A brief rant at John Boehner and Paul Ryan

Speaker Boehner and Congressman Ryan,

I have heard you many times say that we have a debt problem...that we have a spending problem...that we are burdening our children.  As a conservative, I agree.  So WHAT THE HELL were you doing agreeing with the President that we don't have an IMMEDIATE debt crisis?!?!  And on national television?

If a car is heading at 90 MPH towards a cliff that's a quarter-mile away, that's an immediate crisis, even though the car hasn't actually gone over the cliff yet.  YES, IT IS A CRISIS RIGHT NOW.

You were wrong, but not just wrong.  In addition to being wrong, your statement was politically amateurish.  You gave the President, the Democrats, and the media one more sound bite cudgel with which to beat conservatives over the head.  "See...even the top Republicans in Washington agree with the President that the debt isn't an immediate crisis..."

How could you say this?  Saying the debt crisis is "looming" was a terribly insufficient characterization.  Do you really believe the stuff that the conservative base believes about the severity of the debt?  I'm part of that base, and I'm not convinced that you really believe it.

And if you don't believe it, can you at least convey a consistent message so that people will THINK that you believe it?

Presidents Day - A Good Word from James Garfield

Read this little piece on James Garfield: http://tinyurl.com/b5ukz52.  Among other powerful effects of emancipation, Garfield noted in his 1881 Presidential inaugural address that it "surrendered to their own guardianship the manhood of more than 5,000,000 people" and "opened to each one of them a career of freedom and usefulness."  He further celebrated that it "has given new inspiration to the power of self-help in both races."

To Garfield, then, emancipation was a good thing because it promoted certain virtues in poeple: self-reliance, self-determination, self-help, and usefulness.

Sadly, many Americans no longer find this kind of liberty desirable.  Instead, too many want an indolent "liberty" that values no self-restraint or self-respect, and that burdens others (through the agency of the state) to account for the consequences for one's actions.


Here's the quote from 1881, in its entirety:

The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the Constitution of 1787,” he said. “NO thoughtful man can fail to appreciate its beneficent effect upon our institutions and people. It has freed us from the perpetual danger of war and dissolution. It has added immensely to the moral and industrial forces of our people. It has liberated the master as well as the slave from a relation which wronged and enfeebled both. It has surrendered to their own guardianship the manhood of more than 5,000,000 people, and has opened to each one of them a career of freedom and usefulness. It has given new inspiration to the power of self-help in both races by making labor more honorable to the one and more necessary to the other. The influence of this force will grow greater and bear richer fruit with the coming years.

Time to Get Back in the Game

We've rolled into 2013.  President Obama's extremist, liberal agenda is fully unmasked -- for anyone who couldn't already see it.  Of course, it's not always called "liberal," but rather "progressive," since the term "liberal" is so unpopular.  Is anyone still under the delusion that President Obama is a moderate or centrist?  That his agenda doesn't "fundamentally transform" American government and result in ever-deepening intrusion of government into American life?  It's clear as day even to liberals, such as this one, this one, and this one.

But take heart, conservatives and libertarians, unless you're willing to resign American government to a future of inexorable, "progressive" decay.  We have work to do.  We need more than just a standard-bearer to avert that sorry future, but we do need a standard-bearer, or several.

Here's one of my favorites:

FYI -- My top 10 standard-bearers are (in alphabetical order): Bob McDonnell, Bobby Jindal, Brian Sandoval, Condoleezza Rice, Jeb Bush, Kelly Ayotte, Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley, Susana Martinez, and Ted Cruz.  Keep your eye on these folks, and support them as you can!  I might add Mike Huckabee to this list, if I thought he had any interest in being a standard-bearer.

There are other great folks, of course.  For example, I'm a big fan of the work being done by Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, and Rick Santorum, though I don't think those guys are in the right position to lead the America in which we are currently living.

You may notice that I've left out one prominent name (Hint: his initials are CC).  But as I wrote months ago, he has already lost my support as a conservative leader.