In Manhattan Beach, a dead pig wearing a Mitt Romney T-Shirt was dumped near the Manhattan Beach Republican Party headquarters. I have heard of wasted pork, but this just takes the barbecue all the way.
When will we put an end to the inter-party bickering which is eating away at this state? If this is the kind of degrading folly we have to look forward to, no wonder more people are no longer voting with their ballots. Instead, they are voting with their feet and moving to other states. Great for Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon, but not for those of us who still love the South Bay sunshine, who are still waiting for the silver lining to sliver through.
Barack Obama won reelection, but the partisan divide of this country is sharper and slimmer, not any better. How do we stop the spending when so many people are depending on entitlements, for better or for worse, whether they paid into the entitlement programs or they merely feel entitled to them? What do we say about our national political culture if a few stray comments about the rights of the unborn and a devastating superstorm can so shake our sensibilities that we neglect to consider the consequences of our electoral choices? Moment-minute media has had a momentous impact on our elections. Are we willing to live with our votes two, four, or six years down the road?
The Republican Party needs to reach out and step back. Not “Middle of the Road” but “more consistent”: if we really prize individual liberty, let us protect individual liberty body and soul. A scary, shaken world mocks at liberty without providing security. Pro-choice is pro-life, in that women who are victimized once should not be victims again of cruel laws. What happens between two consenting adults which does not pick my pocket or break my bone should be off-limits from legal sanction. It is immoral to incarcerate individuals who use controlled substances.
Where there is no redemption, there is no risk-taking, there is no stepping out into individual liberty. Let us recognize, let us appreciate that people feel off course. One cannot rest on the mere assumptions that one should say to the down-and-out members of our communities, or to our nation, “Limit Government!” without providing a proper means for “expanding opportunities.” Still no plans for a voucher program, still no prosperous considerations for letting parents choose where they send their students to school. “Welfare to Work” is what we need, not “you’re on your own!” with nothing to own.
At Hesse Park during the Bloomfield/Waxman debates, one voter questioned the religious integrity of certain voters because they supported Obama. Is such finger-pointing necessary? Two Democratic voters I spoke with in Palos Verdes told me: “We like to help people.” Promoting economic prosperity through limited government and local control helps people. “Big Government” out of city hall, not Sacramento or the National Mall, does more good because the voters can keep a better lock on the spending.
One thing is for sure: people on the left and the right feel rightly aggrieved about the “Naughts” (01’ – ’09) which left us with “Not Much,” yet President Obama’s presidency has not pressed us past the partisan divides and grinding gridlock. We can yell and scream about the Bush years, but why waste our precious time on yesterday? This goes for the Republicans as well as the Democrats.
(Memo to Republican headquarters throughout Los Angeles County: If you have cardboard cut-outs of George W. Bush, wrap them up in barbed wire and throw them in the trash.)
Unlike the “No Labels” constituencies, or the liberal establishment, or supermajorities left and right, our federal government is merely doing what “We the People” have been sending there and telling them: we want change, but we do not want to change. We want to cut the spending, but not our spending.
A pig is petty way of making a point, and in a way, the political class is still carving up the same dead-on-arrival ideas. A dead pig is just as dead as the long-standing arguments for voting against someone as opposed to voting for something better.
Why not advance this argument: everyone takes a hit, and then we receive the grace to make the most of the space we have now? Canada climbed out of the 1990’s with roaring recovery when a liberal government cut spending. The Governor of Puerto Rico cut state spending the way one rips a bandage off a recovering patient – really fast. It will sting, but the long-term healing will make up for it. Wisconsin instituted budget reforms which helped cities throughout the Dairy State save millions.
Someone can make these arguments without spending a lot of money to do it. We do not need a wealth of advertising; we need a wealth of ideas that will tell us the truth without insulting our intelligence, which will institute the short-term hurt with long-term health to follow.
And let’s leave the poor pigs alone. At least they do not feed off the public trough!
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