The year 2008 will be remembered for many firsts. The first black Presidential candidate. Almost the first female Presidential candidate. The oldest candidate.
This past year saw unfortunate and preventable business failures in the financial sector, just as the presidential campaign season was hitting its stride. The government’s response to “calm” markets and restore stability has probably made matters worse. The next President seems on a path to do more of the same.
The press and political elements here either capitalized on or tried to manage around the constant drumbeat of bad economic news with very few to present a fair perspective.
Welcome to the place for proper perspective, kids.
Our current economy does not resemble that of the “Great Depression”, the recession of 2000-2001, the early 90s downturn, or the “malaise-days” of the Carter Administration and early years of Ronald Reagan. By all but a few measures, we are all much better off. Unemployment is lower, GDP is higher, inflation is lower, and home ownership is still higher.
Instead of bread lines of the extended 1930s downturn that FDR ran through the 40s, we have lines for i-Pods and i-Phones and who knows what as the holiday shopping season began. Instead of people getting hurt of killed over shortages of food, we have store staff getting trampled by selfish and inconsiderate shoppers at Wal-Mart or shot by someone over the last toy on the shelf at Toys-R-Us. Of course, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union places blame on the store - not those involved in involuntary manslaughter.
Terrorism
Pirates of the Caribbean is not just a movie, but a common vocation among certain radicalized factions of the Islamic faith on the high seas. Several cargo ships carrying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of guns, oil and chemicals have been hijacked. Indian security is still on high alert after Muslim extremists appear to be behind the bloody attacks on civilians at hotels, restaurants and at a Jewish outreach center.
If you think that Barak Obama will bring peace to the world by magically solving the Israeli-Palestinian impasse, think again.
In India verses Pakistan, the long disputed region of Kashmir seems to be the root cause of the bloodshed there.
Here is my version of hope and change – let’s just watch Led Zeppelin’s 1970s anthem instead of killing each other. As the young folk say, “Peace – out.”
In the hazy blur of the public high school’s perfunctory American history courses, most people remember a mention of the “Radical Republicans”.That was the name given to a large group of congressmen and senators who controlled the U.S. Congress through the latter half of the War Between the States and the rest of that decade.The textbooks merely characterized them as seeking “revenge” against the Democrats of the Confederacy who started the “Civil War”.
Some of the failings of the Radical Republicans are enumerated below:
They viewed the War Between the States as a crusade against the institution of slavery and supported immediate emancipation.
They advocated enlistment of black soldiers.
They led the fight for ratification of the 13th Amendment Outlawing Slavery
Radical Republicans wrote the first Civil Rights law in 1864.
The Radical Republicans in the early 1870s urged President Ulysses Grant to take action against the Ku Klux Klan.
They pressed for labor reforms, which included improved working conditions in factories and the eight-hour day.
As the 1960s leftist Radicals have finally reached the pinnacle of power, maybe it is time for the Republican Party [variously known as the “polite party” or the “stupid party”]to return to some of it’s own radical roots!The philosophy of conservatism is the dominant belief of the people of the United States.In the polls assessing such things; never more than 20 to 23 % of the polled ever claim to be liberals.In the last two elections, wherever Republicans ran as conservatives they won, where they ran as “moderates” – they lost. (Including the quintessential moderate: John McCain.)
The hard-core conservatives (most of us) need to separate from the RINOs, the country club set and the “liberal” Republicans (an oxymoron).Most all of this latter group has become double amputees from reaching their hand across the aisle to the Left, just to have it cut off.If politics is “philosophy in action” as Edmund Burke told us; then it is time to examine our personal philosophies and take action!
Let us begin by clearly stating just what IS our philosophy of government of a conservative American:
First of all an Americans understands the Constitution of the United States to be a remarkable document, almost unique upon the Earth.We have observed our governmental bodies, from local to federal, moving away from the Constitutional Republic toward a European Socialist state. The Founders warned us that this would happen. They also understood that it could only be corrected by strong action.The best action I believe is to create a dichotomy in the Republican Party that starts moving the uncommitted toward the exits.To determine how, read on:
If you see yourself in the classic descriptions below, you are likely a candidate for membership in the New Radical Republican Party.
A citizen of the United States of America who believes in and supports the Constitution of the United States.
By extension, such a person must believe in the rule of law, equality of all citizens before the law and the enforcement of that law.
The Constitution particularly includes the Bill of Rights (while not carved in stone by the Founders, they might as well have been.) This means an American believes in every citizen’s right to speak, arm themselves, and practice religious beliefs freely. But ever the practical creature, this same American sees the responsibilities attached to each right. One must pay the price if their speech knowingly causes harm, if they pass out dangerous weapons to children, or if their religion demands your adherence or your death.
