The Middle is Always Evil

I’m currently hanging around the Defending the American Dream Summit in Austin, Texas; I’ve been passing the time talking to a cute LP spokeswoman and checking out some of the other booths. It seems that there’s a lot of support for John McCain around here– that’s a bandwagon I cannot in good conscience jump on.

Don’t be deceived by the man’s hawkish patriotic stump speeches, he’s a liberal; there have been plenty of militaristic liberals in recent history (Castro, Mao, Stalin), so I don’t understand why this throws people off so much.

McCain-Feingold and McCain-Kennedy are two of the most leftist legislative moves that I can think of off the top of my head. Indeed, McCain is to the left of most Democrats on immigration and campaign finance reform. Not to mention his shameful stance on gun rights and welfare. The man is simply not a conservative. Its pitiful that we have him as our smaller-government alternative to Barack Obama.

Both these two men are Marxists; one of them is pretending not to be. Anybody who believes in public education is a Marxist; anyone who supports the existence of the IRS to any extent is a Marxist; anyone who supports the existence of the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Securities and Exchange Commission, etc. is a Marxist. Anyone who believes that the roads should be publicly owned is a Marxist. Period.

I cannot bring myself to support John McCain.

Barack Obama supporters are starting to creep me out in a serious way. You know the ones; chanting his name, crying during his speeches, fainting during his speeches, screaming “I love you!” as he passes.

Jesse Jackson, Jr. had this to say about Obama’s Nomination clinch:

“I cried all night. I’m going to be crying for the next four years,” he said. “What Barack Obama has accomplished is the single most extraordinary event that has occurred in the 232 years of the nation’s political history. … The event itself is so extraordinary that another chapter could be added to the Bible to chronicle its significance.” (italics mine)

Michael Morse, a teen columnist for TeenLink, a newspaper aimed at young people in South Florida, went to an Obama rally and shared his experience:

The crowd immediately ceased the roar when Obama approached the mic, eager to hear whatever the man has to say… I can’t believe the man whose speeches I watch on YouTube everyday is so close to me. His speeches give an aura of immortality that belies the fact that he’s a living breathing human.

Its very upsetting to hear this kind of thing from someone my age; it bears a frightening similarity to Hitler’s level of popularity in Nazi Germany, where he was elevated to a sort of demi-god status. This is especially concerning, considering Obama’s support for compulsory national service for American high-school, middle-school and college-age students, which is (if you accept my earlier analogy) more than a little similar the imfamous Hitler Youth, Hitler’s version of compulsory national service.

Obama’s supporters seem to have forgotten that Barack Obama is just a man– and less than a man, hes just a politician. Worse still, he isn’t even a good politician. Its been said over and over again, but Obama is all fluff and no substance. One struggles to find anything material on his webpage, aside from one, large PDF ominously titled, “THE BLUEPRINT FOR CHANGE” (caps his, not mine).

Time columnist Joe Klein knows what I’m talking about:

Rather than focusing on any specific issue or cause — other than an amorphous desire for change — the message is becoming dangerously self-referential. The Obama campaign all too often is about how wonderful the Obama campaign is.

Have you seen Obama’s website? Its creepy! On the main part of the site there’s a Kids for Obama page, where kids are given 10 ways in which they can get involved, encouraging children to host Obama-themed sleepovers and parties, to get a pen pal to talk to about Obama, among other things. If you sign up, you can set up your own little facebook right there on his homepage, give all your information, and join other Obamunists to celebrate his birthday, hold Obama-themed spa parties, book clubs, and any other kind of get-together you could think of– all in Obama’s holy name.

Worst of all, though, is Camp Obama, a four day training camp paid for by the Obama campaign, which teaches Obama supporters to learn more about how Barack Obama is a great and wise leader.

Hitler and Barack Obama have too much in common for me to not feel uneasy going into election season. Gun control, socialized healthcare, compulsory national service, an anti-market economic position, all on top of a creepy, cult-like leader worship by supporters. Thats five too many similarities.

Yesterday I posted a brief blurb about Sarah Palin, but I wanted to elaborate on my endorsement of her, seeing as how last time I only mentioned her looks. There are several good strategic and ideological reasons to support John McCain nominating this woman for VP.

