The Nittany Turkey

Primarily about Penn State football, this is a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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Election Wrap-Up

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In yet another game that was not as close as it looked, the mighty Democratic Asses defeated the ponderous, plodding Republican elephants 50-49. This turkey blames a shoddy game plan on the part of the losing team.

In a contest that was run by an incumbent with no positive accomplishments, it should have been easy to attack a predictably weak defense. However, the ‘Phants, intent on pleasing their hard-core fans, some of whom believe they get their orders from God, fragmented their plan. As it turned out, playing good, fundamental football was the least of their problems. It is hard to keep one’s eye on the ball when one has his jockstrap on backward and one of his rogue teammates decided to put some Ben-Gay in there for a joke.

Such is the way of the GOP of late, shooting itself in the foot. A schmuck who claims it is God’s will for a woman to get pregnant if she is raped could have been all that voters needed to hear from in order to run for the hills. Couple that with too much time and effort spent defending an eventually untenable position on gay marriage, and you have one completely fucked up situation.

There were no halftime adjustments, no squelching of the morons who kept cocking the trigger. While allowing the opposing captain to divide and conquer, the Elephants clung to their guns and their religion. They did not do the country any favors by dwelling on minor issues when the wheels were coming off the economy and the country’s future security and survival were the greater problem. The opposition knew that the short-sighted populace could be placated with some handouts, and by portraying the opposition as rich and evil, because like wild animals who are fed, handouts placate voters about issues too big for them to understand, anyway. Keep ’em poor and dumb down the public educational system to keep ’em stupid, and you’ve got easily manipulated masses. The home team fans bail on the home team and wind up rooting for the visitors. (From another planet? From another time? Or from Europe?)

During last night’s election results, my thirty-something, hot-looking, French babe cousin messaged me that she was excited for America and she was watching our election from outside Paris. I assumed that she was excited that Obama had won, but she said, no, that she was excited about watching our election process. She said that she probably wasn’t qualified to decide who would be the better candidate, but she liked Obama. Hell, yeah. He’s a likable guy, especially when one doesn’t have to be subjugated by him or have to look at his arrogant face as he lies to the subjugated public.

Later, she said, “I hate our president. He is a socialist!”

Well, there you have it. Even in the stagnant economies of Western Europe, which Obama would love to emulate, thinking people consider socialism a bad thing.

I really do think that the GOP needs to get its act together and understand how voters think, but it will be damn hard to  surmount the handout mentality. Damn hard? Damn near impossible. De Tocqueville said it best in 1835:

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

So, now we have four more years of carefully plotted divisive rhetoric, increasing handouts, and perhaps another recession to deal with. Thanks, voters. You made your bed, now lie in it. I’m betting that three years down the line, you’ll have stopped caring about our bleak future because you’ve been placated by “free stuff.”

I deviated from the football metaphor because I was getting confused. But mainly what I want to say is that instead of dwelling on inconsequential crap like aboooooooorrrrrrrrrtion and gaaaaaaaaay marriage, we ought to be concerned about the survival of the country. The “free stuffers” don’t give a shit about the latter, so the rest of us have to. At the same time, we have to understand what makes the me-first mentality voters work. They loooooooooove their hot-button issues like “women’s rights” and “gay rights”, whatever the hell those things are defined as at any given moment. You even vaguely allude to an unpopular stance in those areas, and you’ll lose. Sorry, but let’s let government stay out of our lives. Abortion is legal and why should anyone give half a shit about who can marry whom?

I have one additional thing to add, but I didn’t write it. It came from a USMC blog and it was sent to me by a friend. ???? ??? ???? ????? It says a lot, and it does so better than this turkey could, so I present it below. Thanks for reading it, assuming that you’re open-minded enough to do so.

 

The Meaning of Yesterday’s Defeat

(U.S. is no longer a center-right country)

Yesterday was a comprehensive disaster. Here in Minnesota, to add a local perspective, not only did the state go for Obama–no surprise there–but the Democrats recaptured both houses of the legislature, and voters defeated two ballot initiatives, one on gay marriage and one on voter ID. Similar losses were sustained across the nation, although there were a few bright spots here and there. So yesterday’s defeat was not about a flawed presidential candidate or presidential campaign.

