The Orange County Register has a must-read from Gabriel Calzada , the Madrid econ prof who responded with research to President Obama audaciously, serially citing Spain as his lead model for centrally planning the US economy. I treat how he was treated in response, in Power Grab . What Calzada addresses is California’s consideration of
I hate to keep harping on this topic, but it is so very relevant to the present political discussion. The political class and its sycophants — and I want to be clear here that this is bipartisan and, to a degree, across ideological lines — has grown hopelessly out of touch with the rest of America. The political class that supports things like the Ground Zero mosque has become fringe. They and their ideas are bounced back and forth and embraced as gospel truth with no bearing on reality. They preach to the masses, turn their noses up at alternatives, and believe that the world is all right as long as they are in charge. Meanwhile, their poll numbers keep going down, their viewers flee, and their subscribers cancel. Why watch, listen to, or read the predictable beltway drivel that everyone knows is the talking point of the day and everyone knows is pretty much garbage. But they’ll keep telling us the same thing over and over trying to force us to believe them. Remember, Obamacare is unpopular because of misinformation , not because people know what is in it. One of the talking points, shared by some Republicans and all the Democrats and talked about by many reporters as if it is fact, not opinion, is that the tea party activists have elected a host of extremist candidates who cannot win and are badly out of touch with America. Consider, however, what isn’t being bullet pointed: 57% think the Democrat agenda is “extreme” 60% favor repeal of Obamacare 56% disapprove of Obama’s job performance 61% favor immigration laws like Arizona just passed 68% oppose the Ground Zero mosque 65% are angry at federal government policies 65% say America is on the wrong track And then consider this: those candidates the Democrats and talking heads are saying are extreme on the Republican side are either ahead or neck and neck with the Democrat. Why? Because Americans have decided they understood what Barry Goldwater meant when he said “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. . . . Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue” and they tend to agree. When you put all those elements together you get an ad l ike this one from the NRSC.
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The Growing Detachment of the Political Class
Yeah, like we all were just thinking as the Obama Administration moved to outlaw effective but expensive anti-cancer drugs Avastin and Provenge: We know damn well the political class will have access to lifesaving drugs they outlaw for us because… View original post here: Oh Dear: Nancy Pelosi Pulled FDA Strings To Get Democratic Super-Donor and John Edwards Hush-Money Sugar-Daddy Access To Prohibited Experimental Drug
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Oh Dear: Nancy Pelosi Pulled FDA Strings To Get Democratic Super-Donor and John Edwards Hush-Money Sugar-Daddy Access To Prohibited Experimental Drug
Convinced beyond reason and data that the American people find delicious the sandwich of socialism being force fed down their throats, the left does not understand what is happening in this country and what is coming. In fact, the media does not understand what is happening either. Largely socializing with the same elites and liberals who are fomenting unrest in the country, the media is missing warning signs that revolutionary conduct amongst middle class conservative and independent voters is at hand. Mind you, it is not revolution with bayonet, but revolution with ballot and advocacy. But it is building. It will come. And if left unsatiated by November’s elections, something worse will come. There is a growing disconnect in this country between average Americans and the largely center-left political elite. That disconnect is what will destroy the Democrats in November and, should the Republicans offer no better, cause potentially cataclysmic change in the republic. Consider the Rasmussen surveys of late: 86% of voters believe there should b “limits on what the federal government can do.” 54% of the political class 1 disagrees. 84% of mainstream voters think the country is headed in the wrong direction. 67% of the political class think the country is headed in the right direction. 75% of mainstream voters believe the free market works better than government at regulating the economy. 44% of the political class prefer government control. 56% of mainstream voters want Obamacare repealed. 97% of the political class want it kept. 52% of mainstream voters believe increased government spending is bad for the economy. A majority of the political class disagrees. Then consider gay marriage. More than three-quarters of the states and a majority of the people in each of those states have prohibited gay marriage. But one judge in California has, through his own “fact finding” decided gender no longer, after 5000 years, plays any role in marriage. There is a great and growing divide between those who govern and those who are governed. But those who govern are forgetting that they only govern by the consent of those who are governed. That consent is being revoked. As conservatives see the nation piece by piece ruined by socialist policies and the same left-wing values that destroyed the nuclear family, it is time to consider Article V of the Constitution. Many conservatives are scared of Article V and the potential of a run away constitutional convention. They would rather see the left amend the constitution in the courts than actually amend the constitution to stop the left because of the fear of the great unknown. But what about Dan Greenberg’s idea. States should demand a constitutional convention to consider one amendment: amending Article V to make clear that two-thirds of the states can call for a convention to consider just one amendment. Arkansas legislator Dan Greenberg recognizes that Congress is unlikely to propose constitutional amendments to limit its own power. The legislatures of two-thirds of the states can bypass Congress by calling for a convention to propose amendments. Greenberg notes that some people