Category Archives: Politics

by Barry Kelly | November 15, 2022 · 11:02 am

THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN

The vote is in. There is no mandate for a Republican takeover. In a democracy, the people get the kind of government they vote for. That is what elections are about. There will always be winners and losers. For now, the people have voted for more of the Biden brand of government trending toward socialism.

It appears that Bidenism is based on a vague ideology featuring a big government system that will take care of all Americans whether they need it or not. Out of control employment welfare, a system of free education, open borders, reduced resources for law and order forces in our cities, and a smaller weaker military are the result of a failure to recognize the reality of bread and butter issues. The individual is not important to the ideologues. They believe only a take-care-of-you government led by President Biden is necessary.

Socialists prefer to run political campaigns on broad ideological themes, and they present an attractive alternative to the voters who have to choose between conflicting ideologies. They do not understand the impact the political theories have on the issues that they do understand. Issues like the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel, the cost of food, employment opportunities, a strong military, inflation, high taxation, interest rates, health care, education costs, and safety of our streets. Our citizens understand these issues and are comfortable discussing these issues with their neighbors and friends.

One of our brightest revolutionaries understood issues were an effective weapon to use against opponents. The issue itself was important only to weaken the opposition. It didn’t matter which side of the issue his followers used. In fact, they could change sides at any time, as long as they used the issue to seize power.

This revolutionary, Saul Alinsky, coined the phrase “The issue is never the issue.” Two current politicians, Hillary Clinton and former President Obama, are Alinsky advocates. Unless you are socialist, you should realize the “the issue is always the issue.” The quality of our lives is based on our success in dealing with issues we believe in, and we need to vote for those who support our issues. Don’t get distracted by ideologies.

-Barry Kelly

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Filed under Alinsky, Clinton, elections, Obama, Politics

Tagged as politics, socialism

by Barry Kelly | October 29, 2018 · 10:05 am

WHERE ARE WE?

Is there any doubt that a people’s revolt is pushing through the barricades of the entrenched bureaucracies, both in Europe and America? Bureaucracies of the elites are systemically taking away choices from the people.

In America, the elites in both political parties and the massive expansion of government started by the Obama progressive process of transformation are moving toward socialism. In Europe, the increasing centralization of economic and political power by the EU in Brussels was moving steadily toward globalism. The British people successfully revolted against the erosion of their sovereignty.

What is happening in America? Our dominate political parties have the same names, but they are unrecognizable using any yardstick from our history. The Democratic party has moved so far left under the leadership of President Obama and the Clintons that staunch party leaders from the past three or four decades would not recognize today’s Democratic party. The Republican party has been captured by an elite of theoretical conservatives who are not interested in governing, only in pursuing a shining goal of pure conservatism with the zeal of a medieval priesthood. Both party leaders natter on with religious zealousness while the people suffer. Neither elite is worthy of any of our loyalty.

Both of these ideological-driven elites have sponsored a corrupt primary election process to ensure they can select leaders who sound like them and worship at the same ideological altars. The Republican elites have rallied around defeating the candidate that overwhelmingly defeated all opponents. They would sooner give the leadership of the nation to the opposing party rather than support the candidate the people selected. This elite is blinded by their inability to recognize what the nation is calling for.

They whine about not going to the Republican Convention in Cleveland unless they can figure out some way to overthrow Donald Trump for a more controllable candidate who worships at the same altar with the same conservative chant. Some other ideological Republican elites swear they won’t support the candidate, or even vote for him. Instead they announce they are leaving the party. Good. No one needs or wants them. Including past presidents and national candidates. The nation needs to dump them. Their day is over.

We need leaders who put the nation and its people first. Leaders who can solve huge problems, not seek ideological purity.

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Filed under class warfare, Conservative views, Politics, Republicans, trump

Tagged as Conservatives, politics, Progressives, Republicans, United States

by Barry Kelly | April 12, 2018 · 3:14 pm

IT’S ALL ABOUT VOTES DUMMY

The Democrats, Progressives, or Socialists, whatever you call them, don’t care about legal or illegal immigrants. They do care about becoming the dominant party in America. These modern day Socialists have clearly chosen an ambitious, but possible strategy to out voting the Conservatives and Republicans. It is called open immigration, primarily from non European or non English speaking nations. Based on their success with capturing the Black vote in America in past elections, the progressives have decided to encourage immigrants from Hispanic and Arab countries.

They are using ‘chain’ immigration, a lottery based immigration selection process, a liberal visa granting process with weak enforcement of visa holders overstaying the time limits of their visas, open borders, inadequate border control forces and cumbersome legal requirements for returning illegal aliens apprehended at our borders. Resistance to a border wall is part of this Progressive plan.

And then there is the hysterical Progressive resistance to ‘Voter I.D ‘ and the refusal to take the possibility of fraudulent voting seriously. In any locality where the Progressives hold political power, they make it easy for illegal aliens to vote, often thru the driver’s license process. This is all part of the same Progressive plan to reduce the power of their opposition, primarily the Republican Party and it is working. If you see the Second or First Amendment weakened or repealed and a broad attack on the Electoral College gain credibility, you will soon see the individual freedoms you now enjoy be diminished. It may then be too late for you to protest. By following your generous nature toward others, you have destroyed the American Experiment of individual freedom given to us by the sweat and blood of past Americans who left us this gift to protect and cherish.

