PittsburghAfterDark
04-06-2006, 03:57 PM
So much has been attributed to this current Congress and President George Bush in the negative. True, many Republicans have doubts about the way the war on terror is being waged. Many of us have extreme doubts as to the wisdom of the way things are being run in Iraq. Almost across the board we think that the President?s and Congress? approach to handling illegal immigration and border security is political pandering at its worst and not in the best interests of America. Last but not least the fiscal policy of this Congress and President are absolutely abysmal.
So where does this leave the country. What does it contribute to the ?loyal opposition?s? political fortunes? What can be done to correct a rudderless and seemingly inept leadership? Despite the massive misgivings this conservative has I believe that the previous issues will lead to stark and sweeping political revolution. If only there were a voice and movement to champion it.
Much of the war on terror we will never know about, can never know about and will never see. Despite the wishes of the mainstream media for full disclosure what is happening cannot be done in the open. The programs in place to track communications, the flow of money and passport controls that have no doubt changed in the past 5 years should not be known to the general public. It?s no way to fight a war, run a criminal investigation or if you want to drag it down to an even further base level you cannot run major businesses with your trade secrets out in the open.
This being said I believe the overwhelming majority of the American population believes that, if only someone would come out and say it. Unfortunately current leadership has not been articulate in explaining those details. What is surprising though is the Democrats and liberals, they will never get away with changing their descriptor to progressives, don?t recognize this and continually wish to fight against the best interests of America. Is this by conscience thought? Probably not but blind political ambition to regain power leads to mistakes and adverse public perception problems.
Iraq has been met with mixed fortunes. The oft quoted and ridiculed ?Mission Accomplished? statement must be taken into context. The war against Saddam Hussein?s organized military was sweeping and absolute. Of course there was no doubt as to its outcome before a resumption of hostilities continued on a massive scale finally resolving the frequently violated cease-fire that ended Desert Storm. What?s happened since?
To put it simply in military parlance, no battle plan survives first contact with enemy forces. The expectations of a sweeping reform that would lead to a European or American type democracy were vastly overestimated. Without a contextual mirror in which to view an Arab or Islamic democracy optimism superceded reality. Since then the constant terrorist strife has been met with underwhelming military response. The gloves were put back on after the collapse of the Ba?athist government.
Solution? From a political standpoint an acknowledgement of the positives and the negative. The American people can deal with reality. We are not an ignorant people. Failure on this issue, and withdraw is failure, leads to attacks of a magnitude that we dare not comprehend. Instability of the Arab world would result in such a power vacuum that would compound exponentially our difficulties in the world. It would also show in crystalline terms that this conflict is not between America and terrorists but an overlying conflict of militant Islam and the West, which many seemingly discount.
The border security issue has been as improperly defined in political terms as any issue I have ever seen in my life. Operation Barbarossa (The German invasion of the USSR in 1941.) was undertaken by 3,000,000 soldiers with full intent of bringing an end to the Soviet experiment. The Punic Wars between Carthage and Rome never involved armies by either side in excess of 100,000, they did result in the destruction of the Punic states, once the greatest naval power in the world. These numbers are completely dwarfed by the estimated 11,000,000-20,000,000 illegal aliens in America. In other words, it?s an invasion by any other name.
While the issue has focused on the status of those immigrants and how to integrate them as American citizens that has been and never was the outcry of the American people. The issue is having borders that are defined, controlled, regulated and respected by international treaty. None of that has been addressed. None of that is being discussed, debated or enhanced by currently proposed legislation. It?s a whitewash of the issue.
Michael Savage, yes, that Michael Savage, has a clearly defined definition of what a nation is. Border, language and culture. Lose one, you lose another, lose the third and you?re no longer a nation. To devolve this argument into racist or pro/anti immigrant debate belittles the demands of the American electorate that their leaders wake up and realize the trouble of this issue is beyond immigration. This is an issue at the very heart of the continued existence of America.
The shark has been jumped. The debate and legislation proposed is not adequate and the American people know it. When Ted Kennedy and John McCain are pushing forth joint legislation you know the topic has been pushed off for another election cycle and will not be resolved. The turnabout is a firebrand conservative or even an even tempered Democrat can and will make this a centerpiece of their 2008 campaign and the opposition to that will be nothing compared to what you?ve seen to date.
Failure to address problems adequately results in "extremist" leadership down the line. There is no place for moderation in securing borders, insisting people that come here should be known to be here is not extreme, paying for social services for unwelcome and unknown illegal immigrants is the height of social irresponsibility and recipie for fiscal disaster. You?re not kind of illegal the way a nation isn?t kind of invaded and a woman is kind of pregnant.
Lastly, the fiscal disaster of a Republican Congress. Was it the tax cuts? No. Was it the spending? Yes. Were there other options put forth by Democrats? Yes, spend more and do more. The education bill? Opposition, we?re not spending enough. Prescription drugs? We?re not spending enough, that new entitlement doesn?t go as far as we?d like. This is the problem with George Bush?s failed descriptor of Compassionate Conservatism. It?s liberal lite, do the same thing, spend less doing it and try to involve the private sector instead of pure government intervention.
The solution, govern the way you campaigned. It?s so simple it?s stupid. Cut government spending, cut taxes, tackle entitlements, and for the love of God don?t go talking about, debating and passing new ones! We just can?t afford it. $2,700,000,000,000 is enough for the federal government to meet its needs. It needs no more.
The first politician that runs on that platform and actually governs on those platforms will be beloved by the American population and vilified by the press and liberals. They always have been they always will be.
The President that runs on the common sense platform and actually governs on the platform he or she ran on will be a something this country has not had since January 20th 1988. A true leader. The biggest ideas and more often than not the simplest. The political will to carry out that vision as being the right thing to do is a rare thing but something to be cherished.
