Why Does Everybody Have To Defend Their Party?
By
Gary Gerard, dumbhoosier.com
I fashion myself as a center right kind of guy. Fiscally
conservative, but a little more socially liberal. But there is big
difference between me and some of my liberal friends.
I see them ranting on Facebook all the time about how stupid the
Republican candidates for president are.
And frankly, maybe with the exception of Mitt Romney, the
Republican candidates for president have been doing and saying
some pretty ridiculous stuff.
I have no trouble admitting that this is one dopey collection of
candidates for president.
Newt “family values” Gingrich? The guy has more baggage than
Southwest Airlines.
Herman Cain? An apparent serial harasser and womanizer.
Michelle Bachmann? I can’t even look at here when she talks. She’s
crazy.
Rick Perry? Also crazy. Not as crazy as Bachmann, to be sure, but
crazy nonetheless.
Ron Paul? Gold standard? He probably should stick to gynecology.
Rick Santorum. If this guy took a step to the right, he would
literally fall off the planet.
Jon Huntsman? Who?
Is Gary Johnson still running?
And Romney seems to be just trying to survive. His problem is
this: He was for a lot of things before he was against them – or
vice versa. Overall, I could vote for him before any of the
others, though. He’s seems more centrist, more willing to
compromise. I know that’s sacrilege to a lot of conservatives, but
whatever.
It’s not hard for me to see deficiencies in Republicans.
I used to criticize President George W. Bush quite a bit. Here’s
an excerpt from something I wrote in 2003.
The W administration has disappointed me yet again.
Boy, it’s getting tougher and tougher to be a conservative these
days.
I’m for lower taxes and smaller government, but this
administration, while doing OK on the tax side, is really starting
to freak me out when it comes to spending.
Smaller government?
Au contraire.
First we got Homeland Security, an enormous expansion of
government.
Now we get the Medicare prescription drug benefit, an enormous
entitlement.
And this when we are looking at a single-year deficit of $500
billion next year. ...
... When you think about it, (the prescription benefit) calls for
a huge new entitlement that threatens to bankrupt Medicare and
wreak havoc on the economy to fix a problem that really doesn’t
exist in the first place.
(Note the deficit number. Ah, yearning for the good old days when
deficits were a paltry half trillion dollars.)
So yeah, Republicans screw things up. And the Republican
presidential field is thinner than Donald Trump’s hair – or
whatever that is on top of his head.
But in the meantime my liberal friends are still trying to
convince me what a brilliant president Barack Obama is.
I’m just not buyin’ it.
Just because Bush was bad doesn’t necessarily make Obama good.
How can you defend a guy who – in no particular or chronological
order – runs up $1.5 trillion deficits year over year? Gave
us a $1 trillion healthcare plan that ballooned to a
budget-busting $3 trillion before even a fraction of its
provisions were enacted? Finally, had to admit that a linchpin of
the healthcare overhaul, Ted Kennedy’s CLASS Act, was unworkable
after being warned repeatedly it was fiscally insolvent? Turned
over a massive $800 billion stimulus bill to a pork-mad Congress
led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid? Promised, because of the
aforementioned “stimulus” that unemployment would not rise above 8
percent? Joked on camera that “shovel ready” wasn’t really “shovel
ready.” Oversaw a Justice Department’s deadly missteps in the
debacle that was “Fast and Furious.” Promised to close Guantanamo
Bay in a year? Criticized a state immigration law he admitted he
didn’t take the time to read? Initiated a “green” energy policy
that literally threatens the solvency the nation and squanders
billions of tax dollars in the name of crony capitalism? Extended
FISA and its warrantless wiretapping? Continues to pour even more
money and lives down the useless rathole that is Afghanistan? Has
biffed Mideast policy to the point where they’re burning U.S.
flags and Obama in effigy over there? Absolutely failed to lead on
the debt ceiling supercommittee fiasco?
I could go on, but this is tiring.
Frankly, would somebody please tell me what this guy has done
right?
He’s not aggressively awful, like W. He’s passively awful.
George W. Bush was a leader. Now, you may or may not have agreed
with what he was pushing, but he got it done. He convinced the
alleged conservatives in Congress to pass huge new government
entitlements, turning surpluses into deficits.
And he got pretty much the whole country on board with an iffy
Iraq war.
I also like it when liberals say things like, “Well, he’s only one
man. He’s not a dictator. He’s got those Republicans in Congress
standing in his way.”
That makes me chuckle. Aside from the fact that during his first
two years in office he had majorities in both houses of Congress,
these are the same people who blamed Bush for everything from soup
to nuts.
I remember bumper stickers during the 2008 election: “Gas was
$1.49 when George W. Bush took office.” Well, gas was $1.84 when
Obama took office. So what?
I guess my one great hope for America – naive as it may be – is
for people to stop looking at everything in politics through some
partisan prism. Too many people are blinded by party labels.
It’s not right vs. left folks, it’s right vs. wrong. And this
nonsensical right vs. left thing is precisely what got us into
this mess in the first place.
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