It is difficult for 'common' Americans to understand the mindset of the wealthy in our country. For one thing, we common folk do not encounter these people very often. They travel by private air, boat, and yes, sometimes, even private rail. They eat out at exclusive clubs or special parts of restaurants dedicated to them. They limo, or have drivers. They live in chateaus which are penetrable only by their coded limo devices or from the air, by their private helicopters. It is a sneaky quiet dimension layered above the dimension we ordinarily inhabit, so we just don't see them. Occasionally, very occasionally, they come out for public events. You will know them by the looks of discomfort on their faces. The forced good will. The nodding paternalistic smile downward toward the rest of us. That we allowed their creation, existence and continuance is never even mentioned, anywhere. It is a truly secret world they live in.
I know some of them. I work for Hollywood, so sometimes I am graced by their presence. It can be delightfully humorous to listen to their chatter about these tough economic times. I actually listened to one man discuss how he was going to fly to Florida on his G-5 Gulfstream jet (12 passenger) instead of his Canadair Challenger (28 passenger wide body). He honestly and openly stated that he was trying to do his part for the economy and to be more green. I did not laugh. I worked on my chunk of prime rib looking down. Here is another one. Different dinner. This time the host almost broke down and cried. We were dining in his five million dollar chateau, by the way, one of three which he owns that I know of. He was terribly emotionally upset about discharging his long time driver of his limo. I spoke up on this issue, and complimented him for his obvious discomfort over the driver's loss of his long-time job. The table went quiet. The man then went on to explain in detail that the driver was a good man. He would find another job. The grief the man was experiencing was due to the fact that everyone was going to know that he no longer had a driver. That he was having to drive himself.
Now can you understand why the executives flew to Washington for bailout money in their private jets? When they were called on it, what did the do in reaction? They were extremely angry! They do not live in our world. They do not even have any comprehension of our world anymore. They are like Regis Philben on Regis and Kelly in the morning t.v. show. Regis can't remember anything anymore. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Pelosi, Kerry, McCain, Kennedy...the party affiliation does not matter. What matters is the wealth and the overpowering "God meant me to have this because I am special" mentality. Those people feel that is is part of their obligation to God Himself that they be kept wealthy and, and this is the really hilarious part, that the rest of us be kept poor. Or in our place, at least. You see, God meant us to be poor. And there it is.
Watch closely, after reading this short article, and see what you can pick up about those people. You will begin to frown, then smile and maybe even snarl, if you watch long enough.
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Obama’s argument.
PREMISE: Reforms in healthcare, energy and education were deferred in the past in favor of short term gains.
PREMISE: Search for short term financial gains without adequate regulation, and the lack of fiscal responsibility, got us into the current crisis.
PREMISE: Reforms in healthcare, energy and education will help grow the economy.
CONCLUSION:Therefore: In addition to reviving the economy, we must push for reforms in healthcare, energy and education to help insure our long term prosperity.
Not a non sequitur, Dr. Krauthammer.
Krauthammer’s version:
The logic of Obama's address to Congress went like this:
"Our economy did not fall into decline overnight," he averred. Indeed, it all began before the housing crisis. What did we do wrong? We are paying for past sins in three principal areas: energy, health care and education -- importing too much oil and not finding new sources of energy (as in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Outer Continental Shelf?), not reforming health care, and tolerating too many bad schools.
The "day of reckoning" has arrived. And because "it is only by understanding how we arrived at this moment that we'll be able to lift ourselves out of this predicament," Obama has come to redeem us with his far-seeing program of universal, heavily nationalized health care; a cap-and-trade tax on energy; and a major federalization of education with universal access to college as the goal.
Amazing. As an explanation of our current economic difficulties, this is total fantasy. As a cure for rapidly growing joblessness, a massive destruction of wealth, a deepening worldwide recession, this is perhaps the greatest non sequitur ever foisted upon the American people.
The fact is, our economy did not fall into decline overnight. Nor did all of our problems begin when the housing market collapsed or the stock market sank. We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before. The cost of health care eats up more and more of our savings each year, yet we keep delaying reform. Our children will compete for jobs in a global economy that too many of our schools do not prepare them for. And though all these challenges went unsolved, we still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt, both as individuals and through our government, than ever before.
In other words, we have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election. A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future. Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn’t afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day.
Well that day of reckoning has arrived, and the time to take charge of our future is here.
Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity. Now is the time to jumpstart job creation, re-start lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down.
I rest my case
...Contact: Alex.Karoub@gmail.com
While campaigning before the election, I found in speaking with many fellow Americans that each had handfuls of reasons to vote for Barack Obama. Some had two or three major reasons to vote for him, while a few just did not like the condition of the economy or the Iraq war. By far the majority of Democrats had many reasons to vote for Obama; the number of people who were well versed on the many issues that Obama stood for surprised me. Nice to see how well educated the public became about the election and the candidates. It was a great election!Most Conservatives that I discussed the election choices with had a couple of common interests - 1) most had a fear of change and 2) self-preservation of greed, as their primary concerns. Although they did not initially express it in those terms, that is what further relaxed conversations revealed. In letting those to the right speak their minds, without worry of objection, they soon direct the conversation to money and their strong desires to control others/society by its use.
