Reagan’s Real Strength
With Reagan’s passing there has been a lot of talk about his presidency. Since he left office, the importance of Reagan’s presidency has steadily grown. I personally do not think there is any doubt that Reagan will be seen with FDR as one of the greatest Presidents of the 20th century. The time since he left office has highlighted what I believe was Reagan greatest strength: His ability to get past the liberal slant of the press, and communicate directly with the American people. When conservative have done this they win.
In many (but granted not all) of the major political battles over the past decade, the major determining issue in whether or not conservative won, is whether they were able to get past the news filter. The Medicare debate referenced in an earlier note being one example. But pretty much the same thing is going on now with the economy.
Now that even job growth is strong (and in fact growing faster than Kerry promised to create jobs), the economy is clearly doing very well. But as the economy has been improving over the last 9 month, public opinion concerning the economy has not reflected reality, but has instead been declining. While clearly the economy is doing much better, in recent polls strong majorities have said that while their personal economy situation is good, but they falsely see the economy as getting worst.
Again, if the Republicans can communicate the truth about the economy to the people, since most people vote there pocket book, then they Bush will win. If the slanted press coverage dominates and people still falsely think the economy is bad, then Kerry might win.
What is the Difference?
What is the difference between the Taliban getting rid of Buddhist statues, because they conflict with their beliefs, and the ACLU demanding that LA country, and the city of Redlands (where I live) remove crosses from their seals?
Or why is the ACLU demanding that a very tiny cross be removed, but not a much larger image of the Goddess Romona? Romona is still worshiped by some Wiccan’s so why can it stay but the cross has to go?
What’s next? Do we need to get rid of all the crosses in the national cemeteries?
My Concern for the Election.
The only concern I have about the election, is the ability to get the truth out. This is somewhat beginning to reminded me of the Medicare debate in the late 1990’s where Democrats kept accusing republicans of trying to cut Medicare so that it would “wither on the vine.” This was all a lie, but then, as now, the truth did not matter. Democrats took a sound clip of Newt Gingrich saying “Wither on the vine” and falsely claimed that he was talking about Medicare. He was in fact talking about the Health care finance administration, something that even Clinton had proposed abolishing, but again the truth did not matter. No matter how many times Republicans tried to correct the record, the Democrats simply kept repeating the lie. Again rather that call the democrats on the lie, the press often echoed it. The truth didn’t matter, the only thing that mattered was stopping the Republicans.
I remember a poll done toward the end of the debate, just before the republicans lost. The poll asked if you supported the “republican plan” and a large majority rejected it as too harsh a cut. Also in the poll, however, they asked about “a proposal.” The proposal was the republican plan but was not identified as such, they only gave the details of the plan. The same people who saw the “republican plan” as too harsh a cut, saw the “proposal” as too generous.
I have no doubt that in an honest evaluation of the positions Bush would win over Kerry in a landslide. The democrats can be expected to be bias, but the press is frankly the worst and most partisan that I have ever seen it. They seem an extension of the Kerry campaign, as is Hollywood which as a whole series of anti-Bush and Anti-Republican scheduled for release between now and the election.
The press focuses on every negative aspect of the war, while ignoring or downplaying anything that might challenge the democratic agenda. The NY Times kept the prison scandal on their front page for something like 28 days! Even thought there was nothing new to report. The beheading of Berg, and the use of WMDs against our troops were barely mentioned. That Saddam was a strong supporter of terrorism is beyond questionm, yet this is simply ignored in the current debate as an inconvenient fact. If it is not directly linked to 9/11, it does not count. But one thing that surprised me was a piece in The Wall Street Journal had last week reporting that as investigators are going through the millions of records left by Saddam’s government there is growing evidence that Saddam not only did have ties to al Quaeda but might very well have ties to 9/11.
The Kay report was highly touted as showing there were no WMDs, in Iraq, but its other finding was that Saddam was even more dangerous than we had believed was ignored. Again and again evidence, like all the other things that do not fit the democratic agenda, are just ignored.
If the truth gets out there, I am confident that Bush will win in a landside, the question is, will the truth get out or will this be like the Medicare debate in the late nineties a case where the lies win?
Was It Worth It?
I saw a very moving interview with some of the wounded soldiers yesterday. One comment really stuck with me. They were all asked, “was it worth it?” All quickly said yes, except for one sailor. He was a Seabee who had been wounded in a mortar attack. He answered in a very serious and concerned manner that it depends. He said that if we continue in Iraq and succeed, then yes it was worth it. However, if we cut and run, or if we allow the terrorist to succeed there, then no it was not.
This was to me a clear statement that you cannot oppose the war, and still support the troops. If those who oppose the war succeed, then all those killed would have died in vain. All the tremendous sacrifice that our troops have gone through would have been for nothing. It would be like Vietnam were 55,000 gave their lives for a free south Vietnam, only to have there effort throw away by the anti-war forces that destroy what over chance the south had by reneging on our commitments in the peace treaty.
It is fine to have all the political debate on the war until it starts, but once troop are in harms way, we should have only one aim: A quick and complete victory. Weakening support for the war once troop are engaged in combat, can only encourage our enemy to fight harder, thereby resulting in the death of more of our troops.
If you want to really support the troops, then push for victory
Is the Left getting out of control?
There was a disturbing incident over the weekend. 9 busloads of liberal activists stormed the house of Karl Rove, surrounding it and pounding on the windows when he and his 15 year old son and his son’s friend were inside.
There is a legitimate place for political protest, but going to people homes and harassing their families is not a legitimate means of political protest it is just harassment and intimidation pure and simple.
What makes it even more perplexing is that they were protesting Bush’s for not being pro-immigration enough. Despite is recent immigration proposal; they were protesting his lack of support for allowing illegal aliens to pay in-state tuition.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31890-2004Mar28.html
