Sen. Ted Kennedy's death has brought back to mind my complicated relationship with the Massachusetts senior senator. And I use the word relationship loosely, seeing that I never met the man.
When I was in junior high and high school in Norwell, Mass., I despised Kennedy. I was a very conservative youth. My political heroes were Reagen, George H.W. Bush, Quayle, and many of the strong conservatives in Congress. As one of only two Republicans in most of my classes (and with all of my teachers being as liberal as I was conservative), I felt like the last defender of the faith. And I never backed down.
Kennedy was the embodiment in my young mind of all that was wrong with liberal America. A lack of moral responsibility. An entitled upbringing, which, in my mind, made socialism easier to accept. And a member of the elite, a quasi-royal family that was a beloved institution of the Bay State.
The culmination of this was his senatorial race against Mitt Romney. I stayed registered in Massachusetts in 1994 (while I was attending Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah) for the purpose of voting against Kennedy. Romney was much too 'liberal' for my tastes, but he wasn't Kennedy. My first act as a voter would be to vote, with pride, against Kennedy.
My politics have shifted since then. After living in Utah, I found out I wasn't as conservative as I thought. I believe that the federal government needs to step in and fix primary education, especially in impoverished states and localities. I believe immigration is, for the most part, a positive thing, and provides the Republic with a backbone of dedicated, low-wage workers. These, among other issues, showed me I wasn't as 'conservative' as I thought I was, and my brief involvement with the college Republicans in 1994 left me a little disenchanted.
Fast-forward 15 years. After Kennedy died, I heard a news story on NPR and a tribute on NESN (the New England Sports Network) before a White Sox-Red Sox game. Think about that. A cable sports network spent much of its baseball telecast on the passing of a senator. Massachusetts is an interesting place for sports and politics.
It got me thinking: how would I remember the man? He had a successful career by all accounts, and was a part of almost anything major that transpired in the Senate from 1980 on. Despite repeated failures, he never gave up on socialized medicine. Though a lightning rod for conservative commentators, he made a career of reaching across the aisle, and made an improbable friendship with one of the Senate's conservative stalwarts, Orrin Hatch of Utah.
But I still disagree with him on almost every major issue, except for maybe immigration. But I don't despise him. Should Chappaquiddick have landed him in jail? Absolutely, but Kennedys don't go to jail. But his elitism, which was very evident early on in his career, faded with his presidential ambitions in 1980.
I can't say I admire the man, other than some of the great kindness he showed to people during the later stages of his life, and his dedication to the Republic, even if I disagree with his ideals.
So, liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat, as you hear all the platitudes showered upon Ted Kennedy, remember the true heroes of the Republic: dedicated school teachers; volunteers who help the poor and handicapped; and good parents who raise moral children. Ted Kennedy's life may have been a public one, but that doesn't necessarily make it a great one.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Politcal Pet Peeves
This blog is not meant to act as others do. I’m not here to say that the Republican way is always the right way (though I am a Republican) and that Democrats are fools. I am looking for facts and evidence, ignoring nothing, in the hope that I can find a better way, and that whoever’s reading can join me on that journey.
So I thought I would start with my political pet peeves. These are in no particular order, but they are all things that bother me consistently within the current political realm.
Democrats….and Republicans
I’m tired of the ‘intellectual’ Democrats, embodied by several at the NY Times. Basically you’re an idiot if any of the following apply to you: you believe in God; you’re a Republican; you don’t think Obama’s health care plan will make your life better; you are pro-life.
They are not more intelligent than the rest of us, just more obnoxious, preaching from their leftist pulpit until the rest of us ‘come to our senses.’ For those Democrats who don’t fit into their preconceived buckets, beware; they will likely toss you aside because of your ‘ignorance.’
Republicans aren’t any better. The ‘religious right’ thinks you are a heathen if any of the following apply to you: you’re Catholic or Mormon; you’re Democrat; you don’t believe in God (which I guess, is the technical definition of heathen); you’re pro-choice.
You are not more religious or spiritual than others because of the particular church you belong to, and Mormons, Catholics, Muslims and Buddhists can be just as pious as you. Beware Republicans: If any of the above applies to you, the religious right will turn on you as you as fast as they misquote the Bible. Just ask Mitt Romney about that.
The Health Care ‘Debate’
First, let me start off by saying I don’t think access to affordable health care is a right. We may, as other societies have done, decide it is something we as a people are going to provide. But I find it baffling that in a country where almost 17 percent of children are lacking enough food (source: Food Resource and Action Center), we are building the foundation of a ‘right to health care.’ About the same percent of American’s are without health insurance. So food is not a right, but health insurance is? This is a greater priority than feeding children in our country? I just find this debate and energy to be misplaced.
I am not saying our health care system is not broken, or that some of the European models don’t do some intriguing things we as a society should discuss. But is this really our nation’s biggest problem? I know we can work on more than one thing at a time, but Obama’s agenda misses some of the most important things to me.
Second, the ‘end of life planning’ debate. First off, this is not about killing grandma. The shock tactics used by right-wing commentators are deplorable. Can’t we talk about facts and not scare tactics?
