Why Conservatives Must Fight the Good Fight

There isn’t a day that goes by without someone sending me an e-mail detailing the latest “progressive” decision made or idea put forth by BHO’s administration. And almost daily I get involved in chats, IMs, e-mails or Facebook threads with committed, Gen-X liberals. Most weeks, I find these happenings mildly to moderately annoying and almost not worth mentioning. But this week, for some unexplainable reason, the inbound communications were just plain outrageous and couldn’t be ignored. Here is a synopsis of them.

• Judge Sonia Sotomayor, during her confirmation hearings, characterized Roe-v-Wade as “settled law,” but when questioned about gun ownership, said she would have an “open mind” in ruling on that issue. What an outrage! Roe-v-Wade is “settled law” and the Second Amendment of the US Constitution is not "settled law" ?*** Disgraceful!
  
• According to the Congressional Budget Office, ObamaCare will cost $1.5 trillion dollars, is not revenue neutral and does nothing to reduce the cost of delivering health care in the US. In a similar report the House Ways and Means Committee reached the same conclusion. * Scandalous!
  
• BHO’s Department of Justice (DOJ) ruled the State of Georgia can no longer demand proof of citizenship before issuing someone a Voter Registration card. The DOJ further ruled in favor of “community organizers” such as ACORN in saying the State can’t even demand proof of the applicant’s existence. ** Heinous!
  
• Under ObamaCare, all persons not otherwise covered by a “private” plan MUST enroll in the government plan or face a ‘penalty’ equal to 2.5% of their income. * Preposterous!
  
• BHO was on the verge of appointing his 33rd “Czar” this week, a process that has no publicly announced job descriptions, qualification requirements, vetting standards, or selection criteria. And in many cases, the authority of these ‘Czars’ supercedes that of the BHO appointed Cabinet member for whom they supposedly work. *** So much for ‘transparency.’ Ridiculous!
  
• About one third of ObamaCare—$500 billion dollars—will be paid for by cuts to Medicare (the program covering folks over 65 years old) in order to deliver services to (among others) almost 10 million illegal aliens. * And the committed Gen-X liberals are OK with taking away from their own parents and grandparents in order to provide for people who are in this country illegally. * Shameful!
  
• During a Facebook conversation this week involving a good number of well educated, committed, liberal Gen-Xers a statement was made by one of them that Bush-Cheney had ‘run all over the Constitution” and had taken away their rights. When challenged by The Sage to give specific examples to back up their claims, not one—I repeat, not one of them—could or would do so. The thread ran another 18 hours or so with a dozen or more additional comments, but without one shred of factual data to back their claim—just more of the same rhetoric and “Kool-Aid-Komments.’ How did we raise a whole generation of “know nothings”? Atrocious!
  
• Under ObamaCare, all businesses with an annual payroll of $250, 000 or more will be mandated to provide health care benefits to all their employees or face a penalty of 8% of their gross payroll.* Monstrous!
  
  If you are a more centrist Liberal and a BHO supporter reading this, you might want to re-consider your stance with regard to the concerns of Conservatives. But, if you are a far left Liberal reading this and a blind supporter of BHO under all circumstances and find nothing shocking, outrageous or immoral about any of the above then YOU are the problem and also the reason Conservatives must continue to fight the good fight.
  
  And, for the record, the points above marked with one asterisk ( that’s a * for you Gen-Xers) are straight from the reports recently released by the Congressional Budget Office, The House Ways and Means Committee ( do some research on your own to find out what their role is), and the Associated Press. The incident marked with 2 asterisks comes straight from the website of the Office of Secretary of State for the State of Georgia. The comments with 3 asterisks come from various print media news sources.

Open Letter to the GOP

Dear GOP:

What the Hell is wrong with you people? Has the Party suddenly become collectively blind and stupid? Or has it contracted a consumptive case of Alzheimer’s thus failing to recognize even its most basic and core values? I’m going to opt for “blind and stupid” because I don’t want to think the “Party of Lincoln”- - -the party that freed the slaves, won the war and preserved the union- - -has forgotten its values.

Huh, you say? What the heck is this guy talking about? Let me be painfully direct: on the Sotomayor nomination the Party has allowed itself to fall into the trap of making her nomination all about race, gender and identity politics- - -just exactly the sharp-stick filled pit BHO and his merry band of “jivy-league” minions hoped you would fall into and hopelessly impale yourselves. Worse yet, you were led like sheep into the abyss by those two bleating windbags- - -Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck- - -under the less-than-watchful eye and limited intellect of Michael Steele. Pitiful. But it's not too late, I hope. You just need to drop this false foo-fa-raw over the ability of a “. . .Latina woman . . . being able to reach a better decision than a white male lacking the same experiences” and move on to what really counts. Like the law.

How does she view the US Constitution? Is it a living, breathing document capable of guiding us yet today? Or, is it archaic and in need of total overhaul as many on the Left insist? Does she believe the Courts should make law and policy or simply interpret law as the founding fathers intended? Does she think US Courts should look to European Courts for ‘precedents’ like so many liberals would have us do? Does she believe the Constitution guarantees ‘freedom of religion’ as our founders intended or does she see it as ‘freedom from religion’ as today’s atheists would have us believe? Do her rulings indicate she believes in opportunity for all or, instead, that opportunity for some can be achieved only by disenfranchising others? Is she a respecter and student of US history or is she a revisionist?

Interestingly enough, other than the widely publicized speech at Duke and the equally publicized ruling regarding the New Haven Fire Fighters, I cannot find, anywhere, her stated opinions or rulings that would give answers to any of the questions I’ve asked. But, with all your resources at GOP headquarters you should be able to do so. Just don’t let Limbaugh and Beck do the work for you. Remember, it’s Limbaugh who recently said that “80% of her cases have been overturned. . .” The facts are that of the 230 or so cases she has heard while on the Federal bench, only five (5) have gone on to be reviewed by the Supreme Court. Of those five, three (3) have been overturned. That’s a 60% ratio (not 80%, Rush) of the ‘cases reviewed’ but only a scant 1.3% of the cases which she’s adjudicated- - -so far.

So how about it, GOP? Can you climb out of the trap BHO set for you? Can you start doing your jobs? Can you ask the tough but fair and meaningful questions that need to be asked of her during the confirmation process? Can you do it without resorting to distortion, innuendo or bad math? Can you stay away from the slippery slope of gender and identity politics? Can you find room for ideas and sensibilities that aren’t fed to us all by Limbaugh and regurgitated by Beck without choosing the “conservatism-lite” menu of McCain? I hope so. Because if you can’t, this registered Republican of some 46 years may just be forced to find a new political ‘home’. The Libertarian Party is looking better all the time.