Perspective
I stopped by the local used bookstore today with the wife. Decided to get away from the humdrum of Prime Time television, and dig into a little bit of history, if even temporarily. The aroma of old books does something to a person. It slows them down, lowers the pressure. Breathe….
What’s amazing about these places is how quickly you realize that history repeats itself.
I came across a book about Ronald Reagan written in the later part of his first term. The flap read how the Republicans were going to ruin the world. How America was hated more than ever internationally. How Republicans wanted to destroy civil liberties. Reagan was the worst President ever. I was shocked to even read a section in the book that addressed how terrorism wasn’t an issue Reagan should devote any time to. It was the politics of fear. I spent a good 30 minutes intrigued by the book, which was a collection of letters to the Republicans and Reagan specifically asking them to stop everything they were doing to destroy everything that had been done…by people like Carter.
On the counter with only a few books over there was a used copy of a book called “Bushit: An A-Z Guide to the Bush Attack on Truth, Justice, Equality, and the American Way “. Reagan, Bush…two books…nearly side by side. The frantic left has written for years about the destruction, demise, and gradual defeat of what makes America great…and yet, America remains great. In a world where we are constantly told that as conservatives, our hope for spreading the gift of freedom to the world is naive, jingoistic, short sited and wrong. There were protests by isolationists when we got involved in the Great War a little too late to properly stop genocide. Not the lives of our boys. There were protests when we got involved in Vietnam to stop north from sweeping south. It’s not our war. There were protests when we told Russia to tear down their wall of oppression. That’s not our country. There are protests about Iraq. It’s the wrong war. History repeats itself.
Where I believe we lose our credibility as a nation, is when we tell the Iraqi’s we’ll stand and fight with them, we’ll help their fledgling experiment in Democracy, but as long as it doesn’t endanger any incumbent Congressmen. When we say we will help them…until it gets difficult, then they’re on our own. To those suffering under the heels of tyrants…don’t trust us…we’ll leave you. History will repeat. North sweeps south. Hundred of thousands dead. Hundreds of thousands “re-educated”.
Oh well…on to the next book…
It seems that the trick for print media is to repeat lies long enough so that people finally start believing them. They do it to Republicans all the time.
Then, when it doesn’t matter anymore, they can admit the truth (like they now do with Reagan to some extent), but it’s so long ago that no one cares that they were lied to.
Sounds unbelievable, but I think they do do it, and even more unbelievably, it works.
Late last night, I started reading “Where Have All the Leaders gone?” by Lee Iacocca. It is just wonderful. He’s loaded former CEO, he’s been around forever. He personally knows many former and current presidents and DC insiders. The book is so far candid, inspiring and motivating. He said he has lived through twelve administrations and he said we have four great leaders to speak of. 1. Roosevelt 2. Truman 3. Reagan and believe it or not, 4. Clinton. He explains in detail and truth why they were good leaders.
I like this book because it panders to my personal agenda. For Republicans and Dems to dog it out, come to an agreement and know the truth by sharing ideas and information. That’s why I am on this site; Stout is the only Republican site I have seen that allows us to say what we want. I literally was denied access to RedState.com within 24 hours.
Hey, no one gives me a beating on this site more than Stout does. The difference is, he kicks me in the teeth with information as to why he thinks I am an idiot. Most Republican sites say, “Just because,” and allow for no further discussion. I’ve dogged it out with JC too, but look how it ended up? It ended up good, and JC gave me something new to learn. That’s why I only go here, because for all of you who think I am a know-it-all, you know nothing. I feel safe here because I don’t have all the answers. I feel safe because I know Stout would not put a lie on this site to get people to believe him. That is not true on the other sites.
Sorry to be nostalgic, but Iacocca’s book is making me this way. I know you think I am some Bush Republican hater, it may seem that way, but it’s not true. Well, I do despise Bush. But the editors of our local paper allow us to write letters to the editor and duke it out with no mercy. The result? We agree to disagree and come together for things necessary to restore representative government. I have regular conversations with the Republican state senator planning to run for Dennis Hastert’s seat if he retires. Why? Because Senator Lauzen is getting sandbagged. Hastert wants his own appointee, and so Hastert is going to run in the primary just to knock out Lauzen. Why? Because if Hastert doesn’t, Lauzen would win hands down. This is representative democracy? I think Lauzen can beat Hastert anyway, and so we are encouraging him to run regardless.
I get free tickets to the Republican’s Lincoln Day Dinner fundraiser every year while everyone else pays because the Republican leaders (with the exception of Hastert who I brutally oppose) know that I am a true advocate for joining us together. Sure, I call Senator Lauzen the Christian Wrong, and he laughs at me. He knows I will help him through this and then campaign for the Democrat I know well and want in office. But I won’t be so blasé about democracy and being an American that I pick being a Democrat over that. Anyway, I hope you all take the time to read Iacocca’s book. It is real food for thought. He tells us how to fix our problems; financially, morally and globally…
Kevin, I would like to point out your error blaming the “liberal media” with a quote from Iacocca’s book:
“Ronald Reagan once said, ‘facts are stubborn things.’ The Bush administration doesn’t really believe in facts. IT BELIEVES IF YOU TELL A LIE OFTEN ENOUGH IT BECOMES TRUE. I could go on, but the lies get boring. The administration likes to call their mistakes, ‘faulty intelligence.’ There was no faulty intelligence. Let’s call a lie a lie.”
I’ll look into the book. Iacocca is certainly an interesting character…changed the auto business.
I do disagree with you Erin though…the media does have a liberal bias, as certain outlets have a conservative bias (Fox, and all radio), but there are too many numbers showing the bias goes from the top down.
Link to MSNBC story here. So the question is, are the ninety something percent of journalist who contribute and vote Democrat all able to keep their personal biases out of reporting?
The mainstream media, to me, is asexual. If they actually reported the things you and I discuss, whether it be either one of our point of views, it would be a really different country. Does Fox News cover the news the way conservative talk radi does? No, they pretend like they do so that that is what the people watch, thinking it will be the same. That’s garbage. CNN is SO not liberal. The Chicago Trib is one of the most conservative papers in the country. Do you know who rated NUMBER ONE IN THE WORLD on their list for accountabilty and accurate reporting?
1. The Guardian
2. BBC News
Last night Michael Savage had a caller call in and state his outrage at the “liberal left” for their documentaries about defense contractors. Of course savage let him have it. Said this isnt a left wing conspiracy – it’s real.
Of course, the fun part came later. He was making fum of the lefties who say Bush was really 9/11. He said that he will act that stupid and say the judge with in the hospital was the Dems, they just got done saying last week that they would never approve another Bush nominee – so he ripped on them and said they conspired to put the judge in the hospital. You dont see any news like you see on LINK Tv and FSTV. Nor do you get good conservative news like you do on savage. Period…
Hugh Hewitt…good news source.