Rightwords... Prudent Conservatism

                                                        May 20, 2009 (Rev: 093012)


Let us reaffirm our beliefs

We Conservatives must look into ourselves to reaffirm our beliefs and our programs for the future. Realistic self-examination is never a pleasant act, but it is absolutely necessary to be able to proceed with the faith and confidence in our cause from here on out.

So what are our beliefs? Within Conservatism there are six main orders: spiritual, social, economic, political, military and cultural. A complete conservative blends each of these orders into his belief system. I will give my relatively short version here of these beliefs, which will need further clarification and amplification to bring out each of these orders and credos more fully. Within each order we must apply the following credos to the appropriate degree: realism; skepticism; federalism; evolutionism; and capitalism. Here is my listing:

Spiritual

We believe in God and have faith in the essence of His word in the Bible as interpreted by Biblical scholars and men of the cloth. We follow its logical and moral precepts as best we can, especially the Golden Rule. We know that man is fallible. He is capable of great good, but he is also capable of great evil. This fact has not changed significantly in thousands of years. We believe in the infinite value of life from inception onwards, and in its protection from murderers. We also believe in the sanctity of traditional marriage. We further believe that the movement to greater secularism in the nation is wrong, and it must be defeated. We believe in the Protestant work ethic and in pride in our workmanship.

We believe in the natural order of things as incorporated in Natural Law, Natural Rights, and Natural Duties, the majority of which have been included in our Constitution. This translates into the freedoms of speech, religion, movement, enterprise and assembly that we enjoy now, and in the duties of citizenship that we embrace.

We also believe that men of good character and moral strength, although not believers in God, can be rightly included in the fold of Conservatism, if they strongly support the main tenets below.

Social

We believe in self-reliance and individual responsibility and do not believe in government handouts at every hint of a “need” or entitlement. Government must not be the provider that everyone looks to in all cases. There must also be charity, by that name and not by the euphemism of welfare, to care for those who cannot care for themselves. We believe that it is the duty of all citizens to support charitable efforts throughout the nation, and to avoid the imposition of ever more government-sponsored welfare.

Our freedoms and liberties depend upon protection of our rights to private property by all levels of the government --whether material or intellectual.

We believe that our children must have a full and complete American education, devoid of flagrant bias and cant, and that well-formed curricula must be presented to them in the depth and breadth that they deserve. Further, this direction must be carried forward through higher education as well. We abhor the idea of our children and young adults being brainwashed by teachers and professors that are force-feeding our children a liberal or collective ideology.

Political

We believe in the precepts of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and believe in original interpretation of the intent of their words as best they can be determined. We believe the words can be improved to reflect the original intent more accurately, especially in the 1st, 2nd, and 16th Amendments. We also believe in the intent of the Constitution, as clarified by the 10th Amendment to limit the federal government strictly to those functions called out in the Constitution, and that the States have jurisdiction over the other functions, or else the people themselves. We do not believe in an all-powerful state that is not responsible to the people.

We believe that whoever rules least, rules best. Small but effective governance over the essentials for our security is the right way. The 1,177 existing government boards, committees, agencies, foundations, and commissions must be significantly reduced, along with a simplification and synthesis of rules and regulations that have proliferated to a ridiculous extent. We grant that many of these rules and regulations are actually necessary, but they should be drastically centralized, simplified and streamlined.

This tenet extends to the resurgence of states rights, as opposed to ever-increasing federal government dominance, as is called for in our Constitution. We believe in subsidiarity: that is, placing decisions at the lowest level of governance possible. It is also apparent that federal government may be forced to grow to some extent in some areas because of the growth of our population, but it should be held to a workable percentage of the population.

We believe that the principal duty of government is to provide the security and defense of our nation against all forms of aggression coming from either within or without our sovereign borders. To preserve and protect and to uphold the law is the motto. This includes the security of our borders from illegal entry, and the deportation of illegal entrants once found. A law that is on the books should either be enforced or removed from the books: an unenforced law allows too much descretion to the enforcers and their mangers.

To this end, we must have a strong military and a strong internal police force that is given the mission to cover land, sea, air and space. We must also recognize the threats we face from fanatics of many types, whether in or out of the country, and be prepared to deal with them effectively wherever necessary, even if it means preemptive action on our part. We believe in the concept of just war.

