The American Spectator

NO GUIDE NEEDED FOR THIS FAMILIAR TRAIL
Re: Joseph Lawler’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Bailout:

An enduring weakness of democracies is their lack of accountability. At its most basic level, democracy is nothing more than majority rule and 51% is the maximum percent of support one needs to maintain power. The Founders had 3500 years of failure at self-rule as a guide and chose a republican form of government with one of the most effective forms of self restraint know to man that happened to be proportionate to an individual’s power at the polls. Nothing brings sober thinking faster than having to pay for what you vote for and nothing short of the original proportionate tax system does that. Even a “flat tax” system with a constant percentage will still transfer huge sums of wealth from Warren Buffet to Rodney King. The transfer of wealth is all that is needed to bring corrupt people and ultimately political parties to the feast like flies on a fresh road kill on a hot summer’s day. That’s all American politics is about these days, who pays and who feasts on the results.

I paid just at $20,000 in federal income and SS taxes last year, or about 29% of my gross income. Most reading this paid nothing near this or even a comparable percentage. State/local took another 10% of my gross. The horde of fed, state, local excise taxes on all my other bills probably took another 1-2 just for good measure. Some of my utility bills are more “flat rate tax” than fees for services. Add the 20 or so percent of tax hidden in all goods and services by tax paying businesses and I don’t need a Heritage study to know that the bulk of my income goes to taxes. I don’t need to look any further than IRS data to know that the bulk of income taxes if paid by the top 10%; well into the 90% range by the top 50% that actually pay income taxes and that tens of millions of able bodied Americans (and illegal Aliens) pay little to nothing but receive a huge subsidy from all those that do. Benjamin Franklin would be amazed at how right he was about us not being able to keep our republic and how far we’ve strayed off course from our founding principles.

You don’t need Rand’s, Adams’s HHGTTG works to see where this all end up when the party is over. What follows this might be something akin to what you find in Brave New World or 1984.The most free and prosperous nation the world has ever know is going to be hobbled for generations by unimaginable debt (and unfunded mandates) because of its collective fiscal irresponsibility starting back almost 5 generations ago. All the rest and current events just piles on more of the same. The downfall of this nation will be traceable to 1913 and the 16th amendment. All a nation needs to do to fail is remove personal responsibility and accountability from their citizen’s actions at the polls. There is no silver bullet given the numbers of ox living off the labor of others. There will be many oxen at the next feast.
— Thom Bateman
Newport News, Virginia

A REVEALING TIME
Re: Lisa Fabrizio’s George W. Bush, Winner:

I’d like to thank Lisa Fabrizio for her wonderful column regarding President George W. Bush. The past 8 years have shown exactly who the “MSM”, along with an awful lot of Democrats, are. It has been extremely disheartening to have the President attacked 24/7, with no stop, even though he did so many things right and kept the Country safe for all the years since 9/11. From the very first day of his election, when Gore attempted to change the vote, to the leaving of the White house by the Clintons, along with furniture belonging to the White house, this debacle has been on full display. Now, we are being given wall-to-wall love for Senator Obama, a man who was in the U.S. Senate for 143 days before he ran for president… It is simply unbelievable. Thank God, President Bush is a strong enough man to have disregarded the attacks, though I don’t know how he was able to do it. We wish him God Speed and know that he will be honored when the “True” history of his Administration is written in the future.
— Amalia Vail
Florida

CALLED OUT!
Re: Ira M. Kessel’s letter (under “Self-Interested”) in Reader Mail’s Messianic Mistakes:

While I’m not a “libertarian” and never been a Union member, there seems to be as many different flavors of libertarian as there are individual persons claiming to be one. While that might be the nature of what Libertarians are in effect, I must take exception to what Ira Kessel recently said about “unions” in their defense.

Ira, first off, you did have a choice to not be a member of a union. The same choice all of us have. It is your choice to live and work in a non-Right to Work state and your choice to be a teacher (aka a government employee btw) and Union member. A true libertarian would find that to be the case short of the People’s Democrat Republic of New York putting a gun to your head and forcing you to not only be a government teacher there but live there. All your choices.

Second, you conveniently overlook that a “union” is by nature is a collective and such collectives for good or bad are only interested in the collective good of that Union. They could care less about you as an individual or the business and its customers. They’ve got from you what they want. In case you haven’t noticed said collectives typically do damage to both their businesses over time and their “customers” when they strike. Strikes or threats of such are in essence a WMD for any business, and if you don’t grasp that go work for the UAW in Detroit and find out what that produces in the private sector.

In the public sector, going on strike is essentially holding the tax payers and government functions hostage. In my book that is called “force” and in some cases “fraud” both of which are legitimate responsibilities of government to prevent. When your government goes on strike what options do tax payers have as recourse? Typically none and we certainly don’t get a tax rebate of services not rendered when Public sector Unions go on strike. Try firing all striking government teachers and then replacing them as an option in the real world. By definition government is supposed to be both necessary and not replaceable in practical terms but short of the firing of PATCO, the typical end result is those spineless government officials you talked about cave in to Union demands because they can’t replace fired workers via any practical means. That is the case in non-Right to Work states and all those unwilling union dues paying members are just as much a part of the problem as those willing ones. You support the monster where it needs to be supported. Obama certainly thanks the NEA for its help this last election. Don’t transfer the problem to spineless management or elected officials with the harm unions do when they go on strike (or are fired in mass). The impact of either is serious business and has long term consequences.

Management and elected officials may be spineless in some cases but on balance those that you are trying to transfer the blame to have no power to force individuals to act in their own self interest rather than the Borg collective’s interest in non Right to Work States. Correct me if I’m wrong Ira, those states that aren’t Right to Work states are all long time Democrat run states and the NEA is just one of many Democrat special interests collectives working on behalf of the Democrat party? In effect, you work for the Democrat Party machine of New York State by being a government teacher in that state. Try moving somewhere where you aren’t part of the problem. Move into Management and try raining in the corrosive effects of the Borg rather than being part of the problem. A true Libertarian would find being a member of a collective like a Union a contradiction in terms. An opportunist seeks the protection of the herd until they can find a better herd and deal.

You made all the choices to feed the problem. You bought into the comfort and protection of the collective knowing going in you had to be a Union member to be a government teacher. The collective didn’t force you to do anything at all. Calling yourself a Libertarian is like me calling myself Pro Life and working for an Abortion Clinic. Doesn’t work in the real world.
— Thom Bateman
Newport News, Virginia

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND ME?
Re: Peter Ferrara’s Obama’s Race to the Past:

This article succinctly points to the difference between Democrats and conservatives. Democrats truly believe the government makes the economy run, while conservatives believe it is the wonderfully entrepreneurial mind of the people that, once unshackled provides the steam for the world’s greatest, fairest, economic engine the world has ever seen.
— Jay Molyneaux
North Carolina