Daily Rant – January 14, 2010
January 14, 2010
Next week the Marin Conservative Forum is hosting an event with Larry Greenfield recapping the Obama Administration’s first year. Are there any successes? I don’t think so, unless you are a Saul Alinksy follower. He essentially was neither Republican or Democrat, but was a Marxist/Communist who preached chaos in America. Looks like he got his wish. If that is what you expected out of Obama, then I guess he is a success. If you want the best for America, then he is not.
Every day we have to beat back another onslaught against our liberties by the radical left who has taken over the Democrat Party. Are there any sane Democrats who are willing to speak out against the road their party has taken? The attack against American exceptionalism is so great that many of us are spending more time working against this tyranny than we are in our own businesses. This is a mixed blessing. Because of our government’s screw ups our businesses are suffering. And because the economy is down with little hope of getting better in the near future, we have more time for political activism. It’s a good news, bad news kind of thing. And because many of us are having challenges staying in business, it has given some of us the impetus to get into elected office.
There is such an intrusion of government in our lives, restaurants are now are told they can not cook with trans-fats because they will kill us, but marijuana is about to be legalized because it will bring in tax revenue. When did I fall through the looking glass? When you define up as down and down as up, what else can I conclude? However, it is not the cute world of “Alice in Wonderland”. Every day elected officials are deciding what we can or can not do, so much so, that we are getting mixed messages like the one above. Nanny state officials are doing everything to lengthen our lives so they can then pass a health care bill that will kill many of us by denying treatment as we get older. The problem is with the California state government as well as the federal government which is why we need to win them both back.
As I have said in other articles, the primary factor which gives me hope for the future is that the United States is full of entrepreneurs who believe in the free market and the opportunity to create their own rags to riches stories. We will never convince the welfare crowd that government is bad. Those people do not make up the majority anyway. Our hope is we can change the educational system so that more and more people “get it” before they end up in that welfare system. Yet many of us were educated in the public school system and have made it out okay. So will there be others who do the same. Of all the people I have met who have experience with the school system (whether Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal) they are all unhappy with it too. This also gives me hope.
The school system is part of the problem. If history and economics (as opposed to conflict resolution as I recently witnessed at Lu Sutton Middle School, Novato) were the only subjects taught we would be in a whole lot better shape. But as long as someone is around who is not afraid to tell the truth about our history, the United States will survive the revisionists’ attempts to alter it. It is the form in which it will survive that concerns me the most. Our free market system has been so aberrated by the likes of Barney Frank and people of his ilk making laws and regulations that what we have left is more like fascism than capitalism. And when we demonize any private sector company or group, we are also to blame.
Since our country’s founding, we have had a great growth unlike anything seen in history. So now all of a sudden capitalism doesn’t work? Who came up with that one? it is the only thing that has any hope of bringing us out of this malaise, and yet liberals seem to want to abandon that model and try communism which has failed everywhere it’s been tried. GOOD PLAN!
When I hear any politician speak ill of a certain sector, in my mind I try to put myself in the position of the president of a company they are targeting and defend them. I try and draw a parallel with my business to see if what they are doing makes sense in a free market. Most of the time, it does not. But “compassion” and “empathy” for the little guy (David) against the big guy (Goliath) is almost always brought into the discussion as a way to win the debate, even when the results do not bear them out. In school this was called propaganda. Because most of us are the little guy we are supposed to side with our friend, the government, who is going to help us take down the big guy. The problem comes when people fail to realize that government IS the big guy!
Let us take the petroleum industry. We are told repeatedly that they are to blame for high gasoline prices. Is not this, a man-made global warming scare and the belief we are running out of precious resources the reason for the rush to alternative fuels? However, neither wind nor power are able to survive on their own and need subsidies from you and me to compete. Here I am struggling in my own business and I have to shell out hard earned money to bail out some “green” company that can’t make it on its own.
Liberals accused oil companies of windfall profits and many of us followed right along. Given all the regulations against domestic exploration, companies have moved to other countries which makes transportation of the fuel more expensive and drives up costs. This helps the host country like Venezuela and hurts our own with unemployment and loss of tax revenue. It has not slowed our need for gasoline one bit. Think about it. Even Prius drivers need gas to run their vehicles. Imagine if you owned a business and had to go overseas to get your product because it was illegal for you to get it here. Would you put up with it?
Let’s take the current position Obama on the bank levies. Last year the bailout caused many financial institutions to run to the government for help. That was their first mistake. Ours was to save these failing institutions. For some reason, Bush and most of the politicians thought these companies were too big to fail which would cause massive unemployment. So they were given stimulus money to help ensure their successes. What happened? They succeeded to some degree. Now they are going to be TAXED EVEN MORE because they succeeded. Why are they being punished for doing what the bailout was supposed to do? Wasn’t that the point? But Obama is so sure he is on the side of the little guy that the public will go right along with him. Those evil banks! But when has anything the government done to punish a company or a sector ever made it back into your pocket?
I have two points to make here. One is that people who vote Democrat because they are for the little guy should think again. They are just as much to blame for support of big business as are Republicans, pure and simple. So was their stimulus and the bailing out of failing car companies. I thought Democrats ran against Republicans because they were against “corporate welfare”? The second point is that powerful Democrats caused the problem; Barney Frank, Maxine Waters and Christopher Dodd. [Note: my spell checker keeps wanting to change his name to Dodo but I have resisted.] It was they who said there was nothing wrong when Bush warned of the potential problems created by their sub-prime lending guidelines. Now they are claiming to be the only ones who can solve the economic mess they themselves have created! Forcing banks to loan money to people who have no chance of paying it back and then calling it predatory lending is insane! And look who is on the hook for paying the tab. You and me, my friends. Another GOOD PLAN!
Once again I have started an article about Obama’s failures and have only scratched the surface. It is no wonder our country is ready for a second revolution. Our elected politicians are not listening to us, and worse, do not seem to care what we think! So much so that many of them will lose their seats in the mid-term elections this year. Some have already decided not to run again because they hear the footsteps. Fine by me. But this will work only if elected conservatives pick up the mantle the Tea Parties have laid out and move that agenda forward.
The Washington beltway media will not be kind. This is one more reason to let them fail too. The public is tired of left-wing propaganda and want to hear the truth. I believe the people of the United States are ready for it.
- FedUpEditor
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