Ron Paul's blog on Eqypt this week, entitled "Our 30-year Mistake" caught my eye. I have always been a little uncertain about his foreign policy opinions and thought he was wrong most of the time, but this paragraph kind of turned on a light bulb for me:
We are in fact more isolated from Egypt now than ever, because the regime we propped up appears to be falling. We have isolated ourselves from the Egyptian people by propping up their government, as we isolate ourselves from Tunisians, Israelis, and other recipients of our foreign aid. Their resentment of our interventionist policies makes us less safe, because we lose our authority to conduct meaningful diplomacy when unpopular regimes fall overseas. We also radicalize those who resented our support for past regimes. Let us hope for a more prosperous and peaceful era for the Egyptians, and let us learn the lessons of our thirty-year Egyptian mistake.
Explained this way, I see the error of us getting involved in another country's business. I mean, most of the world thinks Obama is a great president who will turn America into what they would like us to be. If other countries were openly financially propping his administration up, there is a great part of our population that might resent those countries. That would be a negative for those countries. So I see now that as we step into another country's internal struggle and choose a side, we only create more enemies for ourselves in a region of the world where we don't need more enemies.
Mike Huckabee posted this on Facebook this week. While he was not my choice for President in the 2008 primaries, I still really like him. I heard him speak at the Iowa Straw Poll and his morally conservative rhetoric appealed to me.
The most important form of government is the family. In the long run, the only way to ensure prosperity, safety, and equal opportunity is to make sure we raise our children to be ethical and productive citizens. No bureaucracy can replace parents in that essential role, so we have to do everything possible to help parents do their job.
Just nice to hear someone who has a voice say what I think sometimes!
It's been such a busy few weeks in news, as well as a busy month in life. Seems all I can do is try to absorb the information when I can! I've heard rumblings about protests in Wisconsin and chalked it up to labor unions concerned for a potential loss of power. It was still in Wisconsin and not Texas so I didn't think much of it. Then I started seeing some of my teacher friends on Facebook posting links to websites organizing protests here in Texas and my interest was really peeked. Can't put my finger on it, but when I clicked on the links I got a bad vibe.
How did these protests get organized so quickly? Where is the anger stemming from? All of the teachers I know are too busy working to organize protests. They hardly have time to read or watch the news.
Students for a Democratic Society is a radical, multi-issue student and youth organization working to build power in our schools and communities. We are entirely student and youth-led and have over 100 active chapters in high schools, colleges, universities, and cities all over the country.
Okay, so students are upset. But I thought this was about teachers getting what they deserve? Their motto: "Students and Workers - Unite and Fight!" They mix statements like "Defend Education" and "Save our Education" with their encouragement to support unions, encourage worker solidarity, and protect the working people. Big question marks came up in my mind from what I saw. I always cringe when I hear someone talk about "working people" in politics because it's always under the topic of how to help them or give them a break or give them something for free. Which raises the question to me - so if the "working people" need free stuff are we planning to take it from a group of non-working people somewhere that I am not aware of? As if a large body of non-workers exists with money enough to fund the essentials for all of us? Where is this money tree?
Okay, off my soapbox a bit. I danced around a bit from there and found FightBack!News. They gleefully report all that Students for a Democratic Society does, plus they give their attention to some other favorite topics of mine: Antiwar Movement, Immigrants rights, Labor, Poor People's Movements (their words, not mine...I mean do poor people actually get on the internet and search themselves out as "poor people?"), Students, and Women.
I still don't see much concern over the hard working teacher who is getting the short end of the stick here. Now, watch this video...it will make your head pop off. Sorry, there is some unsavory language but it only further illustrates the fine people who are REALLY excited about an opportunity for an uprising. They like anger, hate, fighting, hostility...not really consistent with the fine educators I know.
So okay, there must be real issues at stake. Right? Yes, there are. Every state is in a budget crunch. Money needs to be cut everywhere. It's going to stink no matter where it comes from and nobody wants their area to be cut. But I did want a little more information on my home state of Texas and what is happening. I found Protecttheclassroom.com informative. Here are a few blurps:
I do hope to see that teachers are paid well and treated fairly. I do not, however, feel good about the radical groups who are capitalizing (poor word choice probably since they are anti-capitalism!) on the struggle in education as a vehicle for their own agenda. Hateful protests full of anger do not generate viable ideas or practical solutions.
In the meantime I am preparing to send my own child into the Texas public school system where administrators and legislators are focusing on ways to spend money on the at-risk children and make everyone equal. Instead of giving my child any extra attention, the teacher will be busy writing up a report on the improvement of the lower quarter of the class and what they are doing to help them. The squeaky wheel always gets the oil and as it is my hope that my child is not the one struggling, I also hate knowing that she will be largely unnoticed for achievement. Hopefully we can do enough here to encourage achievement and keep her from the trend of mediocrity that seems so prevalent in the "everybody equal" model. It doesn't bring everyone up, you know.
