THE FOUNDATION: HUMAN NATURE

“If the people are capable of understanding, seeing and feeling the differences between true and false, right and wrong, virtue and vice, to what better principle can the friends of mankind apply than to the sense of this difference?” —John Adams

CULTURE

“There is another factor at work in this year’s election that makes polls and predictions more unreliable than usual. That factor is race. Barack Obama’s string of victories in early Democratic primaries against far better known white candidates shows that large segments of the American population have moved beyond race. It is Barack Obama and his supporters who have hyped race, after his large lead in the polls began to shrink or evaporate, as more of the facts about his checkered career came out. Almost any criticism of Obama has been equated with racism, even if there is no connection that can be seen under a microscope. Barack Obama himself started this trend when he warned that his opponents were going to try to scare the public with various charges, including a statement, ‘And did I say he was black?’ McCain said no such thing. Palin said no such thing. But those who support Obama—and this includes much of the media—are acting as if they just know that this is the underlying message. Congressman John Lewis has likened Senator McCain to George Wallace. Congressman John Murtha has condemned a whole section of the state of Pennsylvania as ‘racists’ because they seem reluctant to jump on the Obama bandwagon. Senator Harry Reid has claimed that linking Obama to deposed and disgraced Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines is racist, since they are both black—as if the financial and political connection between the two does not exist. Much is being made of the fact that, in past elections, some white voters who told pollsters that they are going to vote for a black candidate did not in fact do so, so that a black candidate with a lead in the polls ended up losing on election day. This is supposed to show how much covert racism there is. It might instead show that people don’t want to be considered racists by pollsters because they are leaning toward someone other than the black candidate. In other words, the media themselves helped create the charged atmosphere in which some people give misleading answers to pollsters to avoid being stigmatized.” —Thomas Sowell

CAMPAIGN WATCH

“Transcend means ‘to move beyond, to surpass.’ At least that’s what I always thought. But I’m beginning to wonder whether it means instead: ‘Much, much more of the same, only this time really stupid.’ Exhibit A: the incessant, relentless, click-your-ruby-red-slippers-and-say-it-until-it-comes-true mantra that Barack Obama will magically cause America to ‘transcend race.’ One hears and reads this everywhere, but less as an argument than as a prayer, an expression of faith, a ‘from my lips to The One’s ear’ sort of thing. It is, of course, total and complete nonsense. According to L.B.O. (Logic Before Obama), transcending race would involve making race less of an issue. Passengers on Spaceship Obama would see race shrink and then vanish in the rearview mirror. Instead, Obama has set off a case of full-blown race dementia among precisely the crowd that swears Obama is leading us out of the racial wilderness. Rather than shrink, the tumor of racial paranoia is metastasizing, pressing down on the medulla oblongata or whatever part of the brain that, when poked, causes one to hallucinate, conjure false memories and write astoundingly insipid things. For instance, a writer for Slate sees racism when anyone notes that Barack Obama is—wait for it—skinny. What this portends for Fat Albert is above my pay grade. We need to rewrite those old Schoolhouse Rock cartoons, because now virtually any adjective, noun, verb or adverb aimed at Barack Obama that is not obsequiously sycophantic or wantonly worshipful runs the risk of being decried as racist. Community organizer? Racist! Mentioning his middle name? Racist! Arrogant? Racist! Palling around with a (white) terrorist? Racist! Celebrity? Racist! Cosmopolitan? Racist! This? Racist! That? Racist! The other thing? Oh man, that’s really racist. The new Schoolhouse Rock cartoon: ‘Conjunction: a word that connects a racist attack and Barack Obama’.” —Jonah Goldberg

INSIGHT

“Well, there’s something known as American conservatism, though it does not even call itself that. It’s been calling itself ‘voting Republican’ or ‘not liking the New Deal.’ But it is a very American approach to life, and it has to do with knowing that the government is not your master, that America is good, that freedom is good and must be defended, and communism is very, very bad.” —William F. Buckley Jr.

THE GIPPER

“The most dangerous myth is the demagoguery that business can be made to pay a larger share, thus relieving the individual. Politicians preaching this are either deliberately dishonest, or economically illiterate, and either one should scare us. Business doesn’t pay taxes, and who better than business to make this message known? Only people pay taxes, and people pay as consumers every tax that is assessed against a business. Begin with the food and fiber raised in the farm, to the ore drilled in a mine, to the oil and gas from out of the ground, whatever it may be—through the processing, through the manufacturing, on out to the retailer’s license. If the tax cannot be included in the price of the product, no one along that line can stay in business.” —Ronald Reagan

IChThUS IMPRIMIS

“God’s view of government dictates that it carries out a specified and limited role in human affairs. The church and civil government are made necessary by the same thing (sin), but do not have identical responsibilities (Matthew 22:15-21). The humanist view of the role of government is to perfect mankind. The Scriptural view of the role of government is to protect mankind. Throughout Scripture, God is clear that civil government is charged with a limited responsibility and that good leaders decide to take a Scriptural view of government’s role. We also see in Scripture that God has a welfare plan—people are to look to the family, then the church, then the community (1 Timothy 5:3-16, Leviticus 19:9, 10, 23:22). The humanistic plan is publicly funded, coercive, and creates cycles of dependency. God’s plan is community-oriented, voluntary, and empowers people.” —Nathan Tabor

