Right Timing

I gassed up my new old van last night, and I'm glad I did. The local gas jumped 25 cents overnight. A quarter a gallon overnight.

That comes to what would have been another $3.75 to fill my tank if I had waited until this morning. 

This is absurd, friends. It's downright insane. And it's all courtesy of the man and the party who are for the unions, for the minorities, for the poor. So they claim, anyhow.

I have a hard time believing that any of them, in their hearts, are happy over this very predictable inflation, especially concerning gas prices. I know I will certainly remember President Biden and the Democrats in November. And in 2024.

Moderates are Conservative

New polling suggests pretty heavily that the Democrats and President Barack Obama need the so-called moderate vote in order to win elections, while the GOP can rely on the conservative vote quite readily. This can be interpreted in several ways, but perhaps the most insightful is this: moderates aren't really moderates, as a group, but, rather, lean towards more traditional and familiar thoughts whenever in doubt.

That makes sense, in the end. For when there is a crisis, don't most people act based on what they know? When President Reagan was elected back in 1980 to stem the tide of Democratic and hence more liberal leadership, what was his appeal? To make America great again, based on the traditional American values of individualism and hard work. When the GOP ran the tide last November, what was the big question: nothing less than obtrusive, interfering government trampling the rights of the people.

The moderates responded as they knew how, by throwing out those who did not support real American values. That's why conservatives don't have to appeal too overtly to the presumed middle: they aren't actually in the center after all. They are in fact more moderate to conservative rather than being between the left and the right as they are generally portrayed.

Given the fact that so few people, about 20 percent or one in five, call themselves liberal, and it seems that what we truly have in our nation today is an overall aversion to liberalism. Even the presumed center appears to harbor similar doubts about the left, seeing as the Democrats need to get about 60% of the middle of the road vote to win major elections. It is a telling statistic, and does not bode well for any long term success for the party of Jefferson and Jackson.

Of course, the Democratic Party left the beliefs of those American stalwarts behind eons ago. But that is a tale for another time.

In Sheep's Clothing?

Have you ever noticed that libertarian and liberal both begin with the same five letters? Is it a coincidence, or not?

This point is driven home by the recent announcement that two 'liberaltarians' are supposedly being forced out of the Cato Institute, a traditionally libertarian think tank. But it could be that the pair are simply moving up the ladder, one of whom is moving over to work with The Economist.

Yet the precise nature of the change isn't really important. The fact is that libertarians are a bit of a schizophrenic bunch: liberal on social issues while conservative on fiscal matters. It is fair to ask if you can have it both ways and maintain any philosophic consistency.

Can one really be fiscally responsible in public policy while essentially arguing that social responsibility is a different question? Why do we have the freedom to do almost anything we want personally (provided it does not violate that vague and rather self-serving platitude: so long as it doesn't harm anyone else) yet have no such similar freedom politically? Indeed, how can one reasonably argue that financial discipline and personal discipline do not go hand in hand? If you are no good at the one it is doubtful you can be particularly effective at the other.

In short, libertarians are essentially liberals who happen to like fiscal discipline. Yet such is like getting blood from the proverbial turnip. If folks are not personally disciplined they are not likely to be publicly disciplined. After all, we reap what we sow. Sow freedom, reap freedom, with all the errors that must grow from that field. But sow justice, the idea that some things are really right and others really wrong on their own merit, and we improve society by having bettered ourselves.

LLC again: Why Social Issues must be Addressed in the Legal Arena

The other day we spoke here about the relative closeness of libertarians and conservatives. One interesting response to that assertion was that, while conservatives may talk the talk, they don't walk the walk. They use the courts the same way as liberals on issues such as marriage, drug use, and censorship. It is a point which merits a bit of follow up commentary.

For now, we'll set aside the question of how often conservatives go to court as opposed to their liberal friends. This is not because the point ought not be addressed but instead that it would be rather time consuming to do a full compare and contrast analysis right this minute. If we do not forget, or unless we simply get lazy (that happens sometimes at the Wayne County Conservative Examiner's Office) we shall look into it soon. But right this second we will content ourselves to point out that, in charging that the liberals go to court far too often and selfishly, we do not say that the legal route is always an invalid one. We only say that they pursue it too quickly, and without due regard to the legislative process or the actual meaning and intent of the US Constitution. If and where conservatives may also do as much, they would be subject to similar criticism.

