In Defense of Freedom

Thank God in heaven for the Constitution: it's exactly what I think with each passing day leading up to the midterm elections of 2010. As if still playing the establishment outsider card, the Obama Administration has come out with a strong criticism of the Karl Rove sponsored American Crossroads PAC, as well as its friendly ally, the Chamber of Commerce, claiming both groups are being funded by foreign entities, which is by most descriptions completely illegal in the United States.

Despite the president's complaints, the group is picking up steam, and apparently broke fundraising records during the first week of October, as reported by the Washington Post in the article here. I am entirely sure Barack Obama respects the Constitution, but he seems to have forgotten one of its primary tenets in launching this broadside in a bad political year for the Democrats: the 1st Amendment. As it reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." 


Plain as can be, the Constitution dictates that people and organizations of individuals (corporations and PACs), may have their own say in each election campaign. Trying to remove that right is not only in violation of our founding document; it also casts a poor light on President Obama, who won the 2008 election through unprecedented fundraising, much of which was collected from foreign sources. 


For the Democrats, it must hurt to read those words now that they occupy the halls of the Whitehouse, as the text makes almost each of their arguments against the action committees nulled. But for those who might remain convinced that these conservative friendly blocs are only used by the GOP, I urge consideration of the many 527 groups and PACs which helped swing the House, and more importantly, the Senate, to the donkey party in 2006. Back then, the Democrats were certainly quick to emblazon themselves with the banner of the union, decrying the supposed tightening of regulations surrounding free speech by the Bush Administration. Now, the tuning of their political radars is changing, and thus the unfairness to incumbents role is their own to play in. 


Maybe I am wrong, but it almost seems as if the Democratic Party cannot stand to lose, no matter the risks or costs of winning. In 2008, despite a strong outsider advantage, they reverted to voter fraud and international fundraising to ensure a presidential victory and supplemental wins in Congress, and many of their most high-profile senators and congressman are simply bowing out rather than facing the voters come election day. In previous years which held likely negatives for the current minority party, incumbents stuck it out to the end, accepting defeat rather than attempting to retire under the guise of humble public service. 


As time goes on, Congress and the Whitehouse will change parties, yet the Constitution must remain the trustee of both power brokers, ever strengthened and never adjusted so as to diminish personal rights. Only in maintaining such a policy for the nation can we continue to endure as the last great symbol of world freedom and unparalleled democracy. 


Andrew Rimmer

National Alliance Vice President for Communications

Economic Mayhem: Part II

In recent hours, the Obama Administration announced its plans for a new fiscal blitz against the wavering economy with a carefully labeled "economic plan." Quick to respond after reporters attempted to place the new attempt into the same category as the Administration's earlier stimulus package, the President furiously insisted on giving it the precautionary tag of the aforementioned plan, hoping to avoid a parallel comparison with his all but universally loathed  "cures" for our nation's monetary and fiscal problems.

Whether Barack Obama employs more rhetoric or even none at really is irrelevant at the point in history, and will not truly help us save us from the pitfall of an extended or double dipped recession within our economy. It is not that any members of the current majority government honestly feel or can prove the future benefits of the first and now proposed second stimulus; rather, they know the prior attempt was all a worthless facade, and the second will mirror its same classifications.

No, the Administration and the Congress is tying everything to the hated word of Capitol Hill, the binding fragment that should not inhabit the minds of our leaders as they make decisions,l yet is all too present in our present state of governance: political ideology. Even in its most mild form, the sensation has so passionately seized hold of the Democratic Party and the President that it now threatens to become the key ticket to both of their downfalls in this fresh decade.

What must be understood in explaining this is that the top dogs of the Democratic Leadership, most notably Nancy Pelosi and Charles Schumer, ran in 2006 and 2008 not with a European-style social democratic platform, but with a more moderate, fix Washington strategy. Americans were less appreciative of the Democrats than simply angry at the Republicans, and without too much difficulty, the center-leftist party coasted to an admirable victory, capturing both houses and inflicting several humiliating defeats on the incumbent Republicans. Two years later in 2008, the Democrats tried to play the same card, interrupted only by the presence of a somewhat annoying presidential candidate who was convinced that mass appeal was his ticket to the Whitehouse. He went from closing Guantanamo Bay, to fixing the economy, to trying terrorists in America,  with a touch of everything to please the unsatisfiable populace, and came out on top.

Now President Obama and his party's leaders are struggling to cover for the unrealistic policies which he foolishly proposed in order to win the 2008 election. After all the fundraising and claims of future prosperity, his government is boiling down to an atrocious mix of braggart ways and projected, not sincere, leadership.

With his latest gambit being a second stimulus package, even the President knows his plans will not work, but he is fixated about the historical view of his ideology. Did he stick his guns as a social democrat, or dispel Keynesian philosophy for fundamentalist common sense? Truth unveiled, Barack Obama cannot stand the notion of his ideology being publicly versed as ineffective a wrong. His type of persona will always object, arguing long after his presidency that "too much obstructionism was involved," and that "the time was not right" for his plans to reach positive fruition.

Despite the endless sentences of jargon we will be forced to endure both in defense of this new package and afterwards, good men must push on for beneficial additions to help the economy. As the National Alliance Foundation has made clear, the key to recovery is not in more government, or in breaks only for corporations, but in the restarting of the small business community to provide jobs and opportunity to the commonwealth. Entrepreneurs, armed with a restructured policy that aims to eliminate business income tax and hands out credits for companies who invest in domestically produced products will boost our state of fiscal stability to a healthy zone of general success in the near future.

If President Obama desires to mend his image with the voters, then he must shift his range of vision to focus on helping businesses survive, not in paying off union members with large checks from the taxpayer's pocket. In fact, it would be far wiser to simply give the money to businesses through loans and to state and local governments. Federal programs are known for their ineptitude and poor results, verse the wiser actions of councilors and delegates closer to the public.

Our recovery from this recession will not come from the government; it shall be made up of the efforts and bravery of the small business community, which is the heart and soul of the American People.

John Lai

National Alliance Treasurer and Comptroller General