We believe that experimentation with new government structures, institutions, and customs must be severely constrained, since such experimentation with what has been successful and traditional for over 230 years may ultimately redound to our detriment due to unforeseen negative consequences for our freedoms. There is a well-proven path for changes to our Constitution; any other path must be stopped---in particular, legislation from the bench, proliferation of executive orders, and deliberate refusal to enforce laws for political reasons.

To this end, we believe that the federal government should have no fiscal, management, insurance or directive role in the provision of health care beyond Medicare and Medicaid, but it may have a regulatory role to ensure uniform quality of care. We also believe that the federal government should have no fiscal, management, or directive role in education, that being the role of States. However, the federal government, through the Congress, may give no-strings-attached grants to States for the purpose of improving state education, preferably using an automatic formula for distribution to avoid any federal influence on the States.

This tenet extends to the arena of international government, where we must not allow our sovereignty to be compromised by the UN or any other organization. Too many of the nations of the world are today far too hostile, and amoral or immoral to permit real democratic worldwide governance for the foreseeable future. However, it is apparent that we must assume a positive, proactive role in foreign relations in concert with other truly democratic nations that also follow precepts similar to ours. No UN law should be recognized in the US without full debate and passage by the Congress, and signed by the President. UN Laws that violate the Constitution, however, must not be recognized, ever. We must never relinquish our form of government or our laws to a foreign or UN-type organization and its ideas of governance, nor should we ever agree to a UN directed military force.

We believe that any person or group, any religion, or even nation that vows to overthrow our government or to harm our people has cast themselves out from our civil society and the protection of its laws, as well as out of the protection of accepted international treaties. We must therefore do what is necessary against these enemies of the state to ensure our nation from harm. America comes first. There can be peace through strength, but we must maintain and exercise that strength for valid and useful purposes.

We need to elect representatives that will further these objectives, and to reject representatives that fail to further them at the first opportunity.

Economic

We believe in tempering our mixed economy with greater freedoms as we go forward, since the operation of a free market is proven best for our economy. It is necessary, however, to have some accurately formulated regulations and inspections to thwart the ever-present human vices of greed and avarice that are well-known to exist, and that show increased sophistication over time. We must maintain a level playing field for the economic progress of all citizens.

We believe in caring for our environment in a responsible and economic manner, but not in rushing to erect some fantastic approach to mitigate what has been termed Global Warming or Climate Change. We believe that proper scientific investigations must be completed in a timely manner by objective American scientists, and properly peer reviewed, before spending billions of our taxpayer dollars for a chimera. That the current fantasy approach is not accepted science has been demonstrated by over 30,000 scientists, doctors and competent academics around the world signing up for dissent.

We believe in judicious exploitation of our natural resources, expecially oil, natural gas, coal, and the more recent solar and wind systems for generation of electrical power. We also believe in the modern employment of nuclear power generators to reenforce our energy rsources. The necessary means of transmission of resources and power must be supported nationwide. We believe that the government has a role in seeding new technologies and bringing them to fruition, but not in the government participating in commercialization or management of energy production. This holds for government intrusion into the commercial arena in general, such as their unprecedated illegal takeover of GM and Chrysler and their firing of a private sector CEO. These acts must be reversed.

We believe in fair and moderate taxation that every citizen must participate in as a percentage of their purchases or consumption, not income. The Fair Tax is the right approach. The idea of progressive taxation and releasing a majority of citizens from their tax obligations, largely to redistribute wealth, is both undemocratic and ultimately toxic to our economy. We believe that personal wealth is a positive good and it must not be sacrificed to the envy of the poor. We also believe that it is the duty of the better off to give substantive aid and instruction to the less fortunate to help them raise themselves economically. If one has wealth, one must use it effectively for the common good.

We believe in fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets, which is not easily initiated now, but we must begin to regain control of our financial house immediately. We must disabuse Congress and the President of the notion that money collected from the taxpayer is their money to spend as they see fit, such as in pork, earmarks, special entitlements, or "stimulus" that are in reality disguised favorite programs, and are clearly contrary to the will of the people.

