-
The Seventeen Year Itch
May 15, 2013 | 6 comments
-
Questions
May 1, 2013 | 50 comments
-
Stifling Our Children
April 15, 2013 | 39 comments
-
Thoughts on Gay Marriage
March 27, 2013 | 96 comments
-
Baseball Saints and Sinners
March 13, 2013 | 13 comments
A Further Perspective
What’s Broken
None of it interests our liberal Quixotes, unless they can make sure it also becomes unrepairable.
For those of you who can idly pass these dog days of summer contentedly dozing on a beach, letting the soft hot breezes flip the pages of the book beside you while the weeks roll leisurely by, consider yourselves lucky. For the rest of us, especially those addicted to 24/7 TV news, the heat and humidity only exacerbate the rising of our political temperatures as we watch the attempted dismantling of our American way of life by the liberals in power. For us, this seems like an endless summer; while the hoped-for balm of November, though close calendar-wise, seems as far away right now as a 5% unemployment rate.
Complicating the misery of this long, hot summer is the looming liberal threat of what the outgoing lame-ducks might be quacking about; be it cap and trade, card check, or revisiting healthcare to finish us all off with the public option. One thing is for sure, whatever they’re up to, it’s bound to be no good for the country.
Why? Because it is the nature of progressives that they will go forward, even when the impact of their policies is unknown or worse, that the agenda they so recklessly pursue has proven time and again to be a miserable failure. And that is why, in the minds of liberals, there’s nothing that doesn’t need fixing. And this double negative is surely representative of the way they seek to govern.
Now, the original intent of our founding fathers was that Congress should meet from time to time to tend to the affairs of state that might arise on the way to America taking her place among the great nations. They would have recoiled violently at the notion that many in Congress would come to believe that their function is to sit continuously as a kind of gigantic machinery, constantly eroding the greatness as foreseen by the founders.
Still, even though their tactics are clear, their motives cause one to continually ask: why oh why do liberals persist in attempting to fix the things that are not only not broken, but on which the success of our national experiment hinges? What, you may ask, could be the problem with a country that has, within its short lifespan, been the liberator of and the economic, and moral beacon to, the rest of the world? It’s because they do not, nor ever have, really loved our system of government or the things that have made us great. What they seek is the planned obsolescence of our constitutional republic; a task to be accomplished via the accumulation of more and more federal power. And so they fiddle while American exceptionalism burns. A few examples:
Healthcare. This country has led the world in research and in the development of life-saving drugs and procedures for years. And even after the price of medical care skyrocketed following the malpractice beachhead established by trial lawyers in the 1960s, our system was the envy of most of the rest of the planet. And, regardless of the fact that no patients may be turned away from receiving emergency treatment, and most can access some level of care through existing government programs, liberals have decided that cradle-to-grave healthcare must be a right for all, and most importantly, that it must be “fixed.”
Global Warming. There’s an old adage: everybody complains about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it. Well, progressives with god-like powers — don’t forget Barack Obama’s election was to herald “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal” — have a solution for you: cap and trade legislation. Yes, the death of capitalism will somehow turn the climate of every spot on the globe into that of Los Angeles, or more likely, San Francisco.
Public Sector Union Glut. It has become apparent, even in liberal enclaves like New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, that municipal unions are eating away at the sustenance of cities and states in the same way that they crippled parts of the private sector like the auto industry. The liberal answer? Pass a $26 billion dollar bailout of government workers; just in time for the upcoming elections.
And on and on it goes. They are like modern-day Don Quixotes; tilting at the windmills of emergencies of their own making which make no beneficial difference in our nation, except to their core constituencies. If liberals truly wanted to make a difference — as they claim ad nauseam in every election cycle — they might start by fixing the things that really are broken in this country, like our woeful education system, Social Security, and the tax code.
In reality, what is broken and indeed has never worked, is the liberal/socialist way of governance. And the only “fix” for this is to assist Nancy Pelosi in her goal of draining out the congressional swamp; starting with her own party.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (26) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Lisa Fabrizio
More Articles From A Further Perspective
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/08/11/whats-broken
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
H/T to National Review Online
ADVERTISEMENT
Miimi| 8.11.10 @ 7:57AM
A long battle ahead....I can't believe that they thought they could get away with this....83 days!!!
Alan Brooks| 8.11.10 @ 10:12AM
"the heat and humidity only exacerbate the rising of our political temperatures as we watch the attempted dismantling of our American way of life by the liberals in power."