worry about the prospect of a “runaway” convention, but thinks that political and legal constraints could prevent that from happening — and that t he first convention should consider an amendment to Article V that would explicitly permit state legislatures to limit a convention to the consideration of a single amendment or eliminate the requirement that the requisite number of states must call a convention in order to propose an amendment. It would be in state legislators’ interest to propose and ratify such an amendment because revitalizing the states’ ability to propose amendments to the Constitution would “enhance their power in dealing with Congress.” That would alleviate the fear of a runaway convention and let the states start reining in Congress by, in Thomas Jefferson’s words, “binding [them] down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.” Any amendment put forward at a convention specifically designed around clarifying that conventions can be restricted to single amendments would be roundly mocked and opposed. If we do not restore balance and the elite center-left politicians in charge keep spoon feeding us unwanted socialism, we will find ourselves at a point we dare not go. To alleviate the pressure, we must start petitioning state legislatures to amend the constitution and reassert state power against what is supposed to be a limited federal government. Rasmussen provides this description of the “Political Class”: The Political Class Index is based on three questions. All three clearly address populist tendencies and perspectives, all three have strong public support, and, for all three questions, the populist perspective is shared by a majority of Democrats, Republicans and those not affiliated with either of the major parties. We have asked the questions before, and the results change little whether Republicans or Democrats are in charge of the government. In many cases, the gap between the Mainstream view and the Political Class is larger than the gap between Mainstream Republicans and Mainstream Democrats. The questions used to calculate the Index are: – Generally speaking, when it comes to important national issues, whose judgment do you trust more – the American people or America’s political leaders? – Some people believe that the federal government has become a special interest group that looks out primarily for its own interests. Has the federal government become a special interest group? – Do government and big business often work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors? To create a scale, each response earns a plus 1 for the populist answer, a minus 1 for the political class answer, and a 0 for not sure. Those who score 2 or higher are considered a populist or part of the Mainstream. Those who score -2 or lower are considered to be aligned with the Political Class. Those who score +1 or -1 are considered leaners in one direction or the other. In practical terms, if someone is classified with the Mainstream, they agree with the Mainstream view on at least two of the three questions and don’t agree with the Political Class on any. ↩
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Bind Them From Mischief With the Chains of the Constitution
Let’s ignore for a minute the 9% of people who have no problem with full government control, according to this Rasmussen poll . That number is disturbing in and of itself. Let’s look at this part: By a 54% to 43% margin, the Political Class believes the federal government should be allowed to do most anything. Mainstream voters reject that view by a 94% to three percent (3%) margin. Seem outrageous? It absolutely is. But when you think about it, it’s not hard to believe. Remember when Pete Stark came out and said it last week ? When they passed bills on a “trust us, this won’t hurt a bit” promise? Clearly, they know what’s best. They are the ruling class and should be in charge. Nevermind us mere mortals that, you know, pay their salaries and actually function in and drive the economy that they are currently destroying. A fundamental belief of the Left is that the government can fix anything that is broken in society, whether it be racial injustice, health care problems, failing banking systems, or evil little children that don’t pay for licensing when they set up their lemonade stands . There is this idea of a state-sponsored utopia in Washington that compels them to meddle and “fix” everything they can get their hands on. The private sector is just too stupid to be left to their own devices. Black people and women need “national leaders” and caucuses because we’re all just too stupid to “lead” ourselves. Small business owners clearly don’t know what is best for their businesses, parents aren’t trusted to know what’s right for their children, and when a CEO is failing, a President with zero private sector experience is to destroy him and buy the floundering company. After all, with such a brilliant cast of characters in Washington right now, why wouldn’t we trust them to make all of our decisions for us? The idea that more than half of the people in charge of running our country believe that the federal government should have unlimited power is terrifying, and it is the very reason that we’re forced to fight this fight right now. According to these numbers, 67% of people in the “political class” still believe that the country is generally on the right track, while a staggering 84% of mainstream voters believe that we’re headed in the wrong direction. That is a better than 40% gap between the voters and the political class. There is a fundamental disconnect between the people that we have elected to put in office and the people that make up the United States of America. We can have long conversations about how and why it happened, but the fact of the matter is that the people that are in Washington right now are there because we put them there. We are the ones with the power to change that. So, next time we sit there in awe as the government stops people from talking about the Liberty Bell or forces people to attend government approved training that doesn’t address their profession, remember who we’re dealing with. Then, do your part to get the control freaks voted out.
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54% of “political class” think federal government should have unlimited power
