racism

Jimmy Carter: A National Disgrace

 Former President Jimmy Carter once again embarrassed himself, and frankly, the nation last week. Stretching way into the deck to play the race card over Congressman Joe Wilson’s “You lie” remark, Carter said, "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African-American." And this pearl of wisdom as he continued, "I live in the South, and I've seen the South come a long way, and I've seen the rest of the country that shares the South's attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African-Americans.""I think it's based on racism," Carter said at a town hall held at his presidential center in Atlanta. "There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president."

Well Mr. Carter, I live in the south, too, and I say you are just a clueless old man who should go back to peanut farming since you apparently have nothing intelligent to say. There is an “inherent feeling” among anybody with an IQ in triple digits that you should just shut up. I apologize to the Office of the Presidency for that language, but I just can’t muster any respect for a lying race baiter. There is absolutley no evidence that Wilson’s comment had anything whatsoever to do with race. Nor is the national opposition to Obama’s heath care proposals based on race. It’s based on a belief that nationalization of health care is a bad idea. I was against it when Hillary tried it in the early nineties, too. Was I racist then? Mr. Carter continues to proudly display his incompetence and irrelevance for all to see.I get so sick of this disengenuous garbage from people like Carter when they imply that conservatives in general and Republicans specifically are racist. Maybe it’s time for a little history lesson for the former president. 

In 1964, it took the leadership of Republican Minority Leader Everett Dirksen to break the Democratic filibuster of the 1964 Civil Rights Bill. That filibuster was led by current Democrat Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, and then Democrat Senator Al Gore Sr. of Tennessee. In the Senate, only six Republicans voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Act, compared to twenty-one Democrats in opposition. In the House, 40% of the Democrats opposed the Civil Rights Act, while only 20% of Republicans opposed it. And yes, that would be the same Democrat Senator Byrd who was a proud former member of the KKK.

Were Republicans racist when they named the first two black Secretaries of State, Powell and then Rice, to office? Were they racist when they put the first black Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas, in place? Would it be fair to say the Democrats were racist when they publicly and unjustifiably vilified Justice Thomas and his family? I make no such claim, but I have no doubt it would have been claimed by the Democrats had the roles been reversed. Does the average liberal genius Democrat out there even know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican?

Was Democrat former President Clinton racist when he said that William Fulbright was a visionary and was a hero to him? Fulbright was a vehement segregationalist and was one of the Democrats opposed to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.Carter’s own abysmal record on things racial brings into question his standing to criticize anyone regarding such issues. When Carter returned to Georgia after his Navy tour, he became a member of the Sumter County School Board. As documented in the National review Online (Sep. 18, 2009) “Laughlin McDonald, director of the ACLU’s Voting Project, relates in his book A Voting Rights Odyssey: Black Enfranchisement in Georgia, Carter’s board tried to stop the construction of a new “Elementary Negro School” in 1956. Local white citizens had complained that the school would be “too close” to a white school. As a result, “the children, both colored and white, would have to travel the same streets and roads in order to reach their respective schools.” The prospect of black and white children commingling on the streets on their way to school was apparently so horrible to Carter that he requested that the state school board stop construction of the black school until a new site could be found. The state board turned down Carter’s request because of “the staggering cost.” Carter and the rest of the Sumter County School Board then reassured parents at a meeting on October 5, 1956, that the board “would do everything in its power to minimize simultaneous traffic between white and colored students in route to and from school.”

And this from noted Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz in Frontpage Magazine, April 27, 2007, “If he who pays the piper calls the tune, then Carter's off-key tunes have been called by his Saudi Arabian paymasters. It pains me to say this, but I now believe that there is no person in American public life today who has a lower ratio of real to apparent integrity than Jimmy Carter. The public perception of his integrity is extraordinarily high. His real integrity, it now turns out, is extraordinarily low. He is no better than so many former American politicians who, after leaving public life, sell themselves to the highest bidder and become lobbyists for despicable causes. That is now Jimmy Carter's sad legacy.”

