Why I don't go to Vegas...and some history.

So, to begin....I was wrong....wrong, wrong...don't ever take me to Vegas wrong.  I assumed (and we know what that means) that the American people wanted opportunity, individual liberty, religious freedom and prosperity.  Instead it turns out....they want free stuff.  Yup, free contraceptives, free abortions, free health care, free cell phones, free puppies and free unicorns, all of it paid for by evil, greedy rich people.

SO BE IT.  If the idiots in 7 of the 10 wealthiest counties voted for Obama, then HAVE AT IT BABY.  Raise their taxes...hell do it all, raise income taxes, capital gains taxes, interest income taxes, dividend taxes...have at it...if the chickens are stupid enough to vote for Colonel Sanders...give them what they want.   OR even better, I like this idea...let's tax the wealthy on their ASSETS instead of their income...I personally think this is a fabulous plan...it will snare all of those limousine liberals and Hollywood morons and make them pay their FAIR share.  After all, here in my county we already do this...it's called the Virginia Personal Property tax.  I LOVE the idea of John Kerry and the Kennedys paying taxes on their yachts and toys.  AND those big Malibu mansions filled with expensive cars, the personal jets, fancy yachts...$$$$$ baby, cha ching.

Ok, so Obama won...the Dems keep the Senate and the Republicans keep the House.  Here is where my old friend "The Law of Unintended Consequences" kicks in.  You know, the law that states:

A perverse effect contrary to what was originally intended (when an intended solution makes a problem worse), such as when a policy has a perverse incentive that causes actions opposite to what was intended.

What do I mean by this?  Well, let's review the liberal progressive plan put forward by Obama that's going to (at least they think) kick into HIGH gear for his second term:

• Obamacare:  The cornerstone of Obama's tenure and THE WET DREAM of liberal progressives for 100 years- the nationalization of American health care.  OK, so Obamacare fully kicks in sometime in 2014.  Everyone has health insurance, birds are singing...and liberals think that everyone gets Cadillac healthcare for Hyundai prices right?  Sure, just like they have in England.  Will it work?  Sure...if you don't have cancer, heart disease or any other serious illness that requires advanced treatment.  And those pesky death panels?  Yes, they are coming...let no one tell you differently.  The only way to keep costs down is to RATION services.  Listen, I was in the military and had socialized medicine.  It works great...until you have a serious chronic illness...then you get the treatment THE GOVERNMENT proscribes..period...no questions asked.  OH, and if you are an hourly worker...well-- you're screwed.  Since Obama is not a dictator (as much as he would like to be...like his buddy Hugo Chavez), small business will simply cut workers' hours to stay under the mandate.  The complete lunacy of the left to think that small business will simply roll over and agree to commit business suicide is laughable, except for the fact that it will have real consequences for real people.  Will America become a nation of part-time workers?  Well, for those low-skill, or liberal arts and wymyn's studies majors.....YES...it will.  Good luck with that all you college kids that voted for Obama...and four more years of 8% unemployment and 2% GDP growth....

• Taxes and sequestration:    So for all those idiots in Virginia, California and other states with big defense industries...HAPPY NEW YEAR...you're about to get screwed as well.  Will Obama and Congress let sequestration happen?  YES...I believe Obama will. And here's why....if sequestration happens, he gets to gut the Pentagon...another long-term progressive goal...make America weak and dependent on the UN, EU, EI-EI-O for our defense.  And hey, if a little bit of entitlements get cut, so what?  Obama can avoid ALL responsibility and blame Republicans---and his allies in the media will push that narrative.  Cadaver Harry Reid has already said Social Security is off the table, so what's the point of any serious budget negotiations?  If you don't FUNDAMENTALLY change Social Security and Medicare...every other piece of the Federal budget is meaningless for real deficit reduction.  MAKE NO MISTAKE, the Democrats could care less about balancing the budget, reducing the deficit, or keeping America from becoming Greece.  ALL, and I mean ALL they want to do is raise taxes on the wealthy...it's in their DNA, it's their solution to any problem, and it is their sole purpose for existence.  And guess what?  It won't solve a damn thing.  The government could CONFISCATE 100% of the wealth of the top 1% and it wouldn't do jack to our debts or deficits.   As long as Social Security and Medicare are left untouched, the United States is fiscally doomed, doomed, doomed.  OH, and here's a funny note....remember all those Latinos, Black, and YOUNG folks who voted for Obama?  Whaddya think is gonna happen in 10 or even 20 years when or IF they ever get a job, move out of mom's basement, get married, try to buy a home and discover that to pay those PROMISED and SACRED benefits to all those retired WHITE Baby Boomers their payroll taxes are gonna skyrocket because China won't loan us any more money and the Fed can't print anymore?  Hmmm, that could get interesting....and don't kid yourself...our children and grandchildren may actually throw grandma and grandpa off the cliff in 20 years when they get handed this crap-sandwich.

