topple the Social Security System itself.
- Disaffected Muslims have been encouraged toward radicalization by the silly notion that any serious push-back against these caliphate worshippers would do nothing but encourage them. The notion that Gitmo or enhanced interrogation are recruiting tools for radicalizing Muslims is a perfect example of this pretzel logic. It is obviously the Western World's weak-kneed efforts to eradicate terrorism that has encouraged more terrorism ... not the opposite.
- Iran has baited and buffaloed he United States and Israel ever since the American embassy takeover during President Carter's term. However, relatively stiff sanctions against it had slowed down its obsession to sponsor terrorism, acquire nuclear weapons and develop/test ICBMs. However, under the Obama/Jarrett regime, relaxing these sanctions and enormous financial rewards has reawakened this feral animal.
The list goes on and on: paying welfare mothers to have more children, offering loans to students resulting in higher and higher college tuitions, giving drivers licenses to illegal aliens which opens the doors to their voting, supporting warmists with doctored data allowing them to reward bad science, paying incompetent teachers to not teach ... unfortunately I could go on and on.
How do we squash this nonsense? Stop electing politicians who so behave ... as they want to appease their voters to get reelected ... another example of bad behavior being rewarded. But, in time, their replacements will likely do more of the same. Too many professional politicians are bad apples. It clearly is a genetic defect in the body politic and politicians. And we many voters can't seem to grasp this concept.