*Other groups fueling the movement to "save our education" include SEIU, the AFL‑CIO, moveon.org, ColorofChange.org, Democracy for America, Green for All (Van Jones’ group), the Daily Kos, Democrats.com, the Sierra Club, Media Matters.
I keep listening to the news and watching. I'm pretty speechless lately, which is rare. I'm not sure what I think. About all that I can tell: The people truly stressed or concerned about America's future are NOT the ones in charge. That's about all I can tell.
I see zero urgency to get us off the path to financial destruction or do anything real to make Americans feel confident in the future. The private sector jobs are never going to come back as long as this nonsense continues. Nobody wants to be the bad guy and cut spending from something they think someone who might vote for them next election would be mad about. (That run-on sentence that doesn't make sense is staying because it's symbolic.) Everyone seems to be bending to what they think their base wants and blasting the other team for what they think their base hates, but nobody seems really sure what anyone wants. Very little meaningful action is happening. Lots of talk. Not many real values in play. Ugghh. See what I mean? If you can't say something nice...
This link that my brother posted on Facebook is just one example of the house of mirrors it seems we are constantly stuck in:
This once again illustrates why I named my blog the Savvy Citizen. It's not that I really think I'm super smart in any subject, least of all politics. It's that our political leaders think we are all really stupid. They can't possibly think otherwise and feed us such ridiculousness. I contend that they are wrong and at the very worst, most Americans are just uninformed. Americans are busy, you know...working, budgeting, making hard decisions, defending the country, raising children, etc.
Whilst I am trying to enjoy the holiday season and keep my stress levels down, I can't seem to turn on the news without hearing something of the latest nonsense happening during the lame duck session. Do people really know what that term means anyway? I mean, I had a general idea but the other day I just decided to see exactly what was happening.
The U.S. Senate website defines it for us:
"lame duck" session - When Congress (or either chamber) reconvenes in an even-numbered year following the November general elections to consider various items of business. Some lawmakers who return for this session will not be in the next Congress. Hence, they are informally called "lame duck" Members participating in a "lame duck" session.
Yeah, so THAT is why there are crazy 2000 page bills that nobody has read pending the week before Christmas. Deja Vu. The people who have been making the mess still have the power, even though we voted them out. What a strange system...shouldn't they have packed up the day after? So pretty much nobody is listening to the American people at all and there is zero accountability for behaving badly.
We put our votes out in November. We fill out the polls, we put stickers on our cars and signs in the yard, we knock doors, we participate in phone banks, we "like" things on Facebook to make our opinions known all year long and really we just want to chill out and bake (and/or eat) some cookies with our families about right now (if we've finished our Christmas preparations.) I always find Congress extra annoying in December. Guess I should go have another cookie...
This is the yard sign my County Republican Party was selling during this election cycle. I had a love/hate relationship with the sign. At first my mixed emotions made me think I was a chicken. I mean, I'm against the nonsense happening in Washington for the past 2 years. So why wouldn't I just run out and buy one of these signs for my yard?
My hesitation lasted up until last week when I made my final decision and voted Republican. Luckily I live on a cul-de-sac so the traffic who missed my very important, but chicken, message was not great. The bulk of my concern about the sign was it's simplicity. It seemed to completely forget that Republicans long misbehaved in the name of power and pandering to what they 'thought' people wanted for far too long, helping us along the road to where we are today.
So why did I go ahead and cast the Republican vote?
1. I'm looking ahead. The Republican vote that will be tallied tomorrow is simply a step I think must be taken. Vigilance on the part of all of us will be just as necessary even with Republicans and I honestly hope it stays that way. It will for me.
2. I once called myself an independent/moderate. I thought I was somewhere in the middle because neither party fully represented my ideals. The way our country has recently been turned upside down has forced me to do my research. Now I realize I'm so far to the right that voting for a Democrat is worse in my case than not voting at all (which I don't believe in!)
3. Referring to 2 - Just because I'm not crazy about the options out there doesn't mean I should check out and not vote. I did the research. I wasn't pleased with my options. The discomfort I felt while casting my vote made me even more dedicated to supporting good candidates when I see them.
4. The Democrats at the top are far more liberal than my Democrat voting friends who are usually moral Democrats more than anything. Those running our country today make the Clintons look conservative. I really don't think they are stupid, as many say. I think they are evil with evil intentions of usurping the rights of Americans. I know, I know. Yes, evil is a strong word. But it is morally reprehensible to want to remove a right from one human being even if you say you're going to give it to someone else. The health care takeover really solidified this for me. It was huge. It was unpopular. They wouldn't scale back. They wouldn't back off. They told us they knew better than we did what we needed. That's not okay coming from either side.
