My Take

I am going to try and define my position by making observations of my own and including observations from others I feel say something important.  There are two political groups in our country today.  They are often referred to as Conservatives and Liberals.  The Republican party has in recent history been seen as the party of conservatism, and the Democrats as the party of liberals.  Neither is true in the strictest sense of the definition.  The electorate in both parties are made up of Americans (mostly legal and most actually alive) who run the spectrum of human kind.  It is in the upper levels of political office where the slugs from both parties reside and draw their substance from the drones who pay the taxes.  These are the ones who receive the brunt of my righteous indignation.  I understand not everyone fits the stereo type associated with any particular political party.  However, for the sake of brevity I choose not to define each exception.  Just know I am aware there are exceptions.  Most of us who are complaining loudly about the new administration are citizens who respect the U. S. Constitution, and who don't like seeing it ignored or misinterpreted by the major branches of the Federal Government.  The Judicial Branch has become a law maker instead of an arbiter to enforce the constraints on government found in the constitution.  The action of some appellate judges amounts to social engineering from the bench instead of insuring fairness in the interpretation of the rule of law.

"It has long, however, been my opinion, and I have never shrunk from its
expression ... that the germ of dissolution of our federal government is
in the constitution of the federal Judiciary; ... working like gravity
by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and
advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of
jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped."--Thomas Jefferson, letter to
Charles Hammond, August 18, 1821

Who was it who said: "I cannot tell what powers may have to be exercised in order to win this war"? George W. Bush? Dick Cheney? Donald Rumsfeld? Actually it was Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a "fireside chat" broadcast on September 7, 1942. He understood that survival was the number one right, without which all other rights are meaningless.

One of the most important talents for success in politics is the ability to make utter nonsense sound not only plausible but inspiring. Barack Obama has that talent. We will be lucky if we escape the catastrophes into which other countries have been led by leaders with that same charismatic talent.

Inspiring as it is to study the history of the struggles and sacrifices that created and preserved America, it is also painful to see how all those investments of efforts and lives are being frittered away today for short-sighted and self-centered reasons.   Thomas Sowell

I want to be a liberal because they care so much. They have a lock on all the fashionable emotions, like tolerance, diversity, equality and patriotism. And as long as my intentions are pure and I 'care', I won't have to accept responsibility for any negative consequences that my actions might cause.

I'd like to be a liberal because I'd be able to redefine reality to my own specifications. I could turn failure into success, murder into choice, lies into 'misstatements', and theft into investment. I would automatically be considered wise, instead of opinionated. Best of all, I could make up the rules as I go along, change them in midstream and then demonize anyone who doesn't agree with me.

Nancy Morgan.

As I educated myself, I started thinking and rethinking.   I'd wake up in the middle of the night with the sudden realization that deeply held beliefs made no sense.  Take the anti war stance of the left.  Noble and sanctimonious and all that.  But how easy it is to sit back and preach peace when you have an army defending you; to rail against the U.S. when you are protected by free speech laws;  to demonize Israel, when you've never lived through the murderous pogroms of Tsarist Russia or the Holocaust.  How hypocritical to lambast Big Business while you are making money from their stocks in your mutual fund portfolio (that is, until Obama took over).  And how ludicrous to admire Chavez, Castro and all things socialist, when the closest experience you've had to standing on a bread line is queuing up for goat cheese/arugula pizza at Whole Foods. 

Though exhausted from lack of sleep, I also started waking up.  I realized, to my utter incredulity, that conservatives made sense, and that I was one of them.   I recalled Mark Twain's quip about his father: When Twain was a teenager, he thought his father was the stupidest man in the world; but when he became a young man in his 20's, his father had many intelligent things to say. Twain couldn't believe how much his father had learned in those years! Like Twain, I grew up and saw the world as it is.  Yes it would be nice to save the planet, to eliminate hunger, and to make everyone good and righteous.  But humans don't have the power to do that. To walk around, as I did, with Utopian images that didn't match reality was to view life through the eyes of a child.  An adult understands that civility matters, people need to be held accountable for their behavior, and protecting yourself and your country are moral imperatives. Robin of Berkeley (psychotherapist and former liberal)

I understand the differences.  Many liberals now want to be called "progressives".  They are, in fact, socialists.  Most are in favor of huge government.  It is difficult to tell the difference in Washington based on political affiliation.  Colin Powell voted for Obama and sides often with the Democrats, but wants to be called a Republican.  Arlen Specter, former Republican who voted most of the time like a Democrat just switched parties.  A few Junior Senators and fairly new House members still have the courage to vote their convictions.  The rest are members of the cloistered community that exists inside the beltway.  They serve their own interests and the interests of powerful special interest groups.

 

I don't understand bailouts that result in bankruptcy.  I thought bailouts were for the purpose of keeping you out of bankruptcy.  I still can't find anything in my copy of the U. S. Constitution that allows the Federal Government to bail anyone out with taxpayer dollars.  If any of you can help me with this I would appreciate it.  

"At some point someone is going to file a suit in Federal court asking for clarity as to just where in the U.S. Constitution it is provided that the Executive Branch can buy a bankrupt car company." --political analyst Rich Galen

"So far, the Obama administration has yet to lay out its magical thinking on how the homegrown auto makers are to become 'viable' when required to subordinate every auto attribute that consumers find desirable in favor of achieving a passenger-car average of 39 miles per gallon by 2016. Nonetheless the answer has quietly seeped out: Taxpayers will write $5,000 or $7,000 rebate checks to other taxpayers to bribe them to buy hybrids and plug-ins at a price that lets Detroit claim it's earning a 'profit' on its Obamamobiles." --columnist Holman Jenkins Jr.

"The Obama administration is bent on becoming a major player in -- if not taking over entirely -- America's health-care, automobile and banking industries. Before that happens, it might be a good idea to look at the government's track record in running economic enterprises. It is terrible." --author John Steele Gordon

"Does anybody really believe that adding 50 million people to the public health-care rolls will not cost the government more money? About $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion more? At least. So let's be serious when evaluating President Obama's goal of universal health care, and the idea that it's a cost-cutter. Can't happen. Won't happen. Costs are going to explode." --economist Larry Kudlow

"Just how much government debt does a president have to endorse before he's labeled 'irresponsible'"? --columnist Robert Samuelson

"We live in an era in which conservatives have not effectively outlined the proper and limited role of government, and as a direct consequence of our failures, more and more of our citizens are turning to an ever-encroaching government in times of crisis. Yet to allow the balance of power in this nation to continue to shift further and further toward government and thus further and further from liberty is to surrender the very thing that makes America so historically unique." --South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford

That's enough.  If you are not concerned I can't help you.  You must be in serious denial.