The kids are now in bed after a delightful evening of trick-or-treating with neighbors. Family. Community. The things that not only make our country great, but actually make our lives worth living. Our cups runneth over.
Over the next 72 hours the estimated 14% of likely voters who have supposedly not decided yet who they are voting for to the highest elected office in the free world have an extraordinary task in front of them. If a large enough percentage of them decide that they will not vote for Barack Obama, the predicted outcome of this election can go the other way, creating one of the most surprising results in Presidential election history. That this election is even close is a testimony to the mind-numbing cluelessness of the direction the Democratic Party went with their nomination. The economy has voters scared in a way they have not been in decades. The incumbent President is as unpopular as any in American history. A President of the same party has only been re-elected for three terms one period since World War II. This is just not supposed to be close.
And yet, somehow, someway, John McCain is still in it. Now, I suspect it is very possible that Tuesday night's results will prove he is not really in it. And if he loses the electoral college in dramatic fashion, I will not necessarily be shocked. But he also could win this, and the polls 72 hours out do not show the final nail in the coffin - a result virtually any other candidate the Democratic Party could have nominated would certainly have created by now- including the tooth fairy or the Easter Bunny.
But instead, they nominated Barack Obama - the most extremist, radical representation of nanny-socialism to have ever run for President in this country. In 2004 they put a man out there who used to say that American troops raped and pillaged Vietnamese women and children, and they asked him to be a war hawk, having him salute the country and "report for duty" at the Democratic convention. This year, they nominated a man who has unapologetically campaigned on the promise that he would openly converse with the most Hitlerian world leaders since, well, Hitler. To this day, in the face of virtually every single rational war opponent on the planet, he still refuses to acknowledge the plain and obvious relative success of the surge efforts in Iraq. Fortunately for Barack Obama, this election never became about foreign policy, because despite the alleged mass public opposition to the Iraq war, if this election had become about foreign policy it is he who would face near-certain defeat Tuesday night. Pacifism and internationalism may well be the future of American foreign policy, as many a Western Europe nation showed us exactly how to make such happen in less than a generation in the early part of the 20th century. But I doubt it. The last best hope on earth has not completely surrendered to the forces of moral ambiguity that we can see all over the planet. I am not excited about this man as our commander-in-chief, but frankly, I think he would be on the phone with Dick Cheney in a New York-minute if another, well, New York-minute took place (think 9/11). Like Jack Nicholson said, "you want me on that wall", and even Obama knows not to answer that 3am call with his resume and backbone in the state that it is.
However, foreign policy is for page 28 these days. And instead, the most extraordinary assault on free markets since such a thing have existed has taken place rhetorically in the last six weeks. I can not think of a subject that I have been more devoted to or interested in throughout my life (literally, since grammar school) than the defense of free markets as a path to prosperity. The media, the culture, and this Presidential campaign have managed to team up in the last six weeks - naturally taking advantage of the brutal state of affairs in the capital markets - to demonize the greatest force for good this country has ever had. I refer to the unashamed and passionate pursuit of a better life. I am not writing right now as to how this pursuit is intrinsically a joint spiritual and economic pursuit. That is outside my scope. My point is this: Obama is not campaigning with a fair amount of "political rhetoric" blended with a "mostly pro-market" ideology. He is campaigning - openly - as a man disgusted by business, by success, and by private property. Obama speaks with rhetoric so hostile to free markets, it makes some in Sweden blush. The notion of raising taxes on "corporations" in this environment (by "corporation", I am referring to the companies that sell goods and services to consumers, and also to the companies that hire moms and dads to come work for them) is indefensible. The concept of increasing payroll taxes on middle class people trying to provide for their families in the midst of declining home prices and increasing wage and job pressures is mystifying (and I would add, this is not a progressive tax; it is marginal, and represents a larger takeaway from checking account W-2 income than Clinton's income tax rate increases ever did). Threatening an American economy that has been surviving off of its resurgent export business with a trade war by picking a protectionist fight with our global trading partners is immoral. Campaigning on the notion that you would increase tax rates by 33% (from 15% to 20%) on long term capital gains during the biggest capital market contraction of a generation is frightening.
And the policy issues go on and on. If I thought the four examples I gave above, which you will note I described as "indefensible, mystifying, immoral, and frightening" - words that hopefully none will consider "offensive" - represented the extent of the damage he would do, I would not be nearly as scared. My fear comes from his ideology - not his lame policy proposals. I have been fond as a student of history of saying in recent years that this is not the Democratic Party of our grandparents - the party that elected Harry Truman and John Kennedy. Truthfully, this is not the Democratic Party of Bill Clinton either, who is Milton Friedman compared to Barack Obama. How that political party, and perhaps even this country, could veer so far to the Euro-socialism of the left in such a short period of time is as depressing as anything I can even imagine (though I have some theories). My prayer and plea is that Tuesday night, we will see that America has not done so.
72 hours to go. To the 14% of you who may not have made up your mind yet, I plead with you to remember that free men, and free markets, have made this the most prosperous and remarkable country that has ever existed on planet earth. We need to be taking steps towards even freer men, and even freer markets, not steps away. Barack Obama is to be feared and rejected, if nothing else, for the sake of your family and community. Happy Halloween.