In line with our emphasis on charity, we believe in helping less fortunate nations to succeed, provided that they remain friendly to us. We see no point in propping up hostile and failed states with our assets; but, still, humanitarian assistance is the right thing to do, if it can be efficiently and economically distributed to the needy without corruption.

Military

We must create and maintain an armed force second to none to ensure that we remain a free and democratic republic. It has been proven that an all volunteer military serves us best, and that only in dire emergencies should we institute a draft, such as required by a world war. We must pursue new developments and deployments for all aspects of a modern military force, including all manner of weapons, tanks, vehicles, aircraft, helicopters, ships, communications, command and control, intelligence, and logistics. We must train our troops thoroughly in all phases of warfare, and equip them with the best weaponry available. We must be able to fight in climates and terrains around the world, on and under the oceans, and in space to defend our way of life against all manner of threats. This is the price of maintaining our freedoms.

There should be few or no compromises to this doctrine of strong military capability in order to intimidate hostile nations from attempting any aggression, or to defeat them if they try. It is clear that there are hostile nations and groups of nations that could in the future pose a threat to our nation, the leading ones being China, Russia, and the group of 57 Islamic nations that practice an inherent, extremely serious, religiously-based threat to Christian nations. We have in place a series of mutual defense treaties around the world that must be honored, as they represent a solumn commitment of the nation to come to the defense of smaller nations under attack.

Cultural

We believe that government must be color, race, sex and origin blind, and must ensure equal opportunity for all, while definitively rejecting the concept of equal outcomes for all as being an anathema to our democracy. This extends to equality of treatment of all citizens and not to special treatment of some minorities. We believe in assimilation of legal immigrants, for example, and we believe that English must be the official language of the nation. We also believe that our multicultural society must be urged in the natural direction of a composite American Culture with clear and understood values over time, and that protected public cultural diversity for its own sake is divisive and dangerous. We do support endeavors to maintain a private cultural heredity. We do not believe in dual citizenship.

The many small and large customs and traditions that make up our local and national worldview must be preserved, since they represent the institutional memory of many cultural decisions made by our ancestors. The Christian viewpoint and symbolisms of our nation must be preserved against the predations of atheism and the ACLU.

It is often difficult to trace the origins of a custom or a tradition and to understand the reasoning behind it. Thus, until such background is understood, and the impact of any changes are also understood, we believe that our customs and traditions must be preserved intact, and not be altered or dropped without our full understanding and agreement to the consequences.

We note with sadness that judicious exceptions and adaptations must be made to these ideal tenets of conservatism in the interests of humanity and fairness to disadvantaged or fully-biased and intransigent peoples, but we must still consider the tenets as long-range goals for all.

A few repeat points on the subject of Iran:


1. Many are convinced tht Iran has an advancing nuclear weapon program coupled with a missile delivery system program. They are digging underground facilities for their programs and beefing up their air defenses rapidly, especially copies of the Russian S-300 antimissile system.

2. The Israelis seem to fear this program mightily and have spent large sums to prepare for an engagement with Iran, before it is too late to react.

3. The Israelis can use EMP to disable the electronics of Iran’s weapons and vehicles long enough for air and missile strikes to wreck havoc, and can repeat the EMP strikes as needed. The IAF has increased the range of their F-15i and F-16i aircraft, and have acquired refueling aircraft to extend the combat time over Iran.

4. Under the cover of EMP and air support they can land special forces to carry out specific destruction tasks, such as at underground entrances and air vents to nuclear facilities.

5. Using EMP gives the Israelis their one solid chance to carry out such an attack without major losses. They appear to be willing to become the second nation to use nuclear weapons in the EMP role as it is a matter of survival.( EMP bursts at altitude are not harmful to humans.)

6. Since the prevailing idea is that an Iranian nuclear attack would wipe out much of the Israeli population, the Israelis feel justified in proceeding, even without the US.

7. The US is not necessarily a firm partner under Obama, so, while the Israelis want US participation, they cannot count on it, and plan accordingly.

8. The Iranian threat undoubtedly accounts for the layout of Israel, and thus must use low-yield weapons at the right altitude, position, and with the wind favoring a westward flow.

