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Trading Their Birthright For An Obama Phone
Calm isn’t quite the right word. Peace? Yes, I’m at peace. The people were presented with two diametrically opposed philosophies. To employ a sports phrase, our side, “left it all on the field.” We highlighted the plans, failures, illegalities, and abuses of the statist. Where the major media failed, we stepped in. We countered utopian platitudes with facts, and answered entitlements with opportunity. After hundreds of columns, endless hours writing and researching when I should have been resting to meet the demands of life on the road, countless conversations with friends and family, and a multitude of prayers for my country, there was nothing left, save for the people to decide. And they did.
Mitt Romney is a sterling man who loves our country. I have no ill words or thoughts for him, and no Monday morning quarterbacking. He made the best calls he could while in the arena, under the white hot lights of scrutiny from friend and foe alike. He didn’t need the stress, the hassle, or the expense of running for office and could have easily retired and waved at the world as it passed by. But he put a personal stake in the future of America, and for that I am grateful. But he was outnumbered. We all were outnumbered.
My mistake, and the mistake of a great many of us on the right, was to think that a majority of Americans still believed in the country as it was founded. They don’t. The sacrifices of men at Valley Forge, on the beach at Normandy, or landing at Inchon, were all washed away on election day, leaving only the stark warning of Benjamin Franklin that, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”
They will get their masters. On the night of the election, a young man wearing a mask walked into a convenience store in Warren, Ohio, pointed a gun at a customer and robbed him before pointing the gun at the clerk and admonishing him to,”Vote for Obama.” These are the people who carried the election. Meanwhile, in Detroit, eight-time convicted felon and lifelong Democrat Brian Banks was elected as State Representative for the 1st District. Good. He’s a credit to the constituency that elected him. May they all enjoy the hell they have created.
As the days and weeks pass, we on the right will examine what happened and be told what should be done next. Some have suggested we change our messaging, on immigration for example, hinting (though not coming out and saying) that an insistence on securing the nation’s borders, or a resistance to rewarding the breaking of our laws, alienates the Hispanic vote. Let them put action to words then, and move to the border towns I travel to, and sleep with the doors as unsecured as the border. For we already have a pretty good idea what happens when we suggest watered down liberal ideas and policies, don’t we?
We suggest amnesty and they offer in-state tuition. We offer in-state tuition and they offer free education. On social issues, it’s the same. It was demanded that we give public approbation to private behaviors, and when we try to accommodate those demands, the demands only increase. Hence, the progression from civil unions to same-sex marriage, which progression will not stop, I suppose, until people start marrying aardvarks. We now have a majority of people who vote their biological plumbing, and on the basis of which party can produce the niftiest incarnation of Santa Claus. We can’t out-liberal the liberals.
So what to do? For me, there are two answers, one intimate and the other public. On an intimate level, to people I know personally who supported this man, my message is simple: good luck. In the words, of Samuel Adams, I will not seek, “… your counsel or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” May you enjoy your rendezvous with the government functionary who will weigh your age and health against the expense of whatever medical procedure you will need. You earned it. But my children and grandchildren didn’t earn it, yet you’ve foisted that awful and ghastly fate on them as well. For that, you have my undying contempt.
On a public level, recognizing with shame that it is my generation that has consigned a great country to darkness and servitude, I can only continue the fight. At some point, events will run their course. The currency will be devalued into meaninglessness by repeated mass printings, the debt will be called, the loot which the takers now demand will dry up, and the country will implode. Perhaps out of the ashes, a few voices will be heard reminding all that it didn’t have to be like this. It is my hope that Ricochet will be among those voices, and that mine will be among yours.
Though this generation is lost, the fight continues for the next, or the one after that. As long as I have a voice, I will be using it to remind everyone that it didn’t have to be this way. Recalling Winston Churchill’s remark that, “I like a man who grins when he fights,” I look forward to engaging along side the rest of you. And as my friend Alphonse says, “May God bless da hell outta you.”
