Nasty Republicans

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

By Judd Grossman

“Nasty Republicans! … But I didn’t mean you.”

A local Democrat tempered her angry exclamation as she saw my kids and I walking by. She was standing in her driveway chatting with friends and examining the twisted and muddy evidence. The night before someone had swerved off of Cache Creek Drive and run over her Gary Trauner and Barak Obama signs. As we walked on, my kids and I speculated that the perpetrator was either a drunk driver or a rude Republican. I’m pretty sure it was the latter. Nasty Republicans.

Politics is a disconcerting and uncomfortable battle between the pragmatic and the idealistic, both can be exhibited in the primitive and civilized aspects of human nature. Our political process should be a constructive dialogue that helps our society find the most efficacious solutions to the challenges that face us, but without the free exchange of information and opinion we fall into tribalism. Running over yard signs is not an effective political argument, but it is a good way to create a physical metaphor for our current political climate.

The Plumber
Senator Obama had his famous encounter last week with “Joe the Plumber.” I had a chat with my own “Jim the Plumber” on Saturday. He says he’s leaning towards Obama, but is not too thrilled with either candidate. He’s pro-union, but recognizes that sometimes unions can protect “slugs” (lazy workers). He’s a Democrat, but I detected some Libertarian tendencies – he’s against the mortgage bailout. I made my point about how smaller government is better, because citizens are much more careful and wise about spending their own money than are government bureaucrats who are only marginally accountable.

My plumber said that if we don’t like what the Democrats do, we can always “vote ‘em out again.” That might be easier said than done. Whether you lean liberal or conservative, one-party rule in Washington should be of concern. If the Democrats get a super-majority they will be able to pass anti-democratic legislation including the “The Employee Free Choice Act” (an attempt to intimidate workers into joining pro-Democrat unions by ending the secret ballot requirement for union organizing votes), and legislation to reinstate the “Fairness Doctrine” (an attempt to silence right-wing talk radio). Our political class has developed quite a knack for Orwellian turns of phrase. These pieces of legislation which are self-serving attempts to cement Democratic power to the detriment of free elections and free speech have in the past only been thwarted by Republican opposition. Political gridlock in Washington can be a very good thing.

Is Town Getting Clogged?
I’ve been pondering the local elections. I had a chat on Friday with Mike Lance who is challenging Mark Barron for Mayor of Jackson. His instrumental role in helping the town acquire the May Property for an East Jackson park in the late 1980s was visionary. Mike is part of a growing backlash against the type and pace of growth that our valley has seen in the last 20 years. He is concerned with the pressure for taller buildings and higher density downtown and thinks the Porter Estate is a reasonable location for low-density, working-class housing.

My position may be the polar opposite. I’m looking for pro-“town-as-heart”-growth candidates for Mayor and Town Council, and no-growth candidates for the County Commission. I believe that we should encourage redevelopment and urbanization of the core of town, while leaving the county as rural as possible. I envision a vibrant, densely populated, pedestrian friendly downtown, and an extremely low-density county that is full of wildlife and open spaces.

Mike says, “Town will always be the heart of the community, but density can be a detriment. We need to make sure that there is a community benefit to new development.”

Here we are, two conservative guys: Mike is talking about restricting property rights in town and I’m talking about restricting them in the county. I guess pragmatism rules the day on the local level. I hope the same holds true on the national scene.

We all have our biases – hopefully based on principals – but maybe we can learn from each other. If you don’t run over my yard sign, I’ll do my best to stay on the road, too. PJH

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Nasty Republicans | Planet JH News Article: General Politics

Reader Comments
Judd, Don't forget the Nasty Democrats - the ones who break down crying because they feel Obama will save us all from everything. It's almost like he is the saviour or something. I attended the local Dems convention and was amazed that both the nominator and second for Obama cried because they felt so emotional over Obama. The people nominating Hillary didn't cry. Now don't get me wrong, I think if elected Obama would do fine and so would McCain if he was elected - just in different ways. I'm just worried about the pure emotional reactions of many Democrats who hate Republicans so much that it blinds them and love Obama so much that is blinds them. That kind of following is scary. Local Republican
Hello My Fellow Patriots: This is an open letter to everyone who has sought to impeach George W. Bush & Richard Cheney. Over the years, millions of us have shared your well-founded outrage and collective horror at how this administration has very nearly ruined our country, bankrupted our values and trashed our moral standing while shredding our Constitution, federal statutes and obligations under international laws and treaties in their foolish, ruthless zeal to enact a corrupt, elitist agenda without regard to all the mayhem, misery and unnecessary deaths the world over that they have so very willfully caused. As if this unchecked and unconstitutional behavior was not bad enough, we have been most shocked and disgusted by the complete moral depravity and likely legal complicity of elected Democrats in Congress who have blocked Reps. Conyer's committee hearings and Kucinich's articles of impeachment from progressing with the critical work they should have years ago been allowed to advance. There is no good excuse, not even the presidential and Congressional viability of their fellow Democrats, that justifies permitting a climate of insane, unaccountable and unjust policies to reign supreme while so deeply wounding our sacred and fragile republican-style democracy. With the election of Sen. Barack Obama as president, Speaker Pelosi still has no good arguments left to release her heel off the neck of impeachment proceedings, other than, as Republican attorney Bruce Fines and others have suggested, to further cover up her own complicity in the alleged crimes of the Bush-Cheney White House, ranging from torture/murder of innocent detainees to warrantless wiretapping of innocent Americans. (Constitutionally, according to her oath, she never did have a sound reason for denying this important mechanism from activating) We all understand that according to Speaker Pelosi and other members of Congress's oaths of office, not one member, Republican, Democrat or Independent could rationally defend allowing the current administration’s crimes to our nation to persist, years on end, other than ignorance of our laws or a selfish disregard for our Founding Fathers Constitutional principles. Because We the People should hold no more hope than before Sen. Obama's victory to expect anything will be done regarding the issue of impeachment, I am curious to know: How many of you would support a Day of Peaceful and Symbolic Impeachment on Jan. 20th? How so, you ask? Perhaps in the manner of a rolling blackout from coast-to-coast, starting at 9 am EST then 9 am MST and 9 am PST, etc., for one hour, all of us, in each respective time zone, do NOTHING on Jan. 20th but sit or lie down, sasen or Yoga-style if you wish, and do not drive our cars, consume anything, purchase anything and turn off all the power and electricity within the immediate control of our environments? Would a collective effort like this, with the 70+ days we have to organize it, send an appropriate message to corporate America that never again will We the People accept or tolerate such dangerous and unfit persons for elected office as they have sponsored in Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and their many national clones, without that choice costing them something of their bottom lines? Perhaps it was Benjamin Franklin, but if not the sentiment still applies: “A patriot defends his country when it’s attacked, praises it when it’s right and rights it when it’s wrong.” For many of us, it feels as if a very big wrong is not being righted. We should not allow those in Congress who do not share our sense of patriotism discourage us from righting what is wrong with our inherently just and noble country. Well, that's it. Thanks for reading. Please post your comments, critical or otherwise. I am most curious to know. -- A fellow American Nat'l Impeachment Day
Hello My Fellow Patriots: This is an open letter to everyone who has sought to impeach George W. Bush & Richard Cheney. Over the years, millions of us have shared your well-founded outrage and collective horror at how this administration has very nearly ruined our country, bankrupted our values and trashed our moral standing while shredding our Constitution, federal statutes and obligations under international laws and treaties in their foolish, ruthless zeal to enact a corrupt, elitist agenda without regard to all the mayhem, misery and unnecessary deaths the world over that they have so very willfully caused. As if this unchecked and unconstitutional behavior was not bad enough, we have been most shocked and disgusted by the complete moral depravity and likely legal complicity of elected Democrats in Congress who have blocked Reps. Conyer's committee hearings and Kucinich's articles of impeachment from progressing with the critical work they should have years ago been allowed to advance. There is no good excuse, not even the presidential and Congressional viability of their fellow Democrats, that justifies permitting a climate of insane, unaccountable and unjust policies to reign supreme while so deeply wounding our sacred and fragile republican-style democracy. With the election of Sen. Barack Obama as president, Speaker Pelosi still has no good arguments left to release her heel off the neck of impeachment proceedings, other than, as Republican attorney Bruce Fines and others have suggested, to further cover up her own complicity in the alleged crimes of the Bush-Cheney White House, ranging from torture/murder of innocent detainees to warrantless wiretapping of innocent Americans. (Constitutionally, according to her oath, she never did have a sound reason for denying this important mechanism from activating) We all understand that according to Speaker Pelosi and other members of Congress's oaths of office, not one member, Republican, Democrat or Independent could rationally defend allowing the current administration’s crimes to our nation to persist, years on end, other than ignorance of our laws or a selfish disregard for our Founding Fathers Constitutional principles. Because We the People should hold no more hope than before Sen. Obama's victory to expect anything will be done regarding the issue of impeachment, I am curious to know: How many of you would support a Day of Peaceful and Symbolic Impeachment on Jan. 20th? How so, you ask? Perhaps in the manner of a rolling blackout from coast-to-coast, starting at 9 am EST then 9 am MST and 9 am PST, etc., for one hour, all of us, in each respective time zone, do NOTHING on Jan. 20th but sit or lie down, sasen or Yoga-style if you wish, and do not drive our cars, consume anything, purchase anything and turn off all the power and electricity within the immediate control of our environments? Would a collective effort like this, with the 70+ days we have to organize it, send an appropriate message to corporate America that never again will We the People accept or tolerate such dangerous and unfit persons for elected office as they have sponsored in Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and their many national clones, without that choice costing them something of their bottom lines? Perhaps it was Benjamin Franklin, but if not the sentiment still applies: “A patriot defends his country when it’s attacked, praises it when it’s right and rights it when it’s wrong.” For many of us, it feels as if a very big wrong is not being righted. We should not allow those in Congress who do not share our sense of patriotism discourage us from righting what is wrong with our inherently just and noble country. Well, that's it. Thanks for reading. Please post your comments, critical or otherwise. I am most curious to know. -- A fellow American Nat'l Impeachment Day

Politics

Nasty Republicans

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

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