WhackyNation

I am amazed that my liberal, socialistic friends think they are so “progressive” while Republicans are so “conservative,” when, in fact, it’s been the Republicans who advocate change in public policy while the Democrats adhere to the failed policies of FDR and Lyndon Johnson.

I am inspired by an insight that my colleague Matt Manweller has in his new book, The Right Opinion: a Heritic’s Voice from the Ivory Tower. Matt’s idea is worth expanding.

For instance, public education.  Democrats stick with a failed system that supports corrupt teacher unions and “old fashioned” tenure.  Republicans say change: try vouchers and create market competition.  Actually Republicans are “Pro Choice” in education, aren’t they?

Transportation.  Democrats want 19th century trains and bicycles.  Republicans want modern cars and highways and are open to futuristic transportation systems.

Taxation.  Democrats adhere to old theories of high taxation rates.  Republicans embrace newer theories that lower taxes actually raise more revenue for government through increased velocity of money in the economy.

Trade.  Democrats stay protectionist and traiff-loving.  Republicans espouse the newer theories of open markets and lower tariffs.

Social Security.  Democrats conservatively stick with an old FDR game plan that everyone agrees will end up in bankruptcy some years out.  Republicans want to try something new, and privatize some of the investing.

Welfare.  Democrats cling to the FDR Nanny State.  Republicans reform welfare encouraging people to work for a living.

Foreign Policy.  Democrats cling to 20th Century isolationism.  Republicans see America’s leadership roll in the 21st Century, especially in the area of fighting global terrorism and Islamofascism.

Ending world hunger, disease and poverty.  Democrats advocate slowing the world’s economies in the name of an old “Mother Earth” religion called environmentalism, while Republicans advocate improving productivity which will finance the solutions to rid the world of hunger, disease and poverty.

I can go on.  But you see the point.  Republicans advocate change and new approaches.  Democrats stick with tired, broken principles of the New Deal and Great Society.  Historically, Democrats are the party of slavery, lynchings and female oppression.  Republicans have been the party of reform, racial equality and women’s suffrage.

Just what party is conservative and what party is progressive?  Maybe it’s time we stopping looking at the world through mirrors and rethink the labels of our political parties.

The sorely needed world women’s revolution appears to have started in the most unlikely place — South America. A remarkable dispatch from the McLatchy Newspaper syndicate reveals that many of the countries in South America, as well as in Central America and even Mexico, have elected more women to legislatures than are found in the U.S. — in Congress and in our state legislatures!

I can say with assurance that it’s about time! Now, I hope the feminine revolution spreads to all other nations of the world — including those desperate Third World countries suffering from severe poverty, dictatorial government by warlords or theocrats, or standards of living that are so low that they are the springboards for civil conflicts and wars.

In South America, the new revolt has been recorded in recent years in Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Guyana. Why it has not taken hold in Brazil, South America’s largest and most prosperous nation, is a deep mystery. Keeping pace in the new revolution are these Central American and Caribbean nations: Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama.

Perhaps most significant to Americans is the fact that even Mexico exceeds the U.S. in the number of women legislators in office — with the U.S. percentage of 16.3 women legislators compared with the Mexican total of 22.6 percent! With so many Mexican laborers entering the U.S. illegally, it’s about time the Mexican women asserted their influence in eliminating the corruption and poverty driving them northward.

Of course, critics might be inclined to say that the illegals are coming to the U.S. by the millions to get away from the influence of all the new women legislators in Mexico. But I think that reasoning lacks logic and the realization that it’s the men in office who have contributed most to the worsening conditions in Mexico.

I’m hoping that the women’s revolution that has taken hold in South America, with the exception of Brazil, will soon begin fostering a simultaneous revolution where it is needed most in the world — that is in all the nations controlled by Islam, which has for centuries forced women into virtual slavery. In addition to the advancing numbers of women winning elections in the South American and Central American countries, another extremely significant factor has developed. According to the McClatchy report, the wages of women workers in the Latin American countries have risen higher and faster than the wages of women in the U.S.

Does all this mean the women’s movement in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean islands has outpaced the movement in the U.S.? If so, I say “Good!” Now, it may be up to the women in the U.S. to make some additional headway to catch up with the strides made by the fair sex south of the border.

Some of the comparative figures supplied by the McClatchy report are astounding. As already indicated, for example, only 16.3 percent of the members in the U.S. Congress are women. Compare that percentage to these statistics: Argentina 35 percent; Peru 29.2 percent; Guyana 29 percent; Cuba 36 percent; Costa Rica 38.6 percent, and Honduras 23.4 percent. Thus, it is clear that Americans cannot afford to be smug about the way our women have progressed in government, politics, and the wage scales. Maybe the female revolution needs a new start right here in the 50 states before embarking upon a tour of the rest of the world.