Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Selling Snake Oil to the Public
The Citizens Have a Right to be Mad!
I am still mad about various Democratic sources calling town hall protesters un-American, rude, or simply numbskulls. That, after all, is what they themselves are showing themselves to be, with their leftist agenda to turn America into wasteland. Why a wasteland?
As things stand, we will have a national debt of at least 17.5 trillion dollars in 2019 because of their profligate spending and commitments to spend this year and for the next 9 or10 years. This is over 3 trillion dollars more than our entire GNP in 2008. Just how can we pay that sum back? No rational plan to reduce the debt has been put forward, only legislation that is certain to raise it by trillions!
It is no wonder that ordinary America citizens are very upset at their representatives for trying to foster this abomination off on us and on our children’s children, and maybe even another generation. There is little need to debate the fine tuning of various propositions, all of which raise the debt level even more. Thus the protesters are simply shooting the messengers from this spendthrift Congress and President. No one believes the President’s assertion that Obama Care will be revenue neutral, either, unless it is to cut services the citizens feel necessary.
Citizens also perceive that these town hall types of sessions are merely a cover for the administration’s real plan, which is virtually hidden in 1,000 pages of gobbledygook, and impenetrable to the common reader. Thus, various possibilities, such as paying for the health care of Illegal immigrants, or the start of advisory panels on death options, have seized the public’s imagination, and no declarations to the contrary from Obama are believed anymore.
Then, too, with a Democratic majority in both houses and the presidency, people realize that their opinions have been submerged under the thrust of leftists to pass their own agenda, and to hell with public opinion. “Bi-partisan” support in Congress has withered under the take-it-or-leave-it positions of Democrats.
So, why should enraged citizens be quiet and respectful of their representatives, when they have not been shown even the respect of being presented with a sensible draft of a bill to peruse, feel that they are being sold out by snake oil salesmen, and being asked to give Congress a blank check?
Labels: Health Debate, hypocrisy, Obamacare
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Racism
There are a few unpleasant facts we need to face:
1. Racists vote, right along with non-racists.
2. Southerners vote, right along with Eastern, Northern and Western voters.
3. Few screeds have changed racists into non-racists. Attempts to shame racists out of their attitudes have not succeeded.
4. Laws and public opinion have muted racism and driven it underground. No one wants to be labeled a racist, even if he is one.
5. Racism, then, still exists--heavily in social situations.
6. We often confuse racism with other forms of social acceptability or unacceptability, such as manners, presentation, language, hygiene, integrity, common sense, and good citizenship that are applied to everyone.
7. It is often the case, though not spoken of, that many blacks do not present themselves well in public, and are thus tagged with criminal intent, because that is an odds-on probability on the streets, especially late at night in black-dominated cities. Crime statistics back this up (This is not to say that whites present themselves well all the time.).
8. More and more blacks are indeed gaining social acceptance, because they try to do so, are reasonably educated, and present themselves properly.
9. Racism does play a part in attacking Obama, but from my admittedly-limited observations, it is a minor influence among the many whites that I have talked with here in Virginia. I would give it one part in ten at the most. The main complaint whites speak of is the seemingly anti-white ideas Obama and his wife espouse!
10. No one understands why we must run a deficit of 17.5 trillion dollars over the next ten years as was announced by the Congressional Budget Office this week.
Labels: Racism
Friday, August 14, 2009
Town Hall Chaos?
The public has had enough of the spend spend, spend!
I must agree that shouting down a spokesperson at a town hall meeting is rude. But I can also see the other side. With a solid Democratic majority behind Obama, the outcome of this health debate is starkly predetermined, so real argument is futile. The only hope is to impress on the puppets, who are merely out to make it look good and nicely democratic, that we aren’t buying their subterfuge, and not buying the arguments. The nation is broke, and there is no sense in making it broker.
Hence, the angry shouting and invective from the public is designed simply to make the puppets cringe. How many ways are there to say NO? Why enter into a debate with a puppet when there is nothing on the table but sly words and promises that aren’t meant to be kept? There is even no Bill yet.
Why are they not fixing Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security instead of adding 47 million people to the health and welfare rolls, including foreigners?
Labels: Health Debate, Obamacare
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Pillars of the Conservative Movement
Bringing Common Sense into the Conservative Movement 9/3/09
Of late, I have been attempting to simplify my views on Conservatism, and to identify a few pillars of the movement that are easily grasped and sufficiently comprehensive to act as guides to rational thought. The (now) ten pillars I have come up with in this fourth revision are still tentative and subject to change, but I will post them and let them age a bit more. A major aspect of these pillars is exactly what they are holding up: the concept of an integrated or fused movement called conservatism.
