Bark On

Written in response to a letter to the editor in the Independent just after the election of Donald Trump.

I read with building disgust the letter from an angry Liberal and the usual Conservative-bashing Mr. Brooks.  Millions of small business owners, Conservative teachers, construction-workers, administrators, etc. have spent the last 8 years suffering through Liberal economic policies and Social engineering schemes that DID NOT WORK.  Oh sure, you'll get your occasional Obamacare write-in saying how well it worked for them, but the fact of the matter is it worked for no one else.  It should alarm even the most totalitarian and obtuse that the program touted as a God-send by the political elite did not end up ruining THEIR lives...no, no.  They did not have to figure out how to pay a mortgage payment-sized premium for a policy with a $6,000 deductible.  They continued to see their Doctors and pay reasonable prices for their policies while the rest of middle-class America (what's left of it) reeled between $5,000 fines and $12,000-$15,000 premiums.  

The next item on this list of utopian Liberal ideas was an economic floor in the guise of a $15, or $14, or maybe $16 minimum wage that would, if every economic study ever done is an indicator, crush the already low employment numbers in minority and youth groups and further challenge already low-margin service businesses to survive.  

Liberals have been proven wrong in the economic arena for years, having to dream up scare tactics and utopian ideals to support economic models that don't work.  Economics professors in Liberal Elite Economics departments nationwide came up with study after study demonstrating how low tax policies kill growth and, in their most egregious act, developed the phrase "trickle-down economics" which Reagan never used and then proceeded to bash it over the heads of Conservatives, uniquely branding it as a Conservative policy that didn't work when, once and for all, this was NOT a Conservative ideal.  Instead, Reagan used the Milton Freidman reference that a, "rising tide lifts all boats."  

So successful was their branding and marketing of utopian ideals that the American people, after 8 years of Bush's middle-left economic policies and war after war, we're willing to dip their toes in the Keynsian swamp.  Never having been fans of Keynsian big-government ideas, Conservatives braced for the onslaught of taxes, government "infrastructure" spending, and the attendant low-growth policies of a Liberal administration.  And we got it, in spades. 

It started with the collapse of the biggest Liberal policy of them all that made Clinton's buddies who ran the Freddie/Fanny empire very rich ($90 million...look it up), the Clinton-sponsored Community Reinvestment Act.  Republicans, sometime stalwarts against government spending, we're guilted into voting for this monstrosity using the race card.  With very little evidence to support the need for broad-based loan relief in minority communities, just the hint that Congressional representatives could be racist if they didn't support this legislation resulted in its passage and the bank loan bubble of 2008.  That bubble and the actions earlier that year by the Federal Reserve raising interest rates 2.5 points put pressure on the variable-rate loans and those who had financed their homes with interest only variable rate loans saw their payments sky-rocket.  By the time the Fed realized that "inflationary pressures," the excuse given for increasing rates in the first place, we're non-existent, the damage was done.  Bankruptcies skyrocketed and even as interest rates started to sink, the giant bubble burst leaving all of America gasping as home after home went up for sale in a market where prices were crashing.  Life savings disappeared with a crash in the stock market and lives were ruined as family after family moved into homes with relatives or smaller, more affordable apartments.  This crash, this "crisis" was not wasted by the Frank Marshall Davis accolyte, Barrack Obama, and the rest was history.

What the Left, especially the young Left does not understand about this election is that Conservatives saw this election as the last chance before utter ruin.  Obama had consolidated the student loan market and created an economy that crawled along at 1% or less making it impossible for middle class families to send children to college.  Tack on the ruinous medical premiums and increasing medical costs despite all promises to the contrary, and little hope for more than snails-pace growth and more people than just Conservatives came out to vote on Tuesday. 

In case you missed it, this election was not about bashing gay people or force-feeding Liberals to the Lions which is what the angry Left is morosely shouting to those who might listen.  Instead, this was about small business owners fighting for survival, the middle class voting for change and the undeniable fact that Hillary Clinton did not close the case for higher taxes, a minimum wage hike, and the continuation of Obamacare. 

I'm not saying that Conservatives don't have opinions that differ with the Left about human rights, yes, human, you know, gay, straight, black, red, white and blue.  We do.  But Conservative positions are almost never as extreme as our fellow Montanan from Bozeman believes they are.  Conservatives are not filled with hatred any more than those on the Left.  We support Legal immigration, hardly an extreme position, and as for human rights, we support freedom and our Constitution.  We don't believe that minorities are due special rights under the Constitution, instead, we believe our Constitution conveys on all of us the same rights.  

I remember fighting against the Equal Rights Amendment in the 80's and my contention was that, as a woman, I believed that my Constitution protected me "as a person" in every way that mattered.  For that I was name-called and told that I was a woman-hater, so get in line with the long, long list of name-callers, Mr. Angry Guy in Bozeman.  We've just lived through 8 years of hell and your yippy little voice added to the vicious outcry from the Left will not make a dent in the armor that Conservatives have developed in the last 8 years.  Bark on, my good man, but keep it non-violent because you teetered on threats and though we're pretty sure you are harmless, Conservatives are pretty big on the 2nd Amendment and we don't take well to veiled threats or violent behavior. 

It's time to grow up and realize that you rarely get everything you want, in life, or in politics, and spare the rest of us your gasps and the, "I just can't believe you THINK that way," statements that assume everyone around you agrees with you.  In fact, instead of reading nothing but the Independent, branch out!  Listen every once in awhile to those who disagree with you.  I know it's tough, but it builds character, makes your understanding of the world more complete and lends credence to the arguments you make because when you read more than material in your comfort zone, you can build stronger arguments.  And who knows, maybe the person in power that you need to convince might not immediately shut you down as a num-nutt partisan hack.