From Big Hollywood. I read it at Next Right and think it true.
The only thing worse than bad winners are sore losers, and we’ve had enough of them for the past eight years. So with that in mind, in the wake of today’s historic inauguration, here’s my Handbook For The Loyal Opposition, 2009 edition - a “To Don’t List,” if you will. Or even if you won’t.
DON’T question the motives - question the policy. When you disagree with Obama’s policies, say so, and make it clear why. But remember that President Obama is doing what he thinks is best for the country, as President Bush did. Both men love America and want what’s best for her. End of story.
DON’T make it personal. We don’t need another Derangement Syndrome. We don’t need people doing things like emphasizing Obama’s middle name in a derogatory fashion. How anyone would think that’s beneficial to their cause, or to the country as a whole, is beyond me. Also, it’s not even clever. Neither are smushwords like BusHitler, or sillywords like Rethuglicans and Dhimmicrats.
DON’T cozy up to and champion foreign dictators and despots. Sean Penn is an ass. No reason to be like him. ‘Nuff said. (Corollary: Don’t cozy up to and champion foreign dictators and despots and then act outraged when people question your patriotism.)
DON’T pretend you’re being brave when you criticize your government. Not while people in other countries actually, y’know, DIE, when they do that.
DON’T use the word “divisive.” At this point, all that word means is “You disagree with me,” and the English language gets mangled enough these days.
DON’T use the phrase “speaking truth to power.” EVER.
DON’T move to Canada.
DON’T say you’re going to move to Canada and then stay here. (I know it’s too late for Stephen Baldwin, but not for the rest of you.)
DON’T apologize to foreigners and say things to them like, “I didn’t vote for Obama,” or “He’s not MY president.”
DON’T say or do everything in your power to drive this country apart and then claim you want unity when it’s your guy in power. This is like the convicted felon who conveniently finds God when he’s up for parole.
DON’T call people un-American one week, and then talk about how “We are not blue states or red states, we are the United States” the next. (This rule may only apply to Tom Hanks, but I put it in just to be safe.)
DON’T automatically think people who disagree with you are stupid or evil. Some of them are, of course. But most of them aren’t, and you might actually learn something if you listen to them.
And finally, DON’T use the fact that many on the left behaved abominably for the past eight years as an excuse to behave the same way. America needs adults. And if it bothered you when they did it, it’s a good sign that you shouldn’t do it.
This is a good start for building towards a true Republican/Conservative majority in the upcoming elections.
My father put political decorum well when he told me, "Don't pontificate about the evil of drugs while sipping your 5th martini. You'll look like an ass (or 'a democrat' if ladies were present)."
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Dawn Of A Progressive Era Or Can We get Away From Here?
As in every campaign, the victor makes a lot of promises they cannot keep. In this just ended campaign, Obama implied a lot of promises without ever stating them and the media implied a lot of questions without ever asking them.
This is a general loss for all voters. Adulation by the people and the media is destructive to our country and our political system of government. It is also a specific loss for those voters, such as progressives, that heard a clarion call that was never made, but were able to smugly tell themselves that that is what Obama really meant because he talked the talk and he never denied it.
Now the inauguration is over and the parties have left empty glasses, empty halls and a country still to drunk to feel the hangover, reality is still hovering just above our heads. That reality is that Obama's base expects this administration to move sharply towards a progressive form of government while the country and the world expects capitalism to save us from ourselves.
As a conservative I supported George W. Bush because I did agree with him on many points and because the alternative was Gore or Kerry. As a conservative I supported Republicans, again because I agree on many points and, again the alternative was the Democrat Party led by Pelosi and Reid. In both cases I was disappointed by many decisions or lack of decisions by President Bush and the Republicans, but none more so than the role of government in our nation.
The role of government is not to spend our money with abandon, especially to enlarge an already bloated bureaucracy to serve the needs of special interest groups in the name of justice when indeed it is really done so for the benefit of the party in future elections. This is a governmental role that would send most businesses and citizens to jail for bribery. It is also unethical, destructive and cannot continue ad infinitum. To even try will bring our economy to its knees thus our country. Maybe this is what some want, but any sensible person should recognize the horror that would ensue for us and the world. Yes, the United States of America is that important.
Now, today, is the time for the loyal opposition Republicans to begin to rebuild from within and oppose any more attempts to enlarge government and to oppose with every fiber of the soul any more of this ridiculously pandering governmental spending and encroachment into business in America. Government has caused our economic woes and government is completely unable to fix those woes. Government will only make it worse. Only the market can fix itself and only if government will step back and take its heavy hand from the neck of business.
