STOUT STATECRAFT
A question I’ve posed to my Democrat friends and especially those who supported Barack Obama and plan to support Hillary Clinton should she run for President in 2016 is this: “Name one country on this planet with which we have a better relationship today than we did in January 2009, when the two of them ‘reset’ our foreign policy.” Silence. Sometimes there is some hem-hawing and throat clearing and defenses like, “Well, they inherited a real tough situation.…”
Spare me! Here’s the skinny: There is not a nation on earth with whom our relations are better now than before the policies of Obama/Hillary were launched. One could argue they are better with Iran, but that’s only if you really believe the Iranian government can be trusted, gives a rat’s rear what we think of it, or has any intention of acting responsibly as a part of the world. Our friends (Israel, the UK, Germany, France, Japan, Egypt, even Canada) don’t trust us and our rivals (Russia, China, Syria, et al.) don’t fear or even respect us. Our word is dirt and our reputation is mud.
In the world of God, guns, grits, and gravy, we were raised to live by the code, “A man’s word is his bond.” That was drilled into me from the time I was a tot. My Dad was not an educated man and as I’ve mentioned, he never finished high school. But while he may have lacked education, he didn’t lack in being smart and honest. He would say, “Son, if you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember what you said.” And as to living up to obligations, he always said, “Don’t ever have to be asked but once to do what you said you would do, whether it’s to pay a bill or show up for work on time.”
My late Dad could have run the foreign policy of this country more effectively than the current administration, and I doubt he could have named the leaders of three countries other than the United States or found many nations on a world map. What he did understand was that if you want to avoid a fight, you make your opponent afraid to start one. No one picks a fight with someone they think will whip their butt. They pick on someone who is either weak or unwilling to engage. America ought to have the most effective army, navy, air force, coast guard, and marine corps on the globe and it should be so incredibly well-trained, well-equipped, and possess such overwhelming capacity that it would never have to go to war and use its superior strength. We should not start fights, jump into other nations’ fights, or flex our military muscle provocatively just because we can. Its purpose should not to be “export democracy,” or “nation build,” because that’s the work of diplomats. Our military should be trained and ready to turn loose a living hell on any nation or terrorist organization that hurts an American or attempts to breach our borders.
Real rednecks don’t like to fight. But if someone challenges their honor, their family, or their property, then Buddy Boy, you better come with an army, because you’ve just picked one heck of a fight. That gun cabinet is not there to display force, but to deliver it if necessary. No one I know would like to get something from the gun safe other than to go duck hunting or deer hunting or turkey hunting. But threaten a man’s home or family, and the ducks and deer get the day off, but it will be a bad day for the person who didn’t understand that a country boy doesn’t helplessly call 911 and hope help arrives before he gets killed or his wife and daughter get assaulted. He calls 911 to tell them where to come and pick up the carcass of the one who tried to break into his home.
If America were run by rednecks, we wouldn’t go around waving guns at nations and threatening anyone. It’s just not proper to do that. But God help the “sumbitch” that would hurt a hair on the neck of an American—because, to paraphrase that great military strategist Merle Haggard, “Partner, you’ve gotten on the fightin’ side of me.”
19
Beyond the Bumper Stickers
(YES, THIS IS THE CONCLUSION, BUT BE SURE AND READ IT BECAUSE IT’S GOOD STUFF!)
HUGH ALBRIGHT IS ONE OF the best fishing guides in Arkansas, where he works on Lake Ouachita near Hot Springs. He’s not only expert at finding and catching fish, but he’s a good friend and I’ve had the joy of fishing with him and enjoying the fish and the fellowship. He’s what those of us in the South call a true “good ol’ boy.” That’s like a Jew calling you a mensch. It’s a term of endearment. Hugh is also a great storyteller and if a person didn’t even enjoy fishing, hanging out in the boat amid the beauty of Lake Ouachita and listening to him tell his tales is well worth the time and money.
