Tag Archives: Republicans

by Barry Kelly | July 3, 2014 · 7:30 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 135

KING OF CHAOS

Were you listening when candidate and president-elect Barack Obama read from his teleprompter? He didn’t say he was going to lead America to new heights and work to fix the nation’s problems. No! He said he was going to transform America.

That was a new word for most of us. We are accustomed to the soaring rhetoric of politicians. They speak in sound bites and “transform America” did not sound ominous. But it was. We just weren’t listening.

We expected needed fixes to our health care, more spending, attention to welfare programs and a less aggressive foreign policy approach, but most of us did not expect the onslaught on America’s holy grail of individual freedoms, constitutional lines of the separation of powers, and our economic and military power. The usual Democratic Party’s fixation on the distribution of wealth by government degree rather than on the more for everyone by expanding our economy was also understood.

After nearly six years, even the most apology-prone elements of American politics recognize the Obama game plan is new and different. The dumbest members of our society seem to be located in Congress and refer to themselves as Republicans. They, as usual, are out of step with their constituents. The speaker, the only Republican who holds real power, doesn’t understand the rules of the game have changed. For some reason, he is afraid of using his real power, the constitutional power of the House to control the allocation of tax dollars to challenge the president’s expansion of executive power, the inordinate increase of the size and scoop of government, the political corruption of the civil service, the deliberate weakening of our armed forces, and the over regulation of our economy, especially the energy sector.

Instead, the House Republicans, under the Speaker’s leadership, are actively tilting at each issue Obama selects. They just don’t understand this president is not about working problems or fixing issues for the good of the nation. President Obama doesn’t care a smidgeon about solving problems, domestic or foreign.

He is focused on transforming America.

All issues are used to destroy the opposition by making them appear to be on the wrong side of all issues. Obama is willing to change his position on any issue at any time, if the change will help him destroy the opposition and get on with the real stuff of destroying individual freedoms, institutions, constitutional limits, traditional foreign alliances, our capitalist economy, and military power. You see, to transform, you must first destroy. In President Obama’s playbook chaos is good. It makes change easier.

He doesn’t care if you sue him. The law is on his side. It is called Holder Law.

Read “INSIGHTS: Transforming America — Is this what we fought for?”

http://www.factsandfictions.com

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS — 119

HEY GOP, LISTEN UP (AGAIN)

(In light of Eric Cantor losing his seat in the primaries this week, I thought it prudent to republish this former blog. It’s important.)

Conservatives are tired of Republicans who turn to big government and unlimited spending to solve the nation’s problems. The Republican politicians who are too frightened to stand up for their principles and instead play the “go along to get along” game got their share of criticism. The message I hear from the conservative people is simple: control spending, limit the size and scope of government to what is necessary, maintain the strength of our armed forces, regain the lost respect for American power on the international front, and most of all protect our Constitutional rights.

A clear message. But I doubt the Republican establishment hears the message and those who hear it don’t understand it. The people who make this country work and finance the government are fed up. They aren’t demanding much, just the chance to have and keep a job, raise their kids in a safe environment, send them to a school that gives them the opportunity to get a good education, be able to find and pay for good medical care, live in a nation that honors and takes care of its veterans, have leaders they respect to maintain American excellence and military power, and, where possible, encourage the growth of individual freedom everywhere. That’s what they want and expect to get. Save “change America and transformation” for the make-believe world where it comes from.

There is strong support for term limits for Congress that would encourage citizen politicians to serve their nation for four terms in the House and two terms in the Senate. Our professional politicians get so wrapped up in the quest to get elected and stay elected, they lose sight of why they are there. They are not there to serve themselves, but to serve the people who sent them to Washington or their state capitals. There are a few who are trying to save the nation from an alien transformation but they are often criticized and ridiculed by their own party leaders who are truly professionals whose main task is to get elected for yet another term.

