All Posts Tagged With: "country"

Based on his posts on his own blog and comments on various other blogs about the Obama-Limbaugh “feud,” Red Stater condemns Obama’s attack on a “private citizen” (who is a quite public figure by all other standards) for saying, “You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done.” At the same time, he sees nothing wrong with Limbaugh’s rhetoric.

Here’s an example of the “insanity” that Oklahoma Lefty was referring to. On his radio show, Rush Limbaugh decided to take a cheap shot at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…

“If  she wants fewer births, I have the way to do this and it won’t require any contraception: You simply put pictures of Nancy Pelosi … in every cheap motel room. … That will keep birthrates down because that picture will keep a lot of things down”

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Is this civil discourse? Does Obama’s comment really compare to Limbaugh’s very personal, juvenile attacks? Imagine for a moment if the same thing had been said about Sarah Palin.

That’s the insanity that must stop.

Dave, a.k.a. Oklahoma Lefty, laments the “vicious cycle” of polarizing and demonizing in our nation’s political discourse. He was reacting to a Red Stater post about Rush Limbaugh responding to an Obama “attack” against the right-wing crusader, in which Limbaugh declared, “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”

Says Dave:

Now I know that Rush Limbaugh did not create this concept, it has been alive and well throughout our history, but the fact that he made it a rule for his own discourse is disturbing and frankly disgusting. Limbaugh holds lots of sway with millions of Americans and the fact that he has chosen the low road, deciding to follow a very un-Christ-like way of behaving, shows his partisan hypocrisy and shortsightedness. Instead of being the better man and standing above the fray of those who just throw insults, he has decided to lead the fray.

To those who find this type of behavior disturbing and disgusting, the way to beat it is not by joining it. Every time a liberal reacts to this type of attack discourse, they are only making the problem worse. Those who make their living off the fray, like Limbaugh, just use it as example claiming that they are the righteous and the liberals are the evil ones (and thus the liberals with the same type of mindset respond by calling Limbaugh and company evil and on and on and on). We must stop the insanity!!!

I am not saying that we shouldn’t disagree, debate, and/or have dialogues. Our country is built on the concept of debate drive compromise and that is a good and healthy thing that we must never lose. What we do need to lose though is this ridiculous way of behaving. Our civil discourse looks more like a bunch of kindergarteners fighting on the playground over the tire-swing than the workings of the greatest country in the world. Grow up people. We are better than this.

I agree, except for his very last sentence. I’m not convinced that our nation or our politics “are better than this.” There’s certainly not much evidence in recent history that would support this specific notion. We certainly should be better than this.

That point aside, Dave is spot on.

Hugh Hewitt makes some great points worth considering:

In that question is the new president’s greatest political danger. He’s about to oversee the spending of an unthinkable $1 trillion in taxpayer dollars ($350 billion in the second half of the bank bailout, and at least $700 million in the stimulus package.)  Even if growth returns as expected in the second half of 2009, voters in 2010 and beyond will be wondering, and Republicans will be asking: “Where did it go?  What did it buy?  What do we have to show for it?”

If President Obama oversees the payout of more than a trillion bucks and cannot point to anything but statistics to show for it in two years, he’ll have a political nightmare on his hands, and he’ll deserve it.  The enormous size of the stimulus is a never-before-seen-in-American-history splurge, and the Democrats thus far show no sign of treating it as other than a vast payout to their friends.

If President Obama was to demand the funding for and enabling legislation to kick start the construction of the dozens of new nuclear power plants this country needs, as well as the wind turbines envisioned by T. Boone Pickens and the grid expansion everyone knows is necessary, not only would he be creating thousands and thousands of great jobs, he’d be powering the U.S. up for a second American century.

I agree, except that it won’t just be Republicans asking “”Where did it go?  What did it buy?  What do we have to show for it?” Every taxpayer who’s paying attention will all be asking those same questions, regardless of their political identification.

If we’re going to infuse trillions of taxpayers’ dollars into the economy by way of astronomical deficits, then it better be for worthwhile investments into long-lasting projects that not only infuse capital into our economy but also addresses some of our nation’s long-term fundamental needs — like infrastructure and energy. As Hewitt noted, the nation’s power grid needs some serious work, including beefing up its security. Roads and bridges across the country, including right here in Oklahoma, are in desperate need of repair, rebuilding and new construction to replace the aging, outdated and obsolete structures designed for an era long past with much less traffic loads. And the nation certainly needs massive investment in innovation and infrastructure building for alternative energy sources, whether for our cars or for our commercial and private energy needs.

This can’t be a political pork feast with the most senior members of Congress getting the best chunks for their districts at the disadvantage of the country as a whole. The party in power needs to exercise its power with prudence and not with greed. I know that’s a lot to ask, but let’s just try it once since our nation literally sits at a precarious precipice. This not the time for politics and grandstanding but for meaningful and effective bipartisan solutions.

I’ve got a suggestion of my own. If in two years there is nothing to show for all this massive spending, we fire all of them — all 535 members of Congress — with a four-year ban before they can run for that office again. So, if they can’t set aside their political posturing and grandstanding and come together to diligently and honestly work on solutions for this country, then they are terminated for failure to perform. The stakes are too high for business as usual on Capitol Hill.

In two years (and again in four years), I will ask this Congress and this new president, “what do we have to show for it?” There better be some good answers. We certainly haven’t had must to show from the last big stimulus package nor from the economic policies of the last eight years. It’s certainly time for serious change and it’s most definitely time for complete accountability.