The Professor: What is a Socialist?

A fictional discourse between a political science Professor and his students.

“Who has the next question? Okay, Paul, you’re up.”

“You often refer to Progressives and Socialists. Is there a difference and what is a Socialist?”

“You all know this but I like to start with basics. The agenda or mission of both the Socialist and Progressive Parties is to own and control the ‘means of production.’ In their terms the ‘means of production’ includes all economic activity. In their very attractive messaging that is what they talk about. The average person thinks, “What’s so bad about that? I certainly don’t control any big businesses or factories. No one works for me. The big capitalists and bankers on Wall Street control everything now. If the Socialists want to take over it won’t affect my family. Maybe getting the profit at any costs people out of the loop will be a better deal for me. That doesn’t sound dangerous or even a big problem to me.”

“What the people are never told is that to control the entire network of ‘the means of production’ someone has to be in charge. In the case of the Socialist or Progressives, the someone in charge is the elite of the Socialist Party. What was a decentralized economic system subject to market influences and the decisions of thousands of relatively independent owners, managers and financiers is now highly centralized under the control of Socialist managers. These managers removed from close contact with the various production facilities must make decisions that set production goals, distribution of goods and services, research and development areas and budgets, the work place environment, the number and skills of the workers required throughout the production cycle, the cost of goods and export and import requirements.

“From a moral standpoint the socialist managers are no worse or better than the capitalists they replaced. The Socialists claimed they would make things better for the workers and their families. I believe the majority of them really try to improve living standards for the working class. What they soon discover is that a highly centralized system where one segment is integrated with several others requires a strict application of rules. These rules in turn require some form of enforced discipline and that is the problem. People, managers or workers, must obey the rules or the production goals of the 5 and 10 year plans will fail and people will suffer.

“Once you have centralized management of the ‘means of production’ the required rules and laws to make it work take the choices people made out of their hands. What schools your children can go to, what they study, where they work and live is determined by the Socialist elite group of managers. The essence of freedom is the ability of individuals to make their own choices, good or bad. When the drive to follow your own choices clashes with the need for the centralized economy to meet its goals, the individual must either accept the rules or be punished. Millions of people were killed in China and Russia for resisting government rules. Socialism does not lead to freedom. It always leads to coercion, totalitarianism and economic ruin. Socialists and Progressives are the same thing. In America Progressivism sells better than Socialism.

The Professor: The Senator Sessions Problem

A fictional discourse between a learned political science professor and his students.

“I know you are all very busy, but I want to get some of my critical thoughts out to you before we meet in the classroom. Also, I want to put them in writing before I forget them or they are overtaken by fast-moving events.

“You have heard me say I think the ‘rule of law’ is critical to the success of democratic governments. The current appointment of a Special Consul troubles me, for no crime has been identified. Congressional committees are investigating unsourced allegations that people associated with the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians. That is strange, for collusion is not a crime and does not appear in our legal code as a crime. What does that leave?

“In recent history, the Special or Independent Consuls were appointed to investigate a crime and that is what they did. Not necessarily the crime that led to their appointment, but one they found in their free-range probing. With the resources and time available to these extra-legal consuls, they were able to find some illegal activity to prosecute, even if the illegal activity was an untruth uttered under oath. Some might think the Special Consul created the crime in the process of their investigations. But, at least, in those cases they were investigating a crime.

“With no crime or even evidence of a possible crime, the Special Consul will begin by investigating people until a crime is found. A very strange process for a democracy that prides itself on adherence to the ‘rule of law.’

“Only dictatorships of the left or right investigate people to search for a crime. Through coercive interrogations, the Stalinists, Nazi and religious inquisitors always found or constructed a crime and severely punished the culprits. Mr. Mueller and his rapidly expanding staff are doing what? Since they have no crime yet, they are investigating people in search of crime that they will eventually construct so they can prosecute the people who are suspected of participating in some imaginary collusion with the Russians or some barely related activity. Shades of the Stalin Government.

“If Senator Sessions had not so unwisely recused himself for any matters involving Russian collusion, we would not have a Special Consul and certainly not one like Mr. Mueller, who, if he is so honorable and ethical, would not have taken the anti-democratic task of investigating people to find some prosecutable crime. In addition, a legal reading of the legislation authorizing the selection and appointment of a Special Consul shows Mr. Mueller to be ineligible for the position because of his long-term relationship with Mr. Comey. Apparently that disqualification did not concern the Deputy AG Mr. Rosenstein but surely it would not have been missed by Senator Sessions if he had been doing his job as a full-time Attorney-General.

“Why is President Trump concerned and angry with Senator Sessions and the Department of Justice? Very simple, he sees his family and promises to the American people threatened by the unconstrained freewheeling of a biased Special Consul investigating people looking for a crime they can prosecute and an Attorney-General is not overseeing a police state type of disregard of the American ‘rule of law.’”