It was effectively dismantled by LBJ in 1966, or weren't you paying attention? the '60s and '70s were worse than today; riots, Vietnam, Watergate, CARTER.
Yuch.
RacerJim| 8.11.10 @ 10:56AM
I was indeed paying attention during the 60's and 70's and as bad as LBJ's "Great Society", race riots all over the country, the Democratic majority Congress grasping defeat from the jaws of victory in Vietnam, Watergate and CARTER were they pale in to-to in comparison to PELOSI, REID, OBAMA et al progressives being hell bent on destroying America.
Alan Brooks| 8.11.10 @ 9:04PM
"they pale in comparison to PELOSI, REID, OBAMA et al progressives being hell bent on destroying America."
Well if LBJ wasn't trying to destroy America, he sure had a strange way of showing it.
Marcell| 8.11.10 @ 2:20PM
Political Chess: How to Win in a Debate with a Republican
On August 11th, 2010 BLACK CELL said:
http://www.algore.org/blog/bla.....ment-11599
By Black Cell
The next election is one of the most important victories I am going to have because I know I going up against some of the best political strategist in the world; I also know that the Democrats strategist really don’t know what to do to win, so I am going to look at this next election as my Don King moment in history.
This is a Political Chess Game that is going to take team work…”UNITY,” at leat for three months straight… Noooooo back biting, “Just Dems Fighting.”
=)
How to Win In a Debate with a Republican
The best chess players use the whole chess board to defeat its opponent. That mean he or she will not allow any of the Republican strongholds to effect how the game is played by challenging ALL of them even the talk radio show host who try their best to screen out good liberal callers. I say spam them with seminar callers to force the Conserva- Repub to arm those who disagree. Effectively countering their talking point by spamming the host with tough question inspire others who disagree with, for example, Ru$h’s seminar callers will force the Repubs to talk with more depth instead of what they are doing toady, “Claiming to be a protectors of the constitution with rhetoric but actions shows different when you see the majority leader challenging the constitution with hearing on repealing parts of the 14 amendments.
There are many other ways to defeat them in a short time span. One way is to create the national story line that inspires others to fight on our behalf by marketing the political trickery that the Repubs have been using hoping we fail, here is an example: How the President responded to the, now successfully being cleaned up, oil spill. His administration may have started off slowly but they did gain control of the situation, & the president specially looked great with how he made sure BP pony’d up for the loss of business in that region. This is when Dems should be comparing & contrasting the differences in response to the incident because the end results shows that the president’s team got the job done, while the repubs leaders continued stumbling around trying to find ways to put more of BP’s cost on the federal government, i.e. run up more dept. Muckraking the conserva-repubs trickery on a national level helps keep the storyline that the conservative’s traveling, race baiting, circus acts play a major role in the Political trickery that is being used in today’s poli-tricks. Use example after example, after example, after example after, example, until they stop doing it; don’t be afraid of the minor examples they may use that politicians on our side has done because the repug’s party & news is faaaaaar more corrupt than the Dems; we have to proof.
I believe it is very, very, very important the Dems bait the Repubs into the arena of ideas because the Repubs don’t have many; they have been forced to market emotional/ racial issues to keep a strong hold on their base because they can’t say that they “know how to fix it.” We should be using the fact that Republicans haven’t been offering much, only criticism, as our weapon because they haven’t been putting forward any good ideas & it should be used as another testament of political trickery, while market the fact that businesses are making profits but not investing in employees; We also have to make it clear that Republicans played both sides of the fence trying to misinform voters about the stimulus package. “It is a must!” That we use the images of Republicans holding BIG stimulus checks & talking on the other side of their mouths to the radical hate President Obama crowd who hopes he / we, our country fails, so they can take their so called country back.
Finally, I believe that the President should be convincing good Republicans, who are more likely going to vote Republican, to give him the kind of Republicans that are not necessarily in agree with him, but Republicans that “know how to work well with others,” just like WE have to work well with others on our jobs, being that the president be in office for the next two years. “Yes,” we should be campaigning in ways that the average person can’t help but to agree with us by marketing the idea that the majority agrees; we should be demanding that the voters not reward the hyper partisans Republicans who plan is to go to Washington & create more havoc by muddying up the waters with race baiting, hate Obama rhetoric, along with their calls for conservative versions of judicial activism. We should also be asking voters to research the talking points that the Repubs are using because the truth is out their.