Carter had a cozy, personal relationship with former Palestinian dictator Yassir Arafat. In fact, he seems to have some affinity for thug dictators around the world, chumming with the likes of Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, former Yugoslav strongman Marshal Josef Tito, former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu, former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, former Pakistani General Zia ul-Haq, former North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung and now his son Kim Jong Il, among others. His anti-Israel positions are well documented, including in his own book, "Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid." As an author, Mr. Carter has the dubious distinction of having his book an the must read list of none other than Osama bin Laden.

Jimmy Carter is widely accepted as the worst U.S. President ever. His attempts at Middle East peace were jokes to everyone except him and the Nobel prize committee. His term was a disaster, and he went downhill from there. He has no credibility to be critical of anyone regarding race relations, or frankly, anything else. Just retire already.

read more at http://commonconservativesense.com 

Van Jones 2 - Here come the excuses

Okay, I got the first half of my prediction right. Jones has resigned. Now we wait on the excuses and the accusations of racism. Now we get told why his failure was our fault. Conservatives are to blame because we are so closed-minded. We simply haven't reached the level of intellectual enlightenment that would allow us to realize what a gem we had in Van Jones. If only we could have opened our minds and put our innate prejudices aside, we would have been blessed by Jones' visionary brilliance.

Yeah, right. Blah, blah, blah. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Liberals are so predictable.

more at http://commonconservativesense.com

Obama vs. America

We are in the early stages of a war. There may be no military action, no bullets or bombs, but we are in a war none the less. This war is for the soul of America. This war is for the preservation of the principles our country was founded on and which have kept us free and prosperous since our beginning. President Obama and his allies do not like America, at least not as it is and has been. They do not believe that America is the greatest country in the history of civilization. They do not believe in American exceptionalism. They do not believe that we as Americans have a right to be proud of what we have accomplished and to be proud of the good we have done for the world. They believe America needs to be remade. They are wrong.

Obama and friends are wrong about what America believes and what America stands for.

America is a Christian nation. There may be arguments about the particular faith of some of the Founding Fathers, but the majority were undeniably Christians. One would have to “willfully suspend disbelief” to believe  otherwise after reading our founding documents as well as our history. The real history, not the revisionist history. We do not deny anyone the privilege to worship as they choose, or to decline any form of worship. But our country was founded under Christian principles and beliefs.

The God of our founders and the God I pray to is Yahweh, Jehovah God, the God of Abraham and Issac. The God of the Bible. He is not some generic “man upstairs”. He is the Creator of the universe and of mankind. Because of His deep love for us, He gave His son Jesus willingly as an atonement for our sin. He is boundlessly good and has all power. He is Love, but He is a jealous God. He will chastise and correct us as individuals and as a nation if we stray too far for too long. We have strayed far and long and we need to return to Him as a nation. Pray for His mercy, His blessings, His wisdom and His guidance. If ever we needed it, it is now. If you don’t know Him, seek Him and you will find Him.

We do not believe that America needs to be remade, as Obama has stated. We believe that instead we need to return to the ideals of our Founders. We need to return to lower taxes, limited, smaller government, and unfettered personal freedom.

We do not believe that America is arrogant. Strong, confident and proud, yes. Arrogant, no.

America does not stand for wealth redistribution. We are generous, compassionate people with our money, but our generosity is not for Obama to dictate.

We believe that capitalism is the best economic system. Socialism doesn’t work. Marxism doesn’t work. We believe in equality of opportunity, not in equality of outcome. Some people work harder, some people are smarter, some people have better ideas. When those people succeed, the country succeeds. When they become wealthy, the country becomes wealthy. Wealthy people buy things, they build things, they create jobs,  they start businesses, they invest in American prosperity. America would collapse without them. They are not evil and do not deserve punishment.

America does not believe in the punitive taxation of our achievers. We believe in encouraging and rewarding achievement. It is counter productive to tax successful achievers into oblivion. All Americans should pay taxes so that all Americans have a stake in keeping the system honest. Consider that the City of Chicago just closed for a day to save money, with more days scheduled for more savings. A productive business does not save money by closing. Businesses produce wealth by being open for business. The government only takes, while producing nothing. Financially speaking, they are far more efficient and productive if they would just stay at home. We know that poor people don’t get any richer just because money is taken from the wealthy.

