I Read Stuff
I came across this article by Kirsten Powers. She’s a lib, but an honest lib. If all liberals were like this we’d be half-way to having intelligent discussion in this country (the other half being honest conservatives!).
THE FIRST DEBATE: ALL JABS, NO KOS
At the end she references an interesting quote from Clark Clifford during the JFK years: “Take advantage of every opportunity to appear with Nixon. You are better than he is.”
Based on other columns she’s written, people like this make me believe that everyone, in their heart of hearts, is a libertarian. When you break it down policy by policy, and don’t slap the “libertarian” label on it, I find that people generally agree on principle.
When you’re being intellectually honest with somebody, you can have a REAL discussion. You realize that high taxes do NOT correlate with better schools, and that having military bases in every country is overkill. You start discussing “HOW” to do things, rather than what they cost.
Government should be more like a grandparent. Help foster good values, guide, be a companion in exceptionally hard times, but don’t try to be the provider, and stop dipping into the kid’s bank account. Good grandparents aren’t expensive. All the money in the world can’t compare to an ounce of good intention.