Letters From The Right to The Right

Pat Buchanan is one of those guys that people avoid talking about, not because hes totally out of control and makes no sense (cough..Ann Coulter)…but because many people from both sides of the isle actually understand, agree, and even secretly respect parts of what he argues, if not most of it. The problem with him is that he has spent a lot of time in his 45 year public life in front of a camera which has given the media ample opportunity to put together a collection of sound bites that makes him venom to anyone that agrees with him publicly.

This is truly unfortunate because he has many very useful opinions, assuming they are not taken out of context. Hes been called a “protectionist”,”nativist”, and an “isolationist” because he argues in favor of American jobs, American products, against out sourcing, and is a major critic of our very flawed boarder controls. He’s been called a racist and sexist because hes against affirmative action. But it is interesting what he hasn’t been called.

Most people would be surprised to learn that he is a huge critic of Bush, “The American Empire”, Neo-cons, The Iraq War, NAFTA, and the out of control “conservative” led spending that has been happening on the hill since Bush took office. Heck he even defended Ron Paul, and many of his views (not all though) are very Libertarian-esq.

He writes a pretty regular column for Human Events, which unfortunately puts way too many ads in their emails. I think I’ll be running regular piece right here though as he releases new columns so people can avoid all the spam I get .

So enjoy he latest article in which he breaks down Bush’s latest unresearched double speak.

Why America is in Decay, A Call for Leadership

I know, its a terrible thing to say but in many ways it’s true. That said I’m not all doom and gloom, I do believe the trend is reversible. Three thing always mark the beginning of the end for a society: 1) Lack of investment in the core infrastructure 2) Stagnation of ideas resulting is a lack of social evolution, and 3) Expanding territorial influence beyond that which the state can logically control. Folks, the good ole U.S of A has all three. Lets go item by item shall we?.

1) Lack of investment in the core infrastructure:

This is an easy one: look at Katrina, the water shortage in the South East, Road quality in the North East, the energy crisis in the West, and lets not forget the debacle that is our boarders. Oh ya and of course the big one: 9/11. 9/11 illustrated perfectly our total incompetence and highlighted a total lack of infrastructural steam lining at every level; even the private sector. There is hope as we have had a Top Down Review and the 9/11 Commission Report as a road map….but with our ridiculous national debt we are going to be very limited with our response for years to come. It’s not impossible, but its also not a good outlook. Thats just the major stuff, there is plenty more where that came from.

2) Stagnation of ideas resulting is a lack of social evolution.

Every wonder why people look back to the 50’s and 60’s so much? Could it be that nothing even remotely as original has happened since? I think a really good argument could be made of that, indeed many of our “movements” today are simply hang-overs from that time period. Do to this lacking in the social department its no wonder support for the arts is at an all time low, and has been since the 70’s. In order to have a healthy society you need a powerful and progressive culture, something I haven’t seen in my life time. Sad but true.

Another element is our complete inability to make decisive, moderate, mature, and well balanced decisions on pretty much any issue of importance resulting in major problems continuing and getting worse over time while we sit on our hands. As a country we are of two minds on everything, most of our major democratic decisions come down to a percent or two. This happened once before in the history of our country and we survived; but it came with a terrible price tag…it was called the Civil War. Really at the rate we are going only three outcomes are possible 1) One group is able to subvert the other without physical conflict, 2) One group subverts the other WITH physical conflict, or 3) As a nation we wake up and realize our “two sides” are both wrong, counter productive, and that we need to really look at what is plaguing our society and come up with real solutions. It really is true that the only good decision is the one no one totally likes. Society is about consensus not winning a see saw match.

3) Expanding territorial influence beyond that which the state can logically control.

Well lets see…Germany, Japan, South Korea, Poland, The Caribbean, Several Pacific Islands, Nigeria, Cuba, Jordan, Kuwait, and of course Iraq and Afghanistan. The Best part? Those are just the places I can think of off the top of my head, and doesnt include any of Rumsfeld’s “lily pad” bases.

Now some of these places are modern commitments and may also pose a legitimate security risk to us, but certainly not all of them. We are like the seal balancing 8 balls on its nose at once: If we don’t put some of the balls down intentionally they will all fall and it wont be pretty.

I wrote this to lead into my next post entitled “Third Party Rant” (Which is on the way), which is my response to a comment I received on my “Why Do People Think I Care About the Primaries?” post.

As an American i Love it When the Big Boys Get a Thumb in the Eye

For years I have been concerned about consumer and corporate debt. It just seems like the banks dont care and will give anyone or any business credit if they think they can squeeze them for a few more bucks. Modern Credit Banks are nothing more then vampires that are slowly poisoning our economy.

Today Bank of America saw a loss of 32%, and im glad. For too long our banking industry has allowed greed and profits to beat out ethics. It used to be that the bank was the consumer and business owners consensus keeping them from taking unsafe risks. they kept our economy steadily growing at a respectable conservative rate too. Now its based on bubbles and bursts, and i know it keeps my consumer confidence extremely low.

whats in your wallet? cash i hope.