Those Who Have Fallen

There are matters which transcend politics; there are issues that go beyond the importance of party allegiance and instead crackle within one's spirit with moral thunder and righteousness.

HR 2642 transcends the party lines and delves directly into the obligation we have to our veterans. The bill would guarantee four years in a college institution for veterans who have served at least three years in the military. This amendment to the GI Bill is going to be very expensive; billions more than likely, and would be funded by a Patriot Tax on those who earn more than five hundred thousand dollars a year or a couple that earns at least a million a year.

Republicans are against tax increases as am I; in the middle of possible rescession, taxes are not the answer. Just ask the Hoover Administration. What should be remembered however, is how unfairly the burden of the war has been spread out, or how much it has not been spread out amongst the populace. President Bush asked Americans to revitalize the economy and go shopping, not to support the troops through real sacrifice. As my liberal professor noted, this is the first war we've waged that has not had any tax increases to fund it. If we were going to fund anything, college education for veterans is a worthy cause.

I sent a e-mail to my Senator, Tom Cornyn about this. I had seen him speak at the Republican Senatorial Convention along with Florence Shapiro. They talked about how critical is was for us to go door-to-door, to get out the vote lest our party lose it's majority. In my e-mail, I noted that speech of his as well as my inability to do it because of my college and work schedule and urged him to vote for the amendment.

I've heard the arguments against it's passage; it's expensive, the bill that it is being sponsored withinn is loaded with congressional pork, and the three-year minimum for the college benefits would cause an exodus of soldiers to occur. The expense on some of the more financially stable people in our nation seems to me a moot point. I saw the congressional debate on C-Span and while Representatie Obey, the most prominent speaker of the amendment in the House which was sponsored by possible Democratic Vice Presidential pick Senator Jim Webb, did speak over the Represenative who had accused the amendment of being filled with pork, I feel like I would have heard more about that from Republicans had it been a major problem. More importantly, Republicans lost the moral high ground about earmarks and pork and fiscal responsibility when they began shoving their own horde of earmarks through Congress.

Finally, I was trying to find a way to defend McCain's position through perhaps the most often noted argument; the three-year minimum. The problem is, when I consider that's three years of serving your country, of three years getting shot at, of three years that's spent serving your duty which so many, including myself, have not yet fulfilled I am somewhat ashamed. My father went to Iraq for six months and if he wanted to go to college he should have been able to do so even at his age.

I'm paying my way through college. I'm fighting to not go too far in debt. It's stressful and it's challenging and it's effectively killed my social life. I no longer have weekends spent anywhere but at the movie theater as an assistant manager. You know what though? Veterans like my mother and father go through much more trying times and come back having to go through what I go through despite the debt they've paid to their country. That's not fair.

Our veterans deserve better.

Change in America

This nation is plagued; the threat of terrorism, the high price of oil, the purported health care crisis and a war that many Americans have stopped believing in.

I'm a Republican because I believe that conservative methods are the proper way to deal with these problems. Democrats have a siren song of programs and openness but the price that would be paid for these services are veiled, in the case of Obama, by soaring and inspirational rhetoric, by brilliantly reflecting the worries and frustrations of America in a subdued persona that belies a tough and enduring spirit, by the dream of change.

Obama is a splendid orator; after hearing certain speeches of his, I wondered if I was really a Republican or not. Specifically, the Jefferson Jackson Dinner speech of his struck a chord with me, and the speech he just did it Iowa in lieu of his loss in Kentucky was even more effective; Obama actually started talking about policies rather than dreams. This has been one of my biggest problems with Obama; dreams and hope but no substance. The government would fund college education in exchange for civic service, he says, but how would they get the money for it? They would leave Iraq, he says.

Such a rosy picture he paints; I almost buy into the illusion. Iraq will is not an open shut case and the money we will save from ending operations there will take a great deal of time to start to show. In the beginning of the campaign, I remember hearing him mention closing loopholes in the tax codes for corporations as a way to fund his programs. That's just not feasible, the same way ending earmarks would not reform the debt our country has accumulated.

Barack Obama is not the Second Coming of Lincoln. He's not a wise sage which will lead us out of the wilderness. He's a politician, and a very good one, but not an experienced one. At the very least I understand that Clinton would get things done because she has been engaged in the system for a long enough time to know how to play the game. I respect him for how he has changed politics and proven to the American public that blacks can transcend the issue of race at least moreso than Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton in the political field. Barack Obama has further humanized the issue of race, he has dissected further than any other politician in recent history and he has made all of us better as a result. I admire Obama.

