Category Archives: Politics

by Barry Kelly | October 21, 2014 · 7:30 am

INSIGHTS 167 — CONSERVATIVE VIEWS

How far apart are conservatives’ and liberals’ political beliefs? Can the two ideologies ever work together to run the country and produce bi-partisan legislation?

The core values of the liberals and conservative values are made up of a mixture of myths, traditions, interpretations of the Constitution, and views ingrained in respective cultural exposures. The respective core values of liberals and conservatives are not easily put aside. Thirty or forty years ago, I wouldn’t have thought the dividing line was so hard to cross. After all, I was once a strong Democrat, a member of the NAACP, and suspicious of capitalism.

Now that President Obama has succeeded in dividing the people into two angry camps with his income distribution, class warfare, and anti-business rhetoric, the nation is more divided than at anytime since the War for Independence and the Civil War when families, towns, and states were divided into Tories or revolutionaries, slavery or non-slavery states, and unionists or secessionists.

President Obama and his progressive party have helped me understand how members of the same family could pick up arms against each other and fight to the death. People only reach those extremes when their core beliefs are threatened. For people to feel so strongly, they have to believe their nation, way of life, freedoms, and futures will be destroyed if the opponent wins. As a conservative, I believe we are approaching that point. Two more terms of the progressive party would continue the breakdown of constitutional barriers, our two-party system, individual freedom, our national security, and national sovereignty and would certainly destroy the America I know and love.

What are the conservative core values? The starting point is that conservatives mistrust government and believe the bigger the government becomes the more it is distrusted. Why? Because it is only the government that can take away our individual and collective freedoms.

A federal government is necessary, but the difference between liberals and conservatives is how big the government should be and what it should do. Conservatives believe that the federal government should only do what the states or people (the public sector) cannot. The job of our representatives is to constantly adjust the size and scope of government to protect rather than diminish freedom. This historic distrust of government is what fathered the Second Amendment guaranteeing the people’s right to bear arms. The best explanation of this right, to me, is that slave owners had guns, slaves did not. Every totalitarian government has always taken weapons away from the people. Anyone wonder why?

Conservatives believe capitalism is the only economic system that allows people to establish and run commercial enterprises that provides growth to the national economy and jobs for the nation’s workers without endangering individual freedoms as a socialist- or communist-managed economy always has. Capitalism is not a perfect system and it needs some regulation but it is the only economic system that meshes with the power of the free market.

Another core conservative belief is that individuals are better stewards of their money than the government. Therefore, taxes should be as low as possible. Low taxes enable more savings and spending by people that feeds the growth of the economy. Everyone with an income should pay some income tax. Higher taxes on the rich are acceptable as long as they are fair and far short of confiscatory. Death taxes are unacceptable. They are clearly part of a redistribution of wealth program. No card-carrying conservative believes a government can spend its way out of a depression or recession. Government spending does not create wealth. Also, no corporation is too big to fail. Government bailouts waste the nation’s wealth.

Welfare for those who need assistance such as the very young, disabled, aged is necessary. Social Security, a program fought by conservatives during FDR’s tenure, has turned out to be a good program. It needs to be made solvent by some simple changes. In FDR’s time, 65 was old. No more. The age of qualifying for social security needs to be gradually increased. Again, that is the kind of thing our representatives are sent to Washington to work out.

Conservatives believe in a strong national defense and distrust any move toward giving any part of our sovereignty to any international organization.

For most of our brief history we have managed to govern by parties with different core beliefs working together for the good of the people. I believe we can get back there. My personal belief is that term limits on our senators and representatives would make all this much easier. Professional politicians, regardless of party affiliation, are too engrossed in their own careers and re-election politics at the expense of the nation.

Written by the author of “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an ebook, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80. If you think this message is important, please share it.

INSIGHTS 166: UNDERSTANDING THE RELIGION

To understand your opponent’s beliefs, you need to take the time to identify their core beliefs. Today, I’ll look at what I believe are the core beliefs of those who are left of center along the political divide.

All of us must recognize that the core beliefs of political parties, religions, social groups, and even sports teams have beliefs that are a mixture of facts, myths, tradition, and emotional ‘need-to-believe’ items. I believe the core values or beliefs of liberals start with the tenet that capitalism is essentially evil and it needs constant and extensive regulation to mitigate the damage that it does. Certainly the liberal/progressives working in the Obama administration have pumped out thousands of regulations that affect commercial activities of corporations and small businesses. For everyone to ‘have a fair shot’ like the liberals want, they believe capitalism must be drastically controlled.