What lessons can we draw? To begin with, conventional political wisdom was upended in a number of ways. When a president runs for re-election, the campaign is a referendum on his performance; undecided voters break against the incumbent; it’s the economy, stupid. These and other familiar maxims can be consigned to the dustbin.

But there is a much more important proposition that, I think, was proved false last night: that America is a center-right country. This belief is one that we conservatives have cherished for a long time, but as of today, I think we have to admit that it is false. America is a deeply divided country with a center-left plurality. This plurality includes a vast number of citizens who describe themselves as moderates, but whose views on the issues are identical or similar to those that have historically been deemed liberal.

Decades ago my father, the least cynical of men, quoted a political scientist who wrote that democracy will survive until people figure out that they can vote themselves money. That appears to be the point at which we have arrived. Put bluntly, the takers outnumber the makers. The polls in this election cycle diverged in a number of ways, but in one respect they were remarkably consistent: every poll I saw, including those that forecast an Obama victory, found that most people believed Mitt Romney would do a better job than Barack Obama on the economy. So with the economy the dominant issue in the campaign, why did that consensus not assure a Romney victory? Because a great many people live outside the real, competitive economy. Over 100 million receive means tested benefits from the federal government, many more from the states. And, of course, a great many more are public employees. To many millions of Americans, the economy is mostly an abstraction.

Then there is the fact that relatively few Americans actually pay for the government they consume. To a greater extent than any other developed nation, we rely on upper-income people to finance our federal government. When that is combined with the fact that around 40% of our federal spending isn’t paid for at all–it is borrowed–it is small wonder that many self-interested voters are happy to vote themselves more government. Mitt Romney proclaimed that Barack Obama was the candidate of “free stuff,” and voters took him at his word.

The question is, can this vicious cycle ever be broken? Once we are governed by a majority that no longer believes in the America of the Founding, is there any path back to freedom and prosperity? The next four years will bring unprecedented levels of spending, borrowing and taxation. The national debt will rise to $20 trillion or more. When interest rates increase, as they inevitably must, interest costs will squeeze out other government spending. That might not be all bad, except that defense will go first. If Obama’s second term turns into a disaster, fiscal or otherwise, voter revulsion may return the Republicans to power. But that doesn’t mean that America will be saved.

To me, the most telling incident of the campaign season was a poll that found that among young Americans, socialism enjoys a higher favorability rating than free enterprise. How can this possibly be, given the catastrophic failure of socialism, and the corresponding success of free enterprise, throughout history? The answer is that conservatives have entirely lost control over the culture. The educational system, the entertainment industry, the news media and every cultural institution that comes to mind are all dedicated to turning out liberals. To an appalling degree, they have succeeded. Historical illiteracy is just one consequence. Unless conservatives somehow succeed in regaining parity or better in the culture, the drift toward statism will inevitably continue, even if Republicans win the occasional election.

This is not primarily the job of politicians, but politicians cannot escape it, either. I have been grumbling for a long time that Ronald Reagan was the last politician who made a real effort to teach the principles of conservatism to the American public. Since the 1980s, we have largely been coasting on his legacy. The prevailing assumption has been that America is a center-right country, and if Republican politicians run a good tactical campaign and get their voters to the polls, they will generally win. That strategy no longer works, and conservative politicians need to try much harder not just to appeal to conservative voters, but to help create new ones.

The stark question posed by the country’s unmistakable drift to the left is, does America have a future? Can we once again become a beacon of freedom, or will talented young Americans be forced to look elsewhere for opportunity? ??? ???? ????? ?? ??????? Barack Obama’s budget–the one that was too extreme to garner a single vote in either the House or the Senate–projects that in four years, we will have a $20 trillion debt. That debt will be paid off by a relatively small minority of our young people, the most productive. If you were in that category, and had to make a choice between staying in the United States and inheriting a debt that could well be $1 million or more, and starting fresh in another country, what would you do? And if you were an investor, where would you put your money? In the United States, where hopelessness reigns and where high unemployment and close to zero growth are now accepted as normal, or in a country with limited government and a dynamic, growing economy?

These are dark days, indeed.

