Being in my mid-thirties, I’ve only been through a handful of major economic downturns.

In the early 1990’s, following 9/11 and our current downturn. I call it a downturn because unlike past true recessions, I really don’t personally see the tumult and apocalypse the media would have me believe.

Then there’s the other group of people. They’re the ones who’ve never really lived through anything. They were sheltered because they were going to school or were living at home when any of these downturns were happening. For all intensive purposes, what they’re experiencing now IS the worst thing in their lives…so far.

I know it’s easy to shrug a lot of this off, but if people under 30 can’t handle what’s happening now, what in the world are they going to do when things might just get worse? Commit suicide?

Ironically enough, most people I know experiencing this current downturn are all Obama supporters and as such, seem more apt to blame capitalism/Republicans/free markets et al for what’s happening right now. And then that leads to what they perceive to be the solution and what they’re to do or let happen.

This is where the danger lies for everyone right now. Too many people right now are trading in their freedom for the cloak of security. They believe the government can do things better…but why? What does the government do better that a free marketplace cannot? I may be preaching to a choir in some places, but what has the government ever done to warrant being able to have so much power of the economy or our lives? What’s their track record? Read the rest of this entry »

Hope I’m not offending any Libertarian viewers out, but seriously, maybe the LP should have had some actual WIN’s before telling anyone else how their party should be run.

What’s the best the LP has had? Ron Paul? Bob Barr? They are/were Republicans. The departed Harry Browne who blamed the United States for 9/11?

From “Reason”:

Consider David Brooks’ most recent column in the New York Times, where he outlines what he sees as the GOP dividing into two warring camps now that they’ve been thoroughly defeated. It’s the Traditionalists versus the Reformers. Reagan versus Teddy. Old Party power versus moderate centrism. But in reading Brooks’ analysis, one is left wondering if there isn’t another direction the GOP could head in order to return to power.

Excuse me, but David Brooks WANTED John McCain. His guy lost, big time and he lost big time. He shouldn’t have any power right now to tell anyone what they should or should not do.

There were a lot of us who thought McCain wasn’t going to win precisely because of what David Brooks was espousing. Being Democrat-lite meant nothing to the average GOP voter and it was only when he picked Sarah Palin that a lot of people got behind him and to a certain point, he was beating Obama. But his stammering and incoherent economic policies were front and center and the war hero candidate was that of Bob Dole. People shrugged their shoulders at him. But they did reach out for the potential of Sarah Palin.

Brooks believes that the Traditionalist will win in the short term—led in 2012 by Sarah Palin—but that Reformers will win out in the end as the GOP continues to lose. He argues that once the GOP suffers more defeats, the Reformers “will build new institutions, new structures and new ideas, and the cycle of conservative ascendance will begin again.”

Like I’ve said before, put Sarah Palin and David Brooks up at two rallies and see who turns out for whom. And what institutions will these “reformers” build or what new ideas will they bring forth? Besides pontificating about us rubes outside the beltway, what have these Republican elites ever built?

And I have to keep hammering this point: The David Brooks/Frum/Noonan cabal WANTED John McCain because they believed that his “centrist” cred would bring in new voters to the GOP. It did not work. And if it weren’t for Sarah Palin, the election results would be even more staggering.

Sure, let us get together on issues we share. But next time, pipe down when you want to wag your finger at the GOP for the past two elections. You haven’t exactly done much to inspire anyone with your election results since your inception.

If this keeps up, I’m going to go forward with the modest proposal. The hell with all political parties.

Originally found at The Corner.