Friday, January 29, 2010

Responsibly Righteous

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair maintains the stance that, as Edmund Burke stated, "all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Too many times throughout history has such occurred. Thankfully there are, and were, those willing to stand up and do something, rather than questioning the doing of something.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Hypocritical Blame Game

At the one-year mark, President Barack Obama is set to deliver his first State of the Union address. Over that time, Democrats have been apt to use the mantra - aimed squarely at the Bush Administration - that one cannot expect to fix in one year what took eight years to create. A position Obama is sure to utilize in his speech, while maintaining his hope for change rhetoric. Yet, Democrats cried foul on Republicans for the exact same stance at the one-year mark of the Bush presidency, which placed a majority of blame on the policies of the previous Clinton Administration for the state of the economy to the fight against world-wide terrorism. Though just a sampling, the routine laxity to address Iraq’s continual violation of U.N. sanctions, pushing legislation creating the housing bubble that led to the eventual market collapse and the failure to eliminate the threat of Osama bin Laden on multiple occasions when the opportunity existed - all labeled the fault of George W. Bush, not Bill Clinton, after one year in office, despite the facts to the contrary.

Now, with the tables turned, the Bush Administration still gets the blame after a year out of office. How can one administration be blamed for its predecessor AND its successor? To listen to Democrats over the past decade, Clinton and Obama have been the saviors of the United States. If that is not political hypocrisy, then nothing will ever come close again. Under such logic, Democrats want to take all the responsibility of success, and none of the blame of failure.

The thing is, each administration shares an amount of blame. Policies in each have caused problems in the attempt to address issues, and come down to the simple matter of taking responsibility for their failure – something Democrats are hard-pressed to accept. It is much easier to play the blame game than take responsibility for actions (or inactions). It will be interesting to hear what road – either the low or high – Obama takes in summarizing his first year in office, and the course to be taken thereafter. Because in the end, he will only have himself to blame.

©2010 Steve Sagarra

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Bucking the Two-Party System

On the political spectrum, I have always considered myself a Conservative. However, this has never fully translated to being a Republican, despite the fervent belief by some of my more left-leaning friends. For me, I have always weighed candidate over party or issue over platform. Though aligning with the Republican platform on most issues, it has been difficult at times to tell whether the Republican Party is really any different than the Democratic Party. We seemingly get screwed no matter who is in office, with neither adhering to the core, Constitutional principles of the Founding Fathers. Much like Ronald Reagan when he switched parties in the early 1960s, I feel that the Republican Party has abandoned the vision rather than me abandoning them – all in an attempt to be almost Democratic-lite rather than Conservative-strong.

Holding to this idea, I recently seized upon the opportunity and joined a third political party – The American Conservative Party (A.C.P.). Perhaps if you're feeling the same sort of angst over the current political landscape in America, check out their platform and decide for yourself. After all, it's your individual right.

[From The American Conservative Party website:]

We Believe:

• the legitimacy of government exists only as long as it defends human liberty.
• the origin of human liberty predates government, and therefore liberty cannot be repealed by government.
• the existence of human liberty presupposes the right to defend it, and the basic right to live begets the rights of self-defense and free expression.
• the self-ownership evident in human liberty begets basic rights over one’s self and time, and that the right to pursue happiness and self-fulfillment originate here.
• the boundary of human liberty ends where it transgresses the rights of another. Jurisprudence exists to mediate disputes where the boundaries of more than one individual intersect.
• the armed forces and law enforcement exist to bolster private defense, not to supplant it.
• that the American Experiment was born out of these beliefs and that it has resulted in a bountiful gain for the human condition.


Read the rest here – Platform


©2010 Steve Sagarra

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Healthcare Reform: Vaseline Is Your Co-Pay

The Harry Reid-Nancy Pelosi love affair continues. Both are set to convene behind closed doors, without GOP representation present, to hammer out what will be a Frankenstein’s monster of healthcare reform, cobbled together by the bits and pieces of the respective Senate and House bills. An overhaul that is opposed by half the American population, yet trumpeted as a majority mandate by the two. Are they under the delusion that “red state” Americans simply vanished once Democrats won the White House and gained control of Congress?

Democrats Set To Exclude GOP From Final Health Care Deliberations

This is not government by the people, for the people or of the people. Instead, it is government nefariously conducted by a few politicians in the back halls and secluded rooms of the Capitol, to the exclusion of anyone opposed to their ideas and self-anointed mandate. On an issue as expansively significant as healthcare reform, such partisan politics is an ill that will kill the patient – the United States of America.* Once the Reid-Pelosi cabal pushes their bill through, taxpayers and providers alike will pay the burden with its implementation. And there will be no government-issued Vaseline to soothe the pain.

In Health Bill For Everyone, Provisions For A Few

Coal in America’s Stocking



*Operative word:  “United”

©2010 Steve Sagarra