Most of these actual Americans understand that the right to be free comes with the responsibility to take care of yourself as best you can. They understood this as children. In your father’s house you were sheltered, fed and clothed – but you followed your father’s rules. At a certain age you were freed of all those rules – as long as you provided your own shelter, food and clothing. As children, they also learned that you helped your brother or sister when they were in need of your help. For more than a century America has been the most charitable nation on earth.
When the Constitution was adopted, the Federal government had very limited responsibilities: defend the borders of the Republic and its citizens, facilitate the interactions of the individual states, provide the highest court of law in the Republic. (“Government that governs least, governs best.”) Of course, the world is more complex now, but we should expect the actual Constitutional responsibilities to be fulfilled. An American would like to see the important things restored.
Perhaps you are not fond of the Federal Income Tax, passed in 1913, despite not being ratified by the requisite number of states. When the Constitution was adopted, the Federal government paid its way by a consumption tax on imported goods. If a citizen wanted or needed said goods – they paid the tax. If a citizen was poor or struggling and could substitute or get by without imported goods, he paid no tax. The already proposed “Fair Tax” would bring us to a similar state.
Start talking to other Republicans, this may be the best way to proceed.Determine who we are and what we want.Then go there.
Not yet into the January swearing in parties, the wheels already look like they could come offthe “unity” bandwagon the gloves come off in the battle for party power. Now that they are fully in charge (just a vote or two short of filibuster-proof) of two of the three branches of the Federal “Givernment”, Democrats are now faced with the daunting task ahead. How to govern as the majority again. It has been since 1994 which is a political eternity, since they last held such a stronghold, and many in the power structure don’t know exactly how to proceed.
It is much like the end of the movie “The Candidate” where, upon winning his election, the character played by Robert Redford says, “What do we do now?”
Obama has managed to get mostly praise from Carl Rove, the architect of the George W. Bush Administration with respect to his economic team (so much for serious change) and he is letting the socialists take charge in social arena with Kennedy people running things at HHS. So much for health care as we knew it. Get ready for “Good Times” but instead of a silly sit-com set in the 1970s government housing projects, it will be your physician’s office with the shortages of staff and long wait times for basic medical services. All at a rock bottom price of nothing – unless you earn an income over a Joe Biden set threshold of “too much”.
At least George W Bush knows that he never sold his soul over the last 8 years.
Barak Obama, the Great, Magnificent, Almighty, All Knowing, Most Benevolent, President-Elect has issued his first Pre-Presidential Proclamation. His economic plan (yet to be formulated) will create 2.5 million jobs.
It will be almost magical.
The word “abracadabra” is derived from a Aramaic phrase (Avarah K’Davarah) meaning, “I will create as I speak.”
The devil is in the details. Obama vows that his new administration’s jobs and economic plan will be to build up our “infrastructure” – you know, roads, bridges, etc.
Sound lot like something I read about in history books about the 1930’s. It was a “works” program – who could be against a program that provides work?
Certainly no one can be against ”creating” jobs and building our infrastructure. Just as no one could be against ”home land security” or something called the “Patriot Act”.
America’s health. The message is there if you pay attention. It is not expressly written, but it is the elephant in the room. Freedom is the enemy. Inequality of outcomes is unfair and should be reversed.
The new administration has an opportunity to get things right according to CNN/Time. Our health is rated 19th, dead last among industrialized nations, according to their metrics.
Here is a news flash for you. The door that is jammed with immigrants from all over, flooding our shores swings both ways. All reporters who think they can do better are free to find that Utopian health care elsewhere.
Putting the government in charge? The same ones that run inner city public housing projects? The one’s you had a s**t-fit over the “Homeland Security Act”? {Remember Harry “We killed the Patriot Act” Reid?}
Why is it liberals love the government taking broad powers over us for their pet social projects for our own good, but hate it when it is for securing the borders or for hunting down terrorists who would gladly kill us long before high blood-pressure, diabetes or heart attacks can do us in?
Politicians know how to use a crisis to grab power. Bush did it with terrorism. Clinton with Y2K. Now we have an economic crisis – banks are now owned and largely controlled by the government. Is the health care “crisis” the next excuse.
Mandates intended to “save children” are well meaning but still an abuse of power by the government. Mandates are enforced (in the end) by force. Money and guns equals force. If you refuse to go along you will be forced to comply – even if the mandate ends up being wrong and in direct opposition to its stated intent.
The folly of the “we just need the right or the smart people to get into office” mentality knows no political ideology. That is why the founders wanted limited government. No matter who gets elected, no matter what political philosophy they hold, it is still up to “we the people” to work towards our goals in the end.
Posted by Russ Goldstein 
Posted by Russ Goldstein 
Posted by Russ Goldstein 
