It seems as though the most coveted job in media these days is People Magazine reporting positions. “Political” journalists are trying so hard to find their voice among the gossipy circles bashing Governor Palin’s couture, and in effect rendering themselves more definitively out of touch with Americans every hour they report on this not-even-peripheral subject.
I live in Pleasanton, California where nearly every mom is a soccer mom, and these are the things on our minds as we get ready to vote…
My neighbors across the street have five kids. Last week, they had to sell their home for $100,000 less than they paid for it, and move their family into a small apartment. Their standard of living is lower, and so is the tax base for my City. With John McCain’s plan to stabilize the mortgage situation, they might have still been in their home for the holidays, and everyone on my street is already missing them terribly.
Another family whose kids attend my kids’ schools lost their income and are in danger of losing their home. Dad was a car salesman. If John McCain’s plan to cut the Alternative Minimum Tax were already in effect, they could keep paying their mortgage while Dad looks for another job.
Several families on my kids’ sports teams have lost jobs and are frantically looking for new ones…probably at a lower salary. If Congressional Democrats had joined John McCain in reigning in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae two years ago, the financial crisis which led to those lost jobs would have been averted.
Some of my friends and neighbors will vote for John McCain, and some won’t. Some will believe that President Bush is to blame for their woes, and some will understand that it is the Democratically-controlled Congress that passes the budget…and has ignored reforms like the ones called for by Senator McCain for the financial industry.
While people on my street are trying to help each other get jobs and waving goodbye to U-haul trucks that take our beloved neighbors away, the gossipy media and spread-the-wealth crowd show no sympathy, and worse – no empathy, for what is happening on Main St. When John McCain talks about putting American home owners first in line for the financial bailout, that really matters to people who are afraid they won’t spend Thanksgiving and Christmas in their homes. We need a leader who loves America and Americans, and John McCain is that leader.
October 26th, 2008 at 12:00 am
I love ya Jill, but c’mon. Could you please tell me where in our platform it says we advocate the government buying up mortgages? You can’t because it doesn’t exist. It does however say that we are for free markets and that we are against bailouts. I guess those are just words to people like Sen McCain.
October 26th, 2008 at 12:00 am
It’s on page 28 of the 2008 Republican Party Platform, adopted and distributed at the RNC convention. The section title is: Rebuilding Homeownership, and it goes a little somethin’ like this…
“Homeownership remains key to creating an opportunity society. We support timely and carefully targeted aid to those hurt by the housing crisis so that affected individuals can have a chance to trade a burdensome mortgage for a manageable loan that reflects their home’s market value.” And it goes on from there. To read the entire platform, go to http://www.gop.com/2008Platform/
Warmly,
Jill (:
P.S. Good question, Allan! Keep ’em coming!
October 26th, 2008 at 12:00 am
And one more thing…
Our favorite California Congressman, Kevin McCarthy, was the chairman of the RNC Platform Committe!
And may I say, he was AWESOME at the convention. He made the California Delegation very, very proud!
October 26th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Kevin McCarthy. Proud.
Sorry, I’m just not used to seeing those words together in the same sentence.
October 27th, 2008 at 12:00 am
“timely and carefully targeted aid”…That’s a loophole big enough to drive a truck through it. It does conflict though with being against bailouts. That’s what the government buying up mortgages would be…another bailout.
Thanks for catching that first phrase for me in the platform. I didn’t realize we went down that socialist road. My bad.
October 27th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Returning taxpayer dollars to taxpayers isn’t socialism, is it? Compassionate conservatism might be the better tag.
October 27th, 2008 at 12:00 am
“Compassionate conservatism” is the excuse used to trick conservatives into supporting big-government socialism.
“Compassionate conservatism” is the reason why the GOP is imploding, and why when told that the Dems will increase the size of government, the Dems just reply “How dare you complain — Bush increased government more then any Democrat!” And sadly, they are right.
October 27th, 2008 at 12:00 am
“Compassionate conservatism” is the excuse used to trick conservatives into supporting big-government socialism.
“Compassionate conservatism” is the reason why the GOP is imploding, and why when told that the Dems will increase the size of government, the Dems just reply “How dare you complain — Bush increased government more then any Democrat!” And sadly, they are right.
October 27th, 2008 at 12:00 am
I don’t think the GOP is imploding, but I do think that we run the risk of being irrelevant if we fail to talk about real American problems and how our Party will solve them. A political party is only as useful as the number of people who voluntarily join it and vote for it. We’re losing marketshare, and it isn’t because conservative principles are out of favor; it’s b/c those who represent the Party the loudest often appear more concerned with being strident guardians of the gate to the GOP than warm and welcoming ushers who help people come inside the Party.
We don’t have to change one iota of the tried and true GOP principles, but we can also be nice. And compassionate. And concerned about people. If we want Americans to choose Republican candidates, we must prove over and over and over again that we care about voters more than “isms” and that our plans will result in a better community and a better country.
Ya know…government OF the people, BY the people and (say it with me now) F O R the people.
October 27th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Well Jill I have to agree with the first paragraph of your last comment, about how the party is not “welcomming ushers who help people come inside the Party”
Imagine how history would have been different had Eisenhower not risen to the level he did dispite his german roots.