Friday, November 10, 2006
Donkeys and Elephants
Wow, I'm so very glad this election season is finally over. What a nasty time it has been. I've not seen this much divisiveness in politics since the 60s when my generation set out to change the world, which we did, but not necessarily in the way we expected.
Another Old Hippie, Nancy Pelosi, with her San Francisco Values, geez, will be the new leader in the House of Representatives as former leader, Dennis Hastert, will start to work his way out of the political spotlight. So great, we have our first female leader in Congress and she is so far left of center, she thinks San Francisco Values will work in all of America. Pooh! By the way, How about the potential cat fight brewing between Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton? East versus west. This is a power struggle that will be fun to watch.
I actually had hope in the early 90s that politics could be going in a good direction. The end of the Cold War with Russia, the Republican Contract with America and the boom times of the dot com revolution all seemed positive influences to me and maybe the country could get itself out of debt and get the government out of our lives, at least somewhat.
But the old phrase absolute power corrupts absolutely proved true once again. As John McCain said on Wednesday after the election, we came to Washington to change government and government changed us. How sad and true. The pendulum swings back to the left again even more this time perhaps.
Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha, Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry and the other leftwing leaders of the Democrats had better be careful themselves. Another old phrase, be careful what you wish for, it may come true, may well apply to the newly elected Congress. After sniping, whining and doing nothing but criticizing everything the president does, the Dems now have the burden of showing us what they believe is the right way to run a country. I feel that they are not up to the task.
George Bush is perhaps the most liberal Republican we have had in the White House. No spending vetoes, new big dollar programs like No Child Left Behind, Medicaid drug coverage, increased farm subsidies and a doubling of our budget in 6 years, even with the events of 9/11, do not endear the president or members of Congress to conservative or libertarian believers in this country. We feel cheated and robbed of opportunities to further reduce government and allow the citizens to make personal choices about our own lives without the influence of Uncle Sam in everything we do.
It constantly amazes me how many people feel the government is supposed to be the great protector. The government has no conscience and should not be a nanny to its citizens. It is never been more true today than when Ronald Reagan said when first approaching the presidency, Government is not the answer to our problems. Government is the problem. And it is even a bigger problem today than when he stated his belief in the early 1980's.
All the donkeys and elephants want basically the same thing these days. Power! It all comes back to that concept and each side will do anything it takes to achieve and maintain that power. This election we saw a 9 to 1 difference in money spent on negative campaigns versus positive campaigns. One race for Congress in Florida was so negative on both sides, that I couldn't even bring myself to vote for the man I used to believe in. So I left it blank. I think I would rather see a position left unfilled than to fill it with someone who can only talk about the negative aspects of another person.
Government is best that governs least. I truly believe this philosophy but unfortunately, that view is not shared by most people in this country. Too bad. America became a great country not because of its government but because of its people. But good people in a bad government tend to turn bad themselves.
I hope the Republican party fully realizes why they were so soundly thumped in this past election. I hope they get themselves back on track with their, what used to be, core values and remain true to those values. If the Libertarian Party had any gonads, they would make their presence known to America. Be willing to compromise on some of their beliefs for the good of our country. Stop the border invasion and realize that sometimes people will die in wars and that sometimes this is necessary. Make people understand that passing off their own problems to big government does not solve the problem, it only makes it worse. Rally around the Fair Tax. If Libertarians could do that, they could storm into Washington and effect some real shrinkage in government. I won't hold my breath.
Donkeys and Elephants, those are our choices. Sad to say, the differences between them are not so very great anymore. Hold onto their power base, that's uppermost in their minds. Not deciding whether it is government's job or not, which most of the time it isn't. Let us be who we can be on our own. Get out of our lives and stop making all of our decision for us.
America can survive for another 230 years but not at the rate we are growing this government. The government is the elephant in the room full of jackasses. We don't need anymore elephants and we don't need any more jackasses.
My nickel.
OH
Another Old Hippie, Nancy Pelosi, with her San Francisco Values, geez, will be the new leader in the House of Representatives as former leader, Dennis Hastert, will start to work his way out of the political spotlight. So great, we have our first female leader in Congress and she is so far left of center, she thinks San Francisco Values will work in all of America. Pooh! By the way, How about the potential cat fight brewing between Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton? East versus west. This is a power struggle that will be fun to watch.
I actually had hope in the early 90s that politics could be going in a good direction. The end of the Cold War with Russia, the Republican Contract with America and the boom times of the dot com revolution all seemed positive influences to me and maybe the country could get itself out of debt and get the government out of our lives, at least somewhat.
But the old phrase absolute power corrupts absolutely proved true once again. As John McCain said on Wednesday after the election, we came to Washington to change government and government changed us. How sad and true. The pendulum swings back to the left again even more this time perhaps.
Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha, Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry and the other leftwing leaders of the Democrats had better be careful themselves. Another old phrase, be careful what you wish for, it may come true, may well apply to the newly elected Congress. After sniping, whining and doing nothing but criticizing everything the president does, the Dems now have the burden of showing us what they believe is the right way to run a country. I feel that they are not up to the task.
George Bush is perhaps the most liberal Republican we have had in the White House. No spending vetoes, new big dollar programs like No Child Left Behind, Medicaid drug coverage, increased farm subsidies and a doubling of our budget in 6 years, even with the events of 9/11, do not endear the president or members of Congress to conservative or libertarian believers in this country. We feel cheated and robbed of opportunities to further reduce government and allow the citizens to make personal choices about our own lives without the influence of Uncle Sam in everything we do.
It constantly amazes me how many people feel the government is supposed to be the great protector. The government has no conscience and should not be a nanny to its citizens. It is never been more true today than when Ronald Reagan said when first approaching the presidency, Government is not the answer to our problems. Government is the problem. And it is even a bigger problem today than when he stated his belief in the early 1980's.
All the donkeys and elephants want basically the same thing these days. Power! It all comes back to that concept and each side will do anything it takes to achieve and maintain that power. This election we saw a 9 to 1 difference in money spent on negative campaigns versus positive campaigns. One race for Congress in Florida was so negative on both sides, that I couldn't even bring myself to vote for the man I used to believe in. So I left it blank. I think I would rather see a position left unfilled than to fill it with someone who can only talk about the negative aspects of another person.
Government is best that governs least. I truly believe this philosophy but unfortunately, that view is not shared by most people in this country. Too bad. America became a great country not because of its government but because of its people. But good people in a bad government tend to turn bad themselves.
I hope the Republican party fully realizes why they were so soundly thumped in this past election. I hope they get themselves back on track with their, what used to be, core values and remain true to those values. If the Libertarian Party had any gonads, they would make their presence known to America. Be willing to compromise on some of their beliefs for the good of our country. Stop the border invasion and realize that sometimes people will die in wars and that sometimes this is necessary. Make people understand that passing off their own problems to big government does not solve the problem, it only makes it worse. Rally around the Fair Tax. If Libertarians could do that, they could storm into Washington and effect some real shrinkage in government. I won't hold my breath.
Donkeys and Elephants, those are our choices. Sad to say, the differences between them are not so very great anymore. Hold onto their power base, that's uppermost in their minds. Not deciding whether it is government's job or not, which most of the time it isn't. Let us be who we can be on our own. Get out of our lives and stop making all of our decision for us.
America can survive for another 230 years but not at the rate we are growing this government. The government is the elephant in the room full of jackasses. We don't need anymore elephants and we don't need any more jackasses.
My nickel.
OH