Like it or not the political environment dominated by gotcha politics and the 24-hour news cycle is completely devoid of two things; ideas and leadership.
The time for a political revolution hasn?t been as visible to the naked eye in over a generation.
So where does this leave the country. What does it contribute to the ?loyal opposition?s? political fortunes? What can be done to correct a rudderless and seemingly inept leadership? Despite the massive misgivings this conservative has I believe that the previous issues will lead to stark and sweeping political revolution. If only there were a voice and movement to champion it.
Much of the war on terror we will never know about, can never know about and will never see. Despite the wishes of the mainstream media for full disclosure what is happening cannot be done in the open. The programs in place to track communications, the flow of money and passport controls that have no doubt changed in the past 5 years should not be known to the general public. It?s no way to fight a war, run a criminal investigation or if you want to drag it down to an even further base level you cannot run major businesses with your trade secrets out in the open.
This being said I believe the overwhelming majority of the American population believes that, if only someone would come out and say it. Unfortunately current leadership has not been articulate in explaining those details. What is surprising though is the Democrats and liberals, they will never get away with changing their descriptor to progressives, don?t recognize this and continually wish to fight against the best interests of America. Is this by conscience thought? Probably not but blind political ambition to regain power leads to mistakes and adverse public perception problems.
Iraq has been met with mixed fortunes. The oft quoted and ridiculed ?Mission Accomplished? statement must be taken into context. The war against Saddam Hussein?s organized military was sweeping and absolute. Of course there was no doubt as to its outcome before a resumption of hostilities continued on a massive scale finally resolving the frequently violated cease-fire that ended Desert Storm. What?s happened since?
To put it simply in military parlance, no battle plan survives first contact with enemy forces. The expectations of a sweeping reform that would lead to a European or American type democracy were vastly overestimated. Without a contextual mirror in which to view an Arab or Islamic democracy optimism superceded reality. Since then the constant terrorist strife has been met with underwhelming military response. The gloves were put back on after the collapse of the Ba?athist government.
Solution? From a political standpoint an acknowledgement of the positives and the negative. The American people can deal with reality. We are not an ignorant people. Failure on this issue, and withdraw is failure, leads to attacks of a magnitude that we dare not comprehend. Instability of the Arab world would result in such a power vacuum that would compound exponentially our difficulties in the world. It would also show in crystalline terms that this conflict is not between America and terrorists but an overlying conflict of militant Islam and the West, which many seemingly discount.
The border security issue has been as improperly defined in political terms as any issue I have ever seen in my life. Operation Barbarossa (The German invasion of the USSR in 1941.) was undertaken by 3,000,000 soldiers with full intent of bringing an end to the Soviet experiment. The Punic Wars between Carthage and Rome never involved armies by either side in excess of 100,000, they did result in the destruction of the Punic states, once the greatest naval power in the world. These numbers are completely dwarfed by the estimated 11,000,000-20,000,000 illegal aliens in America. In other words, it?s an invasion by any other name.
While the issue has focused on the status of those immigrants and how to integrate them as American citizens that has been and never was the outcry of the American people. The issue is having borders that are defined, controlled, regulated and respected by international treaty. None of that has been addressed. None of that is being discussed, debated or enhanced by currently proposed legislation. It?s a whitewash of the issue.
Michael Savage, yes, that Michael Savage, has a clearly defined definition of what a nation is. Border, language and culture. Lose one, you lose another, lose the third and you?re no longer a nation. To devolve this argument into racist or pro/anti immigrant debate belittles the demands of the American electorate that their leaders wake up and realize the trouble of this issue is beyond immigration. This is an issue at the very heart of the continued existence of America.
The shark has been jumped. The debate and legislation proposed is not adequate and the American people know it. When Ted Kennedy and John McCain are pushing forth joint legislation you know the topic has been pushed off for another election cycle and will not be resolved. The turnabout is a firebrand conservative or even an even tempered Democrat can and will make this a centerpiece of their 2008 campaign and the opposition to that will be nothing compared to what you?ve seen to date.
Failure to address problems adequately results in "extremist" leadership down the line. There is no place for moderation in securing borders, insisting people that come here should be known to be here is not extreme, paying for social services for unwelcome and unknown illegal immigrants is the height of social irresponsibility and recipie for fiscal disaster. You?re not kind of illegal the way a nation isn?t kind of invaded and a woman is kind of pregnant.
Lastly, the fiscal disaster of a Republican Congress. Was it the tax cuts? No. Was it the spending? Yes. Were there other options put forth by Democrats? Yes, spend more and do more. The education bill? Opposition, we?re not spending enough. Prescription drugs? We?re not spending enough, that new entitlement doesn?t go as far as we?d like. This is the problem with George Bush?s failed descriptor of Compassionate Conservatism. It?s liberal lite, do the same thing, spend less doing it and try to involve the private sector instead of pure government intervention.
The solution, govern the way you campaigned. It?s so simple it?s stupid. Cut government spending, cut taxes, tackle entitlements, and for the love of God don?t go talking about, debating and passing new ones! We just can?t afford it. $2,700,000,000,000 is enough for the federal government to meet its needs. It needs no more.
The first politician that runs on that platform and actually governs on those platforms will be beloved by the American population and vilified by the press and liberals. They always have been they always will be.
The President that runs on the common sense platform and actually governs on the platform he or she ran on will be a something this country has not had since January 20th 1988. A true leader. The biggest ideas and more often than not the simplest. The political will to carry out that vision as being the right thing to do is a rare thing but something to be cherished.
Like it or not the political environment dominated by gotcha politics and the 24-hour news cycle is completely devoid of two things; ideas and leadership.
The time for a political revolution hasn?t been as visible to the naked eye in over a generation.