Silent Majority Know Somethings Wrong With Government...

    “Politically, I am a ‘mutt’” she began.  “I don’t fit anywhere…I’m pro-choice, but I think that pretty much everything that Obama and congress are trying do is wrong.”

     She is a co-worker of mine, single, and in her early thirties, who was never previously interested in anything remotely political.  But it’s a funny thing:  Once President Obama and his adoring minions began their quest to codify unread legislation designed to destroy the American way of life, those individuals who comprise what Richard Nixon called the Silent Majority began perking up their ears…and I don’t think they plan to remain silent for long.

     My young friend is now in the process of learning all the things that public schools seem to fail to teach about our government; from reading, news, talk radio, and chiefly in talking to others, and she is not alone.  One of the great things about having a normal job with normal people as co-workers and customers (as opposed to those in the rarified “permanent political class” and intelligentsia) is listening to their conversations.  The primary topics these days are about the workings of government at all levels, local, state and federal.  From the Springfield police and fire pension issue to the house health care bill, to the question of strategy in Afghanistan, people are engaged in a way I have never seen.  Friends, they are not happy.

     I believe that within all people there exists an innate desire to chart one’s own course; in effect to be free; I also believe that this desire is particularly strong in Americans.  Beginning with 2008’s bailout bill and continuing to passage of the 1,990 page health care fiasco, people instinctively feel that our leaders are taking us down a dark alley where we don’t want to go, and worse yet, refuse to pay attention. 

     People know that the job creation numbers as a result of stimulus spending are bogus, even without doing the math that apparently reflects costs of over $113,000 per job in this state alone. They know that the congress that passed that massive health care bill supplies its members with the ultimate gold-plated health plan.  They see a president who rushed to Denmark to lobby for the Olympics but as of this writing, cannot make a decision about what to do in Afghanistan.

     As in the case of my friend, wedge issues like abortion, and longstanding party loyalties will not carry the day in 2010.  Many folks will not be voting democrat or republican; rather they will be voting for individuals who make sense and want to return to what was the United States of America prior to the establishment of elite authoritarianism.  Get ready.

      Finally, as I am writing this on Veterans Day, a challenge:  If you have never heard of Herman Davis of Big Lake Island, Arkansas, or Commander Ernest Evans of Pawnee, Oklahoma, look them up, read their stories, and thank God for everyone who has served this nation.

Leaders Need To Start A Tax Revolution

    Anyone who attempts to stay abreast of current events can easily come to the conclusion that our elected leaders are clueless about why we are in such an economic mess, much less what might help alleviate it.  If the solution does not involve printing funny money and paying off past and future supporters, they wouldn’t consider it.

    I hearken back to election summer, 2008, when the financial sector freefall began.  McCain and Obama suspended their campaigns and rushed to Washington to be involved in the “solution”; they emerged with the “solution” of bailing out, buying out, controlling, whatever, those entities “too big too fail” with imaginary funds. 

   Has there been an original thought regarding our economy in Washington in the last 50 years?  One that did not involve the usual political payoffs, vote buying, and lobbyist-loving that has dominated our government my entire life? 

   Personal experience:  That same summer of 2008, republican presidential hopeful John McCain visits Springfield.  He speaks.  He invites questions.  I decide to ask a question.  What to ask?  I thought of asking him something about defense or homeland security, but decided those would result in obvious softballs.  So I asked about an issue that I have long studied and believe would revolutionize the American economy.  I asked if he was familiar with the Fair Tax, and what he thought about it.  Wow.  He began pacing around the stage while I bloviated (and indulged in a little self-promotion) about the virtues of the Fair Tax.  His tepid response said much more than he verbalized, and as I watch the video today, I realize that what he really said, in a nutshell was this:  “This is too complicated for you regular people to grasp” (this is what avowed liberals always say, as well).  “We in Washington control the 60,000-page tax code, and we like that.  We use it to punish enemies and reward our friends.  Forget about it.” 

    You can see the video on my YouTube page, or just google “Jeff Parnell” “John McCain”. 

     What if, instead of destroying the free enterprise system, the middle-class, and private property rights, our leaders had come forth and stated that the time had come to put politics aside and think outside the box.  What if they simply enacted HR25, putting in place the Fair Tax and abolishing the IRS?  America would have become the tax haven of the world.  Our economy would have received an injection of capital like the world has never seen.  Social Security and Medicare would be saved. 

     If you are not familiar with the concept of the Fair Tax, I encourage you to look into it.  There are countless websites in addition to numerous excellent books on the subject.  If enacted, it represent the greatest transfer of power from government to the people since that day in 1776 when another group of leaders resolved to think outside of the box.

    Perhaps it is just too complicated for regular people like us to understand.

Tough Decision On Afghanistan...

    As both a lover of military history and a citizen interested in current events, I am anxious to see which path the Obama administration takes regarding Afghanistan.  It will be a tough decision for the president, as there is no agreement anywhere, even within his own party, on the direction the U.S. should take.  He created his own box during the campaign by decrying the Iraq conflict and stating support for the Afghanistan war.  A great example of democrat dissension occurred on “Face The Nation” Sunday.  My own congressman, Ike Skelton, supports General McChrystal’s request for more troops (At least I think he does—Ike never gives a complete, straightforward answer), while Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, does not. 

   I applauded the president when it was reported that he had signed off on an order to go after some particular high-value terrorists, but since then he is beginning to look more like John Kennedy; not the John Kennedy of “Camelot”, but the quivering, weak-kneed one who loved to approve covert action but then quailed when faced with military decisions for which there was no deniability.  His decision to cancel the central European missile shield project invites the comparison.

   Lest we forget:  Kennedy signed off on the CIA-planned Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, then, after consulting with Dwight Eisenhower, among others, cancelled air support for the invasion force, allowing the force to be pinned down on the beach.  Many were killed, and the rest were captured and eventually ransomed back to the U.S. for a princely sum.  Then there was the Cuban Missile Crisis, still presented by his supporters and the media as a moment when a young, tough, steely-eyed Kennedy stared down Khrushchev and intimidated him into pulling Soviet missiles out of Cuba, when in fact, the two leaders made a secret agreement with Kennedy removing Jupiter missiles from Turkey in a classic quid pro quo. 

   Our own history has vividly shown that when the opportunity for diplomacy is past or nil, there is only one option.  Dwight Eisenhower, the greatest soldier America ever produced (and my hero) said that “gradualism…is bound to be ineffective”, and often used one of his favorite examples:  If a general sent a battalion to take a hill, he might get the hill, but would suffer heavy casualties in the process, whereas if he sent a division, the casualties would be minimal.

   Nearly 900 Americans have given their lives to the effort in Afghanistan. To fail to support their brothers and sisters in arms and not allow them to complete the mission would not only dishonor their names, but the name of the United States of America.  Additionally, those Afghans who have aided us in any manner will undoubtedly suffer and die horrendous deaths at the hands of cruel and evil (yes, evil) people.

   I wish I felt better about those advising the president; his historical knowledge, and his decision-making ability.

   I am praying for him…and our troops, and I hope you will, too.

Jeff performed a new song responding to Obamacare at the Tea Party in Camdenton on Constitution day. Enjoy: