Posted on 05/22/2002 9:11:50 AM PDT by B. A. Conservative
What evidence do we have that these are not his true colors?
I'm not a Bush basher, I'm a wannabe Bush basher...
I'll be ding-danged if I'll support/vote for him again, though. It's enough to make me vote Libertarian, for crying out loud.
"What evidence do we have that these are not his true colors?"
I pose the same question to you. What evidence do you have that these are his true colors? I use his past performance as Governor of the great State of Texas as the basis for my opinion.
"I'm not a Bush basher, I'm a wannabe Bush basher..."
That says it all! No further comment needed.
"I'll be ding-danged if I'll support/vote for him again, though. It's enough to make me vote Libertarian, for crying out loud."
Yeah, there ya go- ya soup sandwich! Spend your time fighting the "Satanic Druids" and "Illuminatis!" Work to legalize all drugs, and make sure that criminals and crazies are armed! That'll really put this country right again!!
Sad, but true. And the tragedy is that most Americans today have no idea of what we had and how much we have lost. Peasants in the middle ages kept more of what they produced than Americans living in the US today. The only remaining vestige is that so far they don't cut your head off when you complain. They only do that when you threaten to stop paying the financial tribute in taxes. Washington and Jefferson would castigate you unmercifully (historical flaming) for propagandizing using BS to suggest that we still retain most of our freedoms. You are either extremely superficial or a fool. I like your name, but it is mostly wishful thinking. Reagan knew the difference between genuine freedom and what passes for it today. It is one of life's greatest tragedies that he was deprived of his intellect when we needed it most.
The government is not qualified for anything. Government is anathema to competence. Government is the father and the mother of incompetence. And thank God or we would all be slaves instead of mere serfs. And the largest reservoir of incompetence in the world is the US VA.
Then they won't be solved at all if you think we have another sixty years. The US will end precisely before the 2016 Presidential election. At the current rate it is not possible to fund the unfunded liabilities of Medicare and Social Security even with rampant inflation and gold confiscation. We change the way things are done before 2012 or the United States is over. Assuming Bush is a two-term president, we only have one more very short and lesser chance to save what little is left of the US. I want my freedom back today. Those of us who feel that way are carefully evaluating our options of whether to run away seeking freedom in anonymity here or elsewhere, or choosing to try and salvage freedom in the existing framework, or collapse the system and start over. Frankly, I am of the opinion that our choice is really between the first and last. I am not at all convinced that it is even possible to save the US. And if it isn't the sooner we adopt one of the other two strategies the better. I suspect that many Americans have already adopted the Rhet Butler approach about savig the US, "..frankly, I don't give a damn."
You are brain dead or stupid. The war on drugs is insane. It promotes corruption and crime. It does nothing at all to alter the demand or flow of drugs. All it can, or ever will achieve is to affect the price. My advice to you, is to become a lurker. Every time you open your mouth, you tell the whole world that your mental processes do not generate intelligent thought or opinions. Spare yourself and us. Spend your time reading, studying and thinking. Engaging your keyboard short circuits this process. Americans will never be safe as long the war on drugs exists and there are proponents who favor it. All it does is distract conservatives from the real issues of restoring our freedoms by stripping government of power. Freedom is the worst casuality of the War on Drugs which would be better described as some conservatives' war on freedom.
Those Freepers who disagree, before you flame, see if you can find some of my old posts regarding the war on drugs. Read them and when you understand, send me a private reply. Please don't waste the time of rest of the forum discussing absurd positions. Unless you are prepared to kill every drug user and every drug peddler, the war on drugs will end in failure and the price that will be paid is the little freedom that we still have left. Advogado and fools just like him may believe otherwise, but that is the reality and the standard by which you should be judged.
They'd also be shocked and outraged at the level of taxation working American's are forced to surrender to the federal government, in order to fund an ever expanding, bloated bureaucracy.
No one is saying America doesn't have serious problems, but like Ronald Reagan, I know America is still the greatest nation in history. All in all, I believe most of the Founding Fathers would be gratified, proud and even overjoyed, if they could actually see, what their governing/political experimentation has developed into.
A little optimism goes a long way. Try being optimistic yourself, once in a while. But please, do us all a favor, leave your BS at the curb.
Don't feel bad...conservatives are taken for granted by Republicans the same way blacks are taken for granted by the Democrats. I will probably vote Constitution Party next time around.
What a shameful thing to say today. On this date we honor generations of men and women, who, while employed by the government, gave their lives so ignorant dunces like yourself would have the right to speak the stupid things you do. I have no time for your America hating garbage today.
