Josey editorial does little to advance “proper direction”

August 16, 2010


Mr. Josey’s Friday the 13th editorial certainly explains why he interfaces with his “Republican friends” online rather than in person. Face to face, if he comes on the same way as he does in print, I don’t imagine he really has many “friends” in the GOP.

Having said that, it’s time to state it straight from the right—a position “only defensible by ideology.”

The great divide in this country is not so much between Republicans and Democrats, as Mr. Josey insists. The two sides in this great debate are those who, for the most part, rely on themselves to solve their problems and those who have become “entitled,” who depend on government programs to meet their needs. Specifically, it’s more a divide between the individualism of small cities and rural areas against the “big government” needs of urban areas.

Still, polling establishes that America is a “center-right” country with some 70% of the people identifying themselves as moderate-to-conservative in their philosophy of government. That means the current government controlled by Obama and his big-city Democrat allies doesn’t listen to the majority of our citizens and constantly rubs them the wrong way.

That’s why huge, costly healthcare “reform” doesn’t fly with the American people. Or trillion-dollar bailouts to perpetuate the “losers” of capitalism. Or another trillion in “stimulus” that does nothing more than pay off the unions and other Obama political allies. Or suing in court a state government that’s only trying to control its own border problems with illegal immigrants. Or big energy taxes to solve a global warming problem that may not exist.

Likewise, these purveyors of huge, over-burdening government are very close to destroying “the American Dream” for our children and grandchildren—because they will live their lives for no other purpose than to pay off our massive national debt. That’s my grandchildren and, I would think, Mr. Josey’s children.

The kinds of problems that government can solve actually are quite small in number. The main reason is that government has no motive to succeed other than to perpetuate itself. If it were possible to place all government services on shelves, like groceries, I’d bet there wouldn’t be many that 70% of Americans would be willing to pay for at the checkout.

Most Americans are willing to pay for a military to avoid being invaded by a foreign power, but then again, the “foreign policy” of most American administrations the last century has been to give away the country piece by piece to foreigners. If we could keep just one of the entitlement programs, it would be a toss-up between Social Security and Medicare.

Quite simply, Mr. Josey, political philosophy is all that does make a difference. Republicans and Democrats are pretty much the same, otherwise. I prefer to call myself a “conservative,” because I want to keep what I have and avoid at all costs having a government flush my resources down the toilet to pay off someone’s political debts.

Put me in the White House with a Congress and Supreme Court made up of 70% like-minded conservatives, and I’d show you in about 10 minutes how to solve our problems. We’d start by eliminating 50 “czars,” the First Lady’s “staff,” the Departments of Energy and Education, and about 25% of all other government programs. From there, when I see waste, government will get smaller still.

To paraphrase the late Ronald Reagan, government isn’t the answer to the problem; “government IS the problem.” Or, as my favorite president, Thomas Jefferson, said it: “That government which governs best, governs least.”