America does not stand for federally funded abortion on demand. A large and growing segment of us believe that abortion is wrong. However, the law of the land allows it for now. But using our tax dollars to support it is unacceptable.

America does not believe in a weakened, ineffective military. We do not believe that our military should be used to enforce social experimentation. We believe in spending our tax dollars to equip and train the greatest fighting force ever known to mankind, then praying to God that we will not have to use it. We love peace, but we are not afraid to fight for  liberty. We know that we don’t make weak nations any stronger by being weak ourselves. Being the only remaining superpower is a good thing. A very good thing. We have no desire to weaken ourselves in the interest of “fairness”. Senator Barbara Boxer had the audacity to publicly humiliate a brigadier general for referring to her as “ma’am” rather than as ”senator”. This is symptomatic of the arrogance and ignorance of many of our elected representatives. They have come to think of themselves as royalty. They think wrongly. I know of several fitting monikers for Senator Boxer, but decorum prevails.

We welcome legal immigrants, as we always have. But for those who have no more respect for our country and our laws than to cross our borders unlawfully, we are not welcoming. We certainly don’t believe in giving them the rewards of our hard earned tax dollars in the form of social benefits. We do not support amnesty for illegal aliens. Secure our borders and enforce our laws. English is our language. Learn it if you want to live here.

We do not believe in homosexual marriage. We believe that marriage is between one man and one woman. Period. That does not make us homophobic. That does not make us haters. We also do not support the concept of hate crimes. Any unlawful harm to a human being by another human being is wrong, and should be dealt with under our criminal codes. The fact that the victim may be a part of some minority doesn’t make the crime worse. It is just as wrong to harm a white heterosexual male as it is to harm a black homosexual female. The actions of the law breaker should determine the punishment for the crime, not the race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or other social characteristic of the victim.

America is not a racist nation. There are some racists in America. There are also some murderers in America, but that doesn’t make us a murderous nation. We recognized the evil of slavery, and we abolished it. We have done more to eliminate racial bias in our culture than any other nation. When we disagree with a person of another racial or ethnic background, that disagreement cannot be dismissed by a cry of “racism”. Neither are our police officers inherently racist, as Obama implied during the recent uproar over the arrest of a black Harvard professor by a white police sergeant.

We do not believe that radical Islam is our friend. We do believe that Israel is our friend and deserves our support. We believe that Islamic jihadists that want to kill Americans should be called terrorists and not some ridiculous watered down, politically correct name. They should be considered our mortal enemies, without consideration of how they “feel” or why they hate us. We are not the cause of their irrational hatred of us and what we stand for. We do not need to change so they will like us. We do need to eliminate them.

We do not believe that our President should sit down with tin horn dictators from Iran, North Korea, Venezuala or anywhere else unless there are precursory agreements about the substance and outcome of those conversations. Anything less will be used against us and will be seen as a source of legitimacy and power for our enemies, and as an indication of weakness on the part of America.

We do not believe in a government run health care system. We do not want our personal health care decisions made by the same government that has run Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and the Postal Service so ineffectively that they are all on the verge of bankruptcy. Reforms are needed, but the system does not need to be recreated and it most certainly does not need to be placed under government control. This has been tried and has failed in Canada and in Britain. Changing the name to “public option” or “co-op” doesn’t change anything. We don’t want it!

We do believe that as American citizens, we have the absolute privilege and right to attend town hall meetings, speak our minds, and ask questions. We are not un-American as stated by Nancy Pelosi and Steney Hoyer. We are not evil mongers as claimed by Harry Reid. We are Americans doing what Americans have always done – standing up against intrusive over-reaching government and demanding adherence to the Constitution.

