Blogging will be sporadic at best for the next couple of days. My Mac is in the AppleCare hospital for a few days getting a new screen and some internal stuff fixed. :(

meanwhile...Be sure to call your States senators about this hellacious healthcare bill that is now going to the senate. The confiscatory nature of our government is near out of control and we need to remind them "... that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the land."

"If any provision of this Act, or any application of such provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder of the provisions of this Act and the application of the provision to any other person or circumstance shall not be affected."

Wednesday, 09 August 2006

Put Joe in a museum.

This post started out as just an essay around mid June that may have never been seen by anyone else. It was when the Lieberman/Lamont senate battle in Conneticut started making national news on a regular basis.

I'm seriously conflicted and I can't do a thing about it.
Here's why:
In America, our political system was never designed to be a winner take all proposition. The founding fathers knew that a healthy debate among citizens would ensure the stability of the nation. Indeed the debates that attended the large issues of forming a nation such as ratifying a constitution would make our discussions today, pale by comparison. Self determination and self government has never and should never be an easy road. And with our open society it is guaranteed not to be. The galvanizing effect of political argument has, in the long run, the result of laws we can all live with, even if we're not extremely happy about all of them. Our hybrid republic/democracy is kind of like a classic automobile whose intrinsic value far outweighs the cost of maintaining and fixing it occasionally.

 We have heard the question asked recently, "Is our system broken?" implying that because we have passionate disagreements that it is indicative of an ineffective political system. I disagree. If we wanted an easy government we could just submit ourselves to a monarchy and call it a day. And none of us want that. Yes we have gridlock. Yes we spend too much money. Yes we _______. (<<< fill in the blank with your favorite pet peeve here) But, believe it or not, these things are fixable. The two party system has served us well over the long haul. Like the childhood game, King of the Hill, our political contenders are always ready to push us off if we screw up. And that, as much as possible, somewhat keeps us honest. Of course the presumption is that the political parties involved are somewhat even on issues of intelligence, leadership, loyalty to country and sanity.

 And this is what has me worried.

 With Joe Lieberman's apparent loss in the Conneticut primary, it seems to me that we see the harbinger of what the Democratic party is becoming. The far left isn't left anymore...it's mainstream. And this has made the remaining Democrats like Joe Lieberman a relic. Strong on defense, strong on I daresay, religious values, and...on the outside looking in as far as their own party is concerned. Leiberman will probably win as an independent because Republicans will vote for him in the general election to take a seat away from Democrats which means that campaign will get really nasty. But the bigger issue here is that with the lunatic left swaying the issues like the tail wagging the dog, the so called "party of the people" has become an increasingly cloistered elite that has lost touch with most Americans. And they will continue to fall hard in most national elections. While this may be good news for Republicans in the short term, I don't believe it's good overall. We don't want a one party rule that wins by default rather than on merit. It's not good for Republicans, certainly not good for Democrats and definitely not good for America.