RSS Feed MenuThe popular conservative movement we are currently witnessing via the tea parties, the Sarah Palin booksigning rallies, the election results in Massachusetts, the overwhelming popularity of conservative talk show hosts etc – is not angry. This is a misconception based on a deliberate tactic of the left to smear us – Barack Obama personified this tactic when he characterized us as “bitter people who cling to their religion and guns.”
The tea parties are a civil movement. The tea party events themselves are not characterized by bitter rhetoric or violent demonstrations. For that, go to any liberal movement: Code Pink rallies, the anti-globalization demonstrations against multi-national corporations (and the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO), the pro-choice (pro-death) people. These are the people who are angry, bitter, and more: they are violent, reactionary, intolerant.
I am an American first, a conservative second, and Republican a distant third. I practice guerrilla capitalism in plying my trade, which is soldiering. My political ideals embrace laissez-faire capitalism, and I believe that “every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats” (H. L. Mencken). Having said that, I am not a revolutionary. The only revolution I follow is the American Revolution.
LFC // Feb 2, 2010 at 4:20 pm
WillyP, nice speech from Reagan. Of course his record shows that he proceeded to increase spending like a drunken sailor for his entire 8 years. And he jacked up Social Security taxes and proceeded to spend the surplus to make his budget numbers look better, just as his Republican predecessors did. Clinton was the only one to ever slow down the growth of spending, and to actually (just one year) produce a surplus budget.
The truth hurts, but the truth is that there has been zero evidence of Republican fiscal conservatism from 1980 on. Even now they oppose Pay-Go. The GOP, party of borrow and spend.
As to Obama’s budget being all spending, look at the spending increase under George W’s last budget, and compare it to Obama’s current one. Two years and less than half the spending increase. Of course, you’re probably just impatient to have Obama clean up the mess left behind by your beloved Republicans, at which point you’ll scream that the Dems are doing all the wrong things.
WillyP // Feb 2, 2010 at 4:44 pm
Reagan did increase spending, primarily on the military. This was done to defeat the Soviet, although you probably scoff at such a claim.
Non-defense discretionary spending, in fact, dropped. Milton Friedman used to talk about that often. And please don’t forget, Reagan was dealing with a Congress of Dems.
LFC, you will say anything to defend Obama, who is everyday proving himself to be the worst president of the last 50 years. And we’re only 1 year in. Thank you, libs, for handing the Oval Office to a socialist community organizer.
WillyP // Feb 2, 2010 at 4:53 pm
I should also note that, unlike you Obamysoxers, I am for DRASTICALLY REDUCING spending.
I say privatize social security, and reform Medicare/Medicaid by phasing them out as much as possible over the next 30 or 40 years.
Short of this truly bold, like this BS about earmarks, our fiscal situation will remain dire.
LFC // Feb 2, 2010 at 7:19 pm
LFC, you will say anything to defend Obama, who is everyday proving himself to be the worst president of the last 50 years.
You were obviously asleep for the prior 8 years.
I will judge Obama’s fiscal conservatism by what he does AFTER the current Republican generated crisis is dealt with, and not before. That’s what adults do.
Kanzeon // Feb 2, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Pretty hopeless, discussing anything will WillP.
It doesn’t matter that Reagan increased the deficit – that doesn’t count in Will’s world. He just makes an exception: it was military spending, so somehow it isn’t a deficit…or something. It’s ok for Reagan to blame his predecessors, because he’s a traditional American, not a “commie.”
He’s constructed an alternative reality, and even has his own vocabulary.
balconesfault // Feb 3, 2010 at 12:12 am
I say privatize social security,
And I say Republicans should all run their campaigns with that pledge as a centerpiece next fall. Who knows – maybe they’ll convince enough American voters to give them a veto-proof majority in both houses of Congress, and your hopes can come true!
Please please please please please!
WillyP // Feb 3, 2010 at 10:08 am
And to address the fiscal crisis of debt, the liberal intellects here decide that we must spend here.
