May 06 2009
A Path To A Better Future
Addendum: I hope DJ doesn’t mind me adding my two cents to this, but we have in these quotes she resurrected the potential to rebuild the conservative movement in a manner palatable for a broad coalition. These words of wisdom should be the litmus test of our policy proposals. We cannot run to the pure fringes and hope to right this country. If we can get back to AMERICAN principles – not conservative principles – then ownership and participation will grow under those principles. People are much more willing to reinvigorate America for the future than anything party allegiance.
If one group tries to own these principles, they bar others from sharing in them. We need to respect and learn from others who share these principles, but are not willing to take the same action or go as far as others. We need to define and accept common ground. It means compromise, but the result is a renewed America based on America’s founding principles, which is much more important than either party. AJStrata – end update
I despise people who go to the gutter on either the right or the left and hurl rocks at those in the center. — Dwight Eisenhower
After listening and watching the Republican party and conservatives implode upon themselves, and the Democrats and liberals disrespect anyone who opposes them and Obama, I decided that the best way to get back on the path towards success for this country is to look back to our founding fathers, founding documents, and some former Presidents.
We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience. — George Washington
This country was founded based on the fundamentals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as well as other inalienable rights. When our country was founded we had just won a war fighting for our independence and for the opportunity to make our own decisions about our government and our country. And those patriots bring me to my first problem with society and this country today.
America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand. — Harry Truman
The founding fathers and the patriots who fought for our independence believed that you had to work hard to earn things in life.
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. — James Monroe
Nowadays people believe that they are entitled to everything. And that the entity that should be providing everything for them is our government.
A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government. — Thomas Jefferson
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. — Thomas Jefferson
Our government was not designed to provide for the lazy.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves. — Abraham Lincoln
People cannot blame the government or other people for their own failures or for their circumstances. Only that person can change things for themselves.
If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month. — Theodore Roosevelt
Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures. — Theodore Roosevelt
Our government was set up to govern the United States, but the power was to remain in the hands of the people and the states.
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. — Thomas Jefferson
The people in this country need to understand that concept of you earn what you work for. We do not need the government to give us hand outs. We are better than that. The first step is to take credit for our problems and issues and to find a way for us as a people to fix them.
How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them. — Benjamin Franklin
The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight. — Theodore Roosevelt
If the people want to continue to let the government try to invade and run our lives I suggest that they take the advice of Dwight Eisenhower:
If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking…is freedom.
But to be able to fix our problems we still have to remember that liberty and justice are the basis of our government and that the power to govern is in the hands of the people.
The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world. — James Madison
When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different; Liberty, sir, was the primary object. — Patrick Henry
Just a parting thought to keep in mind as well as those above…
The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. — Benjamin Franklin
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[This is only the first of many posts, due to the fact that I have a full time job. Keep an eye out for more to come]
DJSTRATA
A PATH TO A BETTER FUTURE.
Sarah Palin. Let’s all get behind her 100% and help her firmly establish her place as leader of the party and make her the candidate for President in 2012.. If conservatives stay on target and maintain their position as the opposite of socialism, sooner or later, when Obama crashes and burns, the time will be ripe. We don’t need to throw around all the names out there. Sarah will do just fine.
If you believe, don’t waver. She’s the only ‘threat’ I see to the liberals, they’re in agony trying to demonize her. Get out of that ditch in the middle of the highway and get behind a traditional conservative.
PALIN IN ’12, ONE OF A DOZEN.
I believe the most destructive change to our government came in 1913 when the states were stripped of their check on Federal government with the passage of the 17th Amendment. Until that time the Senate was appointed by the state legislatures. This allowed the state governments to act as a check on the growth in scope of the federal government.
This single change completely altered the fundamental structure of our government and has resulted in the Senate changing from the “worlds greatest deliberative body” to a circus.
Many of the powers undertaken by our federal government today are actually the role of the states. The notion of National Health Care is one example. That is a role for the state governments, not the federal governments as envisioned by the framers of the constitution.
The state governments have the power to wreck the economies of their states, the idea was to limit the federal governments ability to wreck the economy of the entire nation. 50 different states with programs and plans tailored to the specific needs of their citizens is a better way. What works can be emulated, what fails can be avoided and the states can provide for their people or not. People can flock to places that do well and the political power of those places will increase with the population. People can avoid places with unpopular ways but some will probably like those ways. And so people can find a place that suits their values and be happy.
And my point is that most of the problem we have today are fundamentally rooted in issues that the federal government has no business discussing in the first place. The “issues” these days are due to the federal government exercising powers that it doesn’t have according to the constitution. National Health Care, mortgage guarantees, bailouts of private entities, etc. None of those things are the role of the federal government.
Can someone show me which article of the constitution specifically gives the federal government authority to guarantee mortgages? Because unless the constitution SPECIFICALLY gives a right to the federal government, then the government doesn’t have that right.
The constitution is specific in rights granted to the federal government, specific in prohibitions on state government, and all the rest is granted to the states and the people. Unless there is a specific clause in the constitution granting authority to do something, then the federal government does not have that authority. And unless the constitution specifically prohibits state government from something, then it is the right of the states to do it. So the states may guarantee mortgages if they wish, but the federal government may not, the way I read the Constitution.
Most of our political debate and issues are directly surrounding issues that don’t even belong in the discussion. If we were to get back to doing things the way it was intended to work, the discussion would be much different. The health care debate would be a local one and national debate would be more focused on role of government issues and our taxes would be much smaller.
“Americans”: includes people you might disagree with in any number of ways: politically, religiously, etc. If the RNC wants to purge itself clean of middle-of-the-roaders because they don’t hold to some of the basic tenants/planks of the party, let them do it. If the DNC wants to permanently bend the other way, so it is. If that leaves a huge middle group of people who can’t decide who they are, or what they are, don’t want to form their own party, but are content to borrow from everything else and then complain about what ever isn’t catering to them….well….that’s the way it is.
The “centrists” complain forever about the growing divide they find themselves in because of the ever widening, partisan, 2- party system. And yet, all they can muster is to complain at the left for being too far left, and complain that the right is not being moderate and inclusive enough. I think for those people, its time for a 3rd party.
Then there are the other middle-of-the-roaders that can find themselves in a mirror over any issues, who swing too and fro, never really holding any opinions, etc., who are the ones most susceptible to the kind of BS marketing, etc., like “Hope & Change” and feel good politics that I just have lost all respect and empathy for. They are blind sheep for the taking.
Dc, neither the right nor the left have enough votes to win a national election. It is the center who decides who wins. Period.
Neither party accounts for more than 40% of the people showing up at the polls on election day.
The middle has become important when there are high turnouts and because they are the ones who shift too and fro with the wind (and commercials), crossvote, and randomly work for or against their own party interests. The base of either side is pretty much set and is going to vote that way.
Given full turnout, it’s always been true that no party has enough votes. But that would also include the so-called “middle”/moderates as well. RNC won many elections in the past just by turning out their base…when disinterested liberals and moderates stayed home or had better things to do on election day. Once their is turnout, the middle becomes more important. But, then…nobody can count on where they might end up. It just depends on what the issues are that day, which way the wind is blowing, and what kind of commercials/TV they are watching.