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Makes One Long for Gray Davis

By Chip Hanlon | August 06, 2008 | 12:37 PM | 3 Comments

I'm on vacation but I thought I'd chime in with a quick one. For the rest of you around the country who worry about how high your taxes might go next year depending on what happens this November, you've got nothing on those of us in California!

First, though, a number: 40%.

That's how much state spending has increased since we recalled the inept Gray Davis in 2003. Sickening.

So, after holding out on raising taxes longer than I actually would have expected, in the latest budget process Arnold finally caved a few days ago and proposed raising the sales tax (it is here where I proudly state that I voted for Tom McClintock in that recall). He calls it "temporary" tax, of course.

If Obama's elected, raises income taxes to 39% and blows the caps off FICA taxes, on income alone we top rate-payers in California will be effectively above 50%. Add the likely election of a Democrat governor in 2010 to go along with our circus-clown legislature and we'd almost certainly be near 60%.  What a rip-roaring economy we'd have to look forward to, but I digress.

What got me going here was a great post over at Red County by GOP Assemblyman, Chuck Devore, on the Governator and his sales tax proposal.  Well, we still have the weather...

Comments (3)  |  Related Topics  » |

 
We Recalled Gray Davis for Gray Davis "Lite"

http://globalcapital.blogspot.com

I was also living in CA when we recalled Gray Davis. Liberal CA had to be pretty disgusted to recall a liberal Dem governor. (We didn't just vote another person in. We RECALLED him.) JSJGOLD is absolutely correct in his comparison to the current situation with McCain.

At the time, I was living in Sacramento. Tom McClintock was running in the primary against Arnold Schwartzenegger. I kept telling my friends to vote for McClintock because he was a true conservative, but they kept saying to me, "The polls say he can't win." So they held their noses and voted for Schwartzenegger. Now, they have Gray Davis "Lite". Or should I say Gray Davis on "steroids"! His name is Arnold Schwartzenegger!

Now doesn't that sound VERY familiar?

Today, we have the exact same situation in Washington. The elites who control the power and party in our nation are telling us, "Vote for McCain because he's better than the alternative (Obama). Besides, polls show that the alternatives (Ron Paul, Dr. Chuck Baldwin, Bob Barr) who are true conservatives can't win!" That's exactly what the elites want. If they can brainwash us into believing that we only have two choices -- Obama and Obama lite -- then they win either way!

I would remind Americans that the Republican Party was a small minority party, and their first candidate for President was none other than ABRAHAM LINCOLN! Polls don't elect presidents! People do! The only reason a person can't win is if Americans don't vote for the candidate! Stand up and be counted! Stand up for principle instead of power and party!

The same thing will happen in Washington. If McCain wins, he will continue to eschew conservatives as he has done for the past ten years. He will continue to embrace liberals and their values (McCain-Feingold, McCain-Liberman, McCain-Kennedy), and a few years from now, conservatives will look back and curse the day they voted for McCain. Remember, these bills he authored with the above liberals have ALL eroded the Constitution and the protections it affords to American Citizens. In some cases, those erosions were done in the name of "protecting" us. McCain has repeatedly and consistently voted for the bills in the past few years that have all but eliminated the Bill of Rights in the Constitution. He was the author of two bills that undermined both the First and Second Amendments to the Constitution. Does that sound like someone who would nominate a "constructionist" justice who would follow the original intent of that precious document?

I predict that he won't even nominate conservative judges to the Supreme Court, as he has promised in trying to delude conservatives to vote for him. He'll then say, "How could I nominate a conservative justice? The Dems would never confirm him! I just HAD to compromise and nominate another centrist!" Mark my words! This will happen!

We should be learning lessons from the disaster in CA when we voted for Arnold. What better way for conservatives to WASTE their vote than to give it to a man -- McCain -- who disdains conservatives and their values. We lose two ways:
1) We lose because the man we gave our vote to won't support those values when in office, and
2) We lose because we have abandoned our own principles.

“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.” John Quincy Adams

The best way for conservatives in this country to get the attention of the Republican Party is to refuse to support them when they don't nominate a conservative candidate. If they do this, they will know that they'll lose -- and so will the American People.

Historical studies have shown that it takes a small minority of about 3% of the population to lead the rest of the population in a new direction. This is what the Founders did. When they went to the Constitutional Convention, they didn't even intend to rewrite the Articles of Confederation. We can be goats or sheep. We can lead, or we can follow. Be a leader instead of a follower! Refuse to support a Party that has gone astray and abandoned its long-held principles! Stand resolutely for something instead!

I guarantee that conservatives will continue to lose, and lose, and lose over and over again until they begin stand by their principles instead of a party. They will only have themselves to blame, since they didn't stand by their own principles. And they will continue to wonder why the nation continues down a slippery slope of destruction!

George Washington understood this. He never joined a political party, and he warned the American people in his farewell address what would happen if they became loyal to political parties. He warned, "in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party".

As if George Washington had seen our day, he warned:

"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.
"Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it."

Could his warning have been more timely -- or more accurate?

You can read Washington's entire address, including his other warnings about party loyalties, at Yale Law School's website here:

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/washing.htm

It is not a quick read, nor a light one. But it is incredibly enlightening, and you would have thought he wrote it yesterday, since it is so timely.

It is time for conservatives to abandon their Party ... instead of their principles.
Only THEN will they begin to win elections again!

Submitted by sbenard on Sun, 2008/08/10 - 7:58pm » reply |
 
is any one really surprised

is any one really surprised at arnold. he is barely a republican anyway. makes you wonder if it is a good idea voting for mccain. good point on how high our taxes are going. glad i dont live in ca.

Submitted by jsjgold on Thu, 2008/08/07 - 11:40am » reply |
 
Not an unreasonable

Not an unreasonable question, but let's hope that equating McCain to Arnold is unfair. The prospect of a Pelosi-Reid-Obama combo is clearly enough to vote for McCain and his veto over this Congress.  Don't lose sight of what an Obama presidency would mean in terms of a blank check for nationalized healthcare, our courts, the tort system, unions, appointed commissions, etc... it's the small stuff that'll kill us!

Submitted by Chip Hanlon on Thu, 2008/08/07 - 11:54am » reply |

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