The role of government, first and foremost, is our national security. That role includes a robust business environment, but it most definitely does not include a robust intrusion of government into the business of business. If federal bureaucrats had the expertise to employ thousands and make millions and billions of dollars they would most probably not be in government, but in business. As it is, they haven't the expertise. Nor the wisdom.
Progressives really are socialists wearing another coat to appear what they are not. The constitution never envisioned socialism as a form of governance for our country, indeed the constitution forbids it.
Alexander Hamilton and James Madison wrote the Federalist Papers outlining the role of government and later Hamilton, as a Federalist and Secretary of the Treasury, continued the debate as he viciously fought Madison and Thomas Jefferson, a Republican and Secretary of State, over the role of government and its power over business and the citizenry as members of President George Washington's cabinet. Washington feared their vitriolic clash could tear the young Republic apart. Washington would today be even more fearful for the Republic that no such clash is taking place in the halls of governance.
People are tired of partisanship, or at least polls tell us so, but partisanship is what makes legislation which makes for compromise which makes the laws of our country. If Republicans do not act as partisans, the loyal opposition, then their acquiescence will foment a more destructive course change of the ship of state than even President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal and President Lyndon Baines Johnson's Great Society, both of which spit on our founding principles and prolonged the suffering of our nation.
It is preferred that insanity is prevented, but once it has begun it must be stopped.
It has already begun. It did so many years ago. It is time to stop slowly poisoning ourselves with delusions of what is and what is not possible.
This is a general loss for all voters. Adulation by the people and the media is destructive to our country and our political system of government. It is also a specific loss for those voters, such as progressives, that heard a clarion call that was never made, but were able to smugly tell themselves that that is what Obama really meant because he talked the talk and he never denied it.
Now the inauguration is over and the parties have left empty glasses, empty halls and a country still to drunk to feel the hangover, reality is still hovering just above our heads. That reality is that Obama's base expects this administration to move sharply towards a progressive form of government while the country and the world expects capitalism to save us from ourselves.
As a conservative I supported George W. Bush because I did agree with him on many points and because the alternative was Gore or Kerry. As a conservative I supported Republicans, again because I agree on many points and, again the alternative was the Democrat Party led by Pelosi and Reid. In both cases I was disappointed by many decisions or lack of decisions by President Bush and the Republicans, but none more so than the role of government in our nation.
The role of government is not to spend our money with abandon, especially to enlarge an already bloated bureaucracy to serve the needs of special interest groups in the name of justice when indeed it is really done so for the benefit of the party in future elections. This is a governmental role that would send most businesses and citizens to jail for bribery. It is also unethical, destructive and cannot continue ad infinitum. To even try will bring our economy to its knees thus our country. Maybe this is what some want, but any sensible person should recognize the horror that would ensue for us and the world. Yes, the United States of America is that important.
Now, today, is the time for the loyal opposition Republicans to begin to rebuild from within and oppose any more attempts to enlarge government and to oppose with every fiber of the soul any more of this ridiculously pandering governmental spending and encroachment into business in America. Government has caused our economic woes and government is completely unable to fix those woes. Government will only make it worse. Only the market can fix itself and only if government will step back and take its heavy hand from the neck of business.
The role of government, first and foremost, is our national security. That role includes a robust business environment, but it most definitely does not include a robust intrusion of government into the business of business. If federal bureaucrats had the expertise to employ thousands and make millions and billions of dollars they would most probably not be in government, but in business. As it is, they haven't the expertise. Nor the wisdom.
Progressives really are socialists wearing another coat to appear what they are not. The constitution never envisioned socialism as a form of governance for our country, indeed the constitution forbids it.
Alexander Hamilton and James Madison wrote the Federalist Papers outlining the role of government and later Hamilton, as a Federalist and Secretary of the Treasury, continued the debate as he viciously fought Madison and Thomas Jefferson, a Republican and Secretary of State, over the role of government and its power over business and the citizenry as members of President George Washington's cabinet. Washington feared their vitriolic clash could tear the young Republic apart. Washington would today be even more fearful for the Republic that no such clash is taking place in the halls of governance.
People are tired of partisanship, or at least polls tell us so, but partisanship is what makes legislation which makes for compromise which makes the laws of our country. If Republicans do not act as partisans, the loyal opposition, then their acquiescence will foment a more destructive course change of the ship of state than even President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal and President Lyndon Baines Johnson's Great Society, both of which spit on our founding principles and prolonged the suffering of our nation.
It is preferred that insanity is prevented, but once it has begun it must be stopped.
It has already begun. It did so many years ago. It is time to stop slowly poisoning ourselves with delusions of what is and what is not possible.
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