Worth repeating! This is both unAmerican and unpatriotic crappola!
This is the same individual, who believes that states are ready to secede from the union and who thinks America will be through by the year 2016.
What a blithering idiot and what a shameless creature.
Amazing. What kind of drugs does a parent have to take to produce such an unstable and foolish offspring? His post really was a sad example of the type of people who are out to destroy this wonderful contry.
One final thought: Is there enough evidence to convict W. of being a Conservative? I think not.
Fine. I'll vote Constitution Party. Then if a fiscally irresponsible Democrat (as opposed to a fiscally irresponsible Republican) gains office; I can bitch, whine, and complain all the louder.
"Then they won't be solved at all if you think we have another sixty years. The US will end precisely before the 2016 Presidential election. At the current rate it is not possible to fund the unfunded liabilities of Medicare and Social Security even with rampant inflation and gold confiscation. We change the way things are done before 2012 or the United States is over. Assuming Bush is a two-term president, we only have one more very short and lesser chance to save what little is left of the US. I want my freedom back today. Those of us who feel that way are carefully evaluating our options of whether to run away seeking freedom in anonymity here or elsewhere, or choosing to try and salvage freedom in the existing framework, or collapse the system and start over. Frankly, I am of the opinion that our choice is really between the first and last. I am not at all convinced that it is even possible to save the US. And if it isn't the sooner we adopt one of the other two strategies the better. I suspect that many Americans have already adopted the Rhet Butler approach about savig the US, "..frankly, I don't give a damn."
I suggest you put your money where your mouth is, and get yourself a rifle. This desire for immediate satisfaction is unreasonable, counter-productive, and childish. The way to solve these problems is to stay actively involved in the system, and work to educate others and get them involved as well. Demanding whatever your idea of freedom is NOW only makes you look foolish. There's a time and a place for everything and this is not the time for revolution- not yet.
George W. Bush will be a two term President in spite of the best efforts of the Bush bashers.
Are we (as a nation) better off economically, politically, or Constitutionally now than we were in 1960? Before you answer that question, I don't want your opinions, I want you to look up and provide the data and its source for your answers. I would like for you to consider the legislative and regulatory environments for your political answers. I would like for you to consider both net worth and disposable income in constant dollars for your economic answers. And I would be very interested in whatever specific Supreme Court decisions you care to cite with regard to the Constitutional issues.
I think you are going to find that our country has lost ground on each of those issues. If we add education to the mix, I will suggest that the results will be even more disappointing. If we use growth of government versus growth of anything else, the results will be even worse.
Finally, Reagan produced an amazing turn around in allowing us to keep more of our money, but did nothing to slow the growth of government. Reagan's decision to keep Bush I gave us Clinton who wiped out much of the good accomplished by Reagan. There is no question of the relative merits of Bush II as compared to Gore. Just to illustrate the problem we now face consider Gore as a man and a presidential candidate. Do any of you actually believe Al Gore could have become a presidential candidate before 1865? 1932? 1960? Could he have polled more votes than Bush II? How quickly we forget that "W" lost the popular election by a clear and significant margin. Were it not for the wisdom of the Founders, Gore would be president today. Thanks to Wilson and the Democrats, we now have a Senate that eliminated much of the benefits of a republic by making Senators democratically elected taking us much closer to mob rule. And he destroyed our money creating the setting that gave us the first depression in the thirties and the one that we are likely entering in the very near future.
Gentlemen, I don't think your way is working. No war has been won by forever losing ground and yielding to the enemy. Sometime, somewhere you have to take a stand and defeat them. As far as stalling for time to win new support, educate future generations, or looking for new allies: look around gentlemen, you are losing that effort as well. Democrats are flooding the country with immigrants and then giving them money and voting rights. Our schools are dumbing down and teaching liberalism, not history. Multiculturalism and pop music have replaced history, reading and mathematics. Look at VA Advogado's posts if you doubt my thoughts.
Reagan Man has a different problem. He lets his own wishful thinking be clouded by the wishful thinking of liberals and others in hopes of enacting his own agenda whether it is Constitutional or not. In this pursuit, he disregards the very foundations of our liberty:
"I don't advocate employing compromise at every turn. It should be used sparingly, if at all, but compromise does remain an important political tool."
