Saturday, March 1, 2008

McCain, Obama not honest about liberal views

Just yesterday I was reading Lou Dobbs book, "Independence Day," and he wrote about how there has been a scandal in every administration going all the way back to Warren G. Harding. Even the honorable Dwight D. Eisenhower got caught in a lie once.

But, as Dobbs wrote in his book, Americans have almost come to expect that their president is going to lie at some point or another in his (or her) administration. And it shouldn't have to be that way.

If I were to run for president, and I'm old enough to do so now if I chose to make that life altering move in 2012, I would be the most honest person to run for president since honest Abe.

And who knows that Abe was even 100% truthful. He was prone to depression, and he made no effort to tell us this fact. I'm not saying that it would have mattered, but it could have.

In this blog I have a note right on the side there you can check out where I admit right off the bat that "I'm not an expert in any of (the things I write about), so there you have it: I admit my ignorance right off the bat. Socrates would be proud of me. I write because I have a passion for it, and for no other reason."

In response to my medblog I have received many emails and comments commending me on my honesty about being an RT. And I can tell you that many RNs and Drs cringe when they read what I write about them, but it's the truth. I don't know that I would have the audience I have today if I sugar coated reality.

I read a lot. I've made myself sort of an amateur expert on many of these issues almost by default, but I'm not an economist, nor a historian, nor a teacher, nor a business man, nor anything other than an RT.

The same can be said, on a more national level, of men like Rush Limbaugh. I think one of the reasons his radio show is so popular has more to do with the level of pure unadulterated honesty than the fact that he votes republican or, even more so, than he is a conservative.

Because, as I'm sure he would contend, he is not an advocate for the republican party. When republicans, like George W. Bush, do things that he honestly think are wrong for this nation, such as amnesty and his inability to use his veto power to stop wasteful government spending, Rush has openly criticized his president.

Likewise, Rush has criticized McCain for lying to the people and telling us that McCain is a conservative, when his record in the Senate says otherwise.

McCain helped to create the McCain Feingold bill which was unconstitutional (according to conservatives), and he voted against the Bush tax cuts (a liberal vote) , and he was a major proponent of amnesty for illegal aliens (a liberal issue, and an issue very unpopular with the populace).

If McCain were completely honest, he would come out and say he is conservative on some issues, and liberal on others, and say that Americans should come together for the better of the country and vote for him for president in 2008. But he will never do that because he's a politician who fears he might lose a vote or two or a 100,000. As any politician, he wants to be everything to everybody.

Of course Rush has one advantage over McCain in the honesty department: Rush is not running for public office, so he does not have to cater to everyone -- McCain does.

Yet, should the desire to obtain votes, to obtain power, trump honesty? I don't think so.

Obama, according to most political experts, is far to the left (far more liberal) than Hilary Clinton or any other person who has run for president in the past 40 years. And yet he came out the other day and said this:

"'Let me tell you something. There's nothing liberal about wanting to reduce money in politics. That is common sense. There's nothing liberal about wanting to make sure [our soldiers] are treated properly when they come home. ... There's nothing liberal about wanting to make sure that everybody has health care. We are spending more on health care in this country than any other advanced country, but we've got more uninsured. There's nothing liberal about saying that doesn't make sense, and we should do something smarter with our health care system."

Liberals, it seems, are afraid to come right out and admit they are liberal because they know that liberalism is not very popular in this country. No person who has ever come out and admitted he or she is liberal has ever won the office of the president, and therefore Obama is going to pretend not to be a liberal.

Clinton was liberal on many issues as president, especially in regard to his stance on abortion, his tax increase, and his appointing of liberal justices to the Supreme Court, but when he ran for office he ran as a conservative democrat -- he ran to the center.

Even Bush was liberal on many issues, such as his stance on education, his vote for the largest expansion of government in several years for the prescription drug program for seniors, his refusal to veto spending bills, and his support for amnesty for illegal aliens. Yet he ran for office twice as a conservative.

Yet Obama's plans for this nation show he is liberal. He states that as soon as he is elected he wants to end the Bush tax cuts, which would in turn be the largest tax increase in American history. He wants to enact a national health plan that would largely expand the role of government in our lives, and which may result in even more tax increases in the future to pay for it.

By many of his goals stated on his website, Obama believes that Americans are not capable of solving their problems on their own, that they need the government to come in and solve their problems for them, as is the case with his federalized health care program.

Likewise, he wants to pull troops out of Iraq and send of message to terrorists around the world that they can effect American military policy around the world.

At the same time he denies that he is a liberal. He, like McCain, is fibbing because he wants power. The fight for power can do strange things to people.

It's not just Obama, it's McCain and Hilary and many other politicians too who are not completely honest with us regarding their stances on the issues. The truth is this, in my humble opinion: McCain is 50% liberal, Hillary is 80% liberal and Obama is 100% liberal.

They should be proud of their stances, not trying to hide them.

3 comments:

Nikki said...

Hey Freadom, nice post. I do think there are different degrees of conservatism and Bush did run on a "compassionate conservative" agenda. I think most conservatives have their issues of importance and the fact that Bush is Hawkish, a low tax guy and a social conservative I think he can legitimately call himself a conservative, he may have disappointed the conservative elite, but he did run on being a uniter and he made good on that promise only few on the other side acknowledge it and it proved to be detrimental to his popularity and abandoned by his party (sorry that was a huge run on sentence). It does bother me the level of democrats that are ignorant of his left leaning accomplishments. I did a piece a while back about the continued bitterness of the 2000 election, and sure enough I got comments about how they will never forgive him for stealing the election, even after I posted articles from the NYT's that he legitimately won, they still saw him as stealling it. Great article!! Nikki

Rick Frea said...

Nice comment. You are absolutely correct about Bush running as a compassionate conservative, and I had written about that in this post before I deleted it for some reason. It's almost like you were reading my mind.

One of these days when I get time I'm gonna have to check out your archive. I might be imopressed.

Kevin said...

Bush isn't a conservative, he's a religious progressive.

McCain is a flat out (slightly left of) moderate Democrat.

I didn't vote for Bush in 2000. I voted for him in 2004 because I was still buying into the "lesser of two evils" theory of voting.

Conservatives have no place to go this election season. All they can do is find the candidate their conscience will let them vote for.