Are You Stoned or a Liberal?

Back in the 1970s, with marijuana’s popularity, a commonly-heard expression was, “Are you stoned or stupid?” It was a veiled reference to marijuana’s tendency to make the individual under its influence appear stupid. Which explains why it is called “dope”?

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I would like to update this for 21st century American politics with a new expression: “Are you stoned or a liberal?” On the May 29th installment of his show, Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace interviewed Congressman Allen West (R-FL) and Congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-MD). Wallace’s interview of the two diametrically-opposed members of the US House of Representatives typified my question. Edwards, during the course of the interview, continually parroted liberal talking points while attempting to tackle questions pertaining to the nation’s budget and the overwhelming deficits. Her solutions, not surprisingly, include raising taxes on the “wealthy”. She also espoused increasing the estate tax – further taxing income that has already BEEN taxed. Edwards is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The forty-one members of the CPC sent a letter to President Obama dated May 12, 2011. It was as if Edwards had been reading her talking points directly from the letter. Edwards and CPC espouse a “fair tax system” (not to be confused with the "Fair Tax") and the CPC’s letter favors, “protect(ing) the social safety net.” In other words, spending more money and raising taxes: I guess it’s possible to be BOTH stoned and a liberal; and a great many liberals probably are stoned – throwbacks to the hippie era. But, after witnessing the debacle of four years of Democratic Congressional control (1/2007 – 1/2011) and over two years of a steady march toward statism under Obama, one cannot help but to question the intelligence of anyone that supports the Democrats’ agenda. Does anyone really believe that the reckless fiscal policies of the administration and Congress are going to lead us to prosperity? They have not yet; that’s for sure. Does anyone honestly feel that fourteen trillion dollars of debt is GOOD for the economic well-being of our country? So far, it has not been proven so. Are we really satisfied with nine percent unemployment? Apparently, some are. Do we really want the federal government intruding into nearly every aspect of Americans’ lives? It would seem that the progressives do; from controlling what we eat to telling us what kinds of light bulbs we can use. Does any intelligent person really believe that rampant, unchecked, illegal immigration is good for our country? Can anyone with even a modicum of intelligence honestly believe that Obama never heard racially-charged rants by Jeremiah Wright? Need I go on? My feeling is that all people of reasonable intelligence really do “get it”. This is why we have seen the success of the Tea Party. And this is why we saw a major shift of the political winds this past November when a reasonable number of Americans really were able to awaken from their Obama-induced stupor. We can only hope that the newly-elected politicians will have the political will and common-sense to do something about it and stop our nation’s slide into debt-ridden oblivion.