First, strategy.

The fact that she’s a woman makes her a more appealing choice. Like it or not, there are disgruntled ex-Hillary supporters ready to vote for anything with a set of ovary.

Face it. If she were nominated for Vice-President, McCain would get near 100% of the male vote. Even if a guy said he was going to vote Obama, he’d be lying. Either way, she’s probably the only person that could get Bill Clinton to vote for a republican.

Now the ideological stuff.

Palin is a firm supporter of The Second Amendment, and a member of the NRA. I bet she’s pleased about the big news this morning. This is huge, because I don’t think I could stomach another anti-gun presidency. But then again, John McCain is, well… Not a big gun rights guy. We’ll see what happens with that.

The other thing that I love about this woman is her energy policy. Just check out this video:

Liberate, de-control, de-regulate the whole energy business, says Kudlow. And she agrees! Come on! Who could not want her? We need someone in the White House espousing energy independence; this is absolutely crucial if we want a stable economy, and she hits the nail right on the head.

Not only does she have a great energy stance, but she has more balls than most of her male counterparts, threatening legal action against the Federal government if they don’t reconsider and change their absurd listing of polar bears on the Endangered Species List, a move that has the potential to cripple industry in Alaska completely.

Perhaps the best thing about Sarah Palin, though, is her outspoken efforts in the area of government transparency. At the start of her term in office, she pushed for the creation of a website that reports all of Alaska’s spending over 1000$. Since tax money is money taken against the citizen’s will, citizens have the right to, at the very least, know how all of it is being spent.

I hope John McCain doesn’t pick Baseballmitt Romney, or some other fake conservative. Palin is the way to go.

By the way, the unofficial campaign website to get Palin nominated is right here, as well as on my blogroll to the right. Pay them a visit and show your support.

You hear a lot of complaining about lobbyists these days. But just what is a lobbyist? One who practices Lobbyism, of course!

A lobbyist is one who is in the practice of influencing legislators with money on the behalf of special interest groups that have a stake in an issue. This holds true for any issue that you could name: pro-gun lobbies, like the NRA, and anti-gun lobbies, like the Brady Campaign. With over 3,500 different lobbies in the United States, each representing a different issue, its no wonder that some people question the amount of influence the individual person has over their representative in congress.

Not Hillary Clinton:

This comment pissed a lot of people off, but is she right? Do lobbyists represent everyday Americans? Barack 0bama responded to her, saying that certain lobbies, like ones that push big pharmaceutical companies, have more money, and therefore an inordinate amount of influence over legislators.

Okay, so…

“Lobbyists contribute meaningfully to the democratic process by representing the interests of everyday Americans!”

vs.

“Lobbyists put an outrageous amount of power into the hands of corporations, and give them the ability to dictate public policy!”

As usual, people have completely missed the point. Lobbies are entirely superfluous and unnecessary because their existence is based on the premise that whoever has the most influence wins. This is a hopelessly pragmatic way of looking at politics, reducing it to nothing more than gang warfare. It isn’t about who has the most influence, its about whats right and wrong. So how do we eliminate this kind of biggest-gang-wins mentality from Washington politics? By going after government, of course!

If we reduce the power of government itself, there will be no need for lobbies at all. For example: instead of worrying about lobbyists because we’re afraid that corporations will use them to pressure legislators into giving them corporate welfare, how about we eliminate congress’ power to grant corporate welfare in the first place? Worried about tariff lobbyists pushing Congress into imposing heavy duties on imports? Take away the government’s ability to regulate tariffs, and that concern disappears.

The same could apply for campaign finance reform. There should be no limit at all on how much an individual (or group of individuals) can give to a political campaign. Its their money, they earned it; let them give it to whomever they choose for whatever reason they choose. But first, take away the power of politicians to regulate or interfere with the economy. Corporations will then have no incentive to donate exorbitant amounts of money to a politician.

Everything that is now regulated by the government can be regulated more effectively and cheaper by the market; or as an Objectivist might call it: the facts of reality.

How about this:

Congress shall make no law restricting the freedom of trade or association between individuals.

Something like that.