Pseudo Conservatism Doesn't Sell

Dear Friend,

I have heard a million times how the Republicans need to be more current and use Twitter etc. more. I disagree.

The younger generation just does't like what Republicans are selling. The brand is damaged beyond repair. The next wave for the youth is Libertarianism. An old coot like Ron Paul who probably doesn't even own a cell phone, is a hit on college campuses. Why? Because the younger generation likes what he is telling them. It's the words, not the method of transmission of those words.

On the left, Obama and the movie industry are both going to have the same problem as Republicans are currently having going forward. Too many of their base - old 60's liberal coots - dying off and no chance of keeping relevant with the youth who are fast going to switch to the next thing which is more of a laissez-faire system of governing that will look a lot like Libertarianism. I predict its going to be a shock to the liberal system how UNCOOL the Obamas become in this second term. 

Having MOOCH-ELLE hand out the Oscar Sunday night was the liberal left's clumsy attempt to try to offset that and remain relevant, but how many college students were actually watching the Oscars by the four hour mark? Moreover, how many cared if Argo won? No one even saw Argo! And as for the dinosaur movie industry, having the perceived cool and hip Family Guy host - while wearing a muzzle - was also a vain attempt at relevance. He failed, no shocker there, its a no win job these days. Sort of like being a Republican trying to sell a brand of pseudo conservatism to a bunch of people who stopped listening a long time ago.

Yours truly,

JH

Thank you "JH" for the humorous, clever and serious commentary — GOP it's time to stick to conservative principle that works and reset the communications and outreach strategy. This doesn't mean using Twitter more, it means use it more effectively.  

S.B. 71 Diminishes Importance of Parents on Early Childhood Development Regardless of Income Level

It's true. There's no substitute for good parenting, not even a top-tier, private preschool. 

And, just because you might not be in the top tax brackets doesn't mean you can’t find or take the time to instill values as well as age-appropriate counting and language skills on your child.

Don't get me wrong, I am not bashing preschools (not all of them anyway) or what proposed S.B. 71 could do for a small segment of Utah's very young children (3 and 4 year olds). Both my children attended preschool and they loved it (most of the time). The difference, and why I believe I can argue my "I'll take parents over preschool any day of the week" point regardless of the fact I sent my two children to preschool, is that I never once felt it was the job of the preschool teacher to parent my children. 

That's my job and my husband's job, and the theme of this post. 

As I read and fumed over the recent Salt Lake Tribune Op Ed in support  (no surprises here) of more pre-K funding for at-risk children or S.B. 71, I took a moment to reflect on what this legislation could mean for Utah and our future. 

While the Op Ed opens with some unfair and "out-of-context" jabs on former Congressional candidate Cherilyn Eagar, it goes on to further diminish the incredibly important role of the parent by insisting SB71 doesn't go far enough and recommends state-funded preschool programs should be a mandate for all pre-K children. For the record, the Op Ed cites "stacks of studies" in support of this legislation but doesn't provide the source links to any of them. 

It then gets better. The Op Ed makes the following sweeping generalization: 

"...Few parents of any religious background have the expertise — or the time and patience — to teach young children the basic principles of language and numbers, the understanding that can help put them on the same academic level as their classmates." 

Are you kidding me?! Just playing and talking with children doesn't count? Trips to the grocery store? Counting eggs? Come on, it doesn't require a Harvard degree to instill basic, age-appropriate language and number knowledge on a 2, 3 or 4 year old. Does it? 

How in the world do proponents of SB71— private/public funding for low income, at-risk preschool children—connect the dots between these preschoolers (i.e., those spending their school hours drawing, counting bugs, painting and making macaroni necklaces) and their need for and future financial impact on Utah's special education programs?  

I suppose the other question looming in my mind when it comes to S.B. 71 is: when is enough, enough? Where do we draw the line between parental accountability and the educator's and state's role? The last time I checked, private and public pre- and elementary schools were places where you sent your children to learn. It seems, however, that the state and unwieldy Federal government believe they must infiltrate the family for fairness purposes. I am not sure why any Utah resident would be okay with this.      

What I can say for sure is that this pervasive "cradle-to-grave" attitude doesn't bode well for Utahns or the rest of our country for that matter. It will lead to more bureaucracy, it already has. 

If you don't believe me, just read the bill and its creation of a yet another commission. 

Parenting by proxy, more red tape, and less accountability on parents — no thanks!

All the wonderful things we have, but...

At the end of Obama's first term...

We still have Gitmo, but closed the Official Gitmo Closing thing-a-ma-jiggy thing.

We still have that wonderful Sarah Palin impersonator Tina Fey (she's so darn funny), but have lost Tina Turner to the Swiss.

We still have 8% UE, but Mitt Romney was a greedy capitalist, dog-hating Mormon who hid his riches in the Cayman Islands.

We had the 4th quarter GDP turn out to be negative (surprised look on face) despite all of Obama's much-heralded stimuli, but once again Mitt Romney was a dog-hating Mormon...

We don't have Keystone Pipeline, but lots of new "pipes" in CO and WA.

We haven't vanquished al Qaeda, but we can watch Zero Dark Thirty and then "make up our own minds" regarding enhanced interrogation.

We have the wonderful "Affordable Care Act", but my medical insurance jumped 20%.

We have Hillary about to embark on her 8-year-delayed coronation, but still no answers from that Ben Ghazi guy, whoever he is.

We no longer have a Jobs Council, but as HRC has rightly said, What difference does that make?

We have China building Jeeps, but Detroit is looking like you'll probably be needing that 4-wheel drive.

We have Beyonce lip syncing at the inauguration, but a 15 year old girl (who did not lip sync her inauguration performance) gunned down a couple blocks from Obama's Chicago crib.

We have turned legal law abiding gun owners into pariah, but on American Idol we now have Mariah. 

(That one is for the information-challenged voters.)

We have a Vietnam War protestor as the new Secretary of State, but not to worry because its all cool as long as democrats are in charge of things.

We have an anti-semite dolt about to be named Defense Secretary, but as Don Rumsfeld would say, "You have to go with the dolt you have, not the dolt you wish you had."

We have all kinds of threats to American way of life coming at us from all sides, but on the bright side we'll now have women in the foxholes, which for some reason sounds slightly dirty.

Thanks to political blogger and cartoonist JH for the humorous and slightly squeamish commentary on all the wonderful things we have...but!