Now, do not misunderstand me. America is great. Our nation has done, and continues to do, more for the cause of freedom around the world than any nation in the history of man.
But American is in trouble, and the people know it. We sense that our way of life and, perhaps more importantly, our ability to decide how we shall live, is no longer in our control but in the control of an increasingly powerful and oppressive national government--a government run by people who simply do not share our values or our beliefs and blatantly ignore its limits.
In short, it is not America that is broken; it is Washington that is broken.
Indeed, the Texas unemployment rate is the lowest among the nation's ten largest states, as is our state's level of debt. Texas was named the top exporting state in the country for the 8th straight year. That's what happens when you free up citizens to compete. And as a result, we were able to finish our last legislative session with a balanced budget, a tax cut for 40,000 small businesses, and over $8 billion set aside for our state's "rainy-day fund." In fact, Texas & Alaska are responsible for 2/3 of all state dollars set aside in reserve. A sad indictment on the rest of America, this is a source of pride for those of us in Austin.
What I mean by that is simple. Republicans, in general, believe in low taxes, low regulation, less spending, free-market health care, constitutional judges, protecting innocent life, enforcing our laws and our borders, peace through strength, empowering the states, and generally advocating principles of limited government. On the other hand, most of my Democratic friends--unfortunately--generally believe in higher taxes, more regulations, capitulation to our enemies, and generally a bigger and more active government than not.
But the problem goes far deeper than that. Prohibition on school prayer, the redefinition of marriage, the nationalization of health care, the proliferation of federal criminal laws, interference with local education, the increased regulation of food --even telling us what kind of lightbulb we can use--there is seemingly no end to the reach of Washington.
What happened to our country? Such policies represent an almost complete abandonment of a limited central government rooted in federalism.
Have you noticed that modern liberals are trying to shift back to the term "Progressive"? They are doing this because they know they have lost the war in defending liberalism. Who can be against progress, after all? But it's a fraudulent use of the word, because ofr the Progressive, progress is marked not by how free you are, but by how much government can "do" for you.
This view--that government should be an interventionist force in American society--remains alive and well today. To me, the idea of living under a distant government that dictates those circumstances and what I may and may not do is not comforting but intolerable. But that is the ethos of the Progressives.
That the Court makes policy can hardly be debated--and that many of these policy choices affect the citizen at the core of his personal conscience is equally beyond question. Consider that it is our courts that routinely decide, with little of no chance of further appeal, how and where we may and may not pray to God, when life begins, whethe contraception must be allowed to be sold, whether and how we can celebrate religious holidays, what those other than man and woman must be allowed to marry, what level of discrimination may carried out (in the name of ending discrimination), whether a state must allow women to attend an all-male military academy, who may be executed and whether we may execute criminals at all, and generally any issue involving social preference, morality, and our collective concept of right and wrong.
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| Candidates and political leaders on Principles & Values: | |||
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2010 Retiring Democratic Senators:
CT:Dodd DE:Kaufman IL:Burris IN:Bayh ND:Dorgan WV:Byrd WV:Goodwin |
<2010 Retiring Republican Senators:
FL:Martinez FL:LeMieux KS:Brownback KY:Bunning MO:Bond NH:Gregg OH:Voinovich PA:Specter UT:Bennett |
Newly appointed/elected Senators, 2009-2010:
DE:Kaufman (D) CO:Bennet (D) IL:Burris (D) MA:Brown (R) NY:Gillibrand (D) | |
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