Brain Fertilizer

Do I seem a mite....miffed lately?

Yeah, you could say that.

I'm upset that the left has been hypocritical and petty over the last four years.

Fact: Ronald Reagan made the United States safer by ending the Cold War
Fact: Ronald Reagan ended inflation and pulled us out of a depression by cutting taxes and eliminating loopholes.
Fact: Clinton inherited an economy already improving because of George Bush I's policies.
Fact: Clinton also benefited from the internet boom that captured immense amounts of capital speculation, driving a bubble economy that actually burst right before the elction.
Fact: George W Bush inherited a recession
Fact: 9/11 made the recession worse
Fact: Clinton did not make fighting terrorism a priority.
Fact: Nearly 30 million people in Iraq have been freed from tyranny, and one of the top contributers and enablers of international terrorism has been eliminated as a problem. All at a comparitively minor cost, by people who believe in it.

All these things add up. Republican policies work for making the nation safer and more prosperous. More people are working under President Bush than ever before in our history. The boom is one of the best in modern history, but seems in no danger of creating a bubble. And yet, liberals still distort, misrepresent, and ignore evidence that President Bush told the truth in every assertion about Afghanistan, the War on Terror, Saddam Hussein/Iraq, and the economy. In fact, few (if any) of the Democrat/liberal predictions of disaster have come true.
-We didn't encounter a quagmire in Afghanistan like they predicted, we won pretty easily. It ain't over there yet, but it's going well.
-We didn't encounter a quagmire in Iraq. It's been tough for the last 10 months, yes, but things are already starting to improve. You won't see it in the news until it becomes unmistakeable, and we may have another 18 months before the success there is complete, and another 6-12 months before that stability is obvious and widespread...but the situation is improving rapidly in a million little ways.
-We have found WMD in Iraq, and we have found evidence of a turnkey WMD program.
-We have found incontrovertible evidence that Saddam was the greatest violator of human rights in recent history. Only Communist nations have a worse record...oh, yeah, they were supported by liberals, too.

Despite the obvious triumph of Republican policy, millions of Liberals will refuse to vote for Bush. That is their right. It is my right to castigate them for it.

For decades now, Liberals have looked at the unprecented wealth, freedom, and development of the United States, all created by Republican ideals (although sometimes enacted by Democrats like JFK) of free market and free choice, and said, "Thanks, we'll take it from here. It's time to remove the freedom so we can take the wealth and solve all social problems."
Lyndon Johnson said we could conquer poverty within a decade. Guess what? Jesus was smarter than Lyndon Johnson, because the poor are still with us, indeed. In fact, while the evidence is not definitive, welfare creates institutional poverty, removing the incentive for self-improvement or effort, underwriting single-parenthood and contributing to the decline of the family. Much of the liberal platform has been focused on separating an action from its consequence, in the name of "freedom". In their mouths, though, it is merely another hijacked word, and they use it to mean "license". True freedom means the freedom to be responsible for your decisions, and Liberals deny humans that basic right. The mistakes and blunders and evils of liberalism are plain to everyone but liberals, so there's no point in listing them all; conservatives already know and liberals would never admit a single one, anyway.

But Liberals have done some good things, too. They hastened the integration of minorities fully into society and largely ended discrimination. They have championed the weak. They have exposed and largely eliminated the damned-if-you-do/don't double bind of past policies on rape and sexual harassment. They have provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate that not everyone can be rich with only hard work, that there are disparities of ability.
Unfortunately, with each good had come some bad. While they have largely ended discrimination, it lives on only in liberal policies. They have championed the weak to the point that they try to keep people weak to retain political power. They have so demonized male sexuality in the face of women's sensitivities that unconfirmed innuendo or misunderstanding can result in a male carrying a felony conviction for the rest of his life. They've demonstrated that if one is willing to lie, they can be rich by defrauding the welfare system.
In general, they care about "populations" so much they have forgotten about people.

And so I say to Liberals: "Thanks. We'll take it from here." We don't need a political party totally devoted to a proven failed ideology anymore. We can find a way to protect the weak without eliminating the strong. We can find a way to protect the weak while preserving opportunity. We can protect the weak without forcing them to stay weak to keep voting for us. We can end the entitlement pandering that is so typical of Democrat platforms. We don't need your institutionalized poverty, we don't need your quotas for hiring and scholarships. We can guarantee equality of opportunity for everyone, but right now, Liberals are the biggest obstacle to that.

It probably won't be Republicans that do these things, either... but it will be an outgrowth of classic Republican policy.