Published in General
Obamacare is certainly similar to Romneycare and vary close to a proposal made by Dole in the mid nineties. It seems to me the “thems” are on both sides of the aisle and it is about time the “uses” realize it.
The former was desired by a majority of a state’s citizens, not a still-unwilling nation. The latter was never imposed or even attempted. Don’t try to imply that somehow Obamacare is just a slightly different version of something conservatives and/or the GOP would’ve given us.
Not a single Republican – not even our most notorious squishes Collins or Snowe – could bring themselves to vote for Obamacare. No, that monstrosity and its consequences belong entirely to Democrats and the Left. It is most definitely an us vs. them issue.
Dave,
Thank you for yet again another great message!
…So after last night, moving is not a question of “if”. The question is, first, “where.” Then we’ll decide on the “when.” ·1 hour ago
Imagine California if a mass exodus of business owners and red professionals left for red states. They’d be bankrupt in a year.
Umm… California isbankrupt. ·0 minutes ago
People keep claiming that, but they never offer any proof. Prove it. ·38 minutes ago
Let’s start with two cities:
1) San Bernardino : population 214,000/bond debt $319 million
2) Stockton: population 300,000/bond debt $700 million
…So after last night, moving is not a question of “if”. The question is, first, “where.” Then we’ll decide on the “when.” ·1 hour ago
Imagine California if a mass exodus of business owners and red professionals left for red states. They’d be bankrupt in a year.
Umm… California isbankrupt. ·12 hours ago
Cities have declared bankruptcy but the state has not. They are driving hard towards that end, but obviously the majority of Californians and their elected officials refuse to acknowledge this. Remove a significant chunk of their “reserves” (private wealth) and reality will set in much more quickly.
Just to throw in a monkey wrench, or do Americans say spanner?
That Obamaphone program is very interesting
I work with business owners getting them financing and private equity. The struggle is to scale up a business past 400 employees and build a big enough market to cover fixed costs.
the Obamaphone hits quite a few plus points besides the disgraceful woman wanting tax payer funded freebies.
It gets local phone companies a stable source of guaranteed income to cover sunk costs risk. Private equity would be all over any private business with a govt. contract.
For low income people, imagine if Apple got added in the Romneyphone service package and delivered podcasts from Stanford (and Ricochet). Now Apple is building market share against Samsung who gets State money.
It is a paradigm shift to realize that govt. contracts are gold for private equity and the survival of private business competing with Chinese govt funded businesses.
Oh Dave, thanks for your strength. I have been talking significant people in my life off the ledge for the last 24 hours and I’m exhausted.
For those of you shopping for a new home…Tennessee went 68%+ for Romney but more importantly, we now have a SUPER majority in both State houses. We needed two new conservatives in each…we got SIX in each. Our RINO governor has lost his veto power so watch the nullification begin.
I left CA 12 years ago. Life is too short to live it with the “blues.”
I recall reading that at no time during the Revolutionary era were more than 25% of the people in support of the Founders. That was a tough hill to climb.
Looking at the most recent numbers, I’m seeing Obama 60,000, Romney 58,000. Pretty close. Last time it was Obama 67 and McCain 59. Nine million fewer people voted not to visit the field, at all. More folks didn’t go out and vote themselves free stuff and tyranny, this year. More folks just shrugged.
Folks aren’t voting themselves into serfdom, they are just bending their necks to the cudgel. ·5 hours ago
If I figured the numbers right Obama ended up winning 51% of the popular vote to Romney’s 49%. I don’t consider that a majority. Yes, I am extremely bummed about the results but I don’t feel like its true to say that “most” Americans agree with Obama’s policies. But last night’s results still stink.
PS Bless you Dave Carter. I appreciate you.
