Political Affiliation – What do you believe?
First off, if you are reading this post and have hatred in your heart for one party or another, you’re probably in the wrong place. You’ve been forewarned….
There was a quote recently by a talking head on CNN – the quote (paraphrased) was, “He’s worse than a racist; he’s a libertarian”. This person was speaking of Rand Paul, of whom I knew little about until he was propelled onto the national scene through his primary win in Kentucky.
The first thought that I had was, ‘What an idiotic premise – that a person was worse than a racist (pretty damn bad from my perspective) because they believed in a set of political principles.” I was sufficiently interested to make myself aware of the range of modern American political process. Here I share with you what I learned.
There are two primary groups that drive the discussion in America – The Individualist and the Collectivist. I am purposely avoiding party names as that reference is meaningless in today’s world. From the Collectivist, the groups include Communist, Socialist, Fascist, Statist and any other line of thinking that posit the ‘State’ should be primarily responsible for the welfare and care of citizens in the country in question. The Individualist brings in groups such as Libertarians, Conservatives and so called Independents who posit that individuals in a free society should be primarily responsible for the welfare of themselves and their families and communities.
Bad Actors and Crying Wolf
I’m sitting in my office and looking out the window. The radio is on, there is a hummingbird hovering on the other side of the glass. I hear a story come over the radio about the tragic crash of a plane. The next is Senator Harry Reid saying “I cannot see how a Hispanic could be a Republican”.
That triggered a thought that festered. I recalled a speaker I’d heard years before (Brian Tracy) who introduced the idea “You are what you think about most of the time”. That got me thinking about the current origin based controversy and the race baiting that is so often associated with politics. If you look at Charlie Rangle, Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee, Harry Reid (and I could go on and on and on) – you can’t get through a news article without some mention of race being presented. Incidentally many of the Democrats platform planks would be much to do about nothing in a color blind world.
If you speak with politicians who are actually focused on legislation and problem solving, you find that there are rarely mentions of skin color or country of origin during the discourse. The example I find most striking today is Eric Cantor, who delivers the message in an articulate manner and makes a strong case with facts. Apparently, Mr Cantor is focused on solving problems most of the time – it is what his personal presentation provides. When talking head debates are presented, invariably the left leaning speaker starts with an issue but turns to race, religion or class baiting and the right leaning speaker attempts to speak about the issue while fielding accusations of racism. The progressives in the Democratic party in particular seem obsessed with race and racism. They see racists everywhere. Sadly the facts do not bear out the accusations. The facts are as follows:
- The United States consists of approx. 72% white, 12.4% black, 4.4% Asian and 15% Hispanic. (Wikipedia)
- Between 1998 and 2008, hate crimes were nearly identical statistically, with 51% race related, 19.5% religion related and 16.7% sexual-orientation related. 7700-7800 incidents were reported in both years. (FBI reports)
- There were 1,382,012 violent criminal offenses reported by the FBI in 2008 – 1.4 Million. Hate crimes makeup 0.005643% of all violent crimes.
The general narrative the Mass Media/Mainstream Media/State-Controlled Media perpetrates is that America is still a racist, bigoted nation. The facts show that narrative is dead wrong. America is not perfect – we are not free of character defects and problematic characters that will always be in the community. But America is working on our failings; whites are bending their realities to more than accommodate the media’s rants, blacks are willing to accept that not all whites are suspect and must be kept at arms length and so on. We are making the effort and culture cannot be legislated; it must evolve.
Conservatives have a natural weakness politically: we shy away from visceral conflict, name calling and charges in lieu of arguing facts and fighting in the arena of ideas. Progressives and leftists (anarchists, socialists, marxists) have no such concerns about truth and facts. Their approach follows media advertising principles of develop the message, make sure its got a hook in that message, and beat it to death attempting to smear, defame and sensationalize anything they think will stick to the wall. Take Arizona; those who believe in the rule of law supported SB1070 peacefully – those who disliked the law recruited union members and organized single issue groups to descend on Arizona and create chaos and strife. Why?