Somewhere it was written that politics is the art of compromise. Somehow people began to accept compromise as a good thing rather than seeing it as the slow steady erosion of rights and principles that it actually is. Compromise is exactly analogous to "good intentions". Good intentions are the life-blood of liberalism. And compromise is how they have advanced their agenda. For those of you that are historical scholars or are willing to look and examine the following pronouncement: Our country barely resembles the one created by the Founders; they would be shocked and appalled by what we have become and allowed ourselves to become. They would know that in spite of the slavery issue, the wrong side won the war. And they would have immense difficulty in believing that there has not been another revolution or second civil war.
"Compromise is at the heart of the American political system. The Founding Fathers clearly understood that."
Actually the founders understood "mobs", politicians and promises. The Constitution was expressly drafted to preclude simple compromises. Barriers to compromise were erected at almost every step in the governmental process. They understood that there should be some flexibility to allow for change and to allow for the possible correction of their own human errors. For example they knew slavery was wrong, but that there would be no new nation without it. But they made it purposely difficult to compromise, because this would inevitably increase the power of government at the expense of the freedom of the people.
"The whole premise of my remarks, involved electing more conservatives into office. Then with a veto proof majority, the Republican Party could effect real change in the current system."
Admirable goals, but now who is engaging in wishful thinking that results in saying stupid things. The 1994 election was an unbelievable incredulous and unprecedented event. Every conservative and every one on this site was stunned by the results and even more so by the magnitude of the results. Real change didn't happen for long. Since that election, the Republicans have had a steady erosion of political power. And with unprecedented political popularity, exceeding even that of Reagan, Bush caves almost completely on the conservative domestic agenda. Even his few precious victories have been squeekers and substantively de minimus. The overall result was that conservative agenda advanced more under Clinton than it has under Bush. And there are many on this site who would call that "leadership".
"The will of the people, through their elected representatives, have every right to dictate the terms of an orderly and law abiding society. Someone's personal relationship with their God, should be of no concern to anyone else, but that relationship exists in the context of society and doesn't give you absolute rights, of any kind."
A large part of the discussion on this site is devoted to the fact that government successfully ignores the Bill of Rights. For Reagan Man's benefit, those were the rights that were to be absolute. Remember the Declaration and the part about "unalienable" rights. It is worth rereading those glorius words considering what sometimes passes for thought, "This is the same individual, who believes that states are ready to secede from the union and who thinks America will be through by the year 2016. What a blithering idiot and what a shameless creature." Quoting from the Declaration, "..all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
"The problem is, conservatives dont' represent a majority of the voting electorate. So its obvious, why there aren't enough conservatives in Congress, to hold a majority rule. That's why conservative-republicans must appeal to independents and dissatisfied Democrats, in order to form a winning coalition. You give the Republican Party, a veto proof Congress and you will see sweeping change take place."
This statement is a perfect illustration of the magic in wishful thinking. We magically leap from not enough conservatives to even maintain a simple majority to enough conservatives in Congress to form a veto proof coalition. Alice or Walt could not have done better. And Bush is president because he won the popular vote. Even Bush is smart enough to understand where the votes from his next election are going to have to come from. If he thought they were coming from conservatives, why did he enact steel tariffs? That is why we have campaign finance reform. And that is why we increased education funding and abandoned vouchers. Note also that we are testing students, not teachers.
"But the Constitution gives Congress the power to legislate and the USSC, judicial power that extends to all cases, in law and equity, arising under our Constitution. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 and the 1991, Supreme Court ruling, Touby v. US, are the legislative and legal decisions that made our national drug control policy the law of the land. If that law bothers you, or upsets you,(it seems to do both in your case), get it changed through the legisaltive process."
Here again we see that magic elixir of ignoring the Constitution when it suits your purposes. Perhaps this is the best illustration of why the country is doomed. Those on the right want to use governmental power at the expense of abandoning Constitutional rights to enforce their own moral standards and codes on the left. I will make the point blank statement that if conservatives would give up the "war on drugs" and the war on abortion, we can have that veto proof conservative coalition you seek.
My own opinion is that we have had two hundred years to screw up what was pretty close to a wet dream of government. Now we have screwed it up to where it can't be fixed and divided the populace beyond reconciliation. I can't live with laws that would be passed by the left. And they can't live with laws that would be passed by the right. The United states is an illusion that fits perfectly in a smoke and mirrors society.For some, reality is beginning to set in. Others may need more lessons or other opinions.
The government is well qualified to hunt down and kill unarmed civilians. Period. Oh, and collect paychecks.
The people, OTOH, are well qualified to hunt down and kill the b*stards who sold them out.
This has been shown many times over the last few thousand years.
That's why I remain an optimist, despite the sorry existence of parasites, scavengers, and predators at ALL levels of government.
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