Politics

Well, yesterday I found myself stirring up trouble on Facebook after commenting on my cousin's post on the whole healthcare thing that was just pushed through. Evidently some of my cousins are liberals who are in love with Obama. I was blasted back and decided that maybe I should just keep to myself and not reply because you just can't "reason" with some people. I turned to my dad in response to one of the comments that was posted since he is in politics. Before I post his response (which I loved) I will give you some background on some of the comments posted. Most of them are by young people- 20's- whom in my opinion (JUST MY OPINION...) jump on the liberal bandwagon because it's the "in" thing to do at that age. (Although I never remember doing that...) It gets them the attention they need/crave. If you want to read the post that my cousin was so nice to post for me click here.

Here is my dad's response for me. I am using my blog to post instead of Facebook as to not stir up more trouble. :-)

The problem seems to be with the age of the people that are posting comments. The last one talks about Vietnam with no idea of what was going on at the time. They blast Bush and the republican because of the Iraq war but forget that it was a democrat president and congress that took the nation into World War I and II, the Korean conflict and Vietnam. It was the beloved President Kennedy that got us into Vietnam, Johnson (another democrat) that saw the expansion of troops to 500,000 and Nixon (republican) ended the thing. The Vietnam war was lost because of the political correctness that the democrat presidents insisted on. Planes could not bomb certain targets, artillery batteries could not fire on supplies going down the Ho Chi Ming trail even though they could see them in transit because it was across the line. Make no mistake, the US had the military capacity to destroy every thing that lived and breathed in North Vietnam but the military was unable to use this power because of the "rules of engagement". It has been a problem of our country for ages. There was a west and east Berlin and Germany because of political correctness. I went into the service to do my patriotic duty before I was old enough to cast a vote or drink a beer legally.

The problem in the health care bill is not in its intent, it is in the fact that it was owned by special interest. Not just doctors and drug companies but by senators and congressmen. If it was such a good thing in the first place then why did Nebraska need a special provision, why did Louisiana need a 300 million special deal, and for goodness sake why did the student loan program get attached at the last minute? Not because it was such a good thing but because special deals were made to persuade enough democrats to vote for it. Notice that no special provisions were made to republican senators and representatives to get them to make this a bi-partisan bill. I am not as disappointed in the bill even though I don't agree with a lot of what I have heard about it, but the process was so very far beneath the dignity that used to belong to the policital process of this country. Even the anti abortion advocate Bart Stupak caved in with a special deal. Not the executive order that he thinks would support his position of no federal funds for abortions, but by the $700,000 that quite suddenly went to three smaller airports within his district. Some California reps were "persuaded" to vote yes when water that had been withheld from farmers in California for months and months was suddenly turned on. The little fishies that were so important last week suddenly had to take a second seat to healthcare. Well, more truthfully, they took a second seat for a couple of yes votes. Now that it is passed, I wonder if the water will stay turned on? On top of these things it will take several years before we know what other deals were made to get this passed.
The other side of the argument for those that have posted and expressed such great hate against the senior citizens of the country-who built this country for them and defended it in most of the wars that have been mentioned- is that the payment for the benefits does not begin until several years after the benefits begin. The hated "baby boomers" with their high salaries and retirement funds will have died off leaving the bill to those that are working in McDonalds and Arbys. Supposedly, those who are all for it will be the ones paying for it when this happens. They will be the college students who have now graduated and hopefully have a job that allows them enough income to pay taxes on. Since they will have had their college loans forgiven by then, they won't have this for a tax deduction thus their tax bracket will be even higher. However, their college educations will not provide them the job that they were hoping for because businesses and corporations will no longer be in business. Not because of healthcare costs, but because businesses and corporations will no longer be in business. Not because of healthcare costs, but because of other taxes imposed, fees and environmental costs associated with trying to be in business. Face it, America is moving very rapidly from being an industrial nation- it is only our own arrogance that allows us to make the proclamation that we are the most powerful nation in the world today. We have sold ourselves to Japan and China. It is not much different than it was just before WWII. The nation had to gear up to build the war machines necessary then. The good news was that we had factories that could be converted to do this work. Today we don't have enough factories left to do this and if we wanted to build a factory today we would have to import the steel and machinery to do so- but we won't have the money to pay for it.

I just read 2 Nephi chapters 25-28 about the last days. And Section 134 (I think) of the Doctrine and Covenants. In this section pay attention to verses 1 and 2. This statement on governments explains where we are at today. The founding fathers made many wise and true statements about the government. They were very in tune with the history of the world they were living in and knew intimately the history that preceded them. Today we have no understanding of what happened last week (except for on Desperate Housewives or American Idol) so how can we know what today's actions will mean in the long run? But I digress, the prophets were not only wise men but they were allowed to actually "see" what would happen throughout time. These are the words we should become more familiar with and understand. What we are living through today has been lived through before in some manner and what we should be able to see is the fulfillment of prophesies made thousands of years ago. But we can't and if we do see them and talk about them outside of church we are ridiculed for pointing that out. However, the ridiculing of those who speak the truth and speak out against the works of the devil is also the fulfillment of prophecies.
We are in some bad times but we must keep our hopes up and rely on our faith. The early pioneers faced far greater challenges than we do right now. Our problem is that we don't have another country to go to. We are already living in the "land that is choice above all other lands."


Thanks Dad! I love you and your wise words. :-)