When the GOP makes a "hard bargain," we find out later that they celebrated "being had."
Why do I think this? I think this particularly because the Democrat Party has been apologists for Socialism's and Communism's excesses. They have willingly flirted with and carried water for European Collectivist Movements since the days of the New Deal. They have turned American elections into cheap and tawdry exercises of bread and circus. They specialize in smear, slander, libel, scandal, wagging the dog, acting mean and nasty while blaming the other guy for "dirty tricks" or "being racist," or being a "bigot." Everything they do imposes burdens on freedom, but they do it very well. To their way of thinking Big Government is better: Freedom is slavery; Slavery is freedom. I find them usually to be arrogant, overconfident, and decidedly misguided bores. And, the GOP old-timers have been dragged along for the ride for so long that they have acquired a kind of political Stockholm Syndrome. Much of the current collectivist agenda has started to seem less radical to them. When the GOP makes a "hard bargain," we find out later that they celebrated "being had."
As Lincoln once mused about a lousy book
, "People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like."
So there I was, lamenting that if Obama wins in 2012 that the days of the United States of America as we know it, are numbered. The Founders gave ample warning on this point. They warned of an activist Judiciary. They warned of a Congress that overreaches and passes extra-Constitutional Laws. The warned of a Congress that expropriates taxpayer money for illicit programs. They warned of fictional interpretations of the Constitutional authority to gain and hold power. I doubt in their wildest dreams that the Founders foresaw crazy interpretations of "Commerce Clause" designed to foist Collectivist and Statist programs on the People such as TARP, Stimulus, ObamaCare and proposed Cap & Tax Environmental Regulations. This Big Government juggernaut seems to continue despite the wishes of voters, who are beginning to realize that they have been hoodwinked. If Obama wins in 2012 it may all become moot. Go ahead GOP just try to fix it then. Talk is cheap but you can't do anything to fix it the way the programs are written save by repeal and that will require a GOP Congress and President and supermajorities. The fix is in otherwise. Good luck.
It seems to me that there is only one way out. Those few
true Democrats who still remain, and whoever is left in the GOP who has not sold out, need to embrace the People. The Tea Party, ever mocked and unworthily scourged is our best hope. Don't believe drivel and the self-projecting descriptions of Tea Partiers by those with the wee minds in the Mainstream Media! The Tea Party is made up of folks mostly from farms, rural areas and small towns, and distant suburbs. The real Tea Party, not the Left-wing straw man, is made up of good people from all walks of life. It is up to them, they will save this country [if it is indeed to be graced by God with one more opportunity]. But, despite optimism, I retain this annoying, nagging, sinking feeling ..."Deja vu all over again?"
But back to the "Democrats." Oh sure, you can point to Truman and JFK as exceptions as true Democrats. But let's be honest, no one then expected Harry S. Truman to become President, not even Roosevelt himself [even though it is certain FDR personally knew how sick he himself was]. As for, John F. Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy [his father] had long planned JFK's run for the Presidency ever since JFK entered the House and later became Senator from Massachusetts. The Kennedy's were not to be denied, even if John was not a big Liberal. After two dismal tries with feckless Liberal, Adlai Stevenson, the Democrats smelled Nixon blood in the water. [They wanted revenge over the Alger Hiss conviction ...a story for another day]. The Democrat Establishment was determined at any cost...any cost .... to ensure that a Democrat regained White House after Democrats regained control of the Congress in 1958. The Democrats voted early and often in 1960, and brought their dead relatives along to vote too in order to win, and "win" they did.
LBJ turned his wolves loose to manufacture spin, concoct hyperbole, and run Goldwater into the ground
Barry Goldwater was a friend and colleague of JFK. Goldwater made no bones about wanting to run a against Kennedy. It is said that as 1964 approached, both JFK and Goldwater looked forward to having a rollicking good debate with each other on policy and other issues. I was going on 15 years old when Barry Goldwater ran for the Presidency. JFK had been assassinated in 1963. Lyndon Baines Johnson was President. Even then, I was a thoughtful conservative. Our folks raised us up to use facts, logic and common sense and to think for ourselves. I watched that campaign unfold in horror as the Liberal Media and LBJ ravaged Goldwater, the honorable and distinguished Patriot [a Senator and General in the US Air Force Reserve] with smear, innuendo and out-and-out lies. LBJ turned his wolves loose to manufacture spin, concoct hyperbole, and run Goldwater into the ground. LBJ was desperate and anxious to hide his failures in Vietnam, his scandals, his heavy handed use of the Executive Branch, his exploitation of the Judiciary to attempt to fix social unrest and persistent discrimination with Judicial Activism, and the complete failures of his Great Society Programs. The Johnson War on Poverty was a total failure. The sins of LBJ and Bill Moyers in 1964 of destroying civilized discourse became manifest in vicious, scary political ads about little girls picking
daisies,
ice cream, and the
KKK. They screamed "extremist," "bigot." and "nuclear war monger" at Barry Goldwater when in fact it was they who were extreme. Within a few years, 1965-68, race riots, civil unrest, and the growing Vietnam protests, many folks regretted their vote. They folks missed Goldwater's honesty and his clarity. I recall his famous line at the '64 convention and others from that campaign:
I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
Now keep in mind, Barry was a Libertarian on social issues and did not like the mix of religion into politics. Even his position of mixing politics and religion for political purpose was correct. At that time the Mainstream Churches were conducting a Liberal social justice campaign for LBJ and endorsing him from the pulpit. This is why the religious Right formed... a self-protective reaction. But, it has not helped Conservatives in the long term, and Liberals still pervert the Gospel, politicizing it and twisting it to fit their communist aims.
