What a coincidence, the day after a new post complaining about lack of leadership on the Democrat side, one senator steps up and convinces me he actually believes in what he is doing. (Actually, I'll be convinced if he moves in the senate the way he talks on the news - no offense, I have heard enough on both sides of people saying the right thing in public and doing the opposite on the job to be a bit wary)
The person in question is Senator Ron Klink (Dem, Pennsylvania, I think) - and, in brief, here is what he said. I won't include quotes because it isn't a direct quote, but I will capture the idea of what he said:
We have to realize we have the House, Senate, and Presidency. This bill is good for America, and we have to push it through, even if it takes an extreme measure like reconciliation. Even if it costs us politically, it is the right thing to do.
That is the gist of what he said, and I laud him for actually believing in what he is doing. I happen to think that he is dead wrong about what the bill will do, but at least he seems to believe in what he is doing. And of course, it should be no surprise that I believe he is wrong - he is a left-leaning Democrat (and did not shy away from saying so - more kudos in order) and I am a right-leaning Republican. It is just nice to see a person who actually appears to believe in what they are doing, rather than adopting a position that is politically advantageous for them (this applies to the right and the left).
I'll end with something he said that also echoed my sentiments - We have to have the courage to lead, even if it costs us politically. I think that this is an important thought - leading takes courage, and ignoring the political fallout when you are right is a difficult, but important thing to do.
Of course the problem comes up when a leader has courage but has ideas that are not right - as I would argue about health care, the economy, etc., and the Left would argue about George W. Bush. He clearly had the same idea, that it was better to be right than popular, and the Left stridently believes that he was not right, just as I stridently believe this bill is not right. I can respect the Left who take this position - recognizing that a person has the courage of his/her convictions, but that those convictions are incorrect, rather than labelling someone as evil or stupid, etc. I don't think that Ron Klink is stupid, I think he has a fundamentally different belief system then I do, and this is because of his education and experience, just as mine comes from my education and experience.
That's all folks.
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2 comments:
First, if you are going to claim that I have committed an error, I would prefer if you mention the error.
Second, please try to be (at least approximately) grammatically correct. If your errors are because English is not your primary language, that is acceptable, but otherwise, do not butcher the language in a response.
Finally, if you read the blog, all I said was that I would try to capture the spirit of what he said. In my observations of the man just a few minutes before writing, this was my impression of what he said. It is very difficult to dispute the veracity of my impression of him as this is primarily subjective.
Nonetheless, this is the general idea of what I heard him say... if you are trying to debate the merits or lack thereof of the current health care bill, that is not what I wrote about. I will be writing more in the future on that topic if you care to keep reading.
If I have some other factual issue that you claim is in error, please mention it, because frankly I don not see why I should bother responding. I am writing this as a courtesy to you - my initial reaction was to not bother responding given the lack of specificity in your response. Frankly, it was difficult to tell if you were actually a person or an automated response set up on a particular keyword(s), but I tended to dismiss that based on the grammatical errors. I suppose you still could be automated, and the programmer either deliberately or accidentally butchered the language.
Regardless, etiquette would dictate a slightly longer response. If you expect anything more than a lecture from me in the future, please take more care with your posts.
In perusing the internet, the error to which you may be refering is that I mentioned Ron Klink as a senator. Apparently, I am in error on that - I thought that is what I heard on the news, but apparently I did not. He is a former Representative but is a staunch Democrat and was advising his party on what actions they should take. If that is the error to which the anonymous poster above was refering, I am sorry. It does not, however, change the implications of his statements and I stand by my analysis of them.
The whole point was that he was saying what I maintain that a leader should say. The only unfortunate part is that he is no longer an elected official - perhaps that is why he is fine with casting aside any political consequences.
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