We do not believe in the “fairness doctrine”. All Americans are free to express their opinions through any legal avenue available to them. Some are better at that than others. Some don’t care enough to expend the energy. Some  are better able to convince others. Some ideas are better than others. Some ideas are just plain bad. Some ideas are wildly popular and some have very limited or no support. The government’s definition of “fairness” is equality of all ideas, equality of the effectiveness of the presenter, and equality of the acceptance of the idea by Americans. This is nothing but government control of the market place of ideas, and the only way to force that to happen is to silence the best, most legitimate ideas so that the worst  ideas have equal legitimacy. Besides being stupid, this is un-American.

We believe in the 2nd amendment right to bear arms. This is not limited to hunting purposes, in fact it has nothing to do with hunting. The purpose of the 2nd amendment is to allow the citizenry to defend themselves against those who would harm them, whether that be a criminal or a tyrannical out of control government.

We believe that our elected officials work for us – not the other way around. We are their employers, not their subjects. As their employers, we retain the right to fire them when their performance becomes unacceptable. We as citizens loan them temporary power to act on our behalf. The power still rests with the people, not with the politicians. When they forget that, they must be reigned in. It is way past time for some serious reigning in. I would start with President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Senator Reid, then proceed from there. They have clearly forgotten who they work for.

According to the Declaration of Independence, Americans are “endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,”. These rights did not come from the government and they cannot be taken away by the government. Any and all attempts to restrict these rights must and will be fiercely resisted.

I am proud to be an American. I am proud of our history, imperfect as it may be. I am proud of what my countrymen have overcome. I am proud of American ingenuity, American inventiveness, American determination, and especially American goodness. I thank God that I was blessed to be born American. I refuse to apologize for being a citizen of the greatest, most generous nation ever in existence. America has done more for many nations than they have done for themselves. American blood has been shed around the world in defense of justice and against tyranny. American dollars have been freely spent to aid those less blessed than we. I will not apologize for the greatness of my country.

Those of us who believe in America’s greatness, Her goodness, Her limitless future and potential, must fight and win this war. We must win it for our children, and for their children. We must win it for the Founding Fathers. We must win it for the thousands who have fought and died to preserve our right to fight and to live free. Generations past have lived up to their challenges. Generations future are depending on us to do the same. It is our turn, and history will judge us. Our generation now has  to stand and be counted.

We must win this war. Our weapons are our words. Our weapons are our votes, our participation in the system our fore fathers designed. Our ammunition is truth – factual information subjected to critical and honest analysis. Write letters to the editor, contact your representatives, attend town hall meetings, email friends…however you choose to participate, get in the fight! You, sitting on the sidelines, is what the other side is counting on. The stakes are too high to allow them victory.

More posts at http://commonconservativesense.com

Sotomayor and the politics of race

Yesterday's decision by the Supreme Court to reverse Sonia Sotomayor's ruling on the New Haven firefighters case was undoubtedly a blow (albeit, not fatal) to the woman who aspires to sit on the nations' highest court. The Philadelphia Inquirer offers this viewpoint:

“Yesterday's ruling that white New Haven firefighters were unfairly denied promotions because of their race became an instant talking point for foes of Sotomayor.  "She was among three appellate judges who had rejected the white firefighters' claim of discrimination.  "Conservatives argued that the appellate decision showed her to be a judicial activist who allows biases - particularly her backing of affirmative action policies - to taint her judgment.”

As the article goes on to state, this ruling does not seem to be the death knell for Sotomayor, however the ruling puts a spotlight on one of politics' dirty secrets: Race. Even while Barack Obama and his family occupy the White House, the politics of race has become a double edged sword for the administration.

During his presidential campaign, critics were silenced by the accusation, or fear of the accusation, of being a racist, even as Obama used his background numerous times to debunk claims that he was “not black enough” from minority voters. Often, Republicans, long saddled with the racist label, were stunned into silence by the often vicious attacks from the left. 