And here’s one other that I received in today’s election comments from friends. This comes from a Wall Street friend of a friend:

I am not only mad but I am sad this morning, not for me but for our kids reference the results of last night’s elections. I feel I lost part of my soul. Like RAP music and Snowboarding, perhaps I am out of tune with America. I tried boarding and enjoy some RAP. ??? ????? But I am a skier and rocker.

Life as we or at least I knew and understood it is over. We are quickly slipping into a Western European economy. Less kids, higher taxes, less healthcare, more regulation, greater government dependency, a poorer upper and middle class and less hope. Italy and France have zero population growth, 40% of their 30 year-olds live at home, and they have one car, no A/C, and no dryer at home. Go figure. That’s what we want? Wait. We have iPhones and cable. Maybe that’s enough.

We have officially lost the traditional American values associated with hard work, success and entrepreneurism. Success is becoming demonized versus admired. The new immigrants are not like the old. The new immigrants take from the melting pot, versus adding to the melting pot.

To think how hard we work and sacrifice and to see that we will be asked to give more for less and be demonized by those who accept living on the dole infuriates me. To see we will be over-regulated and over-governed upsets me. To feel embarrassed for being independent and successful is incomprehensible for me, as that was the American Dream. I’m lost in my own country.

This is the beginning of the downfall of capitalism. We have shifted from JFK’s “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” to Obama’s welfare state and the Western Europeanization of America. As Ronald Reagan said, we are just a generation away from losing our freedom. Please never forget that.

My only hope is that I am so correct that in the next four years things will deteriorate so badly economically that perhaps it will wake up the masses and we can focus on the key backbone of this wonderful economic machine: capitalism and free enterprise.

It is through those successes that the rights and option of liberty have been provided to the people. However, the people seem to have forgotten what fed those freedoms. A downfall is our last hope, before we cross the fiscal cliff and can never claw back. And we need a Reagan-like communicator to sound the alarm.

Our party must wake up and stop involving women’s rights and focus on the economic machine that improves all lives, liberties and the pursuit of happiness. This is the key reason why we lost. In addition, we are seen as racist, yet 33% of Caucasians vote for a black man. But the fact that 95% of blacks vote for a Black man versus a white man is not racist. Ok!? Hypocrisy by the media.

I feel like that American Indian in that great 1970’s commercial who, wearing a beautiful headdress and riding his horse, stumbles onto a garbage pile. A tear runs from his eye as he realizes the sad extent of his lost homeland. Like the loss of the natural beauty of this country for that Indian, we have lost the wonderful basis and values of what built America, which allowed us to obtain all these wonderful things and opportunities for all. Today’s election for me, is similar to that American Indian stumbling onto the garbage suddenly forced to accept that his worst fears have become realities.

Unlabel Me

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Recently, I took the symbolic step of changing my Florida voter registration party affiliation from Republican to “none”. Florida does not provide for registered Independents, so “none” was the best approximation of my preferred status. I have no particular, directed beefs with Republicans or Democrats. I just want to be my own man instead of being pigeonholed as one thing or another.

That having been said, both major parties stink to high heaven. Influence peddlers have long corrupted politics in the United States, with the major parties being the preferred targets for obvious reasons. While our party sanctioned candidates are on the campaign trail, they vow to be different, to bring hope and change to government; when they take office, the old boy network takes hold and it’s business as usual. For all the polarization apparent on the surface, and for all the great barroom debates among amateur analysts, you would think that there would be a difference between Republicans and Democrats. Separate what policies they support from the main impulse that drives them — power mongering — and you’ll find that they are part of a perpetual motion machine that is kept well greased by those who would pay for favors. They all essentially drink from the same fountain.

I could have registered as a Libertarian party member, but no one really knows what that is. There have been as many philosophies of libertarianism through the years as our national debt has zeroes. Many are inconsistent with one another. Some libertarians have espoused flat-out anarchy. Some don’t believe in private property rights. All believe in the unfettered freedom of the individual, but I don’t think they know how to get there. They’ve never been a serious force in a two-party system. In any case, while some of my philosophical beliefs are consistent with libertarianism — they would have to be because libertarianism is all over the map — I also believe that government has its place. I believe that individuals should own property. I do not believe in the collective.