But I do not believe he's the right man for the highest office of the land. I'm immune to the issue of Reverend Wright for a number of reasons that I might detail later. What worreis me is how in our frustration we have forgotten all those who have experience in order to support what looks and sounds good. As great a man as Obama is, his policies need to be tested. McCain and Clinton have been policy wonking for a while now, Obama has not. By policies, I don't whether he wears a flag pin or whether or not he was in the building when Reverend Wright was shouting about America's evils. I'm talking about that foolish, foolish promise he made at the Philadelphia debate about not raising taxes but still promising allt hese expansions of domestic programs. I'm talking about his summits with leaders of nations which would gladly support those who wish America and her allies harm. If you don't believe me about how a summit without conditions or basic agreements can be disasterous, look at Kennedy's summit with Kruschev. Didn't turn out too well.

America is in need for a change, but change that comes fast and without a reasonable ambivalence to balance it can lead to terrible consequences. John McCain might not be the coolest or the hippest person to my generation, but he understands war, and he knows how to make the sacrifices we made worth it. He has the experience necessary to propagate change in a sustained and sensible manner. Obama does not.

West Virginia and Challenged Votes

Well, I don't have too much time before I have to go to my Intro to Philosophy class; but I thought I'd go ahead and add this in:

On C-SPAN, a House of Represenatives hearing into a botched voting session over a bill that would have ended welfare benefits being given to illegal immigrants caught my eye. Instead of studying for that quiz today over Chapter 1, I watched it. I'll try to put a video up of the hearing on my blog. The video of the calling of the vote was editted by the Republican's, which C-SPAN noted. Either way, I don't believe the guy did anything wrong; House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer will soon testify about it (D-MD) concerning whether or not he pushed the vote to be called, I believe from what I recall from earlier testimony. It was a Republican bill and the person who called the vote was a Democrat so of course there was a noted difference between the how pointed the questions were across party lines.

I'll be editting this later to include more information, and to note the results of the West Virginia Primary.

Hello!

I've been involved in politics for a year or so now and thought about starting a blog for awhile now; I decided against it because I didn't think it would make that much of a difference. Then, I went to a lecture with Arianna Huffington - yes, she's a liberal, but a very nice lady. She gave me her own personal copy of her book and signed it with her e-mail address so I could tell her what I thought of it.

Now I can't find it; hope Mom just misplaced it, I'll feel horrible if I lost it.

The point is, Mrs. Huffington's major point was that if you wanted to inspire change, the Internet was the way to do it. The Internet gives the every day citizen the ability to voice their opinions, their discontent, their hopes and dreams in a way unimaginable in another time or place in the history of the world. It would be a crime to not take hold of this opportunity. The Huffington Post didn't start as a major blog and epicenter of Democratic thought (Daily Kos has certainly taken it's place) it evolved into that position. My blog doesn't even have to do that. I realized that it's important for me to just understand and investigate my own values and opinions on the issues; otherwise, I'm doomed to switch them according to the wind and forget why I first held those positions in the first place. Worst case scenario, no one reads this and I'll have an honest introspection of my own thoughts, something my own party should do sometime.

That brings me to my next point; the desire and apparent mirage of the compassionate conservative. Bush stated that it was his mantle when he ran in 2000, back when I was, what, 11 years old? I'm 19 now, and I don't see too many policies of his which have been determined to be compassionate. I support Bush on a number of issues and I'm a proud conservative, but while his support for African nations in AIDS relief is commendable and while I'm sure he's a good guy, there have been a number of issues which he has fallen too short on; Hurricane Katrina was an easy way for him to reassert that compassion which he promised would be a mainstay in his Administration; instead, Katrina turned into a disaster and a missed opportunity of unconscionable proportions.

The most powerful progressive party of American History when it first came to prominence is now decried as stand-offish and is accused of being the party of big business. The party which freed the slaves, which freed my ancestors, is now considered the least compassionate of the two major parties in American politics.

I'm starting this blog for a number of reasons, to inspire dialogue with others and to archive my own development of political thought. At the heart of this blog, however, should be my desire to make it clear that Republicans are a compassionate lot. Have we been cast into the wilderness for the mistakes we've made in recent events? Undoubtedly; the rise of an unexperienced candidate like Obama despite his low credentials and ambivalence towards actually discussing real concrete action towards the direction of our nation shows the discontent of the status quo and the American desire for a real change to occur. But what we need is controlled change, what we need is actually a return to our traditions. The Republican Party was never about fiscal irresponsibility, our party was never about increasing the debt of future generations. The Republican Party was never about entangling ourselves in foreign affairs; granted, in this globalized world, global interdependence is necessary, but wars on foreign soil must be conducted competently. I support the War on Iraq; my family has suffered enough for it to deserve a return on the investment, although we haven't suffered as much as some.

Those moderates and Democrats who view this blog I hope will realize that Republicans and conservatives are not a backward branch of people. We aren't fascists. We aren't fools. We have contributed a great deal to the realm of American politics and to America's success. We, just like Democrats, want the best for this nation, and do not take the toll of war for granted.

I just hope that McCain can remind the American people of those moderate values and conservative values that can benefit the future of America in time.