The Sunday Conservative - 07/27/2008
A Conservative look at the Sunday editorial page:
Kevin Horrigan from the St. Louis Dispatch writes about the “not-so-free market” by quoting Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY)…
When I picked up my newspaper yesterday, I thought I woke up in France. But no, it turns out socialism is alive and well in America.
Sen. Bunning spoke these words at a Sentate Banking Committee hearing on Tuesday in regards to the intervention of the government in the housing industry crisis, particularly with regards to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Well, Sen. Bunning, I agree with you. Unfortunately, I think something had to be done, but I think it was done too early. There should have been more pain allowed for those who invested in Fannie and Freddie and those who have made the decisions that led to this situation; they took the risks in the lending markets and they lost. Risk-reward choices are essential to making the free market work, and removing the risk side, while it might minimize the current economic fallout, will just set up the next 20 economic crises. When there is no punishment for taking risks and failing, there will be more of these types of choices made in all kinds of markets in the future. After all, if I am wrong, the government will bail me out. Mr. Horrigan closes with this:
It’s going to take a long time to fix the mess these modern conservatives have left us. Liberals, of course, are outraged. True conservatives should be, too.
While, I cannot agree that the economic issues of today are solely the fault of the “modern conservatives” (read: Republicans), I, as a true conservative am outraged indeed.
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Dick Polman of the Philadelphia Inquirer does his best to stoke the fires of racial tension in his piece, “Obama’s own Southern Strategy.” Mr. Polman suggests that the only reason that Democrats have won very few southern states (and none this century) in Presidential Elections is those old racist white folks.
It all started with race. President Lyndon Johnson’s signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act triggered massive white flight into the Republican Party. In subsequent decades, the GOP built southern dominance by masterfully exploiting that sentiment…
With all due respect, Mr. Polman, southerners don’t vote Democratic because the Democratic Party is out-of-touch with Southern ideals. Their support of unions, higher taxes, government intervention, gay marriage, universal health care, and abortion rights are what have driven Southerners to the GOP.
In the same article, Mr. Polman suggests that Obama might have success in North Carolina because of its “huge black population.” While he may be right about that, how does that make the Southern whites racist?