One of the things that drove me to the brink of separation from the Republican Party was the whole notion of  a “RINO” (Republican In Name Only), a disparaging term that the loudmouths on Internet comment threads tend to fling around at and about moderate Republicans, as if the disparagers were the judge of what a Republican truly is. In my opinion, any political party represents its prospective constituents, and that implies a broad range of philosophies. Thus, there is no such thing as a “true Republican”, no matter what the loudmouths spout. I do not view Ronald Reagan as Jesus Christ incarnate, and speaking of Jesus, I don’t need him to be involved in politics. I would be considered a “liberal troll” if I made such a comment on a right-wing message board. Just think of the hate messages I would get if I were to lionize Bill Clinton as the best pure politician of modern times, which I happen to think is true even if I can’t fathom some of his political leanings.

The point I raised in the previous paragraph is a very important one, so I’ll reiterate it: Do not tell me what I should believe, just because I joined the same political party as you did! Who made you the arbiter of who a proper Republican or Democrat is? I’m tired of the labeling and name-calling. Neither party’s dogma should include total subjugation and compliance of all its members. Consult Kris, who is an expert on compliance matters. If it ever comes to secret police visits in the middle of the night, I’m happy to say I know nothink… NOTHINK!

I personally have no debt, but I believe there are appropriate uses for borrowed money. Buying votes is not an appropriate use for money borrowed at the federal level. Neo-Keynesians will bitch and moan that not running deficits in a recession will create a worsened economic downturn, but conservative economists disagree and so do I. There comes a point beyond which any borrowing exacerbates a situation that consumes an unhealthy share of GDP for non-productive interest payments on the federal debt and crowds out private investment, thus retarding the economy. The more debt the government has, the flimsier our nation’s credit rating will be, and that means higher interest rates. More money down the sewer. The number one problem to be solved today is getting the huge pile of debt under control. I am all ears, greedy politicians who love to spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need, just to keep your asses in power. Go ahead and tell me how you’ll fix the problem.

I do not believe in socialist redistribution of wealth. I believe in the free market. You’d think I was a Republican or something. I do believe in social welfare for the least functional members of society, but I do not believe in creating welfare sycophants for a ready-purchased electoral base.

I believe in limited unionism, where it protects workers’ health and safety, but I do not believe in unions that protect useless workers. I do not believe in public sector unions at all! Their very existence is ridiculous.

I believe in preemptive military strikes, so you can go ahead and say that I deviate from libertarian principles. I think it is naive to believe that man will ever transcend his inherent bellicosity.

I believe in limited government and individual responsibility. I despise oppressive regulation of industry. The Department of Energy has gotten too big for its britches and needs to be completely disbanded. I believe that the function of the Department of Education should be to maintain statistics and coordinate states’ efforts, not to dictate policies to states and blackmail them into compliance. The Department of Education should become a sub-department of another executive branch operation.

I believe that individuals should be responsible for their own health, whether they choose to buy insurance or not. Again, like food, clothing, and shelter, I also believe in a health safety net for those who cannot take care of themselves, but not a $100,000 kidney transplant. I mean basic, minimal care.

I do not believe in political correctness, coddling every affinity group who gets “offended” at some word they usurped, affirmative action (which has outlived its usefulness), and legal protection against “hate speech”. Hate crimes that injure persons or property, yes, hate speech that injures sensitive or feigned feelings, no. We still have a First Amendment, as far as I know. Laws prohibiting hate speech are unconstitutional in the United States, outside of obscenity, defamation, incitement to riot, and fighting words. The United States federal government and state governments are broadly forbidden by the First Amendment of the Constitution from restricting speech.You might not like what I say, but I have the right to say it, whether it hurts someone’s precious feelings or not.

Private industry should not be told by government how to run their business. If a fat slob’s ass is wider than one airline seat, I believe he or she should buy two seats. Why should the rest of us pay higher fares because fatsos demand equal rights? When they have equal bodies, they can demand equal rights. I once had to screw up the design of a perfectly good auditorium for a wheelchair ramp leading to the stage. There was a stage entrance at the side of the building that was wheelchair accessible, but the ADA coordinator in this public sector operation objected because if it was raining, the wheelchair driver might get wet. I was regarded as an asshole when I suggested that an umbrella would be a helluva lot cheaper and wouldn’t obliterate one whole aisle in the auditorium. This happens all the time in the public sector. Don’t let it happen in the more efficient private sector.

