Pasadena Politics

Hope and Change vs A Chicken in Every Pot.

Sound bites are not the way to decide who you will elect, or, for that matter, should looks be the deciding factor.   The big warning flag people should have given everybody pause in their support of Obama was the simple phrase: “Hope and Change”.    The comment itself begs the question: what is the hope and what is the change?    The phrase is vapid; without real substance.   At least with “a Chicken in every pot”, you at least could sink your teeth into the meaning of the slogan.

State Laws Modeled on Federal Laws Violate Human Rights

Were not the Democrats talking about the USA being a “Nation of Laws”?  If you think the title is erroneous, please look here.  Basically, the Federal Government is boasting that it’s really looking out for Human Rights as the U.N. Defines them by suing a State who modeled an Immigration law on Federal law.  The point should be taken by anybody paying attention: Hillary Clinton cares more about what the U.N. thinks than about the security and integrity of the United States of America.   Something to remember next time she runs for President.

Where is the equal protection?

The First Amendment states:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Yet children are being taught that Evolution is the only explanation for the universe and, by consequence, that there is no god.  The problem with this is two fold: The Declaration of Independence is based on the idea that our Rights come from God, not man, and therefore are not something man has a right to define.   The second problem is that Evolution, while sounding scientific, does not offer convincing proof and only offers one viewpoint of the facts, ignoring, evening condemning any viewpoints that differ.   This violates the First Amendment by treating atheism with preference over any other religion and establishes a foundation that undermines the integrity of the Constitution and our very rights.

Thank you sir, may I have another?

It seems that the “establishment” is under the delusion that it is a drill sergeant and the rest of us are the recruits, unworthy of respect until we have been broken and our thoughts reflect their own.

Geo-Centricity would still be vigorously defended today.

Anyone who places trust in government misplaces that trust.  The best job any government can do is protecting their nation from external enemies.   Those who are concerned that given power government would misuse it to abuse the rights of the governed do not have that concern without reason.

In Logic, the “Slippery Slope” Argument is considered a fallacy.   In Politics, it is to be expected that given an inch, miles will be taken.

So, with Health-care, I cannot help but think of movies such as Logan’s Run and Brazil.

What the Nation needed was reform and what it has received instead compounds the problem greatly.  Government running Health-care is antithetical to reform itself.   Bureaucracy breeds inefficiency and higher cost.  Certainly one can claim that leaving ones health care in the hands of a business full of bureaucracy is not a great thing, but at least the business has something Government cannot claim to improve service: it cannot survive without making a profit.   In order to make a profit, it has to provide services customers want.   The fewer competitors a business has, the less pressure it has to provide goods and services desired by customers at a competitive price.   Government, as I have mentioned before, is a monopoly.    Monopolies do not have competitors or, if there are a few, they are so weak that they cannot reasonably compete.   Combine bureaucracy with monopolies and you have a wasteful system that lacks any real accountability.

Regulation of industry hampers competition by creating barriers of entry.  If government runs health-care, you can be assured that private insurers will be unable to compete.   While a government’s resources are not unlimited it is able to forcibly take money in the form of taxes, fines, fees, and penalties to generate money, subsidizing their programs.   Barring a very productive population or the conquest of other nations, government eventually dries it’s resources up when sponging off of the population.

“I think they’ve made the biggest financial mess that any government’s ever made in this country for a very long time, and Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money. It’s quite a characteristic of them. They then start to nationalise everything, and people just do not like more and more nationalisation, and they’re now trying to control everything by other means. They’re progressively reducing the choice available to ordinary people. Look at the trouble now we’re having with choice of schools. Of course parents want a say in the kind of education their children have.” – Margaret Thatcher 1976 TV interview

It is a fundamental truth.  The more you take to give to others; the more you “spread the wealth”, the less money you eventually have.   You end up with less money because the taking of it disincentivizes people and leads to less production.     After all, why should someone work hard to earn money of which most is taken away and given to someone who works less or in a commonly doable job?   If as a college graduate your net paycheck is only a few hundred dollars more a month than the non-graduate flipping burgers as MickeyDees, what point was there in putting forward the effort to excel?

Americans cannot trust government to look out for their interests.   Americans cannot be free and sucklings of Government at the same time.   Freedom and Large Government are antithetical to each other.

A Nation whose citizens refuse to accept responsibility for their actions and refuse to be self-sacrificing will accept a government intrusion into their lives depriving them of Individual Liberties and Freedoms in exchange for being coddled and sentimental Social programs.

Any claim that the first year of Obama’s Presidency and agenda was stalled by the Republican’s being Partisan or the “Party of No” is simply an untruth.    The reason is quite simple: even if the Republican’s wanted to obstruct, the Democrats in both the House and Senate held enough of a majority to blast any Filibuster attempt to dust.   Of course, the last month has changed a lot, but any excuse that blames the failure of Health Care reform or the failure of Cap and Trade on the Republicans is a blatant untruth.

It also reveals a very convenient short term memory or cynicism: The Republican Party being obstructionist between Jan 2009 and Jan 2010 is nothing compared to the Democrats obstructionism during the Bush years: Social Security Reform or Judicial Nominees anyone?

