tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post6740832390848116693..comments2023-06-15T09:13:45.467-04:00Comments on Liberty's Torch: The "Obvious" And Calls For GOP UnityFrancis W. Porrettohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05862584203772592282noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-39682808669621807762013-02-07T12:13:17.457-05:002013-02-07T12:13:17.457-05:00Electing an official is effectively to let the hor...Electing an official is effectively to let the horse out of the barn without saddle or bridle. Sometimes its activities will coincide with out priorities but, really, it's a free actor.<br /><br />Reading the many brilliant analyses and commentaries on the web that I do, I see there is no dearth of warnings and salutary policy suggestions. However, facts and logic are irrelevant in most political, social, economic, and military debates.<br /><br />In particular, no amount of arm waving and jawboning has been able to put the brakes on federal spending since the institution of the federal income tax. Even informed, logical citizens have little chance of influencing, say, a member of the House of Representatives, as they are but one of 700,000 other of the man's constituents. What is one mosquito in the forest?<br /><br />Most citizens have no energy to endlessly tilt against the federal windmill and we will be much better served to find ways to make bad or frail men want to do the right thing, as you say. Tying compensation to passing a balanced budget is one way to go. As is prohibiting politicians from exempting themselves from laws that apply to the unwashed. That the Congress, inter alia, is not required to participate in Obamacare is an interstellar outrage and if it were required to participate, you can be darn sure that there wouldn't be Obamacare or that it would be vastly different from what it is now.<br /><br />The Jesse Helmses, Michele Bachmanns, Ron and Rand Pauls, and Joe Arpaios are too few. Relying on innate sense, patriotism, honesty, and courage is just not an option.<br /><br />Alas, count me in with Diplomad, Silicon Graybeard, and Mike Hendrix so far as the statement of the problem is. Slash and burn is a tall order in the short term but there's no denying that Diplomad has listed a great many worthy objectives. Of course, it's not obvious to most people that a gigantic federal government is the problem, but it is obvious to those of us with a passing familiarity with 20th-century history that we're seeing the early infancy of an American Leviathan, if not the late adolescence thereof.<br /><br />So the worthy objective of slashing the federal government can be obvious to us but not necessarily to federal officials, which latter point I take it is yours. <br /><br />So we know the extent of the problem and know also relying on politicians to do the "obviously" right thing is an exercise in futility. (An exercise that I have vigorously engaged in for 40 years of so.) The truth of what you say has finally dawned on me, viz., we are screwed. <br /><br />When I consider the really big issues like vote fraud, extending the franchise to welfare recipients, energy, immigration, the environment, race, Islam, bedrock cultural institutions (family, marriage, education), economic policy, liberty, majority rights, rule of law, and freedom of speech, I see only the machinations of fools, traitors, sell outs, fraudsters, and perverts. It's a clean sweep in all departments and it's not even a debatable proposition. <br /><br />Icarus had nothing on us. Col. B. Bunnyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09590364016079745156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-8774972298624155472013-02-07T11:11:19.062-05:002013-02-07T11:11:19.062-05:00You had me there for a bit, Francis. I wasn't ...You had me there for a bit, Francis. I wasn't sure quite where you were going with this piece until that final gem of wisdom. Indeed, obvious DOES mean overlooked. The question we must ask ourselves (and, by extension anyone we presume to elect to high offices) is if that disregard for what SHOULD be "obvious" is mere ignorance, wishful-thinking, willful blindness or outright evil. The first is occasionally excusable even among the highly-intelligent -- we all miss things from time to time, or else there would be a lot fewer car accidents. We cannot know everything. Wishful thinking is a form of seduction and propaganda, you see this mostly on the Left, and mostly among their voting castes. "If only we give a little more money to (X) everything would be better!" You see a lot of sheep bleating about whatever the media tells them because it sounds good (or, conversely, sounds scary, thus justifying policy that sounds good to fix it). It's understandable, even if intellectually shallow. Willful blindness is a related concept, but it is rooted in laziness and fear of criticism, and can seduce even the most intelligent folks. "I don't want to deal with this, so let's not think about it right now. Let's talk about ponies instead, ponies are pretty." I argue that the Republican party does this a LOT. Rather than face unpleasant realities (the "obvious") or deal with the criticism from a hostile media, it chooses to change its message or compromise its "values" in the interests of expediency and intellectual laziness. Of course, we cannot excuse this, but it at least falls short of outright evil. Now, the last, outright evil, is practice by the true masters of Progressivism. They notice the "obvious," and thus don't truly belong on this list, but are actively colluding to use it in order gain the maximum amount of power and control possible.<br /><br />Those of us who see the "obvious" and wish to do something about it... must fight these 4 forces of blindness. We must bring up the ideas, so that those who merely haven't thought of them can say "oh yeah, damn.. you're right, never thought of it that way before!" Those are the easiest to sway.<br /><br />The wishful thinkers will be excessively difficult to wake up. In fact, it may be, for all practical purposes, impossible without breaking the media monopoly on information for those folks.<br /><br />The willfully blind can be salvaged by the process you discuss. Create an environment where bad people are forced to do the right things.<br /><br />The outright evil can never be eliminated entirely, not until Christ himself returns.Xealotnoreply@blogger.com