GOP Moderates – Kingsjester's Blog

As we enter the fourth month of Barack Hussein Obama’s (mm mmm mmmm) Second Term as President of the United States, I have noticed something that is both puzzling and troubling to me.

Actually, it is something that I noticed starting to gain steam as the Presidential Primaries started kicking into gear: a serious effort to redefine Conservatism to mean “wanting a government which doesn’t blow all my money and leaves me alone, so that I can do what I want do, regardless of how it effects others around me”.

On the internet, these believers express themselves in various terms, which all translate to the same thing: Fiscally Conservative, Socially Liberal.

Their common goal is a desire to redefine the definition of Conservatism in order to make them feel better about their non-Conservative, and oft times, downright hedonistic, social ideology.

You’ll find these same individuals on Internet Chat Boards, complaining about how narrow-minded and statist Reagan Conservatives, like myself, are.

And, God help you if you tell them that there is such a thing as morality and ethics. They will tell you that you”re nothing but a busybody who wants to meddle in people’s private lives and take away their “freedom”.

They insist that the only way for the Republicans to win anything at all in 2014 and 2016, is to forget the antiquated ideology of Reagan (Social) Conservatism.

You know, that whole God and Country Bit that I always talk about.

Evidently,to these folks, good, old-fashioned American Faith, Values, and Ethics are just that…old-fashioned.

That’s funny. Down here in Mississippi, that is how we live our lives. We love God. We love our country. We love our family and friends…and, we look out for one another.

Mississippi is not the only state like that. All the states in the Heartland of America, share the same Classic American Values and Beliefs

That’s why the President is still out campaigning. He can’t overcome them.

Look at how all of the National Issues which he and all of his ideological forces have been so feverishly trying to ram down our throats, homosexual marriage, amnesty for illegal immigrants, the legalization of marijuana, and gun confiscation, have stalled.

No matter how much Progressive Propaganda is unleashed upon the American Citizenry, Conservatives in America’s Heartland are standing firm, solid in their beliefs, still “bitterly clinging to their Bibles and guns”.

No matter how many rigged polls and slanted news stories are thrown at us, we will not be moved.

Concerning those who believe that being a Conservative only hinges on your Fiscal Ideology…

J. Matt Barber wrote in the Washington Times that

Ronald Reagan often spoke of a “three-legged stool” that undergirds true conservatism. The legs are represented by a strong defense, strong free-market economic policies and strong social values. For the stool to remain upright, it must be supported by all three legs. If you snap off even one leg, the stool collapses under its own weight.

A Republican, for instance, who is conservative on social and national defense issues but liberal on fiscal issues is not a Reagan conservative. He is a quasi-conservative socialist.

A Republican who is conservative on fiscal and social issues, but liberal on national defense issues is not a Reagan conservative. He is a quasi-conservative dove.

By the same token, a Republican who is conservative on fiscal and national defense issues but liberal on social issues – such as abortion, so-called gay rights or the Second Amendment – is not a Reagan conservative. He is a socio-liberal libertarian.

Put another way: A Republican who is one part William F. Buckley Jr., one part Oliver North and one part Rachel Maddow is no true conservative. He is – well, I’m not exactly sure what he is, but it ain’t pretty.

At the Forth Annual Conservative Political Action Committee Convention in 1977, Ronald Reagan said,

The principles of conservatism are sound because they are based on what men and women have discovered through experience in not just one generation or a dozen, but in all the combined experience of mankind. When we conservatives say that we know something about political affairs, and that we know can be stated as principles, we are saying that the principles we hold dear are those that have been found, through experience, to be ultimately beneficial for individuals, for families, for communities and for nations — found through the often bitter testing of pain, or sacrifice and sorrow.

One thing that must be made clear in post-Watergate is this: The American new conservative majority we represent is not based on abstract theorizing of the kind that turns off the American people, but on common sense, intelligence, reason, hard work, faith in God, and the guts to say: “Yes, there are things we do strongly believe in, that we are willing to live for, and yes, if necessary, to die for.” That is not “ideological purity.” It is simply what built this country and kept it great.

So, if your stated political ideology is one of those listed above, by not differing from them in your Social Ideology, and fighting against Reagan Conservatives, in your own Party, like me, which you have so derisively named “True Conservatives”, aren’t you being unwitting dupes for the Progressives?

