I quoted Johnny Hunter as saying, “The Republican Party is not the party of the rich, the Republican Party is the party of human dignity.”
A commenter left a huge section of 1984 (you know the piece — it starts out with fostering pain and misery and ends with “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — for ever.”) with a kicker of “That is the Republican Party.”
Please don’t be surprised, but I took exception. Because if truth be told, the passage is far more descriptive of the Democrat Party, for they are masters at inflicting pain and misery, over and over, forever.
Democrats assert power by keeping the people in ignorance, dumbing down our children by concentrating on Rousseauean “nurture the children’s emotions” and eliminating any chance at academic excellence.
Democrats assert power by fostering the ideology of victimization and entitlement, robbing the citizenry of ambition and hope, and eliminating the feeling of empowerment that comes with attaining that which you must work to gain.
Democrats assert power by nurturing the divisiveness of racism and class warfare. They foment multiculturalism in order to play one group against another.
The intelligentsia of the liberal wing gives only two forms of art — that which the poor, uneducated cannot understand but must pay for with their tax dollars (e.g., a crucifix in a jar of urine) and the dull pap that endlessly spews forth from the liberal propaganda machine — Hollywood — for which they give each other endless awards and honors. (I felt compelled to mention art because the Orwell quote did. Besides, it’s one of my pet peeves.)
Democrat power derives from pain, misery and jealousy. Eliminate these things and the Democrats lose all meaning, all need for being. But Democrats carefully nurture these things, all the while proclaiming that their goal is to rid the world of them forever. Clever Democrats, masters of the beating their breasts and crying crocodile tears, they deceive the public but it cannot last forever.
Silly Liberal, do not turn to the words of philosophers like Orwell for truths. They merely guide the way towards ideas. Look at the real world to find your truths. Look at how the real world works rather than the fantasies of a writer.
Look at how increasing the monies thrown at our educational system has failed to make the needed, nay essential, improvements. Then look for other ways of fixing it, such as vouchers to give our children most in need a chance for a successful future. This is the heart of Compassionate Conservatism.
Look at how increasing entitlement programs has created a culture of victimization among our minorities and driven a wedge of contention between the races. Indeed, it has actually fostered three generations of increasingly demanding recipients — billions of dollars of hand outs are not enough, now they cry out that there must be reparations. Then look at how welfare reform of the 90s got more people working than ever before. Look past the feel-good policies to see what the results are, and try to find solutions that provides for those that need it, weeds out most of those who seek to abuse it, and lift up those who desire it. This is the heart of Compassionate Conservatism.
Look at how keeping the money of hard-working folk in a low-return Social Security program relegates our elderly to subsistence living, for they believed the lies of politicians who said that they would provide for them. Look at the faces of our young workers who must pay into the system as surely as they must pay taxes, believing that it is money wasted because Social Security will “go bankrupt” long before they retire. Now look at reforms aimed at giving these young industrious people choices in investing what is being taken from them, that they may have a comfortable retirement. This is the heart of Compassionate Conservatism.
Look at how taxing the rich robs everyone by eliminating jobs, stifling growth, keeping pay and benefits low. Look at how tax cuts have worked in times past and is now working in Europe (both France and Germany are cutting taxes to stimulate their economies). Look at cutting waste rather than taxing the easy targets. This is the heart of Compassionate Conservatism.
One may say that Compassionate Conservatism is failing: our school budget is larger than ever, jobs were not stimulated by the tax cuts, and government waste has not been eliminated. But if one says that then one is quite wrong and as short-sighted as the silly liberal with his nose in the works of Rousseau and Orwell and Marx and Huxley and Machiavelli and Chomsky and even Locke and Hobbes.
In the real world, Democrats have had a hold on our political system for six decades. While Republicans have temporarily gained the White House or Congress, it has been Democrats that have driven domestic policy. The first real challenge was Newt Gingrich’s Contract With America in 1994, from which sprang meaningful welfare reform (which worked better than was hoped for). This was the beginnings of Compassionate Conservatism.
Other than revolution, change is slow. Painfully slow. Even revolution comes to fruition slowly (ask the students of Iran). It will take time to get things like vouchers accepted into the hearts and minds of the public, especially in the face of determined and highly emotive attacks from teachers unions. Education reform will take place. It must take place and this president will make it happen. His first attempt was diluted by working with a two-faced, drunken, murdering Kennedy that the people of Taxachusetts has seen fit to empower. But it was a necessary first step. And the president’s next attempt will do better.
The tax cuts reversed the Clinton Recession. You can talk all you want about presidents not being able to change the economic winds blowing across the land but in the real world one sees that consumer confidence and consumer spending kept the dreaded double-dip from happening. The reason for that confidence rebounding after 9/11 was the public’s trust in George W. Bush in leading the War Against Terrorism and protecting America. The reason for the consumer spending was that paltry $600 multiplied across the land by the number of eligible families.
The jobless recovery is the product of companies being more efficient and workers doing more with less. Worker productivity is up, so the jobs did not appear. But this is changing as the economy gathers steam — the jobs are on the way.
There is much, much more but the point is that change comes in baby steps. One does not change the direction of a large ship quickly — it is incapable of making right turns. And so it goes for changing policy in America.
We gave the Democrats 60 years and they failed in almost every regard. Isn’t it time to give Compassionate Conservatism a chance?