Many traditional Repulicans were embarrassed by Palin, some voted for Obama as a result. Shockingly, a few actually rallied for Palin; when asked why, their answers were often as empty as Palin's head. I think of those as 'Blind Followers' or 'Followers of Followers', people without substance. Some actually thought of it as a beauty contest, rather than taking the seriousness of her being a potential President in an emergency, shallow. You will enjoy my other blog that is light hearted titled: 'What is Palin?' Or, read my more serious blog: 'Libertarianism, a driving force at the top of the Republican Party'.
OLD APHORISMS THAT CHANGED IN THE LAST 8 YEARS
A few cliches seem to have taken a turn for the worse over the recent past, and have become more pretentious. Keep in mind, the majority of people use the first cliche in sincere and good meaning. The second never was very good, although some conservatives actually live by it. Below are just two which a few people have given new twists to in meaning:
'I give back to the community' - Well, if they didn't grab it so greedily in the first place, there wouldn't be such a need for them to give small token drops of it back. They think giving back makes them ‘absolved of their sins’. 'America, love it or leave it' - In looking at what the wealthiest and most conservative have done, we see some are actually leaving America. First we see a couple of decades back that many major portions of corporations have moved overseas, to now seeing billionaires grab their stashes and actually move completely to other countries. While others (pretending to be Democrats) have taken on second citizenship’s / bank accounts and remote fat legged residences for themselves. They hide from their realities and surround themselves with other fakes of the like, catered to in pretentious princess like surroundings, socially stuffing themselves with cerebral bon-bons and cream puffs.
I initially noticed those mentalities in my younger years as I describe further in my post titled “The Auto Industry, a few of my experiences”.
This is not the time to have a Republican president in the white house. The elite Republican party is out of touch with mainstream America along with their supporters. It is self serving to want to elect a Republican president in 2008.
A lot of Republicans want to put John McCain in the white house because they don't want their taxes to go up. They want to hoard all of the wealth and let the rest of America pay for their lap of luxury. When Senator Barack Obama speaks about helping keep the middle class stable because we are the backbone of the American society and providing health care for all who want to have it, the Republicans feel, "that's not my problem, I have enough wealth for my kids and grandchildren to live good lives, even if they work for a job that has no healthcare." Just pass the greed and wealth along to your offspring why don't ya. Forget about the rest of us.
A lot of the Republican party want to put John McCain into the white house because they don't want the taxes of big business to go up. It may cause jobs to move oversees. It may cause these same businesses to evade paying taxes and layoff workers. "Something that is not already happening under the Republican administration, I might add." If their big tax cuts did not cause companies to keep jobs in America and not layoff American workers after 8 years, why would more tax cuts work? Am I missing something here? Any reasonable person would try something different like providing tax cuts to companies who keep the work in America! Try that for a new concept Republican party.
Also to say that raising taxes for big companies will cause these companies and individuals to evade taxes is the risk that we need to take because those people need to be put out of business if that is their option. Also that is an unpatriotic thing to do. Stop giving excuses for those who have no morals.
A lot of the Republican party do not want to tax big oil companies because the oil companies need that money to invest in alternative energy research. So we need to give them more tax cuts. Well what about the tax cuts we gave them all those many years? What did they do with that money, pocket it in dividends? The big oil companies need to pull from that reserve of cash and start doing some research. We would have been further along if they were not self serving, incompetent, and shady businessmen who did what they were suppose to do in the first place.
A lot of Republicans want to put McCain into office because he shares their values of no abortion under any circumstances, guns, and no gay marriage. Let's face it, they have nothing else to worry about because they are already rich and/or ignorant. Well what about the values of the rest of Americans which include more than abortion, guns, and gay marriage. To the narrow minded Republicans, there are other concerns in our society to vote about...hmmm let's see... civil liberties, war, economy, government to name just a few because there are so much more.
I believe in capitalism but I don't believe in policies that suppress the majority and look out for the few, who in most cases, don't deserve it.
Take care my good people!
If you missed the title of this blog, let me fill you in. I am a Republican. I have been a conservative since my early twenties when I began understanding the role taxes played in my income. I am here to share my views. I hope you will respond.
I want to discuss presidential leadership. Specifically, the role a president plays in effecting the shape and path our government takes. The setting of the national agenda, so to speak. What impact does the president actually have? How important are his views?
I propose that most voters make a fundamental error in judgment when considering and voting for a presidential candidate. Call it a misalignment of good intentions (to formulate it positively). Many people vote for a president because they like their health care plan or ideas about college tuition. This is wrong. Not that it's completely irrelevant, but it's a focus on legislation that plays a ancillary role in the President's job. As I said, being a conservative I am in opposition to liberal social policy. However, this is exactly where I think Barak Obama is an interesting candidate.
As a conservative I am motivated first by National Security, second by domestic policy. I believe a president with a strong and true character will respond to a terrorist threat, not based on their party affiliation, but rather for the protection of the United States. Therefore, I propose that conservatives are looking for a president that will be tough in their defense of the country. Barak Obama has a strong character and I believe that he believe what he says. Therefore, I believe that if her were to be the democratic ticket for president many conservative voters would vote for him. Hillary Clinton has demonstrated for many years that she has no belief system or true character. For that reason alone she does not deserve to be president.
I think many conservatives hope that Hillary gets on the ticket because they think more people will then vote for the Republican. This is disingenuous to the health of the nation. I believe what is best for the United States is that Barak Obama to be the democratic option. Further, if my fellow Republicans are true patriots they will agree with me.