Hugh tells the story of a client who had traveled from Minnesota every year for about seven years to fish with Hugh on Ouachita. His client usually would go out several consecutive days and return home with a freezer full of fresh fish. On the last day of his seventh-year trip, his client said, “Hugh, we’ve fished together for several years now, and I feel like we’ve become friends.” Hugh answered, “Yeah, I sure feel that way and glad you do.”
His guest then said, “Well, Hugh, I don’t want to say this wrong, but it seems like people down here [in the South] might just be a little slow. People talk slow, don’t seem to be in a hurry to get places, and aren’t as well-educated generally. Are folks here just a bit ‘slow’?”
In his characteristic slow drawl of a voice, Hugh asked, “Before you leave today, are you going to fill up some of those plastic jugs you have with our fresh spring water?” The guest replied that he would because it was the best and purest water he’d ever had and he knew that people actually came from around the world to drink it and bathe in it for its mineral qualities and healing powers.
“And,” Hugh continued, “are you going out to the rock shop on Highway 70 and load up with some of the beautiful crystal rocks that are sold there?”
His client responded, “Oh, yes, Hugh. My friends back home love getting those rocks—they’ve never seen anything quite like them and I always take a lot of them back.”
Hugh then said, “Well, I don’t reckon if I know if we’re all that slow or not, but I do know that some of us make a pretty good living selling water from our ground, rocks from our yard, and taking Yankees fishing.” Bang!
I’d rather eat barbecue with Hugh Albright than Chateaubriand with a Wall Street banker; I’d rather sit in church with Nancy the makeup artist who had a pizza and herself delivered to her house than sit in an opera with European royalty; and I’m more comfortable in Walmart than at Tiffany’s. Yes, I’ve learned to sit at the head table, but I enjoy being with the folks in the kitchen even more.
As difficult as it may be for folks in the urban power centers to understand, real power for folks in the land of God, guns, grits, and gravy is having family and neighbors you can count on when you’re in trouble, a church that keeps you centered around what’s really important, a table where good food and laughter are always on the menu, and the self-reliance to take care of your home and your family should someone ever try to violate either one. I don’t know anyone I live around who is ashamed of that.
The less contact we have with government, the better. We especially feel a disconnect with the people who live and work in our nation’s capital.
Before getting into the particulars of the differences between the LA, D.C., and NYC elite and the rest of America, it’s worth noting that D.C. has become an island unto itself, and I do mean a Treasure Island. Big money lobbyists are a plague that affects both parties, but the excesses are particularly egregious when liberals are in charge because their entire philosophy is built around more government and more spending, which means lobbyists are working overtime either to protect their industry bosses from the regulations or snap up those fat government contracts and stimulus bucks. Obama took office on a promise that lobbyists would have no place in his administration. He then not only threw open the gates to lobbyists, he actually gave a $510,577 government contract to Chatman LLC, a registered lobbying firm, to sign up Obamacare navigators. In fact, Chatman lobbies the government on behalf of a private hospital and even lobbied Congress during the writing of Obamacare. So their unusual government contract put them in the unique pos
ition of lobbying on behalf of a law they’d lobbied. I’m tempted to call that a “loblolly.”
The explosion of government and spending under Obama insured that while the rest of the nation continued to suffer stagnant job growth and slow housing sales long past the time when a recovery should have been underway, one city was booming like a five-year-long Led Zeppelin drum solo: Washington, D.C.
According to the 2014 Forbes ranking of the ten richest counties in America, none were in New York, California, or Texas. Before Obama took office, five of the richest counties surrounded Washington, D.C. Now, seven years after Obama took office on his promise to rid the place of big money lobbyists, and Democrats assumed complete control of the White House and Congress for two years, six of the richest counties surround Washington, D.C.
Bear in mind that unlike Texas or California, where money is generated by creating products people actually need, such as oil or computers, Washington, D.C., produces nothing but government. In other words, six of the ten richest counties in America got that rich by being parasites. A case could be made that under the current leadership, crony capitalism is more rewarding than actual capitalism. And with all that government around business people’s necks, it’s certainly a heckuva lot easier.