READ MORE - 72 Hours to Go
Over the next 72 hours the estimated 14% of likely voters who have supposedly not decided yet who they are voting for to the highest elected office in the free world have an extraordinary task in front of them. If a large enough percentage of them decide that they will not vote for Barack Obama, the predicted outcome of this election can go the other way, creating one of the most surprising results in Presidential election history. That this election is even close is a testimony to the mind-numbing cluelessness of the direction the Democratic Party went with their nomination. The economy has voters scared in a way they have not been in decades. The incumbent President is as unpopular as any in American history. A President of the same party has only been re-elected for three terms one period since World War II. This is just not supposed to be close.
And yet, somehow, someway, John McCain is still in it. Now, I suspect it is very possible that Tuesday night's results will prove he is not really in it. And if he loses the electoral college in dramatic fashion, I will not necessarily be shocked. But he also could win this, and the polls 72 hours out do not show the final nail in the coffin - a result virtually any other candidate the Democratic Party could have nominated would certainly have created by now- including the tooth fairy or the Easter Bunny.
But instead, they nominated Barack Obama - the most extremist, radical representation of nanny-socialism to have ever run for President in this country. In 2004 they put a man out there who used to say that American troops raped and pillaged Vietnamese women and children, and they asked him to be a war hawk, having him salute the country and "report for duty" at the Democratic convention. This year, they nominated a man who has unapologetically campaigned on the promise that he would openly converse with the most Hitlerian world leaders since, well, Hitler. To this day, in the face of virtually every single rational war opponent on the planet, he still refuses to acknowledge the plain and obvious relative success of the surge efforts in Iraq. Fortunately for Barack Obama, this election never became about foreign policy, because despite the alleged mass public opposition to the Iraq war, if this election had become about foreign policy it is he who would face near-certain defeat Tuesday night. Pacifism and internationalism may well be the future of American foreign policy, as many a Western Europe nation showed us exactly how to make such happen in less than a generation in the early part of the 20th century. But I doubt it. The last best hope on earth has not completely surrendered to the forces of moral ambiguity that we can see all over the planet. I am not excited about this man as our commander-in-chief, but frankly, I think he would be on the phone with Dick Cheney in a New York-minute if another, well, New York-minute took place (think 9/11). Like Jack Nicholson said, "you want me on that wall", and even Obama knows not to answer that 3am call with his resume and backbone in the state that it is.
However, foreign policy is for page 28 these days. And instead, the most extraordinary assault on free markets since such a thing have existed has taken place rhetorically in the last six weeks. I can not think of a subject that I have been more devoted to or interested in throughout my life (literally, since grammar school) than the defense of free markets as a path to prosperity. The media, the culture, and this Presidential campaign have managed to team up in the last six weeks - naturally taking advantage of the brutal state of affairs in the capital markets - to demonize the greatest force for good this country has ever had. I refer to the unashamed and passionate pursuit of a better life. I am not writing right now as to how this pursuit is intrinsically a joint spiritual and economic pursuit. That is outside my scope. My point is this: Obama is not campaigning with a fair amount of "political rhetoric" blended with a "mostly pro-market" ideology. He is campaigning - openly - as a man disgusted by business, by success, and by private property. Obama speaks with rhetoric so hostile to free markets, it makes some in Sweden blush. The notion of raising taxes on "corporations" in this environment (by "corporation", I am referring to the companies that sell goods and services to consumers, and also to the companies that hire moms and dads to come work for them) is indefensible. The concept of increasing payroll taxes on middle class people trying to provide for their families in the midst of declining home prices and increasing wage and job pressures is mystifying (and I would add, this is not a progressive tax; it is marginal, and represents a larger takeaway from checking account W-2 income than Clinton's income tax rate increases ever did). Threatening an American economy that has been surviving off of its resurgent export business with a trade war by picking a protectionist fight with our global trading partners is immoral. Campaigning on the notion that you would increase tax rates by 33% (from 15% to 20%) on long term capital gains during the biggest capital market contraction of a generation is frightening.
And the policy issues go on and on. If I thought the four examples I gave above, which you will note I described as "indefensible, mystifying, immoral, and frightening" - words that hopefully none will consider "offensive" - represented the extent of the damage he would do, I would not be nearly as scared. My fear comes from his ideology - not his lame policy proposals. I have been fond as a student of history of saying in recent years that this is not the Democratic Party of our grandparents - the party that elected Harry Truman and John Kennedy. Truthfully, this is not the Democratic Party of Bill Clinton either, who is Milton Friedman compared to Barack Obama. How that political party, and perhaps even this country, could veer so far to the Euro-socialism of the left in such a short period of time is as depressing as anything I can even imagine (though I have some theories). My prayer and plea is that Tuesday night, we will see that America has not done so.
72 hours to go. To the 14% of you who may not have made up your mind yet, I plead with you to remember that free men, and free markets, have made this the most prosperous and remarkable country that has ever existed on planet earth. We need to be taking steps towards even freer men, and even freer markets, not steps away. Barack Obama is to be feared and rejected, if nothing else, for the sake of your family and community. Happy Halloween.