9.The exact status and capability of the Iranian nuclear program is not known today. Specifically not known are the yields they are pursuing, such as 1kt, 10kt and 20kt yields that have a very limited destructive radius, on the order of 2 to 4 miles or somewhat more. This allows them to fit the destruction to the Israeli nation.

10. If Israel does attack, Iran may or may not retaliate against US facilities and forces.

11. If Iran does not attack the US, there is a question whether the US will join Israel in furthering their attack.

12. If Iran does attack the US, we will join the effort.

One hopes that both our intel and that of the Israelis is very near the mark, if not right on. From the disparity between our red line and that of Israel it is suggested that one of us is not so very near the mark, but which one? There is no way to tell from the outside of the intel bubbles, and we have an enormous interest in keeping the lid on war. So do the Israelis, but theirs is a fear of annihilation if their intel fails to warn them far enough in advance that Iran is indeed pressing forward with development of nuclear weaponry. So the question remains: will the Israelis attack Iran, and repeat it often enough to stop the developments. Most interested parties seem to take the view that we, the US, can afford to delay the Israeli decision and hope for a diplomatic breakthrough stemming from our sanctions. There is even justification being put forth for Iran to go for nuclear weapons and for “containment” thereafter.


One wonders what the decision-makers in Israel think of these trends. It is, after all, their necks in the noose, and not ours; it is their population that could face wipeout, not ours. And it is their expensive and extensive preparations for this conflict that puts them in a position to strike and succeed. So they can decide to attack at the last moment. They must hope that the US would support their fight for existence, but they can readily believe that without a direct retaliation attack by Iran on US facilities and people, America may well stand by and watch.

Can Iran be counted upon to broaden their retaliations to include the US? They say so repeatedly, but those are words, not actions. This will evolve if the Israelis attack, and not before. So Israel is left with the stark decision to attack all by themselves, and the time is drawing closer by the day. They know well what they are doing, and to be the second user of nuclear weapons in the world (EMP only, however, which minimizes casualties) is going to hurt them mightily, but they put this up against the clear threat from Iran of nuclear annihilation of their people and their homeland– sooner or later. This argues for a go to their forces soon. Whether we become involved is up to, first, the Israeli decision to attack, and second, to the Iranians if their retaliations include US facilities and people. We must be prepared for that eventuality.

The 2012 Election: What I Want to Hear: Updated 092312


American jobs are a huge issue in this campaign, and I have qualms about either candidate addressing the problem as I think they should. Although Presidents are not in a position to make dramatic changes to our economy (that is, if they stay well within the Constitutional limitations of their office), they can implement policies and administrative regulations that will definitely help. Here are several overall suggestions that I think should be pursued by the winner, and touted in his campaign rhetoric, affecting not only jobs, but also how our government works:

1. Regulations: any regulation that has a significant impact on jobs or industry should be reexamined and modified to accommodate job growth, unless the case for the regulation is critical to life or our economic and medical well-being. This is particularly relevant for the energy industry, where the coal industry is being regulated to an inch of its life, the oil and natural gas industries are being stifled by overregulation and prohibition of drilling, the nuclear power industry is almost completely hamstrung by overregulation, and power lines and pipelines face a gauntlet of approvals all the way up to the current President’s office. The EPA must be brought under control, or else eliminated. We have now, and must continue to have a “mixed economy”, but it must serve the people, not a progressive ideal.

2. Trade Policies. Free international trade is a myth. The only nation trying to practice it is the United States. Everyone else uses tariffs and other national methods to protect their own industries. We desperately need to overhaul our policies towards nations that erect barriers to our imports while exploiting our free and open markets, and begin to practice protectionism for our industries. We must think of America first, and recognize that policies once thought to stem from a generous America willing to help others to grow, must now be reexamined in light of our current and enduring economic plight.

3. Outsourcing. Along the same lines, we need to figure out how to return jobs back to America that we shipped to foreign nations. We need to stop the trend towards further outsourcing of jobs that could be done cost-effectively here in the States. As a further protection we need to stem the flow of our technologies, knowhow, and patent licenses to foreign nations, because they are rapidly creating deadly competition for our industries in the near term. Just how to bring jobs back is a serious problem, but we are faced with the probability that an estimated four million outsourced jobs are permanently lost to America. This cannot be good for our economy, and efforts must be made to influence major corporations very strongly and economically to think American and Americans again.

