Republicans: The Party That Should Have Known Better
Written by Bradley Harrington
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
Now that all the hoopla is over in St. Paul, let us examine just exactly what it is that Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin are advocating for America.

McCain's Web site spells out his stand on the issues quite clearly, including, but certainly not limited to, the following:

• Energy. "McCain will commit our country to expanding domestic oil exploration. The current federal moratorium on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf stands in the way of energy exploration and production."

• Veterans. "McCain has voted repeatedly, throughout his career, to ensure that the Veteran's Affairs health-care programs receive the funding necessary to serve our veterans."

• Foreign policy. "McCain believes we must enlarge the size of our armed forces to meet new challenges to our security. ... Our existing force is overstretched by the combination of military operations in the broader Middle East and the need to maintain our security commitments in Europe and Asia."

Yes, we should be expanding oil production by abolishing the federal moratorium on drilling, among other things. Great idea. Problem is, up until 2006, McCain has repeatedly and consistently opposed such actions - yet we have been held hostage to the whims of Arab dictators on oil prices by such policies for several decades. More election-year politics.

And, while McCain constantly touts his military record, strength on defense, and support for veterans, he has repeatedly voted to nix increases in benefits for veterans, and he opposed the expansions in the GI Bill of 2008. McCain, apparently, would rather see a soldier maintaining our "security commitments" in Europe and Asia - continents that ought to be providing for their own defense - than go to college after his time is up. Election-year politics burns another strike right over the plate.

There was once a time, many decades ago, when the Republicans advocated liberty and individualism; when the GOP supported capitalism, free enterprise, and private-property rights; when the party opposed poverty-inducing schemes such as Social Security and food stamps; when they would have viewed institutions such as the Department of Energy or the Department of Education as unconstitutional; and when they believed that the proper role of our military was to protect our nation from attack - not to engage in costly, counterproductive, and imperialistic overseas adventures such as the floundering mess they have made of Iraq.

Today, the only Republican advocating such positions is Congressman Ron Paul - and what Paul got for his efforts was smeardom from coast to coast as an isolationist, racist, white-supremacist pig (with much of the smearing coming from his fellow Republicans, including John McCain).

We all know that the Democrats stand for the "welfare" state. What do the Republicans stand for? McCain poses and postures before the American public as a "maverick," but the facts beg to differ: McCain stands for the status quo, i.e., for the mixed-economy "welfare" state, just like the Democrats. He would merely exercise the federal government's near-totalitarian control over the citizens of the United States in a slightly different fashion.

Yet if the Republicans do not stand for liberty, individualism, and constitutionally limited government, they stand for, and represent, nothing. No principle, no value, no integrity remains (or is even possible) once that level of treason has been committed.

"A Cause Greater Than Self-Interest," trumpets McCain, as if helping millions of Americans protect themselves from the ravishing of a hurricane was not in the self-interest of the rest of us. It is this kind of intellectual befuddlement and lack of understanding of rational self-interest that has led the Republican party to sell itself down the river.

And that is too bad for us, and makes the treason much worse, because, of the two parties, the Republicans are the ones who should have known better. If there is anything worse than the slavery advocated by the Democrats, it can only be the Republicans talking out the sides of their necks about liberty and freedom while securing us just as tightly with chains of their own.



Bradley Harrington is a former United States Marine and a freelance writer who lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

and after todays fun and games, I wonder if many of them will ever learn, or is it the brainwashing??

avarice and greed know no allegiance, war.


the bailout today had to be.


it will be OK.


Just imagine how befuddled things would have been had the dems been running the oval office this month.

They would still be frozen with indecision trying to placate and appease everyone into being nice while the world began divesting liquidity big time.

JMHO, and only a guess.

glad i can only guess this time.LQQL

Actually I'm glad this happened on Bush's watch, it showed him and his admin. to be the frauds I've always said they were. No self respecting conservative would have bailed any of these a$$hats out. A conservative would have winced as they bit the dust and then watched with intrigue as the market suffered some and then corrected itself.
Instead the socalled conservative proved that neoconservative is a farce, by practicing National Socialism, which is in his families blood.

War,

Perhaps it should also be called for what it is:

Corporate Welfare

Obey the government at all costs, Nationalizing the banking system.

Corporate welfare is handouts, between the Fed and our central government, these banks aren't getting welfare anymore, they're flat taking most of them over.

Brainwashing are liberals who watch CNN and believe everything that is told to them....

Ummm, is that a little misdirection? No one referenced CNN at all, Are you saying that the veteran who wrote this is brainwashed?

nope.


the point is that it had to be done for the good of the country, despite the shellacing that is most deservedly due those laisse faire vacationers.

i disagree only because the AIG solvency issue affects construction and insurance more than people realize, even though they do prey on risky business.

the predator was snared and the greedy chumps that held stock at 80 are down to 2/share.

but in the interests of the policyholders, well, that's different when considering the vacuum that would cause the uninsured to scamper for a better umbrella policy since bk would not give policyholders adequate protection, and the competition, knowing the policyholder is squeezed in a pinch would only gouge.

you know that, and why give them another industry to speculate in?

we both know that is an ancillary point, but valid.


Our national interests are served well by the report of foreign investors eyeing the crediblity of the federal reserves resolve in this matter.

Bernanke is the only one with the learned scholarly expertise to deal with deflation.

greenspan wasn't bumbling around tutoring and grooming this man to take up his mantle.

i remember the early days of Greenspan's watch.

things have come very far from those days and these last days on his watch were very nervous days for him.

There will be much more to come.

This is a clinic for our grandchildren , war.


we have to teach them well.

first we have to get through this intact.

exciting times, eh?

When I mentioned Corporate Welfare I was referring to all the government bailouts that have happened just this year!

Of course, politicians would rather bail out these corporations before they would bail out the average American homeowner!

Which just goes to show where their true loyalties lie!

so true.

I was referring to this:

"and after todays fun and games, I wonder if many of them will ever learn, or is it the brainwashing?? "

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
BUT
im just gonna say, this is the smartest guy I have ever ran across on this mingling place!!

NOBAMA 2008

So you just choose to add CNN and Liberals. Gotcha.

Wouldee is a pretty smart guy, I have alot of fun debating the issues with him.

Liberals have no problem adding their crap

yup.

in the pie hole and out the bidet.

See, i guess the difference between us is, I don't by the false left/right paradign. Liberal/Neocons not really one whits difference between them, as far as I can tell.

They both are horrible about civil/personal rights. They both are horrible on spending. They both propagate the unconstitutional federal reserve system and they both think they can run everyones lives better.

its the centrist trend.

the country is divided yet very close together.

it's like there is this bi polar introspection/extrospection martini shaker making drinks for the parties.

and the citizenry is caught in the middle.




not knowing what to do without a great leader, the country chooses to waddle in the middle.

and the two parties wallow in trying to get a pulse from a catatonic audience.'



tv and hollywood dumbed everybody down.

fact and fiction are blurred.

it seems that the sober and careful ones are the greedy and the avarice driven workaholics.

it's so sad it is funny.

Aha, there it is, wouldee, you hit on it. The majority of this nation is severely mentally ill.