Many Americans might not realize just how drunk with power and money, and how out of touch with regular Americans, the people in the nation’s capital have become. After all, politicians love to show up at factories, wearing blue work shirts that still sport the creases from being folded inside the plastic wrapper, to laud the working person and vow that they are focused like a laser beam on creating jobs. Then they go back to D.C. and pass another tax or expensive mandate (i.e., “tax”) on business owners. The only jobs they seem to have the slightest idea how to create are jobs for lobbyists and IRS workers.
Two quick examples:
1. The IRS budget request for fiscal year 2012 showed they planned to hire 1,269 full-time employees at a cost of $473 million to help implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. People in D.C. must also have a totally different definition of the word “affordable” than the rest of America does.
2. The founders of the Internet giant Google, whose informal slogan is DON’T BE EVIL, were big supporters of Obama and famous for their disdain of government lobbying. In 2004, Google opened a tiny office in D.C. with just one lobbyist. But The Washington Post reports that by 2012, Google had grown such a massive, active lobbying organization that their spending on lobbying was second only to General Electric, and they were preparing to move into a new D.C. headquarters spread over 55,000 square feet, about the size of the White House. My question: Why not just move into the White House?
Well-connected D.C. insiders now live in a bubble of decadent luxury that rivals the titans of the Gilded Age. Some are elected officials, like Nancy “I’ll fly my grandkids home on a military jet” Pelosi or the Obamas themselves, whose vacation videos resemble an episode of Robin Leach’s Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. The Washington Examiner analyzed Air Force records for Air Force One and Two and found that just the air travel expenses for the Obamas’ and Bidens’ vacations added up to over $40 million since they took office. Two Obama golf outings in 2014 cost $2.9 million in travel expenses alone. I wonder if we could cut that down to $2 million if he took up miniature golf?
But if our elected leaders live like Rockefellers, some of the influence peddlers surrounding them live lifestyles worthy of Cleopatra or Scrooge McDuck. They try to keep it hidden behind gated communities and dark-suited security guards at fundraisers inside luxury hotel ballrooms. But glimpses occasionally leak out. Like when Democratic super-lobbyists Tony and Heather Podesta went through a contentious divorce, and the legal battle over splitting their property was made public.
National Review’s Kevin Williamson dubbed it “Lifestyles of the Rich and Odious,” as details spilled out about the estranged couple’s multimillion-dollar mansion, their expansive wine cellar, their second home in Venice, and their museum-quality, 1,300-piece art collection. The Washington Post reports that the Podestas held lavish mixers for power players in their Washington, D.C., manor and opened it up for tours to proudly show off their artworks, including an eight-foot photograph of a naked man in the living room and photos by an artist famous for photographing naked teenagers in suburban homes. They reportedly found the shocked looks on guests’ faces amusing.
The differences between these folks and the rest of America are as stark as the way we give as the way we live.
According to the stereotypes promulgated by those in politics and the media out of D.C., LA, and NYC, conservatives are greedy, mean, and uncaring, while liberals are openhearted, compassionate, and generous (also brilliant, witty, and superior lovers—see the advantages of owning the media?). But absolutely none of these tropes withstand objective evidence.
In his 2007 book Who Really Gives, Syracuse University professor Arthur C. Brooks looked at the real numbers behind charitable giving in America. He found that of the top twenty-five states where people gave an above-average percentage of their income to charity, Maryland was the only blue (liberal) state. While rich people gave the most dollars to charity, the highest percent of income was given by the working poor. They give almost 30 percent more as a share of their income than the rich do. Even though liberal-headed families make more money on average, conservative-headed families give 30 percent more of their income to charity. The most likely people to donate to charity are married, conservative churchgoers. The least likely to give are secular, young liberals under thirty—the group most likely to point the finger at others and call them greedy for not sharing enough of their wealth.