GOVERNMENT

“People who put faith in government to solve national or even individual problems are headed for deep disappointment, if it hasn’t already arrived. Still, that doesn’t stop politicians from attempting to sell political snake oil to the gullible. No one ever lost money betting on the ignorance of the uninformed masses. What should be required viewing before the election is ‘John Stossel’s Politically Incorrect Guide to Politics,’ a ‘20/20’ report critical of the U.S. government’s ability to get things done. The report looked at facts, not opinions, or ‘feelings’ concerning government’s inability to live up to the high expectations caused by over-promising politicians. Stossel visited New Orleans to see how government reconstruction is progressing three years after Hurricane Katrina. What he found should not surprise anyone. Huge numbers of houses remain un-repaired thanks to a bureaucracy that could serve as a plot for a horror movie called ‘Nightmare on Bourbon Street.’ The forms necessary to apply for permits to conduct any repairs or construct new buildings take 10 minutes to explain. As for the houses themselves, ‘Of the 314 public projects (New Orleans Mayor Ray) Nagin promoted in his ‘One New Orleans’ rebuilding campaign announced in January 2006, only six are complete.’ Contrast that with what the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity has done: ‘They built 70 homes quickly,’ noted Stossel. ‘Even Nagin admitted they did what government didn’t.’ Private enterprise has succeeded, where government has failed… Individual Americans do things better, with less bureaucracy and at less cost than the central planning collective known as government.” —Cal Thomas

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OPINION IN BRIEF

“The abuse being heaped on Sarah Palin is such a cheap shot. The complaint against the Alaska governor, at its most basic, is that she doesn’t qualify for admission to the national political fraternity. Boy, that’s rich. Behold the shabby frat house that says it’s above her pay grade… The primary discomfort with Gov. Palin is the notion that she doesn’t have sufficient experience to be president, that Sen. McCain should have picked a Washington hand seasoned in the ways of the world. Such as? Here’s an opinion poll question: If as Joe Biden suggests the U.S. is likely to be tested by a foreign enemy next year, who of the following would you rather have dealing with it in the Oval Office: Nancy (of Damascus) Pelosi, Harry Reid, John Edwards, Joe (the U.S. drove Hezbollah out of Lebanon) Biden, Mike Huckabee, Geraldine Ferraro, Tom DeLay, Jimmy Carter or Sarah Palin? My pick? Gov. Palin, surely the most grounded, common-sense person on that list of prime-time politicians.” —Daniel Henninger

RE: THE LEFT

“These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was… the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was… the Republican Party. Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout! What? It’s not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame? Now let’s follow the money… right to the presidential candidate who is the number-two recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae. And after Freddie Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae who made $90 million while running it into the ground, was fired for his incompetence, one presidential candidate’s campaign actually consulted him for advice on housing. If that presidential candidate had been John McCain, you would have called it a major scandal and we would be getting stories in your paper every day about how incompetent and corrupt he was. But instead, that candidate was Barack Obama, and so you have buried this story, and when the McCain campaign dared to call Raines an ‘adviser’ to the Obama campaign—because that campaign had sought his advice—you actually let Obama’s people get away with accusing McCain of lying, merely because Raines wasn’t listed as an official adviser to the Obama campaign. You would never tolerate such weasely nit-picking from a Republican. If you who produce our local daily paper actually had any principles, you would be pounding this story, because the prosperity of all Americans was put at risk by the foolish, short-sighted, politically selfish, and possibly corrupt actions of leading Democrats, including Obama.” —Orson Scott Card, Democrat columnist

FOR THE RECORD

“A little noticed provision in the $700 billion Paulson plan requires Uncle Sam to embrace a sort of mark-to-market accounting for the bank investments Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will be making with taxpayer funds. Federal budgeteers will have to regularly estimate the change in value of the taxpayers’ stakes and count the paper gain or loss in the annual deficit estimates. If the assets perform well, the next president will have more money to spend without enlarging the deficit. If they perform badly, just the opposite. With expectations that the deficit could be headed toward a psychologically shocking $1 trillion in the next year or so, a strong rally in bank stocks might even be the difference between a flood and a trickle of visible red ink. Then again, if the goal is truth-in-accounting, it would be nice to see some mark-to-market on the liability side too, including Social Security and Medicare. Right now, unlike a private business, the government is not obliged to record any charge in the annual budget to cover the unfunded future obligations of these programs.” —James Freeman

SELECT READER COMMENTS

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“As a student of early American history, ’The once-great Democratic Party’ is an excellent article. We today are the political culture that our founders feared. Quote after quote of Jefferson, S. Adams, J. Adams and Washington spoke of a society that was no longer self-governed. Our government was spoken of as the great experiment. I have come to realize that the experiment wasn’t about the government, but the people. Could we be a people who would continue to be self-governed under God or would we the people become self-absorbed and ignore God. I fear for the America that we are handing to my grandchildren. I appreciate your publication and specifically this article. Thank you for doing what you do.” —Puyallup, Washington

I noticed today an inaccuracy in the Patriot Post that makes me wonder what else isn’t correct in your publication.

“In Mark Alexander’s essay, ‘The once-great Democratic Party,’ he said, ‘In his keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention this year, Virginia Senate candidate Mark Warner described the Republican Party: ”It is made up of the Christian Coalition… It is made up of the right-to-lifers… It’s made up of the NRA… It is made up of the home schoolers… It’s made up of a whole coalition of people that have all sorts of differing views that I think most of us in this room would find threatening to what it means to be an American.“’ This is flatly incorrect. Mark Warner said nothing of the kind. A quick look at the speech transcript backed up my memory. You have done a moderate candidate a grievous injustice—and cast doubt upon both your veracity and your motivations.” —Alexandria, Virginia

Editor’s Reply: Mark Warner did, in fact, say what Mark Alexander quoted him as saying, but it was in 1994, not at this year’s Democrat Convention. The remarks only recently became public. We regret the error.

“I am a Virginian living in Estonia who reads and supports The Patriot. Keep up the great work! I hope you can reach more and more of the so-called ‘undecided’ folks to get them thinking. God bless America! We are a bunch of Patriots here holding the fort against the Russian bear!” —Estonia