Because the progressive thought leads them to conclude they cannot reach their goals without the use of stupid human tricks and gimmicks. “Never let a crisis go to waste”, Pelosi’s perp walk for Obamacare, ground zero mosque, etc et al. Their utopia is not acceptable to the mainstream of America and they believe the American people must be presented a choice as the Germans were presented in the 30s. Out of crisis comes the foundation for their new utopia, and they attempt in every avenue to create violence and anarchy.
But Progressives are losing their foothold as the average momma-bear wakes from their slumber intellectually and begins to see the world today. They don’t accept the story and are digging in. Beware of bad actors crying wolf so the crisis created can be leveraged.
Update:
One final thought: saw a documentary on NatGeoWild – the natural weakness of conservatives is akin to the hibernation of a grizzly bear. During hibernation the bear’s heart rate drops to 15 beats per minute and uses just half of the heart at that. When awaken from their slumber, the heart resumes its normal 70 bpm and full utilization. Conservatives find conflict distasteful and uncomfortable – but when prodded to wake we will rise and flex our strength. No one finds themselves comfy in the presence of a grizzly bear – and the progressives, liberals and establishment naysayers are losing their minds as if they stumbled upon a hungry, angry bear. In analogy, they have done just that.
The Wrong Prescription – repost
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/246198/wrong-prescription-andrew-stuttaford
The Corner
The Wrong Prescription
September 10, 2010 9:59 A.M.
By Andrew Stuttaford
Oh dear:
Sheriffs in North Carolina want access to state computer records identifying anyone with prescriptions for powerful painkillers and other controlled substances.
North Carolina’s sheriffs quite obviously have way too much time on their hands, but even if we ignore the insult to privacy concerns implicit in the sheriffs’ suggestion (not to speak of the stupidity of widening the “war on drugs” still further), there’s something else to consider. Reason’s Radley Balko explains:
[L]aw enforcement officials’ definition of over-prescribing has sharply diverged from that of pain professionals. High-dose opiate therapy, a promising new treatment for chronic pain, has basically been cut off at the knees because of high-profile cases in which DEA officials, U.S. attorneys, and state and local law enforcement with no medical training have taken it upon themselves to decide what is and isn’t appropriate treatment.
And the problem is self-perpetuating. As more doctors leave pain management out of fear, those left feel pressure to take on more patients. And the fewer doctors willing to prescribe pain patients the meds they need, the more doctors legitimate patients need to see to get proper treatment. Both are consequences of bad policy. And both are then considered by law enforcement to be signs of abuse.
Letting cops go fishing in patient databases for these “red flags” is only going to make it all worse. Sure, they may well find a few unscrupulous doctors, and perhaps some people who are using doctors to feed an addiction. But one thing that’s almost certain to happen is that doctors are going to become even more fearful that every script is going to be scrutinized. Which means fewer of them will be willing to write them. Which means more pain patients are going to suffer, despite the fact that there are drugs available to help them.
And what will the supposedly science-friendly Obama administration do about the examples of this sort of overreach at the federal level? Let’s see.
Victim(?)(!)(-)(+)
“Evil requires the sanction of the victim.” – Rand
What is a victim in the world of today? What does it mean?
There are victims of abuse & force – rape, war, terrorism, assault. They are victims of the event; meaning they are not associated with or a party to the violence that they experience in the event.
There are other ‘victims’ who are, knowingly or not, sanctioning or giving permission to the evil that they experience. There are many examples of this – self-pity, domestic violence, crushing remorse, etc. I struggle with referencing these situations or individuals as victims as they have a choice in the matter; even in only aware of the choice at an near unconscious level (thank you Wachowski brothers). The fact remains that choice is not spoken about more and more in our sanitized, politically correct and increasingly polarized world.
