Ronald Reagan warned "Freedom is never more than a generation
away from extinction."
Reagan’s warning is especially apt today – enemies of liberty
never give up, whether abroad or in the United States. As past generations,
pro-freedom Americans still have to battle against liberal control,
America-bashers, left-wing defeatists, and their accomplices in the press. We
don’t have Reagan to help us now so it’s up to us to stand up for America and
freedom. We can begin doing that by our vote in the primaries this spring and in
the national election in November; it is imperative to choose a nominee that has
not already demonstrated a willingness to sacrifice conservative principles for
popular liberal news media acclaim.
Not long ago, I wrote on my blog, www.vincentgioia.com, "Some things to consider in
making a voting selection". One important consideration is to see who is in
favor or against a candidate or proposition. For example, in these primaries who
is supporting the candidates? The New York Times supports McCain, Democrat
strategist Susan Estrich supports McCain, Republican’s-in-name-only
Schwarzenegger and Giuliani support McCain, and I’m sure you can find others. If
you think the ‘grey lady’, the Dukakis campaign manager and social liberals
support a conservative, think again. Whatever McCain may be, he’s not a
conservative just because he sometimes votes for a few things we favor.
There is some evidence that pro-freedom efforts can succeed if
there is sufficient effort and we must build on these achievements. Despite
Pelosi and Co. and ‘Dirty’ Harry Reid and his party takeover of the House and
Senate a year ago, there have been some successful efforts.
The best example of course is the successful effort to block
the McCain and Bush attempts to provide amnesty to illegal aliens in our midst
and partial success in authorization for a border wall to assist minimizing the
invasion from Mexico. Unsuccessful, however, was providing sufficient funding to
actually build the wall and the will to do so. In this success pro-freedom
conservatives were aided by helpful conservative radio and a public outcry for
border protection and no amnesty.
We must thwart all attempts to stifle conservative radio; the
best way is to not elect a Democrat president. Unfortunately, I’m not convinced
that McCain would protect this information outlet since he eschews conservatism;
McCain is reported to have said of Justice Alito "he is too conservative".
Although the ‘REAL I.D. Act’ was shamefully passed during a
previous sleeping Republican Congress, its implementation has been delayed by
failing to issue regulations and to allocate funds for this Soviet-style
internal travel passport system based on federally-standardized, high-tech,
information-collecting state-issued driver’s licenses, thanks to a few
congressional conservatives.
Some exorbitant funding bills have been vetoed. Attempts by
Democrats to micromanage the Iraq war failed. Efforts to ‘fix’ the Alternative
Minimum Tax (AMT) by adding a huge tax increase on middle-class families were
rebuffed by a relatively few steadfast conservatives in congress (leaving a
saving of about $2,000 per family intact). Additionally, Congressional Democrats
were foiled in their attempt to enact so-called ‘PAYGO’ that would require
additional revenue via taxes to make up for the alleged revenue-shortfall.
For all the Democrats’ (and McCain’s) loud complaints and
preaching against interrogation techniques (water boarding comes to mind), CIA
documents were released to show Democrats have previously been informed about
interrogation techniques used and offered no objection at the time. Clearly
Pelosi, Reid and top Democrats switched sides for crass political gain, not out
of principle.
Conservative lawmakers also frustrated passage of another hate
crimes bill pushed by the Democrat majority and a Senate filibuster thwarted an
attempt by unions to replace worker secret organizing ballots with the so-called
‘card check’ when deciding whether to unionize; as one union boss, Bruce Raynor,
said about secret union member balloting "There’s no reason to subject workers
to an election".
I hope we all remember these things at voting time.
