| Comrade Tovya said: I'm actually a pretty open minded guy overall.. I'm pretty moderate on most social issues, but wow, do you ever say anything nice about any conservative? She actually was quite competent, and did a very nice job in the debate against Biden. But I've already talked enough to you between this thread and the other thread, to know well enough that anyone with a conservative outlook, either fiscal or social, will get a thumbs down on every detail by you. Just because a liberal disagrees with a principal of mine doesn't mean I can't see their good points as well. I have the ability to say kind words about people, including liberals. I don't see the world in black & white, as there are gray areas as well. |
Oh come on, it's reasonable to say that Palin is a passable politician, but she is by no means well-versed on the issues. Her debate performance was little more than a recitation of a script (which she essentially admitted during the debate). This may change in four years if she gets some training, but she certainly was not the epitome of social policy and foreign policy expertise on the campaign trail. If I were grading her, I'd say the best I would give her was a C+. At least she did better than Dan Quayle.
And Jackson is a libertarian and has one of the most consistently fiscally conservative viewpoints out of anyone on this website. I am frankly surprised that so many fiscal conservatives have stood by the Republicans, as Republicans have turned fiscal conservatism into a mockery of what it used to be pre-Reagan and ESPECIALLY pre-Bush the W.
Essentially fiscal conservatism as the Republican Party has defined it in the last decade or two is low taxes and lax regulations. Not low spending, and not necessarily less government (although they consistently beat the anti-government drum). Spending money you don't have is the exact opposite of fiscal conservatism. At least the Democrats are willing to collect money first and then spend it.
My main complaint about the Republicans on economic policies as of late is that they act like taxes are the absolute devil. If it was up to them, we probably wouldn't pay any. Don't ask me how the government would run itself if that were true. The Republican Party has essentially developed what I call the "tax-cut reflex." If an economic problem arises, they bandy about the idea of a tax cut. When the financial crisis on Wall Street happened, some of them recommending cutting taxes on the very institutions they were about to put taxpayer money into. It's become ridiculous to the point where they are like Pavlov's dogs. I could ring a bell and they would probably shout out "tax cuts!"
I am not against tax cuts in the least, but why the hell would you cut taxes while the deficit is soaring? Even George Bush Sr. knew that was just plain stupid and called it "voodoo economics." Republicans need to get their act together on fiscal policy. Its ridiculous now that they are clamoring about the Democrats spending taxpayer money (during a recession, when the government does actually have justification to spend more) while they ran up deficits on a yearly basis during good economic years (while a member of their own party held the Presidency no less). Its just plain ludicrous that Republicans still act like they are fiscal conservatives when their actions clearly reveal that they are not.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