4. New Plants. Financial incentives should be made available to corporations that invent, modernize, upgrade and retool plants and facilities, introduce new products, and hire workers to operate the production lines. Such creation of new operations with increased automation and staff training can bring down the cost of labor here, while helping our job market with good, well-paid positions.

5. Automobiles. Foreign automobile makers have located their plants in the US, which gives us jobs and some supplier contracts, and the current requirement, if I am up to date on this, is that they must produce over 60% of the product in the US, using US labor and US resources. My Toyota Avalon is 85% US sourced, for instance, which is good for our economy, even if the profits are repatriated to Japan. However, I believe we should move to get a better deal in the long term that would help our own auto makers. A first step here is to force the government to sell its shares or GM and Chrysler, and to ensure that the UAW shares become common shares and are diluted.

6. Steel. I suggest that we need to revive our steel industry, and support use of US-made steel in projects and products around the nation. US companies should have a favored position for in-country contracts, even at a cost premium of 10 or 20% for the time being.

7. Economic Elites. This call for protectionism is diametrically opposed to the prevailing business philosophy of our economic elites. They have mastered to technique of creating a product in America, manufacturing it in Asia, and then importing the products to sell them in the US without any tariffs paid to our government. This free ride back into the country costs us untold jobs and revenue, all for the profit of the elites. This should be regulated for our national benefit.

8. Government Programs. Every government program must be examined for its validity, its currency, its efficiency, and its real need. If a program is not up to par it should be terminated and the staff let go. We need to establish criteria for the continued existence of all of these programs, and proceed to evaluate them critically--not politically. The model for this effort should be the BRAC program that apolitically closed military bases. Many such programs could be turned over to private industry, staff and all, with considerable savings to the taxpayer. A simple rule applies here: don't spend money you don't have.

9. Carried Interest. The current rules for using carried interest should be either modified or eliminated, since it benefits mainly the 1% of taxpayers that are worth many millions.

10. Social Security and Health Care Entitlements. This large portion of our economy, approaching 70% of the budget, must be overhauled properly to ensure its viability and cost-effectiveness in delivering assistance to both the retirement and the health of our people. This must be done without a massive tax increase on the taxpayers, without seriously compromising the insurance industry and without compromising the free market approach. A beginning here is the dismissal of ObamaCare, and the still valid recognition that Social Security was not meant to cover the entire financial needs of retirees, merely a portion. Exceptions for hardship cases should be permitted, however.

11. Education. Our entire education system needs an overhaul, from ensuring that the curricula throughout the systems reflect American society, American values and American goals, that indoctrination students by professors is abolished, and the costly and ineffective superstructure built by the Federal government be terminated in favor of individual state’s responsibility for education. Federal influence on states’ education must be ended by establishing an automatic system for financial aid to the states with no federal manipulations involved. Any vestiges of admission preferences to minorities must be ended. Lastly, the undue influence of unions currently inflicted on our education system must be stopped permanently.

12. Defense. A significant overhaul of our defense programs in is order, beginning with the establishment of comprehensive and relevant long-term objectives and needs for a military force. That we must remain strong and capable of both defending the homeland and fighting for freedom elsewhere around the world simultaneously is historically true and will not change. That there are long-range threats to our safety arising both in the Middle East, Asia and in the Islamic world cannot be challenged effectively by pacifists and Pollyanna thinkers, and that we must ensure that the oceans and straits of the world remain open for our trade and military transit is obvious. This must include space uses for military purposes as well, since there is a building military threat in space by Russia and China. We must keep a significant force level in being that is trained and equipped with modern weapons to fight wherever necessary for the foreseeable future.

Our commitments to NATO and nations around the world in mutual defense treaties must be honored, but we must reduce our overseas deployments significantly in order to afford to retain a force level sufficient for the active threats we perceive. Our tripwire deployments in Europe and in South Korea should be materially reduced over time, and our yearly contribution to NATO should be scaled down to the same level as the contributions of the major participating nations—Britain, Germany, and France; more like 6%, and not 22 to 30%.