I see my conservatism as a practical, realistic integration of subordinate thrusts such as fiscal, social, and moral conservative memes. One need I have beyond this integration concept is a proper descriptive name for it. For lack of a catchier name, I have called it Common Sense Conservatism.
1. Religion:
Religion, especially the Bible, forms the basis for moral instruction of our children, ourselves, and our posterity; a necessary ingredient for a civil society. The concepts of flawed mankind, faith, hope, charity and tolerance are learned from religious instruction.
We take exception, however, to any religion or non-religion that has the overthrow of our nation as a principal objective. Any person or organization that embraces this idea and direction has automatically forfeited its protection under the Constitution. The prime examples of this hostile direction are those of Islam and Anarchism.
2. Reason:
It is apparent that without the application of penetrating reason to our many and varied problems, we would descend into “feel good”, biased solutions, nihilism or chaos, on the one hand, or deeply religious dogmatism on the other, while ignoring many of the consequences of our actions.
There are reasons behind our institutions, customs, and traditions that must not be changed without due consideration of real effects. The adaptation and necessary change of our laws through legislation for the benefit of our citizens originates in reason.
Anti-Statism, anti-secularism, and anti-world government are likewise products of conservative reason, the former two because of their utter violation of our Constitution by statists and secularists, and the latter because of the immoral state of the vast majority of world governments and world organizations, such as the UN, and many citizens of these immoral or amoral nations. Peace only comes through strength and preservation of our national sovereignty.
3. Constitutional Originalism:
Our nation has been operating under the Constitution for some 233 years, with a mere 27 Amendments. It is time that we return to the original intent of the authors, rather than the fashionable memes of 5 biased justices out of the 9 serving, who have been legislating from the bench. We are a nation of law. There are valid reasons for amendments, however, if only to clarify meaning and halt dubious, unintended interpretations.
We therefore support a return to originalist Constitutional Law. By dividing roles and tasks between the federal government and state and local governments in accordance with the original intent of the Constitution, we will reach more republican governance. One key example is education, which should not be a federal role, but rather that of the states and local authorities. The main concept is subsidiarity--place the roles of government at the lowest point possible in the hierarchy. The excessive number of agencies, bureaus, commissions, and committees of the federal government, over 1,170 at this time, must be reduced to a sane minimum.
4. Public Spirit:
All together now, let’s roll! Volunteerism; Charity; proper Welfare; Education, and Tolerance pull the nation together. Then, too, proper taxation, where every citizen must pay into the common treasury, is a major objective. We celebrate the American history, experience, and way of life. We stand strong for our nation, prideful of its virtues, and are withal, patriotic. We must practice good citizenship.
5. Federal Governance:
Defense of the Constitution, defense of the nation, and defense of the citizenry are the proper roles of the federal government. We do not support efforts to modify our national sovereignty. We want our republic to endure. Further, we want our borders to be properly policed, and illegal aliens to be helped to return to their own country; but, we are not against controlled legal immigration. Fair taxation is another role that must be undertaken by our leaders; all citizens must contribute to our national financial requirements. Federal efforts for education must be ended.
6. State and Local Governance:
State and Local governance must include full responsibility for education.
7. Economic Growth:
We believe in the free market, but we also believe that some controls must exist to prevent the excesses that have plagued us today. Thus we believe in a “somewhat mixed economy”. We abhor the taxation of corporations, since it is in reality taxing the consumer, and makes our products more expensive in the world market. We believe that we should be exploiting our energy resources to curb the cost of virtually everything we use. The government must abstain from excess involvement in the marketplace.
8. Technological Advances:
Our technological and industrial capabilities must not be saddled with false or power-serving restrictions such as cap and trade, and other anthropomorphic global warming legislation. Environmentalism has become far too overbearing and intrusive. The pervasive restrictions on oil drilling and nuclear power are simply ridiculous.
9. Education:
Without proper education, citizens can expect to have in difficulty in being informed and insightful participants in our governance, and unmindful of the hard-won freedoms that we have. Then, too, to earn a living in our increasingly technological society requires training and education far beyond what we were given back in the 40s and 50s, especially how to think and use the analytical capability of the mind.
10. Traditions, Customs, and Institutions:
Preservation of our traditions, customs and institutions is an essential characteristic of the conservative position. The idea is to preserve these collections of how to act and how to interact in society because they are developed with strong societal preservation roots over a long period of time, and should not be casually experimented with or changed without due understanding of the consequences. Just because they are old and venerable does not mean that they are without meaning and value. This is not to say that change is all bad. Far from it, but the onus is on the prospective changer to show why the change is necessary and beneficial.
Labels: Citizenship USA, Conservatism, Democracy, Patriotism
Labels: Citizenship USA, Conservatism, Democracy, Patriotism
