Since we are not in election mode anymore and since the Republican Party's loony lurch left left us wanting for voters (Obama got 20% of the 'conservative' vote?) I thought it was time to add some valuable links to the blog. Right now, the currents of conservatism are led by talk radio and while it is fine we have a message with popular appeal, I think we have drifted away as a party from sound ideology in part because some of those wielding the mike are not as conservative as I would like on some issues (Civil Liberties) where conservatives sounded like they trusted government far too much and more conservative on others (Immigration) to the point of sounding reactionary.
I think that if we were reading MORE and listening and watching LESS we might have the proper intellectual ammo rather than sound bites and talking points.
I would recommend Frederic Bastiat's The Law (a great antidote to Obamanomics!) and John Locke's classic The 2nd Treatise of Civil Government as they are both quick reads and yet are so well written and so foundational. I would also recommend checking out the archive links at ISI as these have so much good writing in them. I read ISI journals back in the 1990s when I was in College Republicans during the Gingrich Revolution.
- - - - -
2 other thoughts - with this new President we can play this one of 2 ways as I see it. We can try to find common ground and cooperate or we can go on the offensive like we did in the 1990s. If Obama really raises taxes and moves left on a variety of things, we can have a replay of 1994. If relations are collegial, we might as well make the best of our historic President and ask for two things:
1) An end to affirmative action, for Obama to have the support he had in Iowa where there are very few 'people of color' I'd say the rationale for any race-based system of preferences is now dead.
2) If being black in America is no longer to be considered a sentence to life in the ghetto, how about working to clean up the culture? With an African-American President, is there any reason for there to be 'gangsta-rap' anymore? How about widespread single moms with delinquent dads? I don't expect an overnight Utopia (or any Utopia for that matter) but how about some room for real improvement in our urban culture?
Enough of reading me, go read the 'heavy stuff'.
TTFN,
Jim
I think that if we were reading MORE and listening and watching LESS we might have the proper intellectual ammo rather than sound bites and talking points.
I would recommend Frederic Bastiat's The Law (a great antidote to Obamanomics!) and John Locke's classic The 2nd Treatise of Civil Government as they are both quick reads and yet are so well written and so foundational. I would also recommend checking out the archive links at ISI as these have so much good writing in them. I read ISI journals back in the 1990s when I was in College Republicans during the Gingrich Revolution.
- - - - -
2 other thoughts - with this new President we can play this one of 2 ways as I see it. We can try to find common ground and cooperate or we can go on the offensive like we did in the 1990s. If Obama really raises taxes and moves left on a variety of things, we can have a replay of 1994. If relations are collegial, we might as well make the best of our historic President and ask for two things:
1) An end to affirmative action, for Obama to have the support he had in Iowa where there are very few 'people of color' I'd say the rationale for any race-based system of preferences is now dead.
2) If being black in America is no longer to be considered a sentence to life in the ghetto, how about working to clean up the culture? With an African-American President, is there any reason for there to be 'gangsta-rap' anymore? How about widespread single moms with delinquent dads? I don't expect an overnight Utopia (or any Utopia for that matter) but how about some room for real improvement in our urban culture?
Enough of reading me, go read the 'heavy stuff'.
TTFN,
Jim
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