31 March, 2010

It's Begging to be Said...

Something needs to be said and damn, I’m just the person to say it.

“Social Conservatives” are not Conservatives. Period. They’ve corrupted the word.

Sure, they give lip-service to concepts like liberty, small government, and lower taxes, but they cannot be taken at their word, not for one second.

A real Conservative wants smaller government and maximum freedom every time and in every possible way. Real Conservatives are not concerned with who a person loves, what they choose to imbibe, what books are on the library shelf or movies playing in the local theatre, or what “instruments” any of their fellow citizens might keep in their nightstand drawer.

Real Conservatives do not believe in taxing their fellow citizens to prop up foreign dictators, initiate the “second coming”, or send young Americans halfway around the world to force democracy or Christianity on others.

Real Conservatives cherish and defend the Constitution, the whole Constitution. They would never pick and choose those parts convenient to their cause while ignoring those parts that might prove problematic for their goals.

In short, “Social Conservatives” are more correctly referred to as Theocrats, willing, even anxious, to use the power and purse strings of government to force their personal morality and beliefs on their fellow citizens while at the same time promoting their own religious agenda on courthouse walls, over school public address systems, and in other public – meaning taxpayer funded - spaces.

Barry Goldwater was a Conservative. Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Glenn Beck, Newt Gingrich, and most everyone else claiming to be these days, are not.

22 March, 2010

On grasping defeat from the jaws of victory...

It has been said that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

In 280 BC at Heraclea and again in 279 BC at Asculum, King Pyrrhus of Epirus forced Roman legions to withdraw from the battlefield defeated. The casualties imposed on Pyrrhus' forces in those two victories however proved devastating, as the Romans regrouped, resupplied, and eventually prevailed. From this chain of events we derive the phrase “pyrrhic victory”, an initial win that ultimately leads to defeat.

So shall it be with the leftist win in the healthcare battle. The forces of Pelosi, Reid, and Obama, by employing bribes, threats, and promises they cannot keep, won a narrow victory in the House of Representatives this past 21 March, but in so doing they ensured the ultimate demise of their power and agenda.

By insisting on ramming through a measure that a clear majority of Americans opposed, the Democrats set the stage for a Republican resurgence in November. Historically the party out of power picks up a few seats in off-year elections, it just seems to be the nature of things. The Democrats however, by thumbing their noses at the will of the people, put in jeopardy every seat they picked up in the 2006 and 2008 elections, and perhaps more.

It would appear from the consensus of all major polls that the best the Democrats can hope for come November are drastically weakened majorities in Congress, with the GOP building significantly on its ability to veto any Democratic initiative in the Senate. Some pundits are predicting a GOP takeover in both houses, but to me that seems unlikely at this point. What is likely however is that both the leftist clique in Congress and President Obama are now finished and will be unable to dominate the agenda going forward.

What is most interesting is that the left is not insured of ever seeing their “reforms” take place. Certainly the GOP in the Senate, whether with 52 seats or 40-some, will be able to block any and all funding and enabling legislation. Without appropriated funding, no new agencies can be formed nor can existing departments and agencies execute any of the language of the just-pasted bill.

Given a couple of years of court fights, the resistance of thirty-some states through opposition legislation, and the inability to actually put any of their grand scheme into action, the vote on 21 March must be considered a catastrophic pyrrhic victory for the left, a foolhardy and fatal monument to the arrogance and narcissism that has marked their governance.