Crow: My concern has little to do with the entitlement crisis. You are correct that is down the road a bit. In 2007 we experienced the consequences of a debt crisis. TARP was a BG response to that. If Bush had contented himself with providing liquidity to the financial system (as 70% or the American people wanted) instead of trying to repair the capital structure things would have been quite different. Unless you believe the answer to too much debt is more debt; (if you do could you explain it to me, others seem to think so, Krugman, etal, but I can’t get my head around it) another debt/liquidity crisis will occur and given the sputtering economy, I can not see how this will not be in the near future.
We aren’t that far apart here re:TARP and the disastrous precedent it set (while refusing to hold anyone accountable). I also recognize that both parties got us into this mess–many of us do.
Romney was not Calvin Coolidge (hardly), but he was offering a chastening of the course we are on. The American people rejected even that, and reaffirmed an even more wild-eyed expansion of Washington, which was deeply disappointing.
Dave, I took that path as well. I consistently vote for the GOP, but Bush 43 made me switch to “unaffiliated”.
I don’t see that the GOP has any idea to remove the Dubya albatross from around its neck. The longer the Bush 43 legacy goes unanswered, the more likely he becomes our generation’s Hoover.
If you can spend your way to growth, Greece would be doing well but the USCAN print its own money into the next decade . It is a big economy which is why it can do it.
Obama will be long gone and so will Tim Gierthner and their reward system does not punish them for economic performance.
So yes, the debt will go up but the world will uncouple the US as the currency standard. right now, that is an enormous competitive advantage for businesses and also in getting oil paid for out of the Arab countries.
If Romney had got his energy plan, that would not have been an issue anymore. China is already trying to work with Russia and the Arabs to take the currency privilege away.
BTW, the USA alone has 100 years of gas energy. It would have shifted the Global power back to the USA. Odd that Obama ignores that.
Again, asking for a paradigm shift. Please understand I am a female who immigrated to Canada, worked in a mine and paid for my own university and myself all my life. I HATE entitlements.
BUT…
North Americans are competing against China and their population.
America’s poorest need to be dragged onto the American train. Imagine if that entitlement of a phone was relabeled as an education device delivering education to drop outs. It would mean every teen would understand mobile technology and all of a sudden, the Chinese teenager is competing against American tech-savvy teens.
Yes, I think it is disgusting to think of getting freebies. Think of electricity infrastructure though. Here it is cheaply available but it uplifts everyone. It gives Americans an advantage over Chinese/Korean.
Lefties are not as knowledgeable about political theory. The best way to shrink the freeloader class is to educate them and get them a job. Beat the Chinese weakest link through technology.
Romneyphone benefits to discuss while on The View:
Romneyphone directs education to the hands of poor teens who can get into this wired world at least and uplift every American. They can search and apply for jobs inline. On the Romneyphone package, Technology will uplift the poorest teen if they can carry around a portal to the world. It is a good welfare expenditure.
But the hidden benefit is that the Romneyphone deal shores up private business by giving a contract that ensures a large scale market, reducing financing risk. It gives jobs by ensuring that a minimum revenue stream will arrive every month.
But if Romney had talked about how to make each mother help her child compete with those Chinese youths, and how his govt would enable the mum, he could fill up a lot of air time and ad time with those govt. schemes which in the long run, will make the average American smarter and more competitive with the Chinese teen who is being groomed to be the best.
Anyone who thinks free capital markets are out there is dreaming.
Contempt is the right word, Dave. It’s not only that they’ve decided to trade in too many of their liberties, despite all the evidence of their eyes, it is what they have traded them for: small contentments, empty promises of greater fairness or ease.
I have contempt for them because they have become a people whose moral vision aspires toward nothing more than petty comforts. They no longer can control their appetites; they see nothing above or outside them.
I cannot console myself with the idea that this campaign was not run perfectly. Whatever its mistakes, the case was made better than it has been in some time–certainly better than it was for compassionate conservatism!–that we need a course change. A majority heard enough of that message to know that it was upsetting to their digestion, and they voted with their stomach for social democracy.