Another example of racial politics occured during the press conference to announce Judge Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court. While there have been calls from such organizations as the National Council of La Raza to focus on Sotomayor's judicial record, the White House chose to attempt to batter the public with feelings of guilt. There was:

“...the Inspiring Icon of the White House narrative, the Latina born in the Bronx, raised by her widowed mom who sacrificed everything for her daughter. With smarts and guts, Sotomayor graduated from Yale Law School, only to have her impeccable qualifications questioned by a prospective employer who'd been conditioned by race-based government policy to wonder if she'd made it that far only because of her Hispanic heritage.

"She's rightfully a beacon of hope to every Latina mother and daughter, from the Bronx to Chicago's Little Village and on to East L.A. The girls in the neighborhoods can see Sotomayor and aspire to greatness.

"But the other side of the story also speaks to racism. Not the knuckle-dragging kind shrieked by ignorant barbarians. That's easy to condemn, whether the knuckles are white, black or brown.

"Yet there is another kind. The media don't recognize it as racism and instead lard it with virtue, calling it by its Orwellian name: affirmative action. Yet many know it by what it is: government-backed racial preference.”

As an African American mom twenty plus years Sotomayor's junior, I lack the richness of her experiences, but not my own. Few people of color, or even those without a substantial income, do not have some type of compelling story. Poverty transcends race and background and many share a kinship born of struggle. However, that does not mean that special treatment or quotas are in order. Independent Columnist Michael Gaynor sums up this point well.

“It has been reported often that Judge Sotomayor graduated from Princeton College summa cum laude and was an editor of the Yale Law Journal, each a very impressive accomplishment, if achieved on the basis of merit.   "But, when Judge Sotomayor called herself 'the perfect affirmative action baby' and claimed inability to define merit, what was she really saying about her fitness to be a Supreme Court Justice?  "Did she mean that she was graded and judged less demandingly at Princeton and Yale and that was a good thing that paved her path to America's highest court?  "Is she 'perfect' for the position, or necessarily not up to par?  "Personally, I prefer to choose professionals, such as surgeons and dentists, based solely on merit.  "Likewise, I think that race-based grading and affirmative action Supreme Court Justices appointments are counterproductive indulgences better avoided.”

The inherent racism in the whole approach of the administration regarding nominations and attempts to silence critics have actually done more harm to minorities in general... Read more here.

 

Diluting Torture, Racism -Unintended consequences of the left

As I watched news coverage of the speeches on security given by President Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday, it occurred to me that by giving in to the left's assertion that waterboarding is torture, we again dilute the meaning of a powerful word, and withdraw it from future important debates.

The first time this thought crossed my mind was during the George Allen/Jim Webb senate campaign. George Allen, pointing to a Jim Webb campaign worker that had been assigned to follow the Allen campaign, said  "This fellow here over here with the yellow shirt, Macaca, or whatever his name is. He's with my opponent... Let's give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia."

The Webb campaign claimed that "Macaca" was a racial slur. The press immediately began to investigate and found that the word was indeed a racial slur. Used by francophone colonists in the Belgian Congo.(I'm not making this up). To refer to black natives. So, George Allen was a RACIST!!!! He used a racial sliur against one of his opponents' campaign workers.

The Webb campaign made the charge stick. George Allen had uttered a racial slur used by francophone colonists in the Belgian Congo against an American of Indian decent.

I thought then that people who had experienced real racism (and there is plenty of it in the U.S.) must have felt somewhat used. The Webb campaign had taken a legitimate and painful experience and cheapened it for political gain. They were equating what was obviously a nonsensical word that Allen had come up with on the spur of the moment, to other words too horrible to mention.

What the Webb campaign did was cheapen the word "racism". They used it to benefit themselves and in so doing took a little bit of the punch out of the word that describes suffering and injustice.

I have had the same thought during the "torture" debate recently. Most of us do not think of torture as being administered with a doctor standing by with a stopwatch and an instruction manual that tells them how far they can legally go. Again, a word has been cheapened for political gain. I heard Anderson Cooper make the case last night that North Korea, the Khmer Rouge, and North Korea had used the same torture methods  asthe United States. This is an obscenity, and I for one am sick of having the left usurp the language for their own benefit.

The unintended consequence is that they dilute the meaning of important words, and with them important issues and events.