Now, in talking about the issues of marriage, drug use, and censorship, indeed when addressing almost any of the so called social issues, there are two basic points when considering them in relation to the conservative/libertarian spectrum. The first is that they fall into the very areas where we have admitted differences between the two groups exist. They matter and must be discussed. The second is that, hopefully, anyway, we also disagree on them out of concern for the dignity of the individual as within the economic realm.

Libertarians assert that it is up to the individual when it comes to issues which do not, on the surface, appear to affect anyone else. Conservatives, ideally, anyways, stress that the point is not so simple. Your free will acts may well affect others, and must be tempered by good judgment. Indeed, it is the concern for the dignity of the person which calls us to enact laws which protect that dignity even if the persons involved may not want (or, especially, be able to use) such defenses. That is why abortion must be illegal: we are dealing, by any measure of Right Reason, with a person who cannot defend themselves. We need good law with such questions, even if it may seem, in some quarters, to be overreaching. With justice, it is difficult to overreach.

Then, too, with areas such as marriage, it is in fact out of respect for the person that society can and must define legal marriage. Not only because marriage and the family are the building blocks of society and as such a hearty, civil society requires a hearty, stable, and just family and personal environment, but because it may affect the rights of others in areas which get swept under the rug if they are considered at all.

Is a factory owner who opposes same sex marriage morally obliged to offer marital benefits to such a couple, when one of them is his employee? Either way you answer that question, notice closely what you are doing as you do it: defining marriage, and attempting ultimately to force whatever definition you come up with upon others. Without laws regulating what marriage means, on what grounds can we act in support of either belief?

Or do we simply leave the question hanging? That will only work if everyone agrees to it, and that won't happen. It won't happen because it shouldn't happen, and it won't happen because no one, liberal or conservative or libertarian, can or will let it go. We must address it, out of a proper concern for the human dignity of any and all involved, as well to give the correct legal standing to the point.

You get the gist by now. The dignity of the person is a question which does not apply solely to economic rights and responsibilities. Conservatives believe that; we think that in their hearts libertarians do too. If they did not, they wouldn't make an issue of such things themselves.

The LLC Connection

We have written several times herein about the political spectrum of liberals, conservatives, and libertarians. Indeed, we have gone so far as to say that libertarians are really just liberals who happen to be fiscal conservatives. This is an idea which was, it seemed, cemented at a recent time when we read that some some libertarians have come to like the term 'liberaltarians'(we must thank a friend of a friend who pointed this out). But sometimes other things come along which give us pause.

In a speech given at Hillsdale College here in Michigan and reprinted in their neat little pamphlet called Imprimis (the particular article can be found here: http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis.asp) William McGurn, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, makes the case that libertarians and conservatives are actually much closer. Why? Due to the libertarian emphasis on economics and economic justice.

It is a fascinating speech and we will not attempt to repeat it in detail. But the gist is that what conservatives and those who share the ideal of economic freedom have in common is the belief that it is freedom which drives the machine which improves the human condition. This is because freedom allows greater innovations and deeper thought in decision making than any type of state controls might allow. Freedom invented the wheel, the cam, and the steam engine. Freedom eradicated disease. Freedom improved agriculture, advanced science, and opened minds. And why does freedom work?

Because it offers a positive trust in the individual.

This is not to say that what individuals may or may not do is boundless. But it is to say that, where there is no moral affront involved, freedom works. To be sure, and Mr. McGurn points this out, there are differences between libertarians and conservatives, and the differences matter. Still, it is at least arguable that the right wing and the libertarian are closer than the latter may be to the liberal because the liberal ultimately believes in government control of people and things despite how he may protest otherwise. That's why they go to the bureaucrats and the courts when the don't get their way. They believe in force, not freedom.

We are closer, perhaps, to libertarians than liberals are because we share, even if from different starting points, the same essential belief in individual human beings. The full bodied libertarian and the blue blooded conservative are so much concerned about human relations that it makes differences more acute, precisely because we are seeking to do and support what's right. Liberals believe in a vague, amorphous humanity, defined ultimately by their whim. Conservatives and libertarians believe in real, flesh and blood people.

Mr. McGurn suggests that we are sides of a coin. It is an idea which deserves more discussion.

The New Libertarian?

Have you ever noticed that libertarian and liberal both begin with the same five letters? Is it a coincidence, or not?

