The 2009 Liberal Scorecard

One of the problems conservatives face in the coming election is that the electorate is largely uninterested in lengthy explanations detailing the nation or state’s current problems. The general populace is much happier with short sound bytes rather than the details. This is one of the areas the American left has mastered. They have for years been able to articulate their talking points in attractive ways that sound good. Conservatives find themselves in the difficult position of going through detail-oriented explanations to counter very vulnerable arguments from their liberal counterparts. A glossy, polished speech that is low on details trumps the less dynamic speech rich with substance. It is a sad fact of contemporary American politics.

If one were to transcribe the liberal demagoguery to golf, liberals would not keep score in a tournament, but would decide on a winner by who hit the coolest shots, who was best dressed, or who was the most charismatic during the round.

The conservative keeps score. On a federal and state level, this has been a disastrous six months. Here are the scores that the conservative can use to prove his or her point.

Federal:
1) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Remember when the new administration promised transparency? There were earmarks upon earmarks in the bill ranging from additional funding for STD prevention (as if people don’t know where babies come from or how gonorrhea is spread) to $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts (because that will put people right to work). This bill along with the Obama budget also increased federal deficit spending from 3% to 12-13% according to the Congressional Budget Office.
2) Gitmo is still open. Didn’t General O. promise to close it? Even many Democrats saw the peril in doing this and blocked this from happening.
3) Nancy Pelosi vs. the CIA. Yeah, she lied…and then disappeared to China. Nothing to see here…carry on! After all, people will forget that she knew about the waterboarding and then lied about knowing it despite ripping Big Bad Bush for waterboarding terror suspects.





4) Cap and Trade. Gee, here’s an idea…how about we try to lower the global temperature by ourselves by imposing higher taxes on manufacturers and energy producers? No, no…they won’t choose to manufacture in China instead. China and India are not bound by Kyoto, so there is no way that American companies would look to lower costs by outsourcing to China. Nah. Silly conservatives…the United States can easily cool the earth down from its fever on its own…stick it those Big Bad Oil Companies! Just because heating and cooling homes is going to be exponentially more expensive under this plan doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do something to combat a problem that has not been proven to even exits. But don’t take the evil conservatives’ word for it, take The One’s word for it…





5) The AIG tax. Who would have known that the person who introduced language into the stimulus allowing AIG to award bonuses was a Democrat at the blessing of the tax cheat Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner? Remember how angry those guys were at AIG and how they proposed a 95% tax on them? It was as if they did not know about it beforehand…they act well.
6) Nationalization of GM. But wait, Chairman, I mean, President Obama does not want to run GM, but will tell them to keep their headquarters in Detroit. How is the government taking over the nation’s largest auto company not socialism?
7) Proposal of nationalized healthcare. Wow! Free healthcare! Sounds good, right? It does…until the taxpayers get stuck with the bill, patients are excluded from planning their own medical care, and all profit-driven incentive is removed from pharmaceutical companies and health care professionals to practice any kind of innovative experimentation…
8) Iraq. Wasn’t General Barry going to cut and run? U.S. troops are still in Iraq. Maybe Bush wasn’t so crazy…
9) Oh, there’s more (disarmament when North Korea is testing nuclear missiles, sitting and watching instead of taking any stand on Iran, surging the military in Afghanistan when the Taliban is running amok in Pakistan, apologizing to the Arabs and Europeans about American arrogance…), but for the sake of sparing the details, this will have to do.

State:
1) The Wisconsin State Budget. Jim Doyle signed a budget that increased the garbage tax, eliminated the Qualified Economic Offer (QEO) for public educators, released “non-violent” felons early, provided in-state tuition to illegal immigrants (don’t worry, they can’t get drivers licenses), extended domestic partners of state workers to be eligible for the state insurance plan (not just the gay ones, either), increased fees on cell phones, established a new income tax bracket, lowered the enrollment cap on school choice, increased the hospital tax four months after it was implemented, increased the cigarette tax, increased the capital gains tax, etc. The Joint Finance Committee (composed by a 12-2 Democratic majority) inserted many provisions behind closed doors in the middle of the night and the budget passed the Senate and Assembly before the “little people” (a.k.a. the public) even became aware of it. Remember when Jim Doyle promised not to raise taxes?
2) State smoking ban. Remember when if someone did not like a restaurant or bar, he or she would go to a different one? That was not good enough for the state legislature or the governor. Apparently, private restaurants and bars cannot decide for themselves whether or not to allow smoking.

This is only a partial scorecard. The Obama Administration has been in power for not even six months and look what is happening.

The problem the conservative faces is presenting the disastrous public policy decisions above to a populace that gives Obama a 60% approval rating while the Congress (run by the Democrats) has an approval rating in the 30s. This is a populace that has 40% of people that believe that the government has its own money (that is not paid for by the public).

But then, Obama and his teleprompter sure give good speeches. It is really a shame about those pesky little conservatives busting apart his platitudes and fluff with facts and figures.

What If...?

During the presidential campaign of the past fall, several commentators, pundits, and politicians criticized President Barack Obama for being naïve in his view of geopolitics. The idea of sitting down with foreign leaders such as Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met sharp criticism from the political right as an example of the Democrats’ perceived inexperience with an increasingly dangerous world.

The Democratic platform on social issues also was the subject of much criticism from the political right. Republicans attempted to highlight past failures of social programs that had been the recipients of federal tax money in an effort to show that higher taxes and higher spending was also naïve. The Democrats then countered by arguing that in order to work through the existing socioeconomic problems, that additional government programs would be needed to help alleviate poverty and unemployment.

Liberals do not like their ideals to be trivialized and considered naïve. Liberalism is by its very nature idealistic and hopeful for a better future based on top-down motivated responsibility. Liberalism believes that if a program is sponsored by the government, it will be more effective in motivating the general public than if a set of ideas is generated from the ground-up.

Confessional Christianity has lost any place it ever had in contemporary liberalism. Christianity has beliefs and ideals that are considered by liberals as too divisive and, in some cases, hateful. The sixth commandment is perceived as perhaps the most divisive of the beliefs of Christianity. The sixth commandment states “You shall not commit adultery.” Adultery, as defined in the Bible, is any sexual relation outside of the bonds of marriage. This includes sexual thoughts, words, and actions outside of marriage. Marriage is defined in the Bible as between one man and one woman despite several people in the Old Testament having practiced polygamy.

What if everyone followed the sixth commandment perfectly? At the risk of being naïve, consider the following scenarios that would occur of everyone in the world followed the sixth commandment:

1) Venereal diseases would be virtually eradicated within three generations.
2) No infidelities would occur, thus lowering divorce rates, spousal abuse, and broken homes.
3) Prostitution would be gone.
4) Pornography would be gone.
5) Abortions would decrease substantially as married women do not frequently seek them.
6) Would the Arabian states dislike the west as much?
7) The debate regarding what is and is not marriage would not exist.
8) Teenage pregnancies would be gone (unless they were already married).
9) Fathers would be more likely to be integral in their children’s lives.
10) The government would no longer need to spend taxpayer money on STD prevention.

The concept of following the sixth commandment flawlessly may seem to be too idealistic, too backward, and too divisive for contemporary society, but the effects of its implementation are truly remarkable to consider. This is only one commandment.

Are the intentions and effects of following this "backward" commandment really divisive and hateful?

Would the above scenarios be more restrictive in American lifestyles or more liberating?

Perhaps that is naïve, but at least it is free and does not cost $335 million of public money.