These same Republican leaders think that the transformation of America will fall of its own weight and are taking a terrible chance with our way of life. Instead of keeping their powder dry they need to get in the fray, protect their Constitutional right to make laws, and give the nation another vision of the shining city on a hilltop. Tell us your plans for health care, military force levels, foreign policy, tax reform, protection of social security, employment growth, and the reduction of the size and scope of a government that has outgrown its required role.

We don’t need or want class warfare, redistribution of wealth or any of the other parts of progressivism/socialism. We just need a common sense government that takes care of those who are too young, or too old, or too sick to work. We can work together. Government isn’t hard. Just listen to the people. Their voices can be heard.

By the author of the Jack Brandon novels, a retired CIA agent and former adviser to President Reagan. You are encouraged to share this blog and leave comments.

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Filed under class warfare, Conservative views, political solutions, Politics

Tagged as Conservatives, eric cantor, GOP, politics, Republicans

by Barry Kelly | March 3, 2014 · 2:34 pm

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 102

GOP MUTINY

The ship has run aground. The captain, who managed his own election, lost his touch. Part of the crew is loyal because they see no other alternative. The rest of the crew knows it needs a new captain, but can’t seem to summon the guts necessary for a mutiny.

The ship is named the GOP. The Speaker of the House didn’t see the shoals and allowed the ship to drift until his ship got moored in the soft sand. These are uncharted waters and the speaker is at a loss. He doesn’t know what to do. So he does nothing.

Sound like a parody of the Republican House of Representatives? Yes! The speaker and his top mates believe the situation calls for doing nothing. Their opponents, the progressive Democrats, have such a terrible record that the speaker believes the voters will reject them in the November 2014 elections. The voters might do that if they had any belief or trust that the Republicans had anything to offer except negative votes.

But the House Republicans have failed to offer clear options. I’m a news junkie and a conservative of the Reagan school and I haven’t got a clue about what the House Republican leadership offers in health care, defense strategy, foreign policy, shape and size of government, welfare reform, tax reform, reforming a corrupt civil service, education, or immigration. Sure, every once in a while some representative offers a partial solution to one of these areas, but the House leadership acts as if they don’t know what to do with new ideas, except to ignore them.

I believe they are afraid to be innovative and precise about their plans because someone might use them against them in the battle for election of members in November 2014. So they never play their best hand and continue to hide their cards. A pot is seldom won with unplayed cards. House Republicans: Get out of your comfort zone and do what we sent you to Washington to do. Protect the nation and our individual liberties.

Sometimes a mutiny is necessary to save the ship.

Written by the author of the Jack Brandon novels. http://www.facebook.com/factsandfictions.

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Filed under Intelligence & Politics

Tagged as GOP, issues, Republicans, speaker of the house

by Barry Kelly | November 15, 2013 · 7:45 am

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS-88

HEALTH CARE CHANGE

I just heard John Boehner, Speaker of the House, and President Obama comment on health care within the same hour. Not a pretty sight. Both need to do something else. We would all be better off. When queried about the Republican approach to health care, the Speaker referred to an obscure (to most people) government website for the Republican approach to health care. He has been in government too long. What is wrong or hard about a clear statement of the Republican approach? I am a conservative voter and I could not tell anyone what the Republican position on health care is in any detail. The leadership of the Republican Party is sadly lacking in talking to the American people.

On the Progressive side, we have plenty of detail. Plus 10,000 pages and hundreds of executive regulations and changes to The Affordable Care Act. A fog of words, both written and spoken. Many spoken by a man who consistently lies to sell his radical change agenda. I don’t believe a word of what President Obama said in his press conference on November 14, 2013. His goal was clear, however, and that is to keep the Congress from passing any legislation on Obamacare by engaging in another unconditional executive decree. If Democrats and Republicans ever got together, they just might come up with reasonable changes to health care that would benefit all Americans.