The one thing I know for sure is that the Dems have more of the truth on their side then the Repubs. I also see the economy slowly working its way back. Meaning, the Dow is on track to hit record highs by October leaving the Repubs with very little fighting words… “They’ll only have emotional racial, i.e. racism as a real tool,” & by us using our examples to prepare our new supporters for the upcoming warfare as a weapon we will be able to galvanize enough voters on a national level that will run up ratings by have a real interesting debates about the REAL issues as we collapse Fuax New’s old ways of poli-tricking on our way to a Political Chess victory.
George True| 8.11.10 @ 3:36PM
Marcell, your mind is truly a bizzarro world, where white is black, up is down, and all that is false is presented as truth and light. Nothing that you postulate is actually true in THIS world.
For starters, the Obama administration did next to nothing about the gulf oil spill, and what they did do was of marginal effectiveness, and it was months too late. BP capped the blown-out well, NOT the government, and BP's accomplishment in doing so was in spite of rather than because of anything the Obama administration did.
Had the Obama administration demonstrated any semblance of leadership, most of the oil could have been kept off the beaches. Instead, the administration actively hindered and thwarted efforts to keep the oil off the beaches. THAT is the reality, and no amount of assertions to the contrary can change that reality, at least not in the real world that the rest of us inhabit.
As for racism, the leftists are now the foremost racists in the country, as they are the ones who constantly evoke the race card. He or she who pulls the race card IS the racist. Maybe it works differently in your alternate world, but that is the reality in the world the rest of us inhabit.
In short, the leftist Democrat agenda is the exact opposite of progressive. Rather, it is regressive in the extreme, being composed of statist, collectivist ideas that are 150 years old, and have been proven beyond all doubt to fail utterly and spectacularly every time and in every part of this world where they have been tried.
I am curious about one thing : What color is the sky in your world, my self-deluded friend?
Kevin| 8.12.10 @ 10:18PM
George: Kudos to you to be able to force your way all the way to the end of Marcell's . . . um. . . "essay": I couldn't do it . . .
mimi| 8.11.10 @ 10:03PM
Oh... you want to play chess?...A game?
In
2008,pal you and your guys bet on the wrong HORSE....came in last in every race. No matter what game plan it all went for naught.
Harm to people, harm to our economy. The one thing you did do was...awaken the spirit and love for this nation enough to see that you will never get the chance to destroy our country ever again. We reject you because you love your party more than America. That sir you have provided for those in your party quite well is noticed!
Louis Jenkins| 8.11.10 @ 8:44AM
Can the democrats get away with this? The answer is 'yes' if we don't remain on our toes. For now, we should remain against all things democrat, never rest, and be ready to block any attempts at their ill begotten work. Can we win in November? Right now it's about 50-50. But we must win, or the results will be misery beyond our wildest dreams. So you people on the beach, on the farm, in the factory (if there's any of you left), in the unemployment lines, and on the streets, get busy. I shudder for the thought of a whole USA ever again.
Clinton nee Publius | 8.11.10 @ 10:12AM
The author seeks a reason as to why everything needs to be fixed by progressives. The reason is simple: by granting themselves the exclusive right to declare that government can always improve things, it creates the opportunity for government to corrupt more and more sectors of the economy for the exclusive economic and entertainment benefit of the progressive ruling class and at the exclusive cost and risk of those they seek to victimize and rule for their enjoyment. This is the actual history of markets and governments. If government intervention in the economy actually created the conditions to make the economy better, then the obvious outcome would be one of a continual reduction of the size of government as more and more parts of the economy reached optimization. This has never happened.
This leads directly to the only possible conclusion the actual results of operations demonstrate: government intervention is for the purpose of allowing government to rationalize (politically) feeding upon the private-sector economy for the purposes of creating more government by which even more private-sector output can be stripped away to support.
We see this in the actual outcome of government, because; in our economic society, all units of government are structured as endogenous stakeholders in the private-sector economy and this means every government spending bill penalizes more and more private-sector output (government creates no economic output, just consumption), resulting in more government created "victims" the government will have to help in the future.
When we decide to structure government exogenously this will end and every spending bill will create a true stimulus - which is not the case today. If government spending was an actual stimulus to the economy, every spending bill would create more and more pressure upon government to reduce its size as fewer people would need to be "helped" and government workers would be forced to abandon government service in favor of more lucrative private-sector employment and economic opportunities.