The pay gap between CEOs and workers must be reduced. Liberals believe in deficit financing because it is necessary to fund welfare programs and other important government spending. Keynesian monetary policies, based on the belief that a nation can spend its way to prosperity, are a mainstay of liberal economics. This theory was extensively tried during FDR’s terms. FDR’s Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. finally convinced his boss that deficit financing was not working. Nevertheless, ‘spending to prosperity’ is still a core liberal/progressive belief.

The liberal core belief on tax policy is that taxes on the rich and corporations should be high enough to fund extensive welfare programs. They are not concerned about the number of people on welfare. A high percentage of the population on welfare and paying no income taxes is a good thing. The government is doing the right thing when it takes care of people by welfare programs. This belief does not make the connection between high taxes on the rich and corporations and the failure of the economy to grow and produce jobs. Tax policy is a primary tool to income redistribution. Interestingly enough, liberals never point out the high salaries being paid to Hollywood and sports figures. They receive their wealth because they earn it when the rest of us are willing to pay for the products they produce. This is capitalism but it doesn’t apply to other commercial ventures.

The necessity for big government with increased centralization of government is another core belief of liberals. To manage education, commerce, welfare, law enforcement, health care, communications, and tax collection, a large centralized federal government is necessary. Liberals believe big government is not a bad thing for it protects and enhances freedom and individual choice.

The ‘big government is good’ belief does not extend to the Department of Defense. Nearly all liberals believe the defense budget should be cut and the savings allocated to welfare programs. Sounds good, but the basic responsibility of the government is to protect the people. The connection between cutting defense and reducing the ability of the government to defend us is not made. Even today President Obama is moving forward with his goal of cutting the armed forces back to pre-WWII levels.

Liberals/progressives believe that a small elite group of liberals can better manage the government than the free-for-all political system set up by the Constitution and years of tradition. This is why the liberal media and universities do not do their job of keeping government honest. Our founders knew liberty requires eternal vigilance. This belief is not part of the core beliefs held by the liberal/progressive elite in America.

Perhaps the biggest plank in the liberal platform is a deep guilt about American wealth and power. Why else would students studying at Harvard, recently vote that America is a bigger threat to world peace than ISIS? My worry is that by the time these smart wonderful kids learn the truth about their country and the world, it will be too late for them and the rest of us.

INSIGHTS 165: GOP NEEDS TO BE SHAKEN UP

It looks as if the Republican Party will gain control of the Senate in November. I believe the Republicans will not be responsible for the win. President Obama is responsible for losing the Senate. If he had stayed away from his teleprompter and especially his microphone, some of the Democrats running in red or purple states may have won. Certainly the only winning platform the Republicans had was their anti-Obama ads. It is important to be clear about what you’re against, if you also make it very clear what you are for in the positive sense.

So what will the Republican Congress do in the first six months?

I don’t think the leadership knows. The House speaker and the minority leader have not put forth an alternative to President Obama’s policies and programs. They either lack the intelligence or the courage or both to offer alternatives to the American people. That has to change. Like most changes, this one will require a change in key people. I hope the newly elected House members and the new majority in the Senate recognize their leadership while being crafty in the ways of Congressional procedures, have not shown anymore leadership than the president. You cannot run this great nation by being the party of NO.

Any political gains made this year will be lost in 2016 if the Republican leadership does not aggressively attack and solve the many issues the Democrats fumbled. Health care, tax reform, solvency of welfare programs, immigration, unemployment, national defense and myriad foreign policy issues. With Republicans, the issue is always the issue. No more whining about the president’s unwillingness to work in bi-partisan fashion or the use of his phone and pen unilaterally. You have the power. Use it. Stop worrying about getting re-elected or being out-messaged by the president. Just get the job done.

First send Mr. McConnell and Mr. Boehner back into the ranks. Then send bi-partisan bills to the president’s desk. When he vetoes, work to overturn the veto. He has less than 35 percent of the people with him. Show us Washington is not log-jammed now that the Republican congress is in town. Regain the respect of the people and foreign nations.

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Filed under Barry Kelly, Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, political solutions, Politics

Tagged as 2014, 2016, Congress, current-events, elections, GOP, Obamacare, Republicans, Senate

by Barry Kelly | October 8, 2014 · 7:30 am

INSIGHTS 163: TRUST YOUR GOVERNMENT?

This is your government. You own them. You put them in power to take care of the people.

Are you better off economically? Do you even have a job? Are you feeling safer? Do you trust your government?

That last one is a critical question. If you don’t trust it how can you act on what you’re told? Trust has at last two critical elements:

Do you trust what they are doing?
Do you believe what they tell you?

Of course the second question is the key to the first. If you don’t trust the information the government gives you, how can you trust what they are doing?

