The Price of Anarchy

October 19, 2008

Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution opined that Republicans cling to three wrong-headed ideas that addle their thinking, which are:

(1) the assertion that Saddam Hussein represented a threat to the United States,
(2) that affirmative action in lending led to the mortgage crisis and
(3) that voter fraud is a serious problem in modern elections.

That's right, Ms. Tucker. I am a Bitter Clinger.

I believe that when S. Hussein controls the flow of two million barrels of oil per day and has designs on invading other countries and hijacking ten million more, he is a threat to the USA and to the world. He has to be stopped - by war if needed. And if the warring powers somehow decide to spare his head, he has an obligation to that cease-fire. But Hussein decided to violate that obligation, and it cost him his crown, his family, his fortune, and his head.

I believe the New York Times article from September 30, 1999, outlining the steps Fannie Mae is taking to provide subprime lending to previously underqualified borrowers, 18 percent of whom happened to be black, is roughly accurate.

I believe that when people show up to the polls without any sort of identification, they should not be permitted to cast a vote.

Not only do I believe these things, but I feel that I am entitled to cast aspersions on my fellow Americans who are in the dissent.

I think there is something seriously wrong with a person who does not support the war efforts of his own country when many thousands of his fellow countrymen risk life and limb. To attack the troops verbally; to say that they as a class are engaged in war crimes; to mock them or protest their families at funerals; to encourage men to desert, or to aid them in desertion, or to praise the men who have deserted as though they are heroes; these are the marks of the traitor.

I think that a loan must be made on good faith, and central to that assumption is the demonstrated ability of the borrower to pay back that which he borrows. When the government secures the loans, it becomes the patsy and the fall guy and so do we. When the Congress (notably Reps. Frank, Dodd, et. al.) pressures Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac to relax their lending policies, it costs us the taxpayers money. This crisis has been brewing for a long time and the timing of recent collapses should be called into question with regard to the elections.

It's bad enough that the poll tax, which was fairly good at weeding out voter fraud, was eliminated because it was "disenfranchising." There's something wrong when you have to show a membership card to go to Sam's Club, but not at Uncle Sam's Club. The fate of the nation hangs in the balance, and should we encourage people to drive from polling place to polling place and cast their Mickey-Mouse and Donald-Duck votes? No way!

It boils down to honesty, Ms. Tucker, and if you bend the rules until they break, there are no rules. Anarchy has a high price - foreign wars, economic troubles, and fixed elections. Time to pay up.