“We are running out of time”
This is what John McCain said yesterday when he suspended his campaign to return to Washington to do what he could to find a solution to an unprecedented financial crisis. Personally, I was glad to see it. He is a US Senator and the current party leader. Right now, he needs to be on the Hill. We’ve reached a crucial point in this matter.
I watched Bush’s speech yesterday and I saw a great deal of concern on the man’s face. I haven’t seen him like this since 9/11. He’s worried.
He’s worried mainly because conservatives like myself are in an uproar over this “bailout”. They’ve called it socialism and refuse to sign off on it. The Dems have made some objections, but these are easily rectified through compromise. Small things like restricting executive salaries and providing oversight of the treasury dept have brought most Dems on board. But the Right is proving to be a major problem. These are people with whom I usually agree, but not now.
I agree that this rescue package is much too close to socialism for my comfort. I agree that privatizing corporate losses is a fundamentally bad idea. I agree that the strain on the budget and on taxpayers is unacceptable. But unlike my fellow conservatives, I don’t see any other logical choice in the matter. Either we do this, or we face years or severe economic hardship. For me, it truly is the lesser of two evils. My fellow conservatives seem intent on choosing the greater of two evils for the sake of principle, and that’s a foolish way to govern. It would be the equivalent of Truman opting not to drop the bomb simply because America is against targeting innocent civilians. Imagine the cost of that decision.
I am profoundly disappointed that the conservatives have allowed the Left to hijack this issue by blaming Wall Street greed and deregulation. I have heard very few people say that socialist policy is what brought us here. Fannie Mae itself is based on socialist principles, and the Community Reinvestment Act is socialist legislation. One would be hard pressed to say these two things didn’t play a major role in our current crisis, but the only message that resonates is the Left’s. So far, only Newt Gingrich has called for the repeal of Sarbanes-Oxley.
Ideally, the conservative leadership would come together and sign off on this abominable rescue plan, while vowing to take immediate action to repeal the socialist policy that brought us here. Ideally, they would announce their intention to repeal Sarbanes-Oxley, repeal the CRA, and, yes, repeal Gramm-Leach Bliley. I want to hear someone talk of dismantling Fannie Mae and doing whatever it took to offload these mortgage-based assets that we’re about to buy to ensure that the government gets out of the market as soon as it’s feasible, vowing never to return. While they’re at it, why not repeal the capital gains tax and drop corporate taxes as much as possible to levels that would be competitive with China and Singapore. There are few better ways to stimulate our economy. Ideally, they would acknowledge that this is the lesser of two evils, point out that much of it occurred via our slow gravitation towards socialism, and promise efforts to turn us away from that path.
This would be ideal, but I fear it is far from reality in a Liberal-controlled Congress. Aided by their journalist faithful, the Left will use this as a reason to deceitfully blame the wrong things and exert more government control on the free market, ensuring less free enterprise and more Marxism. They will be empowered by many Americans who are content in blaming only the rich, completely unaware of the bad policy that got us here. This is how revolution occurs…a party of deceit claiming to be for the “common worker”, chastising the wealthy and private industry – blaming them for our troubles, aided by a corrupt media that refuses to properly inform the populace, triggered by an economic downturn that spurs anger and frustration with the current system. A basic knowledge of world history is all that’s needed to see what is unfolding before our very eyes…a quiet coup de’tat. America is poised to pass the most socialistic legislation in our history and follow this by electing the most socialist President in history. Our actions are being applauded by Hugo Chavez, who yesterday said “socialism is the savior of the world.” The trend is quite disturbing. I can’t help but fear that we’ve passed the point of no return and face a dramatic period of redefinition. At what point will we officially change our name to the People’s Republic of America?
1 comment:
John, "People's Republic of America?" You exaggerate. I don't think most citizens would go for complete socialism, but some safety net programs need to exist. We don't want to be stepping over dying people like is done in other countries. No one living here now would want to live here under a communist system, and most still believe in the American Dream.
I think what brought about some of the move to what some view as socialsim was a misplaced desire to help people along to the Dream without ensuring oversight on the programs to get them there. Developers and brokers dangled those McMansions in front of gullible people out of greed. Sure it was mandated to level the playing field, but to just sign anybody up for a McMansion? It wasn't just social engineering--lots of white people with good jobs just bit off more than they could chew. People should have bought fixer-uppers, or small cottages and saved their money to move to better digs later, etc. My folks always did that and it was creative and fun.
We came out of the Great Depression that I was born into, and we are not there yet this time. I have faith that we will come out of this too. My parents taught me the lessons they learned after 1929, and people will be forced to tighten their belts, etc. that's all.
Emilie
Port Orchard, WA
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