5. While many of my ideals fall in line with Libertarian views, the Libertarian options on the ballot were weak. Voting strictly on that ideology would have been a vote for a Democrat. Further, I disagree with the Libertarian ideological views on war. While those on my ballot wouldn't have the power to stop funding troops it bothers me to know that they might if they could.
6. A vote for a Democrat feels like a vote for Obama, Pelosi, or Reid. That just feels bad.
So there. The good, bad, and ugly of my thought process. It is not as intelligent and smart as I might like but it's the truth. I think sometimes people sit out a vote because they don't know what they'd say if someone asked why they voted as they did. I don't think you have to have all of the smartest, most educated reasons for your choice but if you do your research and then go cast your vote then that is the best you can do.
I guess I should have made my own yard sign:
"Stop Government Expansion: Vote for the most conservative candidate you can find (but not a Democrat) who pledges to limit the size of federal government, reverse the health care takeover, lower taxes, stop Cap and Trade, protect our sovereignty, take terrorism seriously, drop political correctness in favor of the truth, protect all American life (yours, mine, our troops, and the unborn), put the opinions of Americans above the opinions of foreigners, refuse to make the poor comfortable in their poverty, allow Americans the freedom they need to create jobs, allow businesses who make bad decisions to go out of business, limit executive power (especially czars), protect states' rights, stop legislation from the bench, and read the Constitution. Then after you've voted, stay engaged to make sure they do what they said."
Favorite Candidate of the 2010 Elections: Rand Paul. He says things that are sometimes unpopular and the media eats him up for it, but I like it and so do his voters. I think if people would have the guts to say what they really believe, they would be shocked at how well it was received. I'm so tired of politicians who talk about feeding the hungry and educating our children, then once elected they go straight to tea with Hugo Chavez. If you like everything a politician says when they are campaigning, maybe something is wrong.
I was doing a search tonight and somehow stumbled upon this article: Taxed Enough Already?. It's on the Pew Research Center website and it highlights recent polling data that 50% of Americans say they pay a fair share of taxes. The article goes on and on with a lot of numbers discussing the irony of this in light of the Tea Party movement and current outrage at the federal government. The author seems to be trying hard to make the point that we don't really mean what we say.
So 50% of Americans believe they are paying their fair share of taxes? Sounds shocking I know. But what about that 47% of Americans who don't pay taxes? Seems like there might be a little crossover there. I mean, I guess some of those folks might not be able to do the math and maybe they feel like they pay too much, but my guess is that they feel pretty good about their current taxation situation. So maybe there is a whopping 3% in the mix that believes they are getting what they pay for. Then again, that's probably within the margin of error so you could argue that there are no actual taxpayers in America who feel they are getting what they pay for.
I wonder what our current situation would look like if you had to pay taxes to vote.
On the plane to California last week, my husband handed me this article by Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal and said I should read it. It refers to this video, which was widely publicized last week.
Obviously the only video I could find was a little edited. It was the best picture I could quickly find so you could really see the look on Obama's face when he realized he wasn't getting complimented by someone in his hand picked crowd.
This part of the article was interesting. I would like to believe it is true everywhere. From my corner of the world, it's right on. It feels true. The only thing it doesn't click with is how CNN and MSNBC paint the picture.
First, Washington is being revealed in a new way.
The American people now know, "with real sophistication," everything that happens in the capital. "I find a much more knowledgeable electorate, and it is a real-time response," Ms. Blackburn says. "We hear about it even as the vote is taking place."
Voters come to rallies carrying research—"things they pulled off the Internet, forwarded emails," copies of bills, roll-call votes. The Internet isn't just a tool for organization and fund-raising. It has given citizens access to information they never had before. "The more they know," Ms. Blackburn observes, "the less they like Washington."
Second is the rise of women as a force. They "are the drivers in this election cycle," Ms. Blackburn says. "Something is going on." At tea party events the past 18 months, she started to notice "60% of the crowd is women."
She tells of a political rally that drew thousands in Nashville, at the State Capitol plaza. She had brought her year-old grandson. When the mic was handed to her, she was holding him. "I said, 'How many of you are grandmothers?' The hands! That was the moment I realized that the majority of the people at the political events now are women. I saw this in town halls in '09—it was women showing up at my listening events, it was women talking about health care."
Read the entire article - it's good! Noonan also has another good article from this last month that well illustrates the Tea Party. Click here for the link. Good reading folks!