Excuse me… I’ve constructed an alternate reality? When was the last time anybody paid off a credit card by adding to its balance?
The modern left – confused nitwits. As for this Reagan slandering, history has judged his presidency extremely well. And, truthfully, he ran an administration on the same basic principles he had been campaigning on since the 60s. Less taxes, less regulation, and the defeat of communism byway of peace through strength.
You libs are pathetic. While your idol makes a mockery of the office, his allies, and consigns the American citizenry to poverty, WHILE worrying about the rights of terrorists, the best you can do is attack Reagan, who defeated the Red Menace once and for all.
GOProud // Feb 3, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Kanzeon offers: “Pretty hopeless, discussing anything will WillP”
LOL! You should publish an irony or satire alert on those laugh lines in the future, Kanzeon.
WillyP, my experience and that of others here is that Kanzeon can even make TeaBagged and BlankHead look rational. And he’s one of those alter-named trolls that pop-up when the Left is losing the discussion here… what a fake. Don’t blame him… when “fake” is all he brings to the thread, you can’t expect much.
GOProud // Feb 3, 2010 at 2:27 pm
WillyP asks: “GOProud, can you recommend the title of a book?”
Sure. An on-target read is Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815, by Wood from Oxford U Press. My 340+ student class of sophs read it last term and even the farLeft apologists in the class admitted they learned more about their Party and the origins of their ideological impulses than they’ve learned to date. Some things never change; one thing that doesn’t are what motivates and animates modern liberals and Democrats.
Hope you enjoy it.
balconesfault // Feb 3, 2010 at 2:41 pm
As for this Reagan slandering
Slander?
You mean … after you have established that it is clearly poor form by a President to point to problems left by his predecessor one year into his Presidency … pointing out that two years into his Presidency Reagan declared in his State of the Union:
“The problems we inherited were far worse than most inside and out of government had expected; the recession was deeper than most inside and out of government had predicted. Curing those problems has taken more time and a higher toll than any of us wanted.”
See … I don’t consider that slander. First, because it’s factual. Second, because noting the problems left on the doorstep of a President is legitimate political discourse.
Can you tell me why you think Reagan’s words were so horrible that repeating them constitutes slander?
Kanzeon // Feb 3, 2010 at 6:45 pm
GOProud:
Since I’m always in favor of fact- and logic-based debate, I am dismayed that you find something that I wrote here irrational.
In the interest of self-improvement, perhaps you could quote, verbatim, something irrational that I said or a factual statement that I didn’t link. If you do so, I’ll be sure to do whatever research is necessary to reconsider my views. Thanks.
GOProud // Feb 4, 2010 at 11:21 am
Nice try at moving the goalposts, Kanzeon… I’ve yet to read a single posting of yours which is either fact-based or logical. Your “interest” in self-improvement is neither clever nor an effective tool to redirect the discussion. Nice try but Bzzzzt, you didn’t clear the credibility bar on that attempt.
You claimed above that’s it’s “pretty hopeless discussing anything with WillyP”. I can see why you’d say that: as a rationalization for losing a debate, withdrawing in a manner that lets you dismiss your opponent’s superior points –but it’s kind of cowardly, chicken’ish and evidence of a lack of character on your part. Stand up. Be a man. You lost the discussion. Admit it.
By the way, we ran your text segments here alongside Balconesfault in a grammar and syntax detection software program used by faculty here at Michigan to uncover plagiarism in graduate papers… the program determined a 87.9% correlation and dependence between your comments and Balconesfault. You guys gotta quit using the same brain stem.
balconesfault // Feb 4, 2010 at 11:46 am
By the way, we ran your text segments here alongside Balconesfault in a grammar and syntax detection software program used by faculty here at Michigan to uncover plagiarism in graduate papers… the program determined a 87.9% correlation and dependence between your comments and Balconesfault. You guys gotta quit using the same brain stem.
Satire? Or baldfaced lying?
You make the call!