" ... There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?...
But even if this put some people off, Goldwater was hitting home runs on everything else:
"... I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution ... or have failed their purpose ... or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is 'needed' before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should be attacked for neglecting my constituents' 'interests,' I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty, and in that cause I am doing the very best I can....
"
And here we encounter the seeds of government disaster and collapse -- the kind that wrecked ancient Rome and every other civilization that allowed a sociopolitical monster called the welfare state to exist...
"
... How did it happen? How did our national government grow from a servant with sharply limited powers into a master with virtually unlimited power? In part, we were swindled. There are occasions when we have elevated men and political parties to power that promised to restore limited government and then proceeded, after their election, to expand the activities of government. But let us be honest with ourselves. Broken promises are not the major causes of our trouble. Kept promises are. All too often we have put men in office who have suggested spending a little more on this, a little more on that, who have proposed a new welfare program, who have thought of another variety of 'security.' We have taken the bait, preferring to put off to another day the recapture of freedom and the restoration of our constitutional system. We have gone the way of many a democratic society that has lost its freedom by persuading itself that if 'the people' rule, all is well....
"...
Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the international money lenders. The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have never been audited. It operates outside of the control of Congress and manipulates the credit of the United States....
"...
The time has come to recognize the United Nations for the anti-American, anti-freedom organization that it has become. The time has come for us to cut off all financial help, withdraw as a member, and ask the United Nations to find headquarters location outside the United States that is more in keeping with the philosophy of the majority of voting members, someplace like Moscow or Peking....
"... A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away....
...Now those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth, and let me remind you they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyranny....
Goldwater's Campaign Commercials were forthright and honest about
moralityand decency and constitutional Government. His campaign commercials always included his motto
"In your heart you know he's right" ...a plea for voters to look at the man and not listen to the spin and the smear. Goldwater was clear and explicit as he consistently described the failures of Democrat New Deal/Great Society/War on Poverty.
The Left never changes. An actor turned politician who was also FDR New Deal Democrat turned Republican, Ronald Reagan joined in a plea directly to the American people during the waning days of that campaign. Ronald Reagan, in 1964, perhaps launched his own Presidential future with a passionate speech on network television called "A Time for Choosing."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvg7lRsCVJ8&feature=related
Goldwater was perhaps the prophet of his time. Even so, Goldwater became more outspokenly Libertarian as he aged. Many thought that he was being manipulated to make certain statements. I know not. One can only decide for themselves. It is clear however that this honorable man never really recovered from his rough, ungentlemanly treatment by Lyndon Johnson and the Democrat Party Operatives. The Democrats are the same today as they were in the days of the New Deal. Reagan knew this in 1984 and knew how to win. He called them out by answering:
What has changed? The answer was nothing had changed.
The Republican Party can win but it had better get its act together quickly
So today, nothing has changed. The Republican Party can win but it had better get its act together quickly. My goodness, the GOP has tons of political issues they can spend on this guy. Make no mistake, the current occupant in the White House, Barack Hussein Obama, will stop at nothing to be re-elected. He has shown a willingness to waffle, to dance, to dither, and to be a chameleon on issues. Oil Drilling, or the National Debt, or the Budget Deficit, choose you poison. He turns on a dime. To the Left, all is fair in love and war. Politics to them is war. We had better start to fight back like we believe that. Indeed, Obama has referred to the GOP and the Right as his enemies. My friends, Barack Obama's Campaign Operatives are going to make Johnson's shenanigans and machinations seem like child's play. Whoever runs against the messiah had better understand this from the outset: If you come to debate, he'll mock; if you come to fight, he'll brawl.
"That's exactly what Barack Obama said he would do to counter Republican attacks "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun," Obama said at a Philadelphia fundraiser Friday night. "Because from what I understand folks in Philly like a good brawl. I've seen Eagles fans." [WSJ - 06/14/08]
So much for Obama's "new politics." He lied then, and he will outdo himself this time. So ask yourself before now, well before 2012, "What is at stake?"
We need a tough candidate to oppose Obama who is not afraid to punch back. We need somebody honest, open, forthright and courageous like Barry Goldwater. But we also need a fighter, someone like ...say ...Allen West.
I like the sound of that, "President Allen West!" It has a nice ring.
So, in the words of ring announcer Michael Buffer,
"Let's get r-ready to rumble!"