Race and the 2008 Election: What the Exit Polls Showed

This exit poll statistic is a candidate for most underreported fact of the 2008 election.

Those who said race was an important factor voted 55 percent to 44 percent in favor of Obama.

So, as Mike Turk had predicted last year, racism was a more common factor among Democrats than Republicans in the 2008 election.

This may explain why the 'racism factor' stories disappeared so quickly after the campaign, replaced (if it was discussed at all) by "race not a factor in election" stories.

Waving the bloody race flag

The Right needs to do much, much more to condemn bigotry and purge itself of the bigots.  However, Paul Krugman's attempt to smear the Republican Party and opposition to big government is simply callous race-baiting, and we shouldn't tolerate that sort of smear.  Krugman's article isn't about real racism - the only example he cites is a satire that was popularized by lefties, Spike Lee and David Ehrenstein; it was tone deaf and poorly concieved for an RNC candidate to pass it on, yes, but that is categorically different than the virulent racism to which Krugman refers. 

Krugman's op-ed is about a narrative that Krugman has constructed to paint limited government itself as merely a form of racism; it is a Lefty equivalent to the ridiculous John Birch Society accusation that liberalism = secret support for Stalin's massacres.

Of course, the Birchers were kicked out of the Right.  The Left doesn't seem similarly inclined.

In order to do paint this picture of inherent, foundational racism, Paul Krugman argues by innuendo and misrepresentation.  In particular, look at this paragraph:

Where did this hostility to government come from? In 1981 Lee Atwater, the famed Republican political consultant, explained the evolution of the G.O.P.’s “Southern strategy,” which originally focused on opposition to the Voting Rights Act but eventually took a more coded form: “You’re getting so abstract now you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites.” In other words, government is the problem because it takes your money and gives it to Those People.

But Lee Atwater was not explaining "the evolution of the GOP's Southern Strategy".  He was responding to questions about  the theory that racism was being conveyed in 'code words'.  Right after the part Krugman quotes, Lee Atwater explicitly said "I'm not saying that."  Indeed, Atwater even pointed out that these theories about incredibly abstract "code words" indicate that "we are doing away with the racial problem..."

We are making real progress and we can make much more.  But that progress is thrown into reverse when people like Paul Krugman wave the bloody flag for political points.

The South's McCain Voters are Racists

They are also uneducated, out of step with the rest of the country, to be pitied, isolated, suffering in the area of "jobs, education and development", ideologically aligned with the old Confederacy, at odds with the values of the rest of the country, and are getting what they deserve because they won't "... get with the right program." Hat tip to Dan Cleary for making sure I was aware of this.

Or you could ask Dwight Lewis at The Tennessean. Lewis learned all this in a phone interview with "... David A. Bositis, senior political analyst for the Washington-based Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies ..." He felt it true and significant enough to share it with all of us. The Tennessean evidently agreed with him. Why publish his lunacy otherwise?

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies is a misleading name for the group. Per Lewis, the politics and economy the JCPES finds worthy of studying are those "... of concern to African-Americans and other people of color ..." The picture at their site includes pictures of Asians and Hispanics. However, reading through the headlines on their site, the only people of color mentioned are either Blacks or African Americans. There is one vague reference to "America's minorities."

This is the environment in which Bositis' claims must be evaluated. And what is Bositis' basis for making such outrageous claims? It's his analysis of who voted for John McCain and who voted for Barack Obama. He has lots of high sounding analysis. I'll save you some time. Anyone who voted for John McCain is all of those things in the opening paragraph. Anyone who voted for Barack Obama is not.

No word on the character of Barr, Baldwin and Nader voters. Words fail to describe how offensive Bositis' words are, or should be, to every man or woman who supported a candidate OBO, "Other than Barack Obama." Obviously, however, Lewis, Bositis and presumably some of their readers and supporters believe this tripe. I would point out the position of Lewis and Bositis are, on their face, far more racist and divisive than that of any of John McCain's supporters of any color. Except, I must be wrong. It's not possible for Blacks to be racist. Jesse Jackson himself told us so.

