Ron Hart: Sanity of Americans not always in question
Recent events have reaffirmed my belief in the sanity of Americans. It was a tough couple of weeks for Democrats.
First, the Yankees won the World Series. To me, their victory is not that great in and of itself because I am a Braves fan. It does, however, confirm that free-market capitalism works. If you pay the most for talent, you usually win. The market sets a price based on the quality of the product and, while there are occasional aberrations (e.g., the Tampa Bay Devil Rays), over time efficient markets prevail.
Second, in a close vote in Maine, one of the gayest states in America (Maine has for years touched Canada's bottom), locals repealed a law passed by their legislature and effectively, in language many view as a double-entendre, overturned gay marriage.
Let's be fair to those who were upset that gay marriage was voted down. I feel quite comfortable that if, in the privacy of a voting booth, Maine held a vote to overturn straight marriages, that measure would also pass.
After numerous tries, the good citizens of Ohio finally voted for casino gambling. The combination of empowered unions, plaintiffs' attorneys, environmental regulation, high taxes and Obama's cap/trade/health care taxes has run manufacturing out of Ohio to either the South or overseas. Now that there are no companies left to sue or tax, there is nothing left to do for money in Ohio but to roll the bones and bet the hard eight.
Yet the most important votes took place in the purple-to-bluish states of New Jersey and Virginia, where the citizenry rejected Obama and elected Republican governors. The Virginia GOP won a whopping 59 percent of the vote — 1 percent short of the 60 percent supermajority needed to reinstate the Confederate flag.
Obama made several trips to campaign for both Democratic candidates, so draw your own conclusions. And in the delusion department, Nancy Pelosi articulated a whopper by saying this was a big win for the Democrats and Obama. She said it consolidated Obama's power, but I am not sure how she got there. The only thing I can reason is that now, if you do not vote for Obama's legislation, he can threaten to come to your state during your election campaign and stump for you.
In classic Chicago-style politics, Obama called the newly elected GOP governors to congratulate them while Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod probably got busy behind the scenes cutting funding to those states and withholding their swine flu vaccine allotment from the CDC.
As with his health care takeover bill, there is no worse feeling for a politician than to be knee-deep in pushing legislation and then suddenly realizing that it will not work. It did not stop Pelosi from negotiating the nationalized health care bill vote to a standoff with the Blue Dog Democrats.
She tends to win, especially when it comes down to who blinks first.
Dilly-dallying over Afghanistan, overpromising on closing Gitmo without thinking it through (if he wanted to close Guantanamo quickly he should have made it a Saturn dealership), and being so PC that he tells us we must not call the perpetrator of the Fort Hood massacre a Muslim, have many feeling Obama has done little to make us safer. I would not be surprised if Sgt. Kim Munley, who shot Maj. Malik Hasan four times in a heroic effort, is prosecuted by Attorney General Eric Holder for a hate crime.
In fairness, this administration did bring Osama bin Laden's driver and chef to trial in the U.S. After that, Obama vowed that he will not rest till he also gets bin Laden's aerobics instructor and pool boy.
Obama decided not to go to Germany to celebrate the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, probably because there was no award to be given to him since Ronald Reagan got there first. Attending the commemoration of such an historic turning point, when individual freedom and capitalism triumphed over an oppressive communist totalitarian regime, would be hard on Obama. He is just now getting over our own elections in November.
Ron Hart is a southern libertarian columnist whose weekly column about politics and life appears Saturdays. Contact him at RevRon10@aol.com.
