"This Can't Be Right…"

One of the benefits of having raised conservative daughters, and having fostered good reading habits at an early age, is that sometimes they find books that Dad would like to try. Of course, this has the added benefit of being one less they have to buy, but can borrow from me when I am done. Some of these are political or historical in nature.

The latest book my youngest wanted me to get is Why I Turned Right, edited by Mary Eberstadt. It's a collection of essays from leading Baby Boomer Conservatives telling what lead them to our side. I just started, so I can't really recommend it yet, but it reads well so far.

The thing that prompted this post, though, was a line from the introduction. Eberstadt relates how she finally reached her "Tipping Point." At the suggestion of a conservative professor she read Roe v. Wade, and began thinking "This can't be right." This was followed by years of hearing feminists cheer for abortion culminated by attending a rigged "debate" between a Baptist preacher and a feminist, surrounded by the standard issue liberal mob of booing, jeering hoodlums. At that point she thought, "Whatever else may be true or false, knowable or unknowable, this abortion thing just can't be right."

Earlier she had quoted contributor Joseph Bottum: "Real conservatism usually begins when you find in yourself a limit, a place beyond which you will not go." This was her place. Here is where she turned, and began her journey to the right.

This touched a chord. I lived through the Carter-Reagan years. Active Duty Navy at the time, I remember the "cloud" that hung over the services during the Carter years, feeling we were the bastard step-children of our country. I remember the difference when Reagan took office, like a weight had been lifted off our shoulders, like we were appreciated again. I remember the whole country having a resurgence of pride, and hope, and spirit. You think "God Bless The USA" would have caught fire during the Carter Years?

Most of all, I remember the last year of the Carter Administration. I remember the shame and anger at the nightly broadcast of what later became Nightline, "The Iran Crisis—America Held Hostage: Day xxx". Each day the count went up, each day becoming more shameful. I remember wondering how we, the greatest country on the face of the earth, could stand by and watch that number grow to become an eventual 444 days! I watched Carter bumble through the crisis, making us look weak and ineffectual, and thought to myself, "This can't be right."

Evidently enough of the rest of the country thought so, as Carter was sent away (unfortunately not to be never heard from again) and the country rallied around Ronald Reagan. The hostages were handed over before the echoes of the Oath of Office had faded. This was followed by a lightning-quick response to the invasion of Grenada; the slap-down of Muammar al-Gaddafi that resulted in his largely behaving himself (up until our invasion of Iraq convinced him to give up his nuclear program and become one of the good guys, or as close to that as he can get); and ultimately resulting in the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall. America was strong and confident again, its people knew it, and so did the rest of the world. All of this because the country rose up in the realization that "This can't be right."

I see a very real possibility that this is happening again. We are in the second term of President Carter with a vengeance. Every lame-brain, feel-good, socialist, unionist, nanny-state program is being rammed through; in the hope that they can subject us all to socialist rule before we know what hit us. BHO is busy overturning and erasing almost every policy, program, and institution that Bush has put in place over the last 8 years.

The Left is in power, and they are still pissed off that Bush won (read "stole the election") in 2000, added to Republican control of Congress in 2002, and screwed them out of the White House and denied them the Congress again in 2004. On top of all this he placed 2 relatively young and conservative Justices on the Supreme Court, one as Chief Justice, ensuring that they would be stung by the repercussions of his administration with every Court decision for years to come. But they are in control now, and they are hell-bent to erase as much of his legacy as they can.

Protection of embryos from stem cell research: Gone! Gitmo: Gone! Not using tax-payer dollars to fund the murder of countless unborn children overseas: Gone! Tax breaks for the people who actually create jobs and make the economy work: Gone! Respect for our allies, and fear instilled in those who would harm us: Gone!