When people criticize me for declaring Barack Obama is not my President, I'll take comfort in knowing that he is not mine, although he is Mr. Lewis' President and he is Mr. Bositis' President. To all you who want to claim Barack as your own, enjoy their company. Barack forged a coalition he greatly desired to get him elected. It contains a great many fine people who mistakenly believe in the untested, unproven promise of Barack. It also contains a great many craven, twisted racists such as Mr. Lewis and Mr. Bositis. Their bile and ignorance, passed off as lofty and intellectual analysis, is rubbish if for no other reason than it fails to address the rationale for McCain voters elsewhere. That such thinking might be indicative of the actual change and hope we'll see as opposed the empty rhetoric Obama offered ought to terrify Americans.

Men like Lewis and Bositis are destroying Dr. Martin Luther King's dream of integration. They are callously dividing our nation along racial lines for purposes I cannot fathom. How any sane and educated individual in 2008 can believe, let alone put into print in what should be respectable publications, the notion that millions of Americans may legitimately be labled racist and backward based solely on the vote they cast is beyond outrageous.

I've read it in a score of places in the last 48 hours. I cannot help but repeat it here. It's going to be a long 4 years ...

Blue Collar Muse

Why I Prefer to Be a Bad Sport for Now


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On November 5 John Kasich wrote: “We must figure out how to reorganize and restructure ourselves so that we can once again command the confidence and respect of not only the members of our own party, but voters of all stripes.”  I certainly agree that conservatism must be redefined, and I will offer my suggestions in a moment.  But I submit that none of us is ready for the task just yet.

 

In her 1969 groundbreaker On Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D., introduced a model known as the Five Stages of Grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance.  While not every process entails all five stages, the good doctor stated categorically that everyone experiences at least two.  But it appears that virtually every conservative commentator has tossed the model out and substituted his own single-phase paradigm: Submission.  No sooner had Senator McCain delivered his concession speech than some of my favorite radio talk show hosts – who had been breathing fire just hours earlier – blandly appealed to my optimism as though the proponents of capitalism and self-determination had merely lost a preseason football game.  Perhaps they don’t want to appear sore losers.  Perhaps they want to come across as “high-roaders.”  But in whose eyes?  I guarantee you the liberals are so drunk with victory that they don’t care whether we lost sportingly or otherwise.  Besides, it is a bit late for conservatives to worry about image.  We have been drubbed.  We have been bulldozed, hoodwinked, ground into the muck.  We fought fair while they pulled every dirty trick in the playbook, and they clobbered us silly.

 

Where is the outrage, ladies and gentlemen?  Do liberals hold a patent on passion?  Did someone outlaw indignation while I wasn’t looking?  The liberals seem to wield it freely enough.  History instructs that we can not move forward until we fully appreciate where we are.  Permit me to remind all of those blasé “we’ll-gettum-next-timers” a few facts I can recall off the top of my head about the man who just gave conservatism a bloody nose.  Barack Hussein Obama: (1) exhibited blatant sexism during the primaries, then thumbed his nose at feminism by snubbing Senator Clinton in favor of “Conehead” Biden; (2) showed the “common man” his true elitist colors when he rejected public campaign financing and outspent Senator McCain by a factor of 7 to 1; (3) would turn our courts into tools for “redistributive justice”; (4) used government computers and databases to find dirt that would discredit Joe the Plumber; (5) has bragged about the fact that he wants to increase the tax burden on the producers of this country so that he can guarantee a better living for the 30-40% who are freeloaders; (6) was endorsed by both Hugo Chavez and Iran’s parliament; and (7) has little patience for the notion of individual rights.

