2/11/2007

Who Loves Ronald Reagan and Why


After typing the last post, I went to YouTube and typed in the words Ronald Reagan. Sometimes I just like to hear and see him speak. His words are inspiring.

Some people do not like Reagan, but many more do. In fact, I think the national media was surprised by the way the country reacted to Reagan's death. Just like film critic Pauline Kael, who once said, "I don't know how Richard Nixon won. I don't know anybody who voted for him," most in the media never understood what Ronald Reagan meant to the average American. In spite of his two landslide victories, they probably never knew anybody who voted for him.

It is laughable when big media journalists claim to be unbiased. It is not as if they are lying when they make that statement though. They actually believe they are telling the truth. They actually believe that most people think like them and see the world the way they see the world. They actually think that they are mainstream.

But they are not mainstream. Most Americans have never even been to New York, much less attended Columbia University. Most Americans don't even make enough in one year to cover tuition at Columbia. Most Americans even have the gall to think that they know more about how to run their lives than do Ivy League elites.

We don't have any Ronald Reagans today. The Republican Party has reverted back to the way it was pre-Reagan, which is not much different than the Democrats. Sadly though, populism is still alive and well. On the so called right, we have a Yale graduate and Harvard MBA, stirring up the common folk with the gay marriage issue. On the left, we have the usual wealthy elitists fanning the flames of class envy for their own selfish interests.

Both of these groups prey on and benefit from the worst in human beings. The right populists use fear and bigotry to their advantage, while the liberal populists benefit from envy, one of the worst of the seven deadlies.

Ronald Reagan was much different. He brought out the best in human beings, that proud, patriotic, and hard working spirit that built this republic. He reminded us that we were great. He referred to the United States as a "shining city on the hill." He didn't grow up in a wealthy family. He grew up poor, the son of a town drunk. He wasn't wealthy enough or educated enough to attend an Ivy League school. Instead he attended a small college in Illinois. He became a sports announcer and later an actor. He lived and embodied the American dream. Reagan was one of us. He never became one of them. As a matter of fact, most Republican elites despised Reagan. They considered him to be a simpleton, not smart enough to be President. The Presidency was supposed to be reserved for people like them, not people like Reagan.

Reagan was elected when America was at its worst. High taxes had crippled our economy by taking away the incentive to create wealth. Our self-esteem was at an all time low. Intercontinental ballistic missiles were pointed at us and at the Soviet Union. We were losing the Cold War and Eastern Europe was still being held captive by communism. Radical Islamists in Iran were holding Americans hostage and there was nothing we could do about it. When Reagan left office, the American economy was growing, and we had won the Cold War without ever firing a shot. When he was elected in 1980, America was weak. When he left, America was strong. Reagan reminded us that we were the greatest nation on the face of the earth, a "shining city on a hill."

He also made his share of mistakes. He wasn't perfect, but he was the best we ever had. This country needs another Reagan. The Republican Party needs somebody who actually believes that government is not the answer. We need peace through strength. When I look at our current Republican President and I gloss over the 2008 candidates, I feel discouraged. What happened and how did we get here? I don't know, but I do know this. We need another Reagan, another common man who believes that human beings serve themselves better than any government ever could.

2/10/2007

Polish Honor the Great Liberator

Liberals often engage in revisionist history when discussing the Cold War. According to them, the Soviet Union would have ended regardless of who was President during the 80's. We all know that is nonsense though.
We aren't the only ones who know this. The Polish love Ronald Reagan so much that they are willing to erect a statue in his honor. Ronald Reagan truly was the "Great Liberator". If you disagree, read this article by Lech Walesa, which includes the following:
When talking about Ronald Reagan, I have to be personal. We in Poland took him so personally. Why? Because we owe him our liberty.

Thank God for Ronald Reagan.

2/05/2007

The Rich Pay Taxes, The Poor Do Not

From Newsmax,
Congress’ Joint Economic Committee disclosed that the richer half of the American population pays nearly 97 percent of income taxes. Most of that, 54 percent, is paid by those in the top 5 percent, Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) disclosed.

I posted on this subject Friday and used the New York Times as my source. Nobody commented and argued the other side. I wish they would have. In fact, consider this an invitation. Read my post from Friday and tell me in the comment section of this post how those facts are wrong and that the rich "don't pay their fair share". Go ahead. Please.

I Am So Sick Of The Term African-American

Rather than reinvent the wheel, I will just link to, and copy from a post I wrote in May of 2005.

While recently reading an article about the first black president, William Jefferson Clinton, I became a little bugged by his usage of the term, African-American. I thought to myself, if Bill Clinton is the first black president and we are now supposed to call black people African-American, why do we not call Clinton the first African-American president?

Blacks in this country have undergone a number of name changes over the years. Most of the old photographs and video of the segregated south show signs with the words whites and colored written on them. Now that really did not make sense. Colored could have meant anything. Of course we all know that colored meant black, but it still seemed like a stupid label. Later on, it became acceptable to use the term black to describe someone of African descent. Although it is not politically correct today to call someone black, most black people are okay with it. In fact they are quite proud to be black.

But where did the term African-American originate and when did it become politically correct to hyphenate someone who is a natural born American citizen? I can understand why a first generation African immigrant would call himself African-American. That makes sense. It just seems wrong though to hyphenate a group of people who were born in this country and are as equally a citizen as anyone else. What is so odd is that some black people in America are not even 50% descended from Africa. Although I am one quarter Italian, you would not call me Italian-American would you? Yet you would call the very European looking Vanessa Williams, African American. And what about Tiger Woods? How does he still get to be called African-American? Wouldn’t it be just as correct to label him an Asian American?

The term Native-American is another one that doesn’t make sense to me. Is not everyone who was born in the North American continent a Native American? That would also make Tiger Woods a Native American, in addition to being an African-American and an Asian American. You say that the term Native American is reserved for those who are members of the tribes that inhabited this land before the evil Europeans came along, but did those people actually originate on this continent? Did their ancestors not cross the Bering Straight a few thousand years ago?

Forgive me for all of this foolishness, but it just seems silly that we have to label people like we do. Why don’t we just end all of this nonsense and stop using all of these labels. America is most definitely a melting pot. Regardless of what skin color you are, or where your parents came from, we are all equally American. I love the story of how Bear Bryant used USC running back Sam Cunningham to integrate Southeastern football. After Cunningham had run all over Bama’s “skinny white boys”, the Bear brought Cunningham into the Alabama locker room and said, “this is a football player”. He didn’t say, “This is a really good African-American football player." He said, “This is a football player." Later in the 70’s when the team was fully integrated, a sportswriter asked him how many black players he had on the team. The Bear said, “ We don’t have any black players, we only have football players”.

Why can’t we just call people American? I still think everyone should be proud of their culture and try to preserve it to a certain extent, but in the end we are all American, regardless of where our ancestors originated from or how they got here. I am sorry, but you will never hear me identify an American with a hyphen. I guess that makes me politically incorrect. Oh well.