There are indeed folks who have begun to call themselves 'liberaltarians'. It is as though libertarians are seeing the light.

Somewhat, anyway. The precise nature of the change in heart isn't really important. The fact is that libertarians are a bit of a schizophrenic bunch: liberal on social issues while conservative on fiscal matters. It is fair to ask if you can have it both ways and maintain any philosophic consistency.

Can one really be fiscally responsible in public policy while essentially arguing that social responsibility is a radically different question? Why do we have the freedom to do almost anything we want personally (provided it does not violate that vague and rather self-serving platitude: so long as it doesn't harm anyone else) yet have no such similar freedom politically? Indeed, how can one reasonably argue that financial discipline and personal discipline do not go hand in hand? If you are no good at the one it is doubtful you can be particularly effective at the other.

In short, libertarians are essentially liberals who happen to like fiscal discipline. Yet such is like getting blood from the proverbial turnip. If folks are not personally disciplined they are not likely to be publicly disciplined. After all, we reap what we sow. Sow freedom, reap freedom, with all the errors that must grow from that field. But sow justice, the idea that some things are really right and others really wrong on their own merit, and we improve society by having bettered ourselves.

Political Rhetoric

Why is it that Sarah Palin is the highlight of the debate about overblown political rhetoric? The now famous 'crosshairs' map which actually was employing surveyor's symbols?

Please. That is such a simplistic view as to be almost laughable. Yet more than that, where's the moral outrage of the left when George W. Bush is lampooned as Hitler? They sure were able to summon anger when their darling, Barack Hussein Obama, was portrayed as the German dictator.

What we in fact are dealing with is the selective rage of the liberal mentality. If the right employs what may be seen as extreme symbols, they're hate mongers. But the left, well, they're just telling it like it is.

Well, let's tell it in fact like it is: sticks and stones, folks. Rhetoric is merely that: talk. Portraits and placards mocking political leaders are nothing more than that: words or pictures on paper. What hurts our politics are not what is said but what is done, and what was done in Arizona is the result of a deluded individual. To attempt to fix blame on anyone other than the shooter denies what is perhaps the greatest responsibility of the individual: personal responsibility.

Blame the shooter, not the rest of the world. This is not to say that we may need to play a little nicer on the public stage (we could stand to do that, yes) but only that mere talk is cheap. So cheap, we might say, that there's no need to put too much emphasis on it as the cause of all our woes. The best thing we can do right now is to take the proverbial pill, a deep breath, and respond rationally to an extreme yet isolated event. That is how we would display our true colors.

Credit Where It's Due

Say what you will, and many people are doing just that, there is one thing which the Democrats have that conservatives don't. When they have the advantage, they push it.

The most recent example is of course the health care debate. No matter what the polls said, Barack Obama and his army forced the issue through. No matter what the tea partiers and protesters did, the President and Nancy Pelosi pressed on. No matter how often the liberals in the past have said that the then reigning GOP had to be open to all sides, they closed their ears to the Republicans and did what they wanted. In short, liberals know how to use raw political power, and will use it to suit their ends.

No big tent when they want what they want. No inclusiveness when their ideals are at stake. No regard for what the general populace wants when leftist oxen are threatened. They wield their power mercilessly and unilaterally. Yes, they're hypocrites. But they know how and when to press their advantage.

Remember that in the coming elections in 2010 and 2012, Republicans. You might forge yourselves a useful majority then.

Liberals are Haters

I can’t remember where I first heard it; it was either Rush Limbaugh or P. J. O’Rourke, I believe. But it is a simple phrase which I’ve never forgotten: liberals hate people, especially the free. It is not an overstatement, and runs from the proverbial, ahem, sublime to the ridiculous.

Liberals want abortion because there are too many of us on the planet, and they want mass transit so that we have to go places on their schedule, not ours.

They’re against urban sprawl because they don’t want people living where they want to by their free will exchanges among themselves.

They use global warming scams to make us stop living how we live because it isn’t how they want us to live.

They champion the environment because inert matter is more important than living, breathing human beings.

It’s all about control, my friends, and we’re well past time to tell them enough is enough: I can control my own life just fine without liberal meddling in things which are none of their business. It’s time to send these busybodies and their trumped up causes packing so that we can conduct the business of our lives unharried by manufactured guilt. It’s time we stand up to the true haters in our land.