 

And another thing.  Let us not forget that, despite his silken demeanor, the man is an empty suit when it comes to concrete solutions.  I know attorneys because I am one.  The first lesson they teach in law school is how to use as many of the biggest words available to say as little as possible.  Our new chief executive took that lesson to heart.  People are weeping and screaming and dancing in the streets because “we” made history on November 4 by electing the first African American in U.S. history.  Unfortunately, a majority of the voters got so caught up in making history that they forgot to ask what kind of person lay beneath the fashionable skin they were about to vote for.  Let’s face it.  Obama didn’t have to make sense.  He needed no substance.  And he didn’t need to curry favor with moderates.  All he needed was to be a good looking, well-spoken black man who hung out with “cool” people like Madonna and Bruce Springsteen.  And he knew it from day one.  When I was a boy I was taught that the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s would someday stamp out racism.  I’m sorry to report that racism is still with us; it has merely switched sides.

 

This is the America our complacency has nurtured.  So spare me the silver-lining pablum.  I want to hear some emotionally healthy yelling and desk-pounding out there.  I’m not talking about rioting or bullying.  Those of you with an established forum in the media know exactly what to do.  I only hope you’ll find the motivation to do it.  As for the rest of you, try this as an example.  When I moved to a college town some years back, I confess that I allowed my vitriolic liberal brother-in-law to temper my philosophies.  Whenever he would rant about the evils he perceived Bush to have perpetrated, I was quick to remind him that the common enemy wasn’t Bush – it was career politicians and elitists in general.  When he simmered down I patted myself on the back for "remaining above the fray."  But one evening my 9-year-old nephew bragged to me that he had browbeaten a schoolmate of his into “voting” for a liberal in an important race.  With the glassy-eyed exuberance of a Hitler youth, he recited the mantra he had heard night after night from his father.  I decided I had placated the brother-in-law for the last time.  Though I don’t hang out as much with my sister’s family as a result, I can rest assured that my nephew now knows his father’s way of thinking is not the only way.

 

So conservatism as we know it has been pulverized.  It lies dead in the gutter.  How do we resurrect it?  The first thing we do is reintroduce ourselves to some fundamental principles many of us have forgotten: lower taxes; limited government intervention; disciplined government spending; individualism.  All variations of the concepts of tradition and convention must be eliminated from our lexicon.  Who do we attract?  On the count of three, let’s all scratch our heads.  One … two … three … and there is our answer: Real People.  But just what is a real person?  As a rule of thumb, real people don’t toe the party line or wear the homogenous blue blazer.  Take me, for instance.  I’m into The Who, Pearl Jam and the Black Keys, but I refuse to buy a suit that is anything but double-breasted.  I have tattoos, but I believe shoelaces should be tied, belt loops should be belted and undershorts should be covered in public.  I am licensed to carry a concealed weapon, and I will not hesitate to go for the kill shot if someone breaks into my home.  On the other hand, I have never understood, and will never understand, the attraction of game hunting.  I am an agnostic.  I detest abortion, but I think an outright ban ignores reality.  Though I am a heterosexual, I don’t understand how letting gays get married diminishes the institution for straights.  By the same token, I don’t understand why gays feel the need to impose an archaic religious ritual on an otherwise fulfilling relationship.  I don’t indulge in illegal recreational drugs; just the same, I don’t see the harm in legalizing marijuana or cocaine – people bent on destroying themselves will do it one way or another, so there’s no reason to spoil the party for responsible users.  Blah, blah, enough about me.

 

The point is that today’s conservative is not as easy to peg as was the little twerp Michael J. Fox played on prime time television in the 1980s.  That is why there were so many so-called Independents out there for Obama and his string-pullers to swoop up this time around.  The key to redefining conservatism is to refrain from overdefining it.  Agree on a very limited number of core principles, leave the rest of the slate clean and welcome the deluge of fresh new faces with bold ideas who will inevitably flock to your doorstep.

 

-R. Thomas Risk

 

 

Racism and the Left

Bob Herbert says "many Democratic voters" are ambivalent about Obama because they are racist.   The Hill says AFL-CIO leaders are worried that racism will prevent largely-Democratic Union members from voting for Obama.  In fact, one AFL-CIO leader says racism is the only reason that the largely-Democratic Union workers might not vote for Obama.

Anybody else notice that all the "racism" stories seem to be about...Democrats?

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