All this and more in less than 2 months. Just imagine what they could have accomplished by now if the could get a cabinet in place, instead of having to back-up and nominate someone else to take the place of the nominee who went up in flames, who was nominated in place of the nominee who pulled his name out of contention because he was going to go up in flames, ad infinitum…

But I see signs that the people are getting wise. The scales are falling from their eyes. People are starting to realize what "Change" really means. They are watching the country being transformed into something unrecognizable, and thinking that this is NOT what they thought they were voting for. Tea Parties are beginning to rattle those not completely committed to the far left, or at least those who are more committed to their political survival than Pelosi's agenda. The outrage is building, the disillusionment, and the dawning awareness that "This can't be right."

The one thing that is constant about the Left is that, when they are in power, they overreach. They can't slowly transform the country; they have to do it overnight. They can't roll-out each program separately; they have to ram them all down our throats at the same time. It's as if they realize that they will never get away with it all if they don't hurry up and do it before the people catch on. And they are right.

The Left accuse Bush of taking on to much by invading Iraq before he was finished with Afghanistan. But here they are, doing the social and financial equivalent of Bush attacking Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Hamas, Libya, Syria, and the Soviet (sorry, I meant Russian) forces in Georgia simultaneously.

And the result of this is the people realizing "This can't be right." In less than 2 months we have gone from "Yes, we can" to "Do we really want to?" The country is coming to the realization that this is not what they thought they were getting. Ramming all of this down our throats is resulting in the inevitable reaction, the gag reflex kicking in, and the people are beginning to squirm, to resist, to fight back.

I see a very real possibility of BHO being a one term President, of the Left loosing their hold on Congress, of the Carter years repeating themselves and resulting in a Conservative Resurgence. We may have to go through our equivalent of the Iran Crisis or, God forbid, another 9/11 (something I fear is increasingly in our future) before it happens. And we need a true conservative to lead the way. Our 21st Century Reagan, not another "bi-partisan, acceptable to the left, middle-of-the-road" politico, constantly shifting positions to find the best "fit" for the latest poll and earn the admiration of ABC/NBC/CBS; but someone who will capture the hearts and minds of our party.

It can happen. I think it will. The people are starting to question what is going on, they are reaching their tipping point, their limit. They are fast approaching the place beyond which they will not go, they are saying "This can't be right."

It's not, but we can change it. The countdown to 2010 starts now.

Making up rights...

In the grand tradition of the Supreme Court making up a right to privacy and a right to kill your unborn child, the St. Petersburg Times recently urged the Florida Legislature to rescind the 2006 law banning handgun permits from being a matter of public record. In the editorial the newspaper said:

The right to carry a concealed weapon should not trample the right to know who has a permit to carry one.

What? Now there's a right to know if I have a carry permit? Really?

What burns me up is that these are the same bozos that would be first in line to defend a child-molester's right to privacy if someone said that they should have a sign up on their house saying "I molest children." It doesn't matter that he fondled and/or raped five 10-year old boys and girls, he's sorry about it, so you can't embarrass him!

The inmates are definitely running the asylum.

The Audacity of Arrogance

Watching Christina Romer, Obama's chairman of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, speak about the administrations wildly optimistic economic assumptions last week I was struck with just how much I wanted to smack her upside the head. The smug, we are so smart, grin on her face as she went on about how they had “inside information” because they “knew the plan” was so typical of all the liberals these days. Schumer, Pelosi, the Obamessiah himself, all of them have this self-satisfied, “I'm so much smarter than you” smile while they speak down at the people they are supposed to be serving.

A bit later in the broadcast a member of the Heritage Foundation commented that he found the administration's attitude “arrogant.” The light-bulb went on. That's what has been bugging me about That One, his talking heads, Pelosi, Reid, Schumer, all of these smug, grinning, pains-in-my-ass. They are all, to the last one of them, insufferably arrogant. They smile at us like we are all brain-addled cretins who have not yet seen the light. They dismiss our concerns because we are just not as smart, or as caring, or as holy as they are...

What is really strange about these people is that deep down they tend to dismiss religions as being over-judgmental, but I have NEVER seen any preacher, priest, Pope, or religious leader as sanctimonious and holier-than-thou as this crop of what Ann Coulter rightly calls “high priests of the Church of Liberalism .” Or is it now the high priests of the Church of Obamaism?