Our weapons research, development and procurements must keep pace with both the threats and the developments elsewhere to ensure what has been termed “avoiding technological surprise”, which in fact we did experience in WWII, Korea, and even Vietnam. The liberal mind cannot grasp this concept. They would disarm us if they could.

13. Corporate Independence. We must address another major problem, and that is the insular, independent, and aggressive nature of modern international corporations, and their substantial and varied influences on regulation and taxation here in the US. While we must have a competitive and favorable environment for major businesses, we must also look to the protection of our citizens from corporate greed and insensitivity to the impacts of corporate decisions on our people. An accommodation must take place that meets both US citizens’ and corporate objectives. This is a major problem that requires our best minds to find the way.

14. The UN. Despite heavy political support for this organization, it has exerted a negative force on the US for some time, and our financial support has thus become a joke. A majority of nations in the UN are actively opposed to America and thwart many of our objectives, while advocating policies that hurt us, using our money to pursue their objectives. Many of the UN programs are corrupt and highly inefficient.

We have become addicted to the concept that Security Council blessing legitimizes our military actions in defense of other nations, and we cannot act legally without such approval by the majority or even all members. This is nonsense.

We must downgrade our support for the UN, with the exception of their aids to humanity programs, and cease thinking that we must cater to “world opinion.” We should earn a good world opinion through our direct and positive actions with the nations, not via the UN, except for its forum and communications uses. We should recognize the entire blocks of nations are more or less permanently opposed to us on general principles and through envy of our wealth, and that will not change because of the UN.

15. The Middle East. There is a current trend to support Palestine and not Israel in this centuries-old conflict, and a kind of helpless non-action approach to the entire Arab Spring movement throughout North Africa. There seems to be considerable reluctance to stand up for Israel against Iran as well. These trends come almost entirely from the Obama administration and not from the 64-odd year commitment that we have had to Israel. Reaffirming our support for Israel is a first order of business, and no words from Obama today should be taken at face value when he says that he supports Israel. He is lying. He does not support Israel. Anyone that believes we can succeed in forming a peace accord between Israel and the Arab or Islamic world believes in the tooth fairy.

16. Appointees. We should return our administration to a more customary role as servants to the people and not advocates for and implementers of collective or progressive reforms. This will not happen if Obama is reelected. The entire concept of czars that are not approved by Congress having power to change our economy and our way of doing the business of both the government and the private sector must be eradicated permanently.

17. Global Warming: While valid scientific research indicates that there will be a small increase in the temperature of the earth on the order of a degree or so, it is in no way a catastrophic situation. Continued research by qualified scientists is certainly indicated, but the mass hysteria generated by unwarranted guesses by the Gores of the world can be ignored. We need not mount vast and expensive programs to attempt to manage the physics of our planet, nor need we reorganize the governance of nations as well, although there are some people that would welcome the opportunity to gain control of all of us.

18. Foreign Policy.  After the chaos of the last three plus years in the foreign arena. we must resurrect our close relationships with our traditional friends around the world that Obama has insulted, alienated and downplayed. Courting the Islamic nations is a lost cause, as anyone that has studied the issue knows very well. We must deal with them from a position of strength, and not kowtow to the massive Muslim hissyfits that can be organized at a moment's notice. Yes, we can buy their oil until such time as we have retooled our energy sector to free us from dependence on all Middle East oil, a step that Obama has blocked from day one of his presidency. The Obama policy for the Arab world is in tatters, and playing nice will not help.

We must seriously entertain the step of significantly reducing the number of visas and immigration requests from Islamic nations for Muslims, and the idea of sending our money to these nations is rediculous in the extreme. Five billion dollars to Egypt every year for their armed forces? Why? Buying them off from harassing or even invading Israel? Just tell them they risk losing one or more of Cairo, Alexandria, Medina, Mecca, and the Aswan Dam if they attack Israel--and mean it! A bit of strong-armed diplomacy would go a long way. This the Muslim hierarchy understands very well. Apologies they count as weakness. This strong-armed diplomacy must hold across the Middle East:  Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and the nascent state of Palestine too. But not our friends and partners in the UAE, and Saudi Arabia--not yet anyway.