RICH'S RANDOM THOUGHTS
By Richard Briggs
Feburary 29, 2008
I have held back as long as I could up to this point, but I cannot hold back any longer. This presidential campaign is shaping up as to who can outdo whom when it comes to changing Washington D.C. and how this country conducts business. Truth is, not one of three remaining candidates for their respective party’s nomination is an outsider and none of them can bring about the change that they are talking about.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are senators, from New York and Illinois respectively. They cannot possibly believe what they are preaching because both are from the establishment. Both spend time in the halls of the Senate, working the room with their respective colleagues. This isn’t change, ladies and gentlemen. It will be more of the same, and perhaps even worse.
Both candidates are promising pie in the sky policies, reliant on the government, and they believe this is a good thing (see last week’s column on health care) and that you and I will buy into and believe them. I would like to think that you, dear reader, and I are a just a little bit smarter than that. If you like handing over your money to the government, then feel free to vote for either one of these two Democratic candidates because that is exactly what they are going to ask you to do. They do not believe in free market systems and allowing the people to decide for themselves what is best for them. They believe that we should be reliant on the government for everything we need. If you believe the government should be your meal ticket, vote for Clinton or Obama.
They want to raise your taxes and establish more government programs so that you can be more reliant on Uncle Sam than on yourself. I would like to believe that you are more than capable of being able to spend your money however you see fit. Clinton and Obama want to take care of you when you should be able to take care of yourself, and a whole lot better than either one of them would be able to.
Yes, it’s great to be charismatic, charming, and to be able to deliver a great speech and mesmerize the audience. That is what Obama is doing right now. It’s also horrific to know that Clinton is much more polarizing than President Bush could ever dream of being. If you want to see a divided country, watch what she would do if she is elected president. This has nothing to do with her gender, dear reader, because a woman will occupy the White House before I cash in my chips on this big, blue marble. But Hillary Clinton will spend more time telling you what is right for you than you being able to figure that out for yourself (see universal health care).
On the other side of that coin, you have Senator John McCain of Arizona. He is virtually assured of the Republican nomination and is considered a maverick in his own party. This is both good and bad. In some ways he tilts liberal and in others he tilts conservative. This would probably classify him as a moderate. His lone threat for the nomination is Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas. He is the only true conservative left in the nomination process and he is trailing badly.
McCain is a war hero, having been a prisoner of war for over five years in Vietnam. That alone makes him an American legend and worthy of our votes. He appears to be leaning even more conservative as this process moves along. He has already picked up the endorsements of former rival Mitt Romney and former President George H.W. Bush. His path to the Republication nomination is all but assured.
The wild card over the weekend became official in the name of Ralph Nader, consumer advocate and now three time independent candidate for the presidency. This now makes Nader the thorn in the side of the Democratic Party because, traditionally, the independent candidate siphons off votes from the Democratic nominee. If this holds true, Nader’s candidacy could allow John McCain to ride right on into the White House. This would upset the Democrats even more, having been shut out from the White House for the past eight years, thanks to the failed attempts from Al Gore and John Kerry.
Normally, I would be excited about this. I do like John McCain and would like to hear more about his policies and his background. But this campaign has not done anything for me in terms of getting me excited. By the time you receive this week’s edition, it will be the first weekend of March and this campaign will only be two months old, officially, as of this calendar year. The conventions will not take place until this summer and the election will not happen until November. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a long way to go.
Hillary Clinton is hurting because she has now lost 11 straight primaries and appears on the verge of losing all hope to become the Democratic nominee. So what does she do? She starts saying things about Obama to bring him down to her level so that she can take away his momentum. This is typical politics and why most people, those with morals and principles, stay away from the process. Everyone on the political frontier thinks they know better than the next person. This is causing the logjam on the Democratic side while the Republicans are starting to mobilize behind McCain, knowing a sizable momentum can keep him on course for an election victory in November.
Dear reader, as this continues to move along, please educate yourself about every one of these candidates and whom you feel will do the best job in keeping the government out of our lives. I want to believe that Senator McCain is more than capable of doing that, but I am still uncertain. Endorsements mean nothing to me and they shouldn’t mean anything to you, either. What does each candidate bring to the table that will allow us to live our lives the way they were meant to be lived – in freedom and the pursuit of happiness and not by a government imposed standard.
I am getting real tired of every time I hear or read an item about a foreign country blaming the United States for this or for that. For the longest time, it always seems as if these foreign countries have always called out for our help when they found themselves in a jam. Now, they want to bad mouth us, for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and now for backing Kosovo’s declaration of independence. Yes, moves such as this bring about some consequences. However, these types of moves will always bring about some resistance because there will always be Parties that oppose freedom and believe in government and repression.
I believe it is time for the United States to tell these countries it’s time for them to defend themselves and quit asking us to be the world’s policeman. Everywhere we go, everything we do, we get bad mouthed because we stand for freedom and liberty. I believe most everyone in this world would love to live that way, but there are those who feel that is the wrong way to live.
I will say this to Kosovo – keep fighting the good fight and do not allow anyone to stand, or get, in your way of freedom and independence. Fight and stand for what you believe in and let the others know you will not bend to their will. Much like Israel, Kosovo will experience dramatic resistance and hate from those who do not share their beliefs. However, like Israel, Kosovo will stand up for itself and enjoy the freedoms it so richly deserves. Stand tall, Kosovo, and the United States will stand with you! There will always be battles to be fought but freedom can, will, always, and must, prevail.
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