This will never happen under the current structure of our economy and can only happen if we change government's role from being a predator and parasite that feeds off the economy to one where the government is a co-equal participant that has its rights limited to being the same (in opportunity and privileges) as the other stakeholders. Then we will see an end to these issues - once and for all.
All we have to decide is when we want a different outcome. Do we want one while we have a choice or do we want to just wait until there is no choice?
Choose.
Caretaker| 8.11.10 @ 10:18AM
Well said..
maximumrandb| 8.11.10 @ 10:28AM
"Now, the original intent of our founding fathers was that Congress should meet from time to time to tend to the affairs of state that might arise on the way to America taking her place among the great nations."
Great line, very original...and very true.
Petronius| 8.11.10 @ 10:57AM
B.S. These control freaks want their mitts on and in everything because they have a personal emotional investment in their imagined omnipotence and their desire that the losers who elect them will adore them for chopping down their betters so as to lower the top of the food chain to gutter level. They really believe we will all feel better when we are all in it together. NOT!!
scotchieguy| 8.11.10 @ 11:28AM
There is really only one goal of modern gov't.--to control as much as possible and maintain that control for as long as possible.
Margie| 8.11.10 @ 1:44PM
In a nutshell: Socialism and Communism's goal is to destroy the freedom of the individual. On the larger scale and in truth, it is also the goal of God's enemy~ the Devil.
Read the book by Richard Wurmbrand, "Tortured for Christ." Your eyes will be opened to that reality if you aren't already aware of it.
The God given gift of freedom spoken of in the Founding documents is what the Democrat party seeks to remove from us and is now in the process of doing and very quickly.
What is the ONLY answer to this? How shall we fight? Most already know the answer and it is to vote for the opposition party. Vote 'R'~ straight.
The Enemy has us divided. Divide and conquer is his will. Don't let it happen. A vote for a third party or a no vote brings us Obama II.
Mimi| 8.11.10 @ 10:15PM
Margie , you've got that one right. After the Nov. win we can work on the "R"S to undo all the damage....Lotta work ahead!!
Long Ben| 8.11.10 @ 11:57PM
And on squawked Bonnie Fwank like a demented parrot "Affowdabul housing , affowdabul housing
aaack ! "
Marc Jeric| 8.12.10 @ 1:08AM
it is funny how our "progressives" draw their inspiration from "the Communist Manifesto" published 162 years ago. Wherever it was applied the marxism resulted in terror, mass murder, utter poverty. Another fact - from a refugee from a communist hell: after the "capitalists" have been disposed and shot, the next wave of murders caught all those marxist professors, intellectuals, journalists - "progressives" in other words.
John Galt | 8.12.10 @ 6:20PM
re: "they might start by fixing the things that really are broken in this country, like our woeful education system, Social Security, and the tax code"
But the liberals and progressives are the ones who CREATED those messes!
Tax code: Federal income tax illegally kept in place after the conclusion of World War I by progressives who wished to enact social legislation. 90 years later, the disgraceful explosion of the beast (the federal tax code) has become an abomination, in large part due to liberals' hijacking of it to fund entitlements and shape social adherence to their wishes.
Social Security: An enormous entitlement created by liberals and possibly unfixable.
Education: Education doesn't belong anywhere near ANY federal agency! There is growing evidence of a deliberate plan by liberals to use the Dept. of Education to inflict liberal ways of thinking and intentional dumbing down of curricula onto America's schools. You expect these morons to FIX things? (1) They're not capable, and (2) they have no desire to do so.
None of these three things needs "fixing". Social Security needs privatizing; the tax code needs to be discarded in its entirety in favor of a flat tax; and the education system should not be a "system" at all, but rather a 100% local responsibility.
NOTHING should be "fixed" by federal government. The federal government's job is to defend the nation, enable interstate commerce, and raise taxes in support of those two mandates. Shut down everything else (by returning it to the States), defend the nation against all foreign powers (including individual "attackers" crossing our southern border), and let interstate commerce grow by taking off the federal handcuffs (i.e. regulations, taxes, interference).
CodeWarrior| 8.12.10 @ 6:21PM
I like it...The party of "No" is just fine. After all, somebody has to be the parent to all these childish Liberals who want everything. And now! Listening to Liberals is like walking through Toys R Us with a six year old. Sometimes entertaining, often painful, and if you aren't disciplined ...Expensive.