Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Tuesday, October 5. 2010

A little morning political skepticism

If Repubs win the House and/or the Senate, what will they decide to do?


Many Repubs really cannot answer the question. Paul Ryan has his answers, but I'm not sure they are election winners. The only winners, I think, are to undo Obamacare, to stop the January tax increases, and to halt any further Federal intrusion into our lives.


Related at Reason - The Tipping Point:



Suddenly the country had a Resistance movement, standing athwart the flow of Obama history, shouting, "STOP!"


That brings us to this historical moment. If it was not clear during Obama's 2008 campaign (and he made deliberate efforts to obscure it) certainly in late 2010 it is clear where he wants to take the county--toward a European-style socialism, a command economy, driven by an all-powerful central government, determined to redistribute wealth and remake America as a multicultural, secular humanist state.


The election next month is not about returning the Republican Party to power in Washington. It is about stepping back from this tipping point, this precipice that Obama and the Pelosi-Reid Congress have led us to. There is a pervasive sense that this is momentous.



Important? Yes. Momentous? I am not sure. A reaction? Certainly. Much of this is just vague sentiment without specific content, but much of politics is about emotion. Devil is in the details, etc.


I think this post reflects much of the current sentiment: return to the default setting. But which status ante? Here are some default thoughts I can relate to.


Related, Beinart sends a warning: How the GOP Could Blow It:



...Which brings us to the Tea Party, many of whose activists seem genuinely dedicated to slashing government spending (except on the military, of course) and making the party of Reagan and Bush, once again, the party of Goldwater and Gingrich. Maybe this is one reason the GOP establishment is so scared? Over the last half-century, the Republican Party has been, at times, a genuinely anti-government party and, at times, a politically successful party. But it’s never been both at the same time. Once this fall’s elections are over, I suspect the Tea Partiers will begin learning that, the hard way.



Sounds like sour grapes already, yet he has a point. But does Beinart forget Reagan?

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects, Our Essays at 05:15 | Comments (13) | Trackbacks (0)

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I'd like Tea Party candidates to win, but realize that may asking our entitlement society to sacrifice too much. But it will be enough to make the country ungovernable by either Dems or Repubs.

One of the ways back to sanity is to crash the machine and do a hard reboot. If it won't allow a soft reboot. It may be more painful and take longer. So be it. The alternative of allowing business as usual is not an option. The federal government needs to relearn its proper place in our lives.
#1 ruralcounsel on 2010-10-05 08:56 (Reply)
"One of the ways back to sanity is to crash the machine and do a hard reboot."

I fear that both for the US and EU a hard reboot (meaning armed insurgency and overthrow of the political and social elite) may be the only thing that can stop the slide towards a central command communist state.
All political parties on both sides of the Atlantic are so much alike they're essentially indistinguishable, to the point where it doesn't matter who's in power because they're going to do the same thing their "opponents" would have anyway.

The Tea Party politicians will learn soon enough that feeding from that trough will get them a nice income, private jets, luxury homes, yachts, and power beyond their wildest dreams and they'll quickly fall in line and become exactly like those they're now trying to dislodge.

It's happened time and again over the last 200 years or so (maybe longer) and I don't see that changing any time soon.
The US constitution as written (rather than as currently applied, interpreted, and abused) was designed to combat exactly that, and it's failed.
A return to the letter of that document (but this time worldwide) would be the only thing that could stave off disaster, but that too would probably do no more than delay the inevitable as (as wel have heard so often) power corrupts, and total power corrupts totally.
Those elected or appointed to represent us will ALWAYS, no matter their initial intentions, learn that power is nice to have and more power even nicer, and strive to take as much power as possible, until such a point as there's no more power to take because they have it all.
#1.1 J.T. Wenting on 2010-10-05 09:16 (Reply)
I followed the "default thoughts" link and beg to differ about Abe.
Mr. Lincoln faced a dilemma that had been discussed for a decade or more, but which had not been a reality. The Constitution provided for admitting states but it made no provision for secession, nor did it forbid secession. Congress had established laws for admitting states but it had made no provision for secession either. This meant that Lincoln had no lawful authority to permit the secession of the states, as he interpreted the Constitution and history.
Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation regarding the territory in rebellion specifically because he did not have, and knew he did not have, authority to end slavery on his own. He could try to deprive the combatant states of a valuable resource, though. Thus Lincoln believed he was supporting the Constitution, not perverting it, and maintaining the existing authority of the central government rather than extending it.
#2 Geoff Brown on 2010-10-05 10:03 (Reply)
I beg to differ just a little, Geoff. The Constitution did not describe how secession should be accomplished, true, but where it has no power delegated to it, it has no power.