Since that probably won’t happen, as the Speaker seems to be comfortable with Obama doing his job, I’ll list the eight principles of health care that I think should guide fixing health care:

Help the people who do not have health care either because they can’t afford it or can’t qualify because of pre-existing conditions. After means testing, provide government subsidies to those who cannot purchase the coverage they need.
Do not include people who already have health care they have selected and like.
Allow insurance companies to sell their plans across state lines.
Pass tort reform legislation to limit the impact of lawyer profits from questionable malpractice law suits.
Allow children to be covered on their parents’ health insurance plans until age 26.
Consider legislation to restore the doctor/patient relationship to control costs and improve patient control of their medical choices.
Allow policy holders to select what they want covered and the deductible they want.
People own their insurance coverage and it goes with them when changing employment or retiring.
Do not allow the executive departments of HHS and the IRS to be involved in the management of health care.

We have the best health care system in the world. Let’s fix only the things that are broken in a step-by-step approach.

Escape From ObamaCare (online.wsj.com)
Obama announces fix for canceled healthcare plans from Obamacare (nydailynews.com)

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Filed under Conservative views, Eight Decades of Insights, Obamacare, Progressives

Tagged as affordable care act, Americans, Barack Obama, Democratic Party (United States), health care, Insurance, John Boehner, Obama, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Republicans, solutions to health care, United States

by Barry Kelly | March 14, 2013 · 8:14 pm

EIGHT DECADES OF INSIGHTS 40

TRIBUTE TO PAT BOONE

Last night as I was watching Fox Business news, a rarity, anchor Neil Cavuto was interviewing Pat Boone, a famous singer and successful entertainer. During the interview when Cavuto was musing about what President Obama is doing, Mr. Boone pulled out the red-covered book by Mr. Saul Alinsky titled Rules for Radicals and commented that the president is following the guidance contained in this book. Cavuto, following a long line of intellectuals, scoffed at the idea the president was using Rules for Radicals to govern the country and, murmuring pleasantries, politely blew off Mr. Boone. Even worse, Cavuto said he had read the book but didn’t believe President Obama was following Alinsky’s rules.

speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on February 12, 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Where has he been? We depend upon our media and especially those wearing the mantle of an economic guru to recognize that conservative intellectuals similarly blew off Das Kapital by Karl Marx, the writings of Lenin, Mein Kampf by Adolph Hitler, and Chairman Mao’s Red Book. How different the world might have been if only enough of our opinion leaders had paid attention. These men and their followers meant to carry out the logic and guidance put forth by their writings. All fought their way into power.

Once in power, they transformed their societies and governments. Freedom fell to centralized control by the elite. There were not anymore votes. Millions perished in the name of differing ideologies. Economies were destroyed. Are we so special that our nation cannot be transformed and freedom lost? I don’t think so. The Republican party, the opposition party, is in disarray struggling to understand what is happening. They, too, do not understand Alinsky. The essence of Alinsky’s teaching is: the issue is never the issue. What is hard to understand about that? Take any of President Obama’s points engraved on his teleprompter. He uses whatever side of any issue to destroy the opposition, the Republican party. After they are marginalized he will have total power to transform America just as he promised.

Listen to that promise, America.

Take something as straightforward as closing the White House to tours. His first position is that the “Republican-caused” sequestration will cause economic havoc. Streets and airways will be unsafe. Thousands will lose their jobs. All his lackeys preached the sky is falling. Closing the White House to tours was just another cheap dig to show up Republicans as monsters, locking school children out of their planned visit to the White House. That backfired and Obama’s narcissistic mirror showed falling ratings. So change sides. It was the Secret Service who closed the White House tours, not the president, “who has never made a mistake.” I served President Reagan in the White House and know a Secret Service director would not ever close the White House for tours without being positive he was carrying out the president’s wishes.

President Obama is following Alinsky’s guidance right down the line. I wish he wasn’t. Wake up, you intellectual gurus of America. Show the courage and insight Pat Boone showed last night.