There is a certain irony in that Liberals claim to take from those with more to give to those with less and yet when they themselves have more give little of their own.

If there is one thing the Republican Party needs, must, has to learn from Massachusetts is that Conservatism is a winner.  If Scott Brown ran as a Moderate, ran as McCain ran, he would have lost.   Why?  Because people know that a man of conviction would not run as middle of the road; would not run as a Moderate.   Moderates may be flexible, but they are flexible because they bend in the wind are not reliable to stick to their convictions.   That is perhaps why Liberals love moderates and love telling the Republican party that they can’t win without them.

McCain is a moderate.
Bush 1 was a moderate.
Bush 2 proved a Moderate in his Second term.

What were the results?  McCain lost to Obama because Obama made more of an effort to appear less Liberal than McCain.   McCain did little to demonstrate why he was different from Obama and could not convince voters that he was a “Maverick” because, in truth, he was far from being one.   Voters recalled McCain-Feingold, that lovely legislation limiting freedom of speech.   Voters recalled the 2004-2008 period where Republicans… supposedly the conservative party, spent like Liberals, expanded the government like Liberals, and proposed legislation like Amnesty for illegal immigrants – like Liberals.

People wanted change from all that.  People were hopeful that Obama would give it to them.   And they were sorely disappointed.

Sure, there will always be moderates, but it is the responsibility of the voters to recognize who they are and not repeatedly vote them in.   The Republican leadership needs to be heavily filtered to expunge moderates from it’s ranks and in turn promote strong Conservatives who will stand on their principles.  Otherwise, 2012, 2014, and 2016 will see the complete demise of the Republican party as a party of Conservative principle.

The story from Allentown, Pennsylvania, is that volunteer work can get a city sued.   The SEIU is already noted as a bully and the percentage of Union membership in general may soon be surpassed by the unemployment number.   Oh course, Unions are hard at work to ensure they can use a few bad apples to spoil the entire barrel via Card Check, but there is currently enough attention fixed on Health Care reform that it has not come up again as of late.

Unions, as a whole, are much akin to Tape Worm.   It gets inside, absorbs nutrients from host, and in some cases released eggs can get into the blood stream and then into the brain.    While there are good uses for Unions, they are not well realized today and best represent where the employee is at the weakest: seasonal and short-term work.   In those cases, Musicians, Metal Workers, Farm Labor, etc. they can benefit the employee best by supplying the employee with benefits that would often not be realized due to the short term nature of much of their work.   Of course, Real, Genuine Health Care reform would take care of that last excuse to hold onto Unions beyond the occaisional need for an employee revolt against an oppressive employer.    Of course, then the Union is only necessary for a short period, not longer than the immediate need for employees to work together.

So… back to the point: Boy Scout helps a city by clearing a path.  The local SEIU threatens the City with a lawsuit for allowing someone to work for free when people in the Union could be employeed.  In a sane world, the good People of Allentown would give their City Council and Mayor another term for using their tax dollars wisely.  Somewhat to the SEIU’s credit, they did say the President of the SEIU chapter in Allentown was speaking out of place.  Still, perhaps they should think about unionizing the Boy Scouts?   Imagine the classic image of the Boy Scout helping the elderly lady accross the street then asking for his madatory tip?

Besides, wasn’t it Obama who said Volunteerism was a good thing?

Obama is sure to sign it if it makes it through the Senate.

Prepare for a rapid erosion of your rights.

They really need to take it back.  A Third Party will be useless.  Moderates will not save the Republican Party but Conservatives will.  The principles of Limited Government are what this Nation needs, not an expansive Government as the larger a Government is, the fewer rights and freedoms you have.

This last week with the Owens-Hoffman-Scozzafava race in New York’s 23rd we see a prime example of why Obama is in the White House.   Hoffman did not lose because he was a conservative.   He lost because the Republican leadership chose a Liberal (who then dropped from the race a few days before the election and endorsed the Democrat opponent).   One has to ask the only logical question possible: Why does the Republican Leadership insist on shooting itself in the foot with people like Scozzafava?   Did they learn nothing from the McCain campaign?

Perhaps instead of blaming Palin they should have done some soul searching and really looked at why McCain lost to Obama.    It is quite simple actually: why vote for the wannabe Democrat when you can vote for the real one?   The past 10 years Republicans have been morphing into Liberals and giving it the quaint name: Moderate.    I honestly cannot blame people for voting for Obama when the choice is rewarding Republican leadership for choosing a path of Liberalism.   Sure, if they really thought about it, they would have seen Obama as an extreme Liberal and either voted for McCain or sat it out.  But it never hurts to have the majority of the Media sharing your same ideology of anti-Americanism, liberalism, and a disdain for limited government to obscure the details of a Candidate so that all people really know about you is “Hope and Change”.

Yeah… What’s the hope?  What kind of change?

So what the Republican Party needs is a Conservative leadership and a very clear platform that extols limited government and why it promotes freedom over liberalism.