"The house we hope to build is not for my generation but for yours. It is your future that matters. And I hope that when you are my age, you will be able to say as I have been able to say: We lived in freedom. We lived lives that were a statement, not an apology."


Friday, September 23, 2011

Walking Backwards

President Obama's policies have not revived the economy for the same reason that you cannot move forward by walking backwards.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Romney’s Sword

Gov. Romney's single term in Massachusetts is a sword he will either be able to wield against his opponents (Rick Perry) or one that will be wielded against him.

If he can leverage the issue in his favor, that quadrennial will be a time when he made as good as he possibly could to instill conservative governance in perhaps the single-most hostile environment for conservatism.

Gov. Perry will spin it a different way, contending that Gov. Romney was not making good so much as accommodating himself to the predominant liberal ethos. That, he will add, is the last thing we need from someone going to Washington at a time when the republic is in dire need of inherent institutional reform.

No significant conservative achievement from Gov. Romney's time in Massachusetts comes to mind, so if he tries to emphasize that as an issue he will be playing right into Gov. Perry's hands. Any mention of Massachusetts is only an invitation to mention Romneycare, perhaps the single largest obstacle to Gov. Romney winning the nomination.

Gov. Romney's strongest card is his tenure in the private sector, the means by which he can say that he has experience turning around failing businesses (and the Salt Lake Olympics) that he will apply towards turning the federal government around. A business, bottom-line approach towards government is music to many conservative voters' ears, so that is the note he should play on his political violin.

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Progressive Taxation

It is one thing to say, as most progressives do, that the wealthy should pay an increased proportion of income in taxes.

The problem most Americans have with this, wealthy or not, is that such a progressive taxation scheme entails the always revenue-hungry federal government deciding who is wealthy and who is not.

To most, this is an entirely discomfiting notion, and it should be.