George Rebane
[This is the addended transcript to my regular KVMR commentary aired on 5 November 2014.]
As someone once said, elections have consequences. And today this makes possible several different ways forward that can slow the surge toward socialism we have endured since Democrats took over Congress in 2006. President Obama nailed it this year when he declared to both heartened conservatives and duck-and-cover liberals that this election was really a report card on Team Obama’s policies. It would let voters assess everything that this administration and its congressional supporters have done to give America its ‘2% economy’, uncounted scandals, incompetent governance, international disdain, and partisan polarization, all rolled up in one package that many argue represents a new low point in the country’s history.
Nationally, the election was indeed a so-called Republican wave, both in Congress where the GOP will have historical majorities, and in the state houses. Does that constitute a mandate? Well yes. Even liberal pundits this morning acknowledged that we now have a popular mandate to roll back regulatory overreach and reduce the size of government. But that is not the way that the diehard Left is spinning the message sent by the people. Led by Harry Reid and repeated in our local echo chambers, they claim that the real message from Americans is that government should now work together. But that desperate interpretation fails on all accounts.
After obstructing literally all Congressional actions by blocking more than 350 House passed bills from the Senate floor, Dirty Harry now claims that Americans gave Congress to the Republicans so that they would work with Democrats to pass more laws to grow government, stifle economic growth, inject more regulations into all aspects of our lives, reduce the workforce, increase our unfunded liabilities and stultifying debt, and continue our retreat from global leadership – I don’t think so.
It is clear that Democrats, planning to elect another Clinton, will spend the next two years working hard to make President Obama and his six-year legacy a dim memory in the minds of voters. Lady Macbeth’s ‘Out damn spot, out I say!’ now more than ever, will considerably exercise Hillary as she attempts to erase the record of her Obama years. The Republicans in their turn will do their best to keep the pair joined at the hip, and hope that ol’ Joe Biden will become the Democrats’ standard bearer in 2016.
Locally, most of us celebrated the re-election of our congressmen Doug LaMalfa and Tom McClintock. I hear that they plan to work together to stop Sacramento and Washington from further ruining NorCal’s economy, water resources, public land access, and the environment.
Here in Nevada County the big issue was Measure S, the voter initiative to replace the existing medical marijuana ordinance. The pro-S people claimed that medical marijuana is in short supply, and that needy patients do not have adequate access to the weed. The initiative failed because its proponents never made the case for such shortages, and argued strongly that voters didn’t need to hear more than a few heart-rending stories of people deprived of their medicines. The reality is that 7 out of 10 county voters decided to keep the current ordinance, and that number indicates support across a broad demographic beyond the claimed old conservative fogies who were supposed to be the only anti-S contingent. I believe there is no doubt that both medical and recreational marijuana use will be legalized in its various forms across the country including California. But we would be wise to hold back a bit, and watch other states with more lenient marijuana laws to see first what works and what doesn’t.
Finally, the Republicans will now have two years to attempt broadly accepted repairs to damage done to the country by Barack Obama and his uncritical progressive political allies. But this will not be a free ride. The GOP, along with its conservative contingent, needs to show the country that it can bring about constructive change in which Americans can again put their hopes.
My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on georgerebane.com where an expanded transcript of this commentary and the discussion continues among readers with widely differing perspectives. As always, my views are not necessarily shared by KVMR. Thank you for listening.
[Addendum] I’ll start this with an email from Nancy Garcia that was waiting for me when I got back from my recording session. Nancy and husband Eddie (Eduard) Garcia have been active in Nevada County conservative circles. The Garcias were in the founding activities of the NC Tea Party and State of Jefferson movements. Nancy is a former president of the NCTP and Eddie chairs the current NC SoJ steering committee. Nancy encouraged me to post her email.
George,
I just had to laugh when I scrolled down to your 5nov14 update on RR. It was a delicious moment as the progressive's "talking points" were destroyed by the victories of Mia Love, Joni Ernst, Tim Scott and Elise Stefanik.
Coming back down to earth, the real work begins now. We have two short years to repair some of the damage from a six year train wreck. Our job will be to hold our elected official's feet to the fire. And most importantly, may they remember – principles count!
Nancy Garcia=
I am told that many of our progressive pundits are frantically waving their purple flags today. They got the color wrong. What seems to blindside them is that voters voted their experiences of the last six years – no more BS about this administration, for its record of lies, incompetence, and overreach are all now a part of the public record.
Barack Obama is the most opaque president in our history, a politician so successfully buoyed by the lamestream that it has taken the electorate six years to discover and repudiate him. What the voters have learned is that they unwittingly drank the kool-aid and returned to office an intellectual lightweight, inexperienced political hack, widely acknowledged socialist ideologue, and arrogant administrator with no executive experience (save having Valerie Jarrett’s contact info). All of these attributes are now evident to everyone save Obama’s most ardent core constituency. It is they who have always voted for him because of the color of his skin and not the content of his character. Nothing here will change.
In a recent conversation with a left-of-center friend and colleague, the matter of money in politics and its ability to swing elections came up. While my friend's tendency is to approach a solution that would restrict the use of money in election campaigns, predictably mine is to modify the election process so that money would not be able to play such a prominent role in deciding the winner. In short, in a liberal society money is the prime enabler of free speech, and restricting its use abbreviates not only our rights, but also the benefits to society in the encouragement of productive activities for the benefit of all.
Over the years I have come to accept that the impact of campaign monies is directly proportional to the dumbth of the electorate. In other words, the more uneducated, uninformed, and intellectually deprived is the voter, the more impact will moneyed repetition of simple messages have on such individuals. And, of course, the other way around. Think of it as a seesaw, the influence of money goes up as the smarts come down. So what to do?
One solution that hits the hip-level processing hot button of progressives is to once more introduce the notion of minimum qualifications for voting. We have to pass knowledge tests to qualify for society’s permissions in so many other domains of daily affairs, why not also include something beyond mirror-fogging for becoming a franchised voter. I can hear the cacophony of the collectivists now, all screaming about the impossibility of fairly and equitably achieving such an end, and being ascribed a racist for even suggesting it. Nothing could be further from the truth, since government and corporations already administer proof of skill/knowledge tests in so many areas before we’re allowed to do something or demonstrate certified expertise.
Such testing would involve the basics of civics – structure and operation of government, law, and the current state of the state. The test details would be left to non-partisan commissions at various levels – federal, state, county/city. The objectives of such testing would conform to those used by the DMV and the federal government for new citizens – in short, make the voting franchise as widely accessible as possible, and provide the ‘free’ educational resources to remediate those who have failed the test which can be taken as many times as necessary. Such an initiative must, of course, be supported by constitutional amendments at both state and federal levels.
Bottom line – to keep dummies out of the voting booth while minimizing the gratuitous impact of money in elections, and its subsequent bad governance, require of the citizen a basic level of knowledge that activates and maintains his right as a franchised ‘Elector’. I believe that the notion is at least worthy of considered and rational discussion.
rebanesruminations.com 
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