• Foreign Policy:  Obama will also achieve his goal of closing Gitmo and bringing the remaining terrorist killers to America for incarceration in a Federal pen...at least until the lawyers come out, wanting to try them in civilian courts...that will be awesome to watch.  Oh, and that whole pesky Benghazi thing?  Well, I believe the media will continue to collaborate closely with the White House to sweep that under the rug like they did Fast and Furious, and sadly, they will likely succeed as the drama of the "FISCAL CLIFF" comes to dominate the news cycle.  Those four dead Americans and the likelihood that the Obama Administration was arming jihadis in Syria will not be fully investigated.  So the Middle East will continue to simmer until Iran detonates their first nuke sometime before 2016.  Will this mean WWIII?  Well, probably not initially.  Obama will put EXTREME, EXTREME pressure on Israel not to bomb Iran.  Again, MAKE NO MISTAKE, Israel will suck it up and not risk antagonizing Barrack HUSSEIN Obama and really finding out if Obama will stand by them.  Of course, this is irrelevant.  Unless the mullahs are completely mad (not out of the realm of possibilities) they know the Israelis have the capability to blow them to hell, even if it is their last great act of defiance, Masada style.  The more worrisome aspect is that Saudi Arabia, Turkey or even Egypt will want the bomb as well, and there will be a Sunni-Shia Arab arms race.  Won't that be wonderful?  Wahhabi Saudis and Shia-lunatic Iranians with nuclear weapons aimed at each other.  How's that Nobel Prize on Obama's mantle looking now?

As for me...well, I will soldier on, keep my family together, try hard to stay employed and ride out the situation....by 2016...if America still exists, then maybe we can try again to restore fiscal sanity to our country.  I guess one good thing...Hillary is toast.  Unless Obama's America becomes the socialist, collectivist utopia the progressive left thinks...she stands no chance at the Presidency.  WHEN the second Obama recession kicks in during late 2014 (right after Obamacare..coincidence?  I think not), maybe America will wake up and come to its senses that free stuff is not really free.  

As Margaret Thatcher said:  "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."

The current situation for Ronald Reagan conservatives such as myself reminds me of the beginning of the Overland Campaign of 1864. 

Seriously, you thought there would be no military history in this blogpost?

In early 1864, the Army of the Potomac moved into Northern Virginia to face Robert E. Lee in what the Union thought was a sure-fire plan for victory.  U.S. Grant, now commander of all the Union armies and victor of Vicksburg and Chattanooga, had an overwhelming numerical advantage and was confident of victory.

However, it didn't quite work that way.  Lee, still the master of the tactical maneuver, met Grant's army in a wilderness very near Chancellorsville, site of his greatest battlefield victory and pummeled Grant's army for two days.  The Army of the Potomac was stunned as Lee's army conducted relentless assaults.  At the end of the battle, the army went on the march...and the dispirited Union soldiers expected another retreat.  Instead, something else happened.

Both flanks had been badly bruised, and [Grant's] 17,500 casualties in two days exceeded the Confederate total by at least 7,000. Under such circumstances previous Union commanders in Virginia had withdrawn behind the nearest river. Men in the ranks expected the same thing to happen again. But Grant had told Lincoln "whatever happens, there will be no turning back."

While the armies skirmished warily on May 7, Grant prepared to march around Lee's right during the night to seize the crossroads village of Spotsylvania a dozen miles to the south. If successful, this move would place the Union army closer to Richmond than the enemy and force Lee to fight or retreat. All day Union supply wagons and the reserve artillery moved to the rear, confirming the soldiers' weary expectation of retreat. After dark the blue divisions pulled out one by one.

But instead of heading north, they turned south. A mental sunburst brightened their minds. It was not another "Chancellorsville ... another skedaddle" after all. "Our spirits rose," recalled one veteran who remembered this moment as a turning point in the war. Despite the terrors of the past three days and those to come, "we marched free. The men began to sing." For the first time in a Virginia campaign the Army of the Potomac stayed on the offensive after its initial battle.

— James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom

 Grant did not give up, and neither should we.  America will come back, however painfully...and the so-called "mandate" for social progressivism will run its course.  We need to pray, take care of our own, and articulate our principles with firmness, dignity and courtesy, no matter how much it pains us to appeal to those who disagree with us.

Grant himself said it best.  “I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.”