The fight isn’t over, and I’m not about to give up the country that my ancestors helped found and build. But we cannot afford any longer to be blind: we are not who we were, and we need to face that squarely as we think about what to do.
If you can spend your way to growth, Greece would be doing well but the USCAN print its own money into the next decade . It is a big economy which is why it can do it.
It can print it’s own money into perpetuity. We often call Federal Reserve Notes “fiat money”, but they’re not, technically, because there’s supposed to be SOME kind of collateral for every dollar printed. But take a look at United States Notes. The US code gives the Treasury full authority to print them as they like, and there’s nothing the Fed can do about it. And they require nothing to back the value. True fiat money. Sooner or later, we’ll print them again in the trillions. ·47 minutes ago
We already are. The QE# print runs may have been digital, but they’re additional dollars in circulation nonetheless.
BTW, the USA alone has 100 years of gas energy. It would have shifted the Global power back to the USA. Odd that Obama ignores that. ·2 hours ago
Edited 2 hours ago
Not really that odd — I think the man genuinely believes America has been an overall negative influence on the world, and is acting to reduce our stature. This domestic natural gas boom is just going to let us bad ol’ gung-ho Americans get too big for our international britches again.
You have your own problems. When the borders are officially thrown open… and it’s coming… you’ll be one of the first swamped from Red to Blue.
BTW, the USA alone has 100 years of gas energy. It would have shifted the Global power back to the USA. Odd that Obama ignores that. ·2 hours ago
Edited 2 hours ago
Not really that odd — I think the man genuinely believes America has been an overall negative influence on the world, and is acting to reduce our stature. This domestic natural gas boom is just going to let us bad ol’ gung-ho Americans get too big for our international britches again. ·44 minutes ago
I needed to add “dripping with sarcasm”
Dave,
Excellent post. The perspective you offer as you drive throughout the country is extremely valuable to all at ricochet and beyond.
Reagan’s words are haunting us these days.
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
Churchill’s thoughts during similar times of strife bolster my future resolve.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Keep on keepin’ on!
Dave, thank you for another great post. You have been great throughout this Election. Godspeed as you travel across our great nation.
If you can spend your way to growth, Greece would be doing well but the USCAN print its own money into the next decade . It is a big economy which is why it can do it.
It can print it’s own money into perpetuity. We often call Federal Reserve Notes “fiat money”, but they’re not, technically, because there’s supposed to be SOME kind of collateral for every dollar printed. But take a look at United States Notes. The US code gives the Treasury full authority to print them as they like, and there’s nothing the Fed can do about it. And they require nothing to back the value. True fiat money. Sooner or later, we’ll print them again in the trillions.
For anyone considering a move, please check out Arizona. We have a conservative state slate, and we voted for Romney in big numbers. It’s true that where I live (Tucson) is a liberal mecca, but the rest of the state is open and looking for business. Come join us, ok?
As and when states push back against unconstitutional federal overreach, I will start planning a move. Otherwise, the only difference is blue state vs red state – not enough.
Anyone who thinks free capital markets are out there is dreaming. ·1 hour ago
This is a mistaken understanding of economics. Subsidies come from *somewhere*. So if China “cheats”, they are just messing with their own citizens. And as we know from the history of government subsidies, the net result is negative compared to a free market approach.
Saints are dead.
Dave is one o’dem foolish conservatives who preaches capitalism, but does not practise it in his own dealings. It takes one to know one.
Dave writes: “You do that Newt bit really well, ya know that? Point taken. As for my reimbursement, my reward is the honor of participating on this site. I’m not going to play union boss here and demand resources that could be better used keeping the lights on and paying the rent. “That, my friends, is why Dave is a saint. If we had the money, I’d love to pay all of our contributors. Especially Dave, who is our rock and my rock too, even though I’m a RINO squish.