But the proponents of this measure are almost as disingenuous. Yes, it does not equate to euthanasia, but it does point us down the path of rationing health care in a different. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. If we believe health care is a limited resource, then it will be rationed. The question is how. Right now, it’s by your ability to get health insurance or to have enough cash to pay. Tomorrow it may be by need, which may mean denying certain procedures to older Americans who have little chance to live. This is just fact. Pretending that this is not the first step to doing that is not truthful. And the worst part is, it’s probably the right thing to do.
The Followers
“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. … Every man who parrots the cry of ‘stand by the President’ without adding the proviso ‘so far as he serves the Republic’ takes an attitude as essentially unmanly as that of any Stuart royalist who championed the doctrine that the King could do no wrong. No self-respecting and intelligent free man could take such an attitude.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
Obama is not a god. Obama is not a savior. His actions are that of a pure politician – calculating, pre-scripted, self-serving. His agenda was standard Democratic fare; he just said it a little better. I have nothing personal against the man, and I sincerely hope his presidency brings prosperity to the republic. But he is not the republic, and I’m tired of people lining up behind everything he does, without acknowledging his flaws and failures.
The same was never true for George W. Bush, who wasn’t ever completely trusted by his own party. But you could say the same about Ronald Reagan. Though I believe he was the greatest president of my lifetime (I was born in 1976), we’re grading on a curve. The Iran Contra Affair happened on his watch. We supported Saddam Hussein. Though he did many good things, he was not a god. He was not a savior. And criticizing some of his actions makes me no less of a Republican.
So I thought I would start with my political pet peeves. These are in no particular order, but they are all things that bother me consistently within the current political realm.
Democrats….and Republicans
I’m tired of the ‘intellectual’ Democrats, embodied by several at the NY Times. Basically you’re an idiot if any of the following apply to you: you believe in God; you’re a Republican; you don’t think Obama’s health care plan will make your life better; you are pro-life.
They are not more intelligent than the rest of us, just more obnoxious, preaching from their leftist pulpit until the rest of us ‘come to our senses.’ For those Democrats who don’t fit into their preconceived buckets, beware; they will likely toss you aside because of your ‘ignorance.’
Republicans aren’t any better. The ‘religious right’ thinks you are a heathen if any of the following apply to you: you’re Catholic or Mormon; you’re Democrat; you don’t believe in God (which I guess, is the technical definition of heathen); you’re pro-choice.
You are not more religious or spiritual than others because of the particular church you belong to, and Mormons, Catholics, Muslims and Buddhists can be just as pious as you. Beware Republicans: If any of the above applies to you, the religious right will turn on you as you as fast as they misquote the Bible. Just ask Mitt Romney about that.
The Health Care ‘Debate’
First, let me start off by saying I don’t think access to affordable health care is a right. We may, as other societies have done, decide it is something we as a people are going to provide. But I find it baffling that in a country where almost 17 percent of children are lacking enough food (source: Food Resource and Action Center), we are building the foundation of a ‘right to health care.’ About the same percent of American’s are without health insurance. So food is not a right, but health insurance is? This is a greater priority than feeding children in our country? I just find this debate and energy to be misplaced.
I am not saying our health care system is not broken, or that some of the European models don’t do some intriguing things we as a society should discuss. But is this really our nation’s biggest problem? I know we can work on more than one thing at a time, but Obama’s agenda misses some of the most important things to me.
Second, the ‘end of life planning’ debate. First off, this is not about killing grandma. The shock tactics used by right-wing commentators are deplorable. Can’t we talk about facts and not scare tactics?
But the proponents of this measure are almost as disingenuous. Yes, it does not equate to euthanasia, but it does point us down the path of rationing health care in a different. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. If we believe health care is a limited resource, then it will be rationed. The question is how. Right now, it’s by your ability to get health insurance or to have enough cash to pay. Tomorrow it may be by need, which may mean denying certain procedures to older Americans who have little chance to live. This is just fact. Pretending that this is not the first step to doing that is not truthful. And the worst part is, it’s probably the right thing to do.
The Followers
“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. … Every man who parrots the cry of ‘stand by the President’ without adding the proviso ‘so far as he serves the Republic’ takes an attitude as essentially unmanly as that of any Stuart royalist who championed the doctrine that the King could do no wrong. No self-respecting and intelligent free man could take such an attitude.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
Obama is not a god. Obama is not a savior. His actions are that of a pure politician – calculating, pre-scripted, self-serving. His agenda was standard Democratic fare; he just said it a little better. I have nothing personal against the man, and I sincerely hope his presidency brings prosperity to the republic. But he is not the republic, and I’m tired of people lining up behind everything he does, without acknowledging his flaws and failures.
The same was never true for George W. Bush, who wasn’t ever completely trusted by his own party. But you could say the same about Ronald Reagan. Though I believe he was the greatest president of my lifetime (I was born in 1976), we’re grading on a curve. The Iran Contra Affair happened on his watch. We supported Saddam Hussein. Though he did many good things, he was not a god. He was not a savior. And criticizing some of his actions makes me no less of a Republican.
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