As an example, a recipient of welfare ‘chooses’ to accept the states check instead of doubling down and making extraordinary efforts to work and earn an income. The choice as with all things is surrounded by the controversy of our times – what conditions were present when the choice was made; what is the historical context; what if any limitations are present to keep the person from choosing action versus accepting the liberty sucking contribution from the state? I contend there is very little difference in the cocaine dealer giving away the first hit of powder to gain a customer than the state handing out checks to those who are perhaps not as financially affluent as others. Once the state has a welfare recipient they want to keep that person pacified to secure more voters in their ranks. The most altruistic of intents turns into something that would be outright rejected if presented in the open. Attempting to help those experiencing tough times turns into power hungry elites searching for conditions that favor more state subsidies and less liberty – more people on some kind of handout. The handout is nefarious because of human nature – once a person has something, even if that something is a lie, they will vigorously fight to keep what is theirs. Ownership is more important that the truth and someone will fight like hell to keep what is theirs.
There are those who are born poor, disabled, with different skin tone or odd features. There are those who are bullied, shunned, called out or ostracized as kids. There are those who feel that past transgressions to ancestors affect their journey in life today. None of these things control the exercise of choice and freewill. They are conditions of the human experience. I was born to those with modest means, disabled and a real nerd in school. I have freewill – I choose in every case how I behave.
There are those who believe that there are only oppressors and the oppressed (re: victim) and that the oppressed must rise up and defeat the oppressor(s). There are those who believe that society must be controlled to avoid victims being hurt. There are those who push political ideologies on the backs of made-up victims (only to control and continue to perpetuate the conditions they felt caused the bad event in the first place).
I contend there is no such thing as a victim of circumstance, of hurt feelings or of history. How you rope-a-dope with life, racism, discrimination, taunting, oppression and any other event it takes two to tango is about choice. The liberal/progressive activists wish deeply that no harm would come to the sensitive – that those who were oppressed have the right to give some payback to the progeny of those who harmed them in the past. That everyone who walks this earth would be equal, have equal stuff and live in a sterile, fake Star Trek world. We’re not there; it’s not feasible; dreaming doesn’t make it so. We’re still in a society based on money. We’re still in a society that is built around meritocracy.
There are those in power today in the US who have felt/played the victim role their entire lives – as minorities, academics, activists or misguided money-bags. They either see value in leveraging the victims for their own means or they retain their very large chip on their shoulders and they feel justified in paying back the ‘oppressor’. For humanity to take the next step we do not require socialism, communism or a form of government. We do not need government run programs, redistribution of wealth or skyrocketing taxes. We need the awakening of choice and the awareness that claiming ‘victim’ status must also have context and intention tied to the tapestry that is seen.
We used to see things (more often) with a broader, wide angle lens if you will – there were questions about a persons intentions, their circumstances and the context of the situation. A claim of harm did not automatically don the veil of victimization – stuff happens and you take care of business and move on. Today the climate is purposefully divisive. Gotcha political games don’t just populate the halls of Congress, but in every business where those games are tolerated. They are played in Homeowner Associations, Churches, PTA meetings and any other location where positions of “power” are available. If you make a single error, and you happened to err against a maligned group (or one who has powerful people at the helm), you’re certainly toast. There are no guiltless parties anymore.
“Let go and let God” is a popular saying in spiritual circles – this removes the burden of carrying perceived victimization as you are giving that to the Almighty. It’s telling that in our secular society, full of ill-conceived and false traps built through political correctness, the individual is no longer accountable for their reactions to circumstances. If Jesus does return to the world, and walk among us, he wouldn’t just be mobbed by the faithful – the number of delivery persons serving summons to appear in lawsuits where acts of God were blamed would potentially outnumber the faithful.
What you think you believe…
Why are you affiliated with the religion that you elected to follow?
Why are you associated with the political party/ideology you believe in?
How do you choose to participate in your community and why do you choose to do so?
Those questions and many more have been in my thoughts recently. Recognizing that as children our thoughts and beliefs are shaped in a manner that is rarely checked or controlled by the child (primarily as we don’t know how choice works at that age), it’s incumbent on individuals maturing in this world to assess their beliefs. (more…)
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