Democrat is next to demagogue in the dictionary

Demagogue: a leader who uses popular prejudices and false claims and promises to gain power.

I’m personally very worried about what kind of country we’re leaving our kids - titanic debt, mushrooming intrusion of government and burgeoning sense of entitlement.
Clearly the Democrats know they are in big trouble in 2012 because the demagoguery they and their media sidekicks are slinging around is getting ridiculous. A few examples…
• Bush did not cause the 2008 meltdown. Blame those who encouraged banks to overextend credit on the assumption that the real estate market would keep booming forever.
• Democrats want to raise taxes on the top earners and employers who already pay the lion’s share of taxes. Hey, take a minute to study the Laffer curve. Bone up on your history to see that that class warfare is an economic death spiral.
• Had Obama decreased taxes instead of wasting nearly $1 trillion on silly stimulus projects, we’d be out of this economic funk by now.
• Obamacare, higher taxes, more regulations, unions, minimum wage, drilling bans and such are all kryptonite to business people who create jobs.
• A fancy-talker like Obama could have succeeded by surrounding himself with a strong team. Instead he hired political hacks and crony czars.
• The mainstream media has lost all credibility by coddling Obama and attacking his opponents, especially conservative blacks and women.
• If Obama spent as much time working with Congress as he does playing golf, taking extravagant vacations and raising money for his re-election, we might be on the way to recovery. And if he put a buck in the jar every time he says “I” and “me”, we could balance the budget.
• Obama deserves as much credit for nailing bin Laden as Nixon does for putting a man on the moon (both happened during their terms).
We could be so much better if there was less rabble rousing and more statesmanship.

Time for less butter

Many moons ago, when I was in school, the big discussion was whether the government should be spending on defense and infrastructure, or social programs such as health, education and welfare. Well, the butter people won that ‘guns or butter’ argument, and you can see where it got us. We now have mountains of debt and the social demands are growing exponentially. We don’t even maintain the roads and infrastructure we have, not alone expand. One of the best programs the government ever initiated – space exploration – is grinding to a halt.
It takes extra effort and curiosity to understand how supply economics works. It takes courage to say no to the demands of people, knowing you are helping them in the long term.
I compare government policy to the way mothers and fathers raise a child. The balance of protective cuddling from the mom - and ‘suck it up’ demands from the dad - produce a balanced kid. If the dad starts acting like the mom all the time, the kid may never be all she or he could be.
You would think we would look back over the past few decades to realize that public policy in this country is out of balance. We need to get back to lower taxes, less regulation and less social engineering. Restore liberty and personal responsibility. A rising tide lifts all boats.

Stay to the left and speed up…

The year is 1912. Captain Obama hurries to the bridge of the huge passenger ship, agitated at being called away from a celebrity-packed party on the luxury deck. “Ice ahead, Captain,” says the worried officer. “Could be an iceberg.” The Captain looks out into the darkness. He’s never commanded this ship in these waters before; in fact, he’s never been at sea. But he learned to appear confident in college, and he’s anxious to get back to the party. “Oh, it’s just a big chunk of ice. Stay to the left. This ship is unsinkable. Plus all the world’s ice is melting. Full speed ahead! In fact, increase our speed by ten knots.” Unlike the Titanic, our country has negotiated around some major economic icebergs in the past. But it’s 2011, our debt now exceeds our GDP, and our leader is more concerned with holding his office than dealing with the issues. Disaster can be avoided, but time is running out. We can’t balance the budget with tax increases; spending and promises must be reduced. And the media has to stop handing the mic to Democrats who still blame Bush and repeat the same old worn-out class warfare nonsense. Democrats control the government – the White House, the Senate, the bureaucracy, the media, government education and the courts. It’s time they put down the violins and step up to the challenge.

Democrat’s kabuki dance

Rush Limbaugh’s use of the term kabuki dance last week caught my attention. I thought it was some African term that was sure to get the lovable little fuzzball in PC trouble again.
It turns out that kabuki is a form of Japanese dance that features over-the-top costumes and makeup, exaggerated theatrics, and farce. What a perfect description of Washington today!
Come on, Democrats. Stop the kabuki dancing and get serious about fixing the current unsustainable level of government spending and future promises.

The wet blanket of statism

Progressive people like to fix what they consider unfair. It might be some disadvantaged soul who needs a hand, or some money-wasting, environment-damaging corporate type who needs to be taken down a notch. Government is their vehicle and Western Europe is their model.

Well, after 80 years of social engineering through regulation, it ain’t working. Instead of improving poverty, health, civility and education, big government has become a wet blanket over the entire economy. Fannie Mae, health care reform, stimulus... good grief. A once great, thriving nation is drifting into oblivion. Obama didn’t start the decline, he just stomped on the accelerator.

Change may get ugly. After all these decades, the Washington bureaucrats, the media, and the unions are deeply entrenched. But better now than later. My generation made the mess, and we ought to step up to fix it.

In addition to dramatically shrinking the government, we need to face up to some facts of life. Accidents happen. Outcomes vary despite equal opportunity. Good intentions aren’t enough. You can’t reason with truly evil people. Redistribution spreads misery, not wealth.

We need leaders like Paul Ryan, Mitch Daniels and Marco Rubio to take charge. Heck, Donald Trump would be more effective than Barack Obama and his czars.

Better weather approaches. It’s time to get out from under the wet blanket.

Misplaced grief

I feel bad for the families of the Tucson shooting victims that such a tragic event was so politicized and hijacked in the media.
I was hoping those people who immediately used the tragedy to promote their busted old rants about censoring the right and gun control would disappear after learning that the shooter was deranged and not at all influenced by conservative talk. Maybe they would see how insensitive, hypocritical and inaccurate they were. But as late as Friday, the Telegraph was still at it, running some stupid opinion cartoon of the image of a weapon formed with the names of Limbaugh, Palin and other conservatives.
Such partisan rants only serve to drive the wedge deeper. If we must play the blame game for Jared Loughner’s actions, let’s start with the ‘progressive’ culture of decriminalizing drugs, embracing toxic music, TV, and movies, squelching our Judeo-Christian traditions, and sweeping acts of terror under the rug of political correctness.
It’s bad enough that our country is becoming desensitized to evil. What makes it worse is that some in this country use any crisis to promote their agendas.

One less decoration

Christmas will be a bit less festive in Rivoli Downs this year. The adult-size reindeer with joyful lights and life-like movements will no longer be part of the Maier’s holiday decorations.
“I brought him down from the attic and set him up in the yard like always,” reports owner Rick Maier, “but when I plugged him in, his head wouldn’t rotate. The lights worked, but the motor has finally failed.”
Former Coroner and neighbor Ed Bond declared the reindeer dead. “Looks like natural causes,” he said. “No foul play is suspected.”
That’s good news for the oldest Maier child, Matthew, who has been under scrutiny recently for a variety of teenage boy behaviors.
Neighbor Dan Slagle added that Maier had been setting up the reindeer Christmas decoration for many years. “Between you and me,” said Slagle, “I won’t miss it. Those things were tacky even when they were popular back in the 90s.”