I disagree strongly with the idea that Lincoln thought he was acting Constitutionally. I think he understood that everything being done at the time was extra-constitutional. The states did not have the Constitutional authority to secede, either. They were relying on the concepts of the Declaration of Independence and felt that the North was guilty of sufficient abuses to allow for action "...That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

That Lincoln had the clarity to understand that a division of the two would lead to the subjugation of both was his valuable insight into the times, but I don't think he ever considered his actions constitutional, even though in writing he may have tried hard to claim that justification.

Thank you for reading my post and I appreciate your comment.
#2.1 T.L. Davis (Link) on 2010-10-05 11:03 (Reply)
Good debate.
#2.1.1 Bird Dog on 2010-10-05 11:34 (Reply)
Great debate.

Only hope our educators are addressing such questions in their classrooms. Highly doubt it.
#2.1.2 jma on 2010-10-05 13:05 (Reply)
"If it was not clear during Obama's 2008 campaign.."

Only to those who sleepwalk. Everyone else realized what he was up to immediately.
#3 ahem on 2010-10-05 10:07 (Reply)
Most of Maggie's clients were sleeping then and still are.

Everyone else sounds large but insightful who discerned the liar before he was raced to become el presidente accounted for few.

I wager most MFr's readily believe the liar when he talks of his churchless "Christian" faith his white, muslima mama bequeathed, “I’m a Christian by choice,...my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn’t raise me in the church.”

For the sleepers, it is as though, Hussein0 never said, "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth." is Islamic Adhan which encapsulates shahada, Muslim confession of submission to Muhammad and his devilah.
#3.1 Leag on 2010-10-05 11:37 (Reply)
But does Beinart forget Reagan?

The federal government grew quite a bit in Reagan's term. I remember back in the '80's being a little disappointed, as a fiscal conservative, about the results we were seeing even with the Republicans owning both congress and the presidency.

Of course they were better than the alternative. But I had certainly hoped for more. And now we are in so much more deeply that a repeat of Reagan's term would simply delay the inevitable.
#4 tamsf on 2010-10-05 11:46 (Reply)
Agree Republicans have to limit focus through 2012: repeal Obamacare, install Bush's tax policy permanently and halt expansion of expenditures. Business is not going to invest in tomorrow until the powers that be define "tomorrow's" obligations. What are we? Stupid?????

Today, after watcihng Dr. Biden's discussion of community colleges and our need to dump more money there, let's consider canning the Department of Education and reconsidering the minimum wage for students lacking a high school diploma. I went to work at 8 cutting lawns and hauling dirt for 35 cents an hour plus a paper route. At 13, moved on to helping in a home-based office: monitoring the phone, making out orders, checking shipping slips, tracking inventory and entering deposits for $1.40/hour. When I turned 16, worked at Marshall Fields through high school and much of college. Learned a whole bunch about life that school never covered. We have to get our youth in the workplace again.
#5 jma on 2010-10-05 13:36 (Reply)
I agree with you, jma, about getting our young folks into the workplace again. Cutting lawns, delivering papers, doing gardening chores for neighbors is the way youngsters began to learn about the real world they will live in. We've taken these jobs away from them, turned them over to profit-hungry adults, and given the children 'make-work' or 'supervised play' instead. Now, adults supervise their baseball games, and other contests that they used to initiate themselves. It's the adults now who get into fist-fights over Little League baseball games or football games.

A few years ago, a book called 'The Dangerous Book for Boys' came on the market and I bought a copy for the child of friends of mine. It was wonderful in a charmingly old-fashioned way. It outlined things children could do by themselves like build toys [potato guns anyone?], play war games, and even ways they could make money for Christmas or other reasons. With no large, impatient adults arbitrating, looming over the youngsters urging them on. Today, they're not being allowed to find their own level of expertise, because Daddy, or Mommy know best.

No, actually they don't.

Marianne
#6 Marianne Matthews on 2010-10-05 17:11 (Reply)
Bought a dozen of those books myself. Great! Also the one for girls, which didn't differ too much. My niece and nephew traded info from their copies. Thanks, Marianne. I think I'll seek these books out for the holidays. New semi-generation to thrall.

Also, into harmonicas for the holidays, with h/t to Dylan/BD. They go with the ukes, guitars keyboards, bongos, etc that make life so enjoyable.
#6.1 jma on 2010-10-05 21:19 (Reply)
Missy, why hire a kid, who needs micro-supervision, to do work for greater cost than one can hire a wetback, who can get jobs done with no supervision.

Simple economics suggests keep your kids in their rooms playing games.....cheaper for adults and and safer for kids.
#6.2 Leag on 2010-10-06 10:28 (Reply)

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