Critics tried to discount Brooks’s numbers by saying he shouldn’t count contributions to churches as charity giving. I’m not certain why that shouldn’t be considered charity giving, but okay. Brooks checked the numbers and found that even if you factored out all the donations to churches, conservatives still give more than liberals. And not just to nonprofits aligned with their political or religious views, but to all types of charities. That includes money given to homeless people on the street. Conservatives were even 18 percent more likely to give blood than liberals. Brooks said that “people who believe it’s the government’s job to make incomes more equal are far less likely to give their money away.” They’re like a college student buying rounds of drinks for the house with their dad’s credit card. Nothing is easier than being generous with someone else’s money.
When John Stossel was on ABC’s 20/20, he tested Brooks’s claim by setting up Salvation Army collection pots in San Francisco and Sioux Falls, Iowa. One would think that the San Francisco pot would have all the advantages. Sioux Falls is filled with conservative churchgoers, the type of people gleefully caricatured as greedy, selfish hypocrites by liberals. San Francisco is filled with secular liberals with a far higher average income than Sioux Falls, and it’s so crowded that three times as many people passed by the pot. And that’s exactly what they did: passed it by. At the end of two days, the Sioux Falls collection pot held twice as much money as the San Francisco pot.
And for the New York and Hollywood centers of news and entertainment, to borrow a phrase from the once senator and Presidential candidate, but always sleazy John Edwards, there really are two Americas.
Liberals in NY and LA love to scoff at Fox News, or as they all call it (as if they thought of it themselves), “Faux News.” Meanwhile, the rest of the nation respectfully disagrees.
From Mediabistro, April 30, 2014:
Fox News finished its 148th consecutive month as the top-rated cable news network. FNC’s hold on total viewers remains particularly strong, with the network beating CNN and MSNBC combined in every hour.
The ratings for April 2014 (Nielsen Live + Same Day data):
• Primetime (Mon–Sun): 1,614,000 total viewers / 296,000 A25–54
• Total Day (Mon–Sun): 960,000 total viewers / 201,000 A25–54
… [Also] it was a milestone month for “Fox & Friends,” which marks 150 consecutive months as the top-rated cable news morning show.
While the coastal media elites would have us believe that Americans are endlessly fascinated with the salacious doings of the Kardashian clan and their various divorces, pregnancies, and exposures of their bodies, the highest-rated episode ever of their reality show drew 3.7 million viewers in 2010. Meanwhile, the tight-knit, God-fearing, Bible-believing Robertson family on Duck Dynasty, alternately mocked and scorned by the coastal elites, drew 11.77 million viewers to their season four premiere in August 2013. It not only beat all competition on the major broadcast networks, it still stands as the highest-rated telecast in the history of the A&E cable channel.
When married producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey tried to sell the idea of producing a miniseries called The Bible, they met resistance in Hollywood. Focus on the Family’s president Jim Daly, who acted as a consultant on the series, told The Denver Post that “when they first proposed the project they were told to try and tell the story without mentioning Jesus. They refused.” If ever there was a perfect summation of the Hollywood mentality, this is it: “We love your idea of turning the Bible into a movie, but does it have to include Jesus? Couldn’t we make it Tom Cruise instead?”
Again, the Hollywood elites were wrong: The Bible was a major hit. Its premiere episode drew 13.1 million viewers to the History channel, beating the broadcast networks and setting a record as the highest-rated cable show of 2013. Subsequent episodes also drew huge audiences. The footage on the life of Jesus became the basis of the theatrical film, Son of God, which despite largely negative reviews has made nearly $60 million as of this writing. It became one of a wave of faith-based films (including God’s Not Dead and Heaven Is for Real) to surprise Hollywood by unexpectedly hitting big at the box office. Somehow, liberals always find it unexpected when Christians turn out to see a faith-based movie or when Obama’s economic numbers are disappointing. They are as easily surprised as bunny rabbits.
God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy Page 25