On the other hand, I believe that Wall Street, along with laissez-faire in Washington, are culpable for the economic morass we’re in. I’m not singling out one side or the other. Both are to blame. The permissiveness in Washington is a bipartisan (or non-partisan) thing. Don’t let anyone kid you — it is not just the Republicans who cozy up to the bankers. Both major parties are in thick with Wall Street, even though you’ll hear nothing but hypocritical condemnation from them. Chris Dodd and the sniveling, whining, farting Barney Frank ought to be held accountable for some of the problems going forward, but there’s plenty of blame to spread around Washington for the bubble bursting liberal banking policies of the past on both sides of the aisle. Folks, we’re going back thirty years here, all the way back to the S&L fiasco during the Reagan Administration and through various boondoggles in every administration since then. Congress is the culprit, spurred on by the White House at times.

I do not believe in corporate taxation. It benefits no one but greedy government. The rest of us pay for it in increased prices for goods and services. Influence peddlers use it as tool to curry favor with certain industries. As part of the old boy business as usual paradigm in Washington, D.C., it needs to go out the damn window.

I do believe in tax simplification and equalization for individuals. Hermain Cain’s 9/9/9 plan is a step toward sanity, as is the Fair Tax. Please, no more use of the tax code to reward or punish individuals!

I do not believe in social engineering, eugenics, or high-handed intervention by government in any aspect of our lives. Let them promote the general welfare by building effective dikes in New Orleans instead of protecting the mythical “rights” of dykes in New York, and spending some damn stimulus money on infrastructure improvements without tying it to tax increases and pork barrel legislation.

I’ll reiterate what I do believe in: individual responsibility, individual achievement, free enterprise, efficient markets, and living a life unfettered by governmental heavy-handedness. I have found some good ideas — damn few, though — in diatribe coming from both major parties and the libertarians, too. But we need fresh thinking in Washington and not just lip service about change, followed by business as usual. The voters wanted change. They elected Obama. He didn’t change a damn thing. The old boy network is still going strong in our nation’s capital.

I despise being lied to and being taken for an idiot, especially by the President of the United States. I am weary of the monotonous mantra of mendacity coming out of the dilettantish White House at every press conference and whistle stop. Before years of budget cuts and dictated dogma dumbed down our public schools, any bright eighth grader could have seen through the mendacious, self-serving prevarications emanating from Mr. Obama. I want this guy out of the White House, and I want to forget that he was ever in there! He was elected by people dissatisfied with the status quo without regard to how dangerous the combination of a president with strong socialist leanings and a compliant congress would be. It was a radical and reckless direction for the country to take, and I hope that people have now learned their lesson. It ain’t that easy! You want hope and change? You have to work for it — individuals, private industry, and government working together.

I regularly read the New York Times but I don’t want to be accused of reading Communist propaganda; I regularly watch Fox News but I don’t want to be accused of being a “sheeple” by those who have written off what they cutesiely call “Faux News” as right-wing propaganda. Those accusers are all knee-jerkers, who pretty much travel in condemnation packs without really knowing what the hell they’re talking about. It’s a monkey see, monkey do kind of thing. My feeling is that I’m grown up enough to read what I want to read and believe what I want to believe. I am fully capable of researching any dubious claims and I am equally capable of seeing through the language of bias. I have discredited articles of supposed news in the biased mainstream media, from MSNBC to Fox to the Washington Post to the Wall Street Journal, while I have found truth in places like Salon.com, huffingtonpost.com, and RealClearPolitics.com. I do not want to be told what to believe. I’ll believe what I want to believe, no matter what the source. My bullshit detector is very sensitive to the smelly stuff.

Being unlabeled lifts an incredible, elephantine weight off my shoulders, but I’m saddled with the disadvantage of not being allowed to vote in partisan primary elections. I’ll accept that as the price of freedom.