American Republic Online

A thought provoking Op-Ed by David Brooks:

Modern conservatism began as a movement of dissident intellectuals. Richard Weaver wrote a book called, “Ideas Have Consequences.” Russell Kirk placed Edmund Burke in an American context. William F. Buckley famously said he’d rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard. But he didn’t believe those were the only two options. His entire life was a celebration of urbane values, sophistication and the rigorous and constant application of intellect.

Driven by a need to engage elite opinion, conservatives tried to build an intellectual counterestablishment with think tanks and magazines. They disdained the ideas of the liberal professoriate, but they did not disdain the idea of a cultivated mind…

But over the past few decades, the Republican Party has driven away people who live in cities, in highly educated regions and on the coasts. This expulsion has had many causes. But the big one is this: Republican political tacticians decided to mobilize their coalition with a form of social class warfare. Democrats kept nominating coastal pointy-heads like Michael Dukakis so Republicans attacked coastal pointy-heads…

I think Brooks is quite mistaken to use “republicans” and “conservatives” interchangeably. While is commentary on the GOP is pretty spot on, conservatives by and large have been left behind by both parties - at least on the national level.

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SNL had a funny and truthful sketch. satirizing the bailout mess. If your Tivo missed it youc an watch it below. Apparently it hit too close to home because it’s been yanked from the NBC web site… funny how that never seems to happen when the Republicans are at the brunt of the joke. A few quick facts before the sketch:

• The couple Herbert and Marion Sandler is actually true to life. They created a sub-prime mortgage company that they sold to Wachovia for $24.2 billion
• Our readers should already be aware that Bush (and to a lesser extent McCain) warned about Freddy & Fannie only to be defeated by the Democrats led by Barnie Frank
• I’m sure Soros is making bank on this crisis (tho not all $700B), but lets not forget Warren Buffet who grabbed a $5B piece of the pie at a guaranteed 10% return forever at a time when most stock holders are feeling ill. Which is great (i love capitalism as much as anyone), but  remember that the next time he gets preachy on “fairness” and “equality” amongst the classes.

I also found it funny that SNL sooo often makes fun of Bush’s intelligence that they had to have another (Democratic) character confirm that he was right so you didn’t miss the joke. Now enjoy the 8 minute show:

• NBC pulls video of SNL skit embarrassing Dems 

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Victor Davis Hanson had an interesting piece last week that I came across today.  He throws the blame for the sub prime mortgage disaster -well part of it at least- right at your feet.  If you agree with him, a chance to redeem yourself is waiting a short month away.

When the mortgage bubble burst, Americans were “shocked” at how many Wall Street buccaneers had been gambling in a vast pyramid scheme with someone else’s money. Paper fortunes were made buying and selling questionable sub-prime mortgages on the silly assumption that such gargantuan inside profiting would always expand — even as the number of homebuyers able to buy overpriced properties was shrinking.

Now after the recent crash in sub-prime mortgages and the stock of several investment firms, a trillion dollars in “assets” could be nearly worthless…

All that remains of this Ponzi scheme is the election-year blame game. Republicans charge that important financial firewalls were dismantled by the Clinton administration while insider liberal senators got shady campaign donations in exchange for aiding Wall Street. Democrats counter that the laissez-faire capitalism espoused by Republicans for two decades encouraged financial piracy while tax policy favored the rich speculator over the middle-class wage earner.

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There has been some finger pointing on this Fannie & Freddie, sub-prime mortgage debacle - but not nearly as much as - oh - the baseball steroid scandal.  Why?  Well a lot of the congressmen to blame are still around and an election is coming up…. So here’s a look at the long road to colapse as well as some of the warnings that could have prevented it.

1977 - Community Reinvestment Act - President Carter & Democratic Congress

The CRA was a result of national pressure for affordable housing, and despite considerable opposition from the mainstream banking community. The CRA mandates