We were just told that we are better off now then we were six years ago. Maybe so, considering the financial crises of 2008 and its immediate consequences when the housing bubble crashed. But we are certainly not better off than we were eight years ago. In fact, there were as many Americans with jobs in 1978 as there are today. In 1978 our population was around 222 million. In 2013 the population had grown to 317 million, not including uncounted illegal immigrants. That’s a difference of approximately 95 million more Americans today versus in 1978. The government unemployment numbers show none of those 95 million more Americans who want to work and do not have jobs. Granted, some unknown number work in the hidden cash or barter economy.

When the government, including President Obama, point with pride to the new jobs created, remember we just caught up to the job level of 1978. The government tells us the unemployment number is 5.1 percent. That ridiculous number does not include the number of people who have given-up looking for work and dropped out of the workforce. Only those who are drawing unemployment benefits are counted in the unemployment numbers. The real unemployment number is well above 11 percent. For blacks, women, young people just entering the work pool, and recent college graduates, the unemployment number is much higher.

Many of these new jobs are low-paying. Wage levels have not keep pace with inflation nor the Federal Reserve’s constant weakening the dollar by pumping $86 billion a month into the economy for years to keep inflation near zero. Americans on fixed incomes have seen their buying power eroded by ‘Qualitative Easing’ on the part of the Federal Reserve.

The result is that under Obama, the rich and upper middle class who had the resources to invest on Wall Street have done very well. With all of Obama’s preaching about re-distribution of income and decreasing the gap between the haves and have nots, the effect of his policies have increased the gap between the rich and poor.

Do not believe the Obama spin that is put on all information released by the government. His administration has lied about gun running by the Department of Justice; leaving people to die in Benghazi and lying about their complicity; has used the IRS to handicap Republican political organizations; has unlawfully tapped the phones of reporters; has claimed they weren’t adequately briefed about the strength of ISIS; called it workplace violence when an Islamist murdered others; and guaranteed you could keep your doctor and health plan under Obamacare.

You should not be surprised if we don’t trust them. The Obama government is proving that liberty requires eternal vigilance.

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Filed under Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, Intelligence & Politics, Obama, Obamacare

Tagged as America, Benghazi, class warfare, ISIS, Obamacare

by Barry Kelly | October 6, 2014 · 7:30 am

INSIGHTS 162: A DIFFERENT KIND OF BOOK

Nearly four months ago I published my first non-fiction book titled INSIGHTS: Transforming America – Is This What We Fought For? I wanted to write abook that would explain to all Americans what the progressives’ transformation of America means and how it is being accomplished. I have a couple of degrees in political science from respected universities, have travelled widely, lived abroad for years and, after retiring from the CIA, served as a special assistant to President Reagan for National Security Affairs. I tell you all that to support my

Barry Kelly shakes hands with President Reagan in the White House.

claim that I could have written a book for academics and political theorists. Instead, I wanted to write a book for the people who don’t have time to research and study national and world affairs. They are too busy trying to keep families together and get the bills paid.

Because living in today’s economy takes so much time and effort, people shouldn’t find out when it’s too late that their freedom of choice has disappeared. Freedom often slips away slowly, and piece by piece. Unless you’re paying close attention, you won’t notice government has grown beyond need, and power has been centralized by an elite political group. There is nothing new here. History tells us successful radical left-wing political groups have always ended up in tyranny, even though that may not have been the original intent.

I work with a near-perfect editor and a small but very talented publisher. The combination of the two put out a very professional product. Ingram and Amazon distribute the books worldwide. The downside is that we don’t have the contacts to publicize my books. People buy books when someone they know and respect recommends the book. With that truth in mind, we wrote to 20 well-known conservative politicians and leaders. We received some very nice responses from a few of them but nothing to help getting the message out. The price of the paperback and digital versions is very affordable.

To me, getting the message out to help change the direction President Obama and his progressive followers are guiding the nation, is far more important than any profit. It may sound strange but I’m depending on the people to get the message out to the people. Word Press, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Goodreads are the social media I’m using to get the message out.

I believe in the value of never giving up. I now have another book, INSIGHTS: Stepping Stones to Tyranny, under pre-publishing review at the CIA. This book should be published in the next month. It’s too late for the mid-term elections, but right on for the next two years and a chance to use the ballot box to sweep the progressives out of office. This book is also written for the people. It explains the progressive process and their use of issues in a step-by-step approach that is meant to be read bit by bit and thought about. Please leave any ideas you may have about getting the message out in the comments box.

Thank you from an old Cold War warrior who doesn’t want to see our cherished freedoms gained at such a cost be lost without notice. Peace through strength.