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Trolling for--er--wandering around and looking for talking points

We all use them: those shorthand aphorisms that substitute for real thought.

It is, of course, damn near criminal when our political opponents do the same: bespeaks a lack of intellectual depth or the willingness to follow your leaders without question.

Here are some of my favorite talking points found in the Delaware blogosphere over the past few days:

We use our tax dollars to invest in our future. Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.

You know, conservatives would sound a lot more coherent if they did accept the concept of the living Constitution.

I think the FFs left the documents purposely vague because they wanted it to be a living document. I think this is also why we have the oldest working constitution.

If times compel us to change the definition of “press” and “arms,” maybe we can also bring our own modern interpretation to “promote the general welfare.”

A well-fed, well-educated populace is the single greatest driver of economic prosperity, whereas a malnourished populace inevitably leads to crime and political upheaval, under which commerce suffers greatly. The wiser emperors of Rome understood this...

It was an established, millenia-old practice at the time of our nation’s founding for governments to build and maintain roads and other public works paid for by tax revenue.

The Constitution grants the government the power to tax, and the power to spend. No limits – as long as we follow the process.

The Constitution explicitly grants the Federal government the power to tax, and the power to spend. No limits on who you can tax, how much you can tax, and what or who you can spend it on.

The Supreme Court is not the arbiter of the tenth amendment.

All law is a legal imposition of morality, and we happen to have a system for determining whose morality gets imposed by being codified into law.

The government cannot be neutral – it either forcibly enforces laws allowing discrimination or it enforces laws prohibiting discrimination.

Cap and trade is a risk worth taking. It’s the first step in freeing us from the dangers of being dependent on foreigners for energy. For me, it’s all about National Security.

Oil prices, including oil from Alaska and Texas, are controlled by OPEC. The price is set by the OPEC cartel.

Republicans are leading the Democrats on the generic ballot and on 8 of 10 top issues. Abortion, Economy, Government Ethics, Iraq, Immigration, National Security, Social Security, and Taxes.

People want Big Brother watching out for us. Which part of the marketplace do you trust? The financial banking part or the part that resells grave sites and throws the bodies away?

It has been long recognized that forcing people to pay for abortions in a pluralistic society is a different issue from allowing people to commit abortion.

He [President Obama] should understand that no Christian can be a willful party to committing abortion directly or as a third party.

Opposition to abortion is intrinsically demanded by the fundamental identifying Christian doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. To force Christians to pay for abortion is a kin to trying to force them to deny Christianity. That is a violation of any notion of pluralism and a potential violation of the first amendment. It is certainly contrary to our founding philosophy.

Did you know that America consistantly ranks among the top two nations for the highest corporate tax rates?

Free markets are great for hamburgers and cell phones. Not so good when a medical emergency forces you to go to the hospital. Would we let market forces control any other mission critical services like policing or fire fighting? Is getting your family rescued from a burning house a right or a privilege? Same for health care.

Regarding the competence of our Government. The do real well with the FCC FAA FDA. They have created miracles with the GPS mapping satellites not to mention the incredible communications satellite network for cell phones and all.

It has only been in recent years with the rise of Rush Limbaugh goofball conservatism that our GOP has got into this thing about the government being the enemy of the private sector. That tax is government taking our money and giving it to others. That we can spend our money better than government. (What does that even mean?)

The hostile eye is merited because the government has a greedy eye that is always looking at the private sector

The Caesar Rodney Institute (CRI) is a new Center-Right, non-partisan, 501c(3) think tank in Delaware.

These same people that guessed wrong and need 18 months to put a shovel in the ground now want to run our health care system?

I remember about 4 years into the Iraq war, before the surge, many defeatists were stating that we had won WWII in less time than we had already been in Iraq. I believe that then-Senator Biden was one of those voices.

Single payer, transportable, permanent, health insurance would be the biggest boost to freedom since interstate highways. Let’s roll.

Republicans would never be for something that will cost jobs, increase taxes and destroy our way of life, rationing health care and telling people that they are going to die because the government finds their treatment to be “unneccessary.”

Asking socialist democracies to vote out universal health care, total control by government of manufacturing and energy is like asking the Russian people under Stalin to vote to repeal his 5 year plans.

What is at stake is whether or not we can afford health care in the near future. This is not a personal versus business conflict. All businesses in this nation today, desperately need a break from health care costs to remain viable.

Admittedly, there are more liberal than conservative talking points in today's little round-up. That was the uintentional result of the fact that most of the conservative talking points were more firmly embedded in paragraphs and sentences where to excerpt them would have been both too awkward and time-consuming. But they were certainly there.

Somebody I know said during the 1990s that people "like to call up talk radio, bloviate, and pretend they've actually done something about the issues." The same is pretty much true today, but the practice extends to blogging, twitter, facebook, etc. etc. ad nauseum....

Comments

Unknown said…
"The Constitution explicitly grants the Federal government the power to tax, and the power to spend. No limits on who you can tax, how much you can tax, and what or who you can spend it on."

It never ceases to amaze me that they embrace this concept rather than recoil in terror from it. Surely liberals understand that some truly horrible things have been accomplished by 50%+1 historically. This isn't theoretical. It's actually happened.

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