Even the Progressives claim to be “Fiscally Responsible”.

Not to be rude, but, a one-legged stool is awfully hard to stand on.

Until He Comes,

boehnerobama President Barack Hussein Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner met yesterday, regarding the “Fiscal Cliff” Negotiations.

Politico.com has the story:

President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner met at the White House Sunday in an attempt to break the logjam on the fiscal cliff.

It was their first face-to-face meeting in 23 days.

Both the White House and Boehner’s office declined to describe the meeting, putting out identical statements that said, “This afternoon, the President and Speaker Boehner met at the White House to discuss efforts to resolve the fiscal cliff. We’re not reading out details of the conversation, but the lines of communication remain open.”

Before the meeting, top aides said there was little progress made over the weekend. But the meeting between Boehner and Obama signals a new stage in the process to resolve tax hikes and spending reductions that take hold at the beginning of 2013.

The lines are clear: Obama says a deal will not get done unless tax rates increase on top earners. Boehner says he’s opposed to tax rate increases on anyone.

But in recent days, the options seem to have narrowed for Republicans. Democrats have held firm on rate increases, while a few Republicans have slowly peeled away. For example, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) on Sunday indicated he would let taxes rise on top earners.

“There’s a growing body of folks who are willing to look at the rate on the top 2 percent,” Corker said on “Fox News Sunday.” “The shift in focus in entitlements is where we need to go. … Republicans know they have the debt ceiling that’s coming up around the corner and the leverage is going to shift as soon as we get beyond this issue — the leverage is going to shift to our side.”

Did you know that Americans listed as being in the top 1% of income-earners pay an average of $343,927 in Income Taxes, and overall, they pay 36.73% of all of America’s Income taxes?

Those in the 5% group pay an average of $154,643 per year, amounting to 58.66% of Income taxes collected.

The Great Dr. Walter E. Williams,who serves on the faculty of George Mason University as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics, is the author of ‘Race and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed on Discrimination?’ and ‘Up from the Projects: An Autobiography’, and is a long-time guest host for Rush Limbaugh, reviewed a recent work by fellow Black American Economist Dr. Thomas Sowell, who wrote a short paper on “Trickle-down Theory” and “Tax Cuts for the Rich”. In his review, Dr. Williams wrote:

…in 1921, Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon advocated tax rate cuts, which were enacted into law by Congress. Afterward, there was rising output; unemployment plummeted; and the resulting higher income produced greater federal tax revenues, even though the tax rate had been lowered. There were somewhat similar results in later years after high tax rates were cut during the John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush administrations.

The facts about the 1920s tax rate cuts are unmistakably clear for those who bother to check the facts. In 1921, when the tax rate on people earning more than $100,000 a year was 73 percent, the federal government collected a little more than $700 million in income taxes, of which 30 percent was paid by those earning more than $100,000. By 1929, after the tax rate had been cut to 24 percent on incomes higher than $100,000, the federal government collected more than $1 billion in income taxes, of which 65 percent was collected from those with incomes higher than $100,000.

In 1962, Democratic President John F. Kennedy pointed out that “it is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now.” Both Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush made similar arguments, and the tax rate cuts had the effect of stimulating economic growth while increasing federal tax revenue and shifting a greater percentage of the tax burden on to wealthier individuals.

One very insightful part of Sowell’s paper is the discussion about what Mellon called the “gesture of taxing the rich” — namely, tax-exempt securities that he tried unsuccessfully to put an end to. Tax-exempt securities and other tax breaks are valuable tools in the politics of class warfare and envy. Politicians have it both ways. They get votes by raising taxes on the wealthy — or threatening to do so — and at the same time provide the wealthy with a way out of high taxes through tax-exempt securities. This explains how President Obama can raise tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions from Hollywood millionaires and Wall Street’s rich and powerful. “Tax cuts for the rich” demagoguery is simply the height of deceit perpetrated on the gullible people and useful idiots.

When Speaker Boehner and the rest of the GOP Moderate Elite cave in to the President’s wishes, which will they be, boys and girls?

Gullible people, useful idiots, or both?

Kingsjester's Blog

Tag: GOP Moderates

The Effort to Redefine “Conservatism”

The Fiscal Cliff: Will the GOP Elites Cave?