My little ‘ol libertarian-leaning self seems to be finding himself living in bizzaro America in these waning days of the presidential election. Did I hear correctly yesterday that in a national poll a majority of voters feel Senator Obama would be better on taxes than Senator McCain? What exactly is the color of the sky in the American voter’s world these days? Thankfully, the veracity of many polls have come into question recently–hopefully this is one of them.
How in the world could anyone conclude that a man who’s voted 94 – 0 to raise taxes and opposes the Bush tax cuts, will suddenly lower taxes? Gee, it’s like he wants something from voters; now what in the world could that be?
A partial-term senator who voted to raise taxes nearly a hundred times vs. a multi-term senator renowned for his anti-earmark, anti-spending commitment, would seem an inconceivable race in America, but today is apparently different. I’ve never seen nor even heard of such a political cult-of-personality taking hold in a non-totalitarian nation as that of Senator Barack Obama. It’s even risen to religious fervor in some quarters. I actually heard a reggae song yesterday by an Obama supporter set to the Lord’s Prayer, replacing “Father” with Obama.
America has had its heroes, but has never so venerated someone with so little empirical achievement. This is a sure sign that the cult is rising based on the ethereal and not on the factual. The irrational veneration for such a relative political nobody, it’s frightening. It’s as if his followers have imbued in him everything they’d hoped to find in the first black candidate, regardless that he doesn’t live up to the hype. Even the popularity of Sarah Palin, a relative political new comer, but someone with a bona fide traceable executive record, is different. Am I the only one frightened by this? I never thought anyone could make Kerry and Gore seem like reasonable political alternatives.
Children sing Obama songs, uniformed teen boys pay homage to Obama with military cadence and bearing, and everywhere are ubiquitous images of Obama painted in the old Socialist Realism style reminiscent of defunct communist regimes.
Socialists, or if you prefer, radical progressives ignore all the proof in the world that socialism causes misery, people don’t thrive and its societies are prone to eventual collapse. Neo-socialists persist that, if only they had a chance, they could do it right. A related axiom reminds me that this is the very definition of insanity. While socialists might not be individually, clinically insane, socialism is most definitely an insane political philosophy.
Any philosophy that encourages taking money out of a productive person’s pocket under the force of government, and puts it into an unproductive person’s pocket, is morally and ethically corrupt. I’m a cop, if I investigate an incident in which a suspect steals a victim’s wallet under the threat of force, if I find the suspect I arrest him for robbery. How is it any different when a government commits robbery? The definition of robbery hasn’t changed: the takiing of property from another through the threat or use of force. Has the deity granted the government an exemption from the proscription againsts stealing?
The thing is, the government has other ways of raising sufficient revenues through sales and use taxes, which are purely voluntary. In other words, they’re taxes that conform to the American ideal of liberty. Income and property taxes make serfs of all Americans—certainly not the plan of our founders.
I fear for our nation like I never have before. I thought Americans, the beneficiaries of the greatest experiment in liberty ever undertaken by man, were immune from being absorbed into such a mysterious, glazed-eyed, political cult, but shamefully, we are not. I also blame those of us on the libertarian/conservative side who haven’t done all we can to fight the socialist onslaught. There will be some issues we’ll all have to deal with when this election is over regardless of who wins.
McCain supporters will forever lament his resistance to attacking Obama’s ties earlier and more forcefully. We will also lambaste him for holding Palin in reserve and not unleashing her sooner, and when he finally did, to not have done it in the venues of his clear media enemies. She would have been treated fairly and loosened her interview wings so she could fly free. Hannity, Ingraham, O’Reilly, the list goes on, would have been great warm ups. With a week to go she still hasn’t appeared on Bill O’Reilly’s show, the most watched on cable news. This is another looming regret.
On the Obama side; there is no way on earth any human being could ever live up to the hyper hype created by the Obama campaign and the Obama major media. My prediction if Obama wins: we with no scales on our eyes will not be surprised in the least by any Obama catastrophes that are sure to come. However, for those true-believers, when the scales begin to fall, the bright light of truth about the limitations of a flawed mortal will be blinding. And Obama will not be able to blame a Republican congress; he’ll be working with a Democrat-controlled congress, which is the most unpopular and least effective in the history of our country.
The above is not an indication that I have given up hope in a McCain win. Hardly. While the leftists have always been more in-your-face about their political preferences, the right tends to keep their opinions close to the vest, and speak loudest in the voting booth. My lament above is in that there can be so many Americans ready to chuck our, as Senator Obama puts it, flawed Constitution, is gut-wrenching regardless that I do expect to be celebrating a new President John S. McCain.
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