Comment soliloquy

I actually started this as a response to comments on my “macaca” post but after writing so much decided it should stand alone as a post and response to “idiot” and “Final Frontier” – two good but misguided folks who put up the fight for the other side. ‘Soliloquy’ is probably an apt word because I suspect I’m beating my head against a wall with these two, but the optimist in me will make the attempt anyway.

I’m going to work backwards, sort of, regarding your two comments.

“If one of the nuts tries to take matters into his own hands, McCain will have some culpability because he is using fear to get votes.”

Well, if we haven’t had anyone take a potshot at GWB despite the movie depicting his assassination, Obama should be all right too.

“A true patriot would ask his supporters to take a step back, calm down, and debate the issues rather than demonize their opponent.”

So why didn’t Barack Obama take up John McCain’s offer of a large number of joint townhall appearances to debate the issues? And where have Obama or other thoughtful Democrats been for the last six years or so? There’s a reason we have a condition only half-kiddingly referred to as “Bush Derangement Syndrome.”

“If youre a student of history, then you would know that the South used to be solidly Democratic until they supported the Civil Rights Act and have not voted consistently Democratic since.”

I seem to recall that it was the Democrats in the South who resisted the civil rights initiatives and tried to stop the Civil Rights Act from being enacted with a filibuster. But I think the evolution toward Republicanism in the South was more religious-based than racially-based. That “Bible Belt” and family values thing.

“Race is in issue and it is stupid to say that it isnt. There are litterally polls out there sayng that about 6% of the populaion is not going to vote for Obama merely bc of his race.”

Only 6 percent? I’d say that’s progress. And I’d love to see an age breakdown on that, because my bet is that most of that 6 percent are 50 and over. Personally, I do look at the stance on issues, content of character, and not the amount of pigmentation when considering a candidate. I supported Michael Steele two years ago and thought way back in 1998 that Ken Blackwell would have been a far better governor in Ohio than Bob Taft would be – but the bigwigs in the Ohio GOP didn’t want a primary fight so they convinced Blackwell to back off. I still say that was a big mistake on their part. On the other hand, I don’t support Barack Obama for many of the same reasons I didn’t vote for Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, or John Kerry – their policies would take America in the wrong direction.

“As someone who has constantly supported the worst president in modern history and his policies, what makes you think that you have any say in the “correct” way to run this country and that your views on Obama’s qualifications hold any merit? You cant be wrong for a good 6 years and then pretend it didnt happen. Deregulation and trickle down economics and barroom-bully diplomacy do not work.”

No, I wasn’t a Carter supporter, I was a little young for that. As for whether my way would be the “correct” way to run the country, I’d like to have it tried sometime. Lord knows that neither of the two main candidates are going to restore power to the people as they should, it’s just that we won’t sprint nearly as rapidly away from that goal under McCain as we would Obama.

“And you mention Freddie and Fannie, but you dont mention that McCain’s advisor is the lobbyist for them. So while Obama was paid for access to discuss their concerns, McCains guy was out there actively pushing for their interests. Which is worse?”

Neither is great but a lobbyist can’t introduce or support legislation. McCain tried to change the system, Obama did not.

“Maybe I am reading too much Andrew Sullivan, but where are all the real conservatives who are man enough to stand up for REAL positions and not just be party hacks…and toe the line? Man up Michael. Admit McCain is no longer a Maverick as he votes with Bush 90% of the time (and you apparently vehemently disagree with Bush) and admit that Palin is way over her head and a political and shortsighted choice meant to cater to the lowest common denominator of the party, if not society.”

I happen to think I do stand up for real positions. Go read the posts under “50 year plan” starting from the earliest and see whether GWB has followed my advice, or if either McCain or Obama would. You can also go into my archives (search for “Who should I support?”) and see how much I disagree with McCain’s positions too.

But in essence I have two choices in this race, and I don’t see Obama as an effective President. On the other hand, I think Sarah Palin would be a fine President in 2012 assuming John McCain only decides to serve for one term. Palin/Jindal could be a great ticket!

I know you two didn’t bring this up, but I have a question for you both and anyone else who reads this. When is government allowed to say “no”?

Once upon a time, in what seems like a lifetime ago, I was married and raising a 6 year old daughter – this was back in 1990. My wife and I both worked and we wanted to pursue the American Dream of home ownership. However, we were a young couple and young couples sometimes make financial mistakes and impatiently want everything in life right away – in other words, our credit wasn’t great. We went out looking for a house, though, and found one we liked listed at $26,000. (This was an older home in a neighborhood sort of between working- and middle-class but in a pretty decent school district.)

But when we went to the bank to get a mortgage, they looked at our credit history and politely told us “no.” However, they also told us why we were denied and made some suggestions on how to straighten things out. Indeed, we worked on those things for about a year and happily the next summer we finally bought our first house. And even though I was laid off from my job literally the DAY we got the keys to the place, we managed not to fall behind on the mortgage enough to lose the house because we had put our financial priorities in order beforehand. It was a rough summer and fall, but we pulled through it.

In this era, though, maybe we’d have gotten that first mortgage and continued on our destructive high-spending path of living beyond our means. And what lessons would that have taught us?

In this life, sometimes we have to hear “no”. We may whine that it’s unfair to be denied something we believe we’ve earned simply because we live in America, but the idea behind our system is only that equality of opportunity be granted. Equality of outcome simply isn’t possible in this or any other system; at best misery is also shared equally, at worst we have an Orwellian outcome where some are more equal than others.

Those who thought it would be a splendid idea to force Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to backstop mortgages in the cases where otherwise prudent lenders would politely say “no” to borrowers placed the bottom supports on the financial house of cards we’re now seeing collapse around us. I’m sure that Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, Barack Obama, et. al. had the best of intentions but they also didn’t stop to think about what not saying “no” when it needs to be said could lead to. All of the talk about CEO salaries and “Wall Street greed” only distracts from the real issue of whether government should have been in that business in the first place. Personally, I think it was a mistake but given recent events we’re going to be stuck with a government presence in the mortgage market for the foreseeable future. Like many other government entitlements, Americans don’t yet have the stomach to make the changes I feel would be necessary.

The Rolling Stones once sang, “You can’t always get what you want” and that’s one thing we all have in common from the earliest days of infancy. But in the next line they sing, “But if you try sometime, you just might find you get what you need.” My wife and I didn’t get our mortgage the first time we applied, but what we did get was the good advice that set us on the proper path.

It’s not government’s job to cater to our every desire. All I ask is that they allow me and everyone else to succeed as far as our ability takes us – not by handouts but by stepping back and letting us fail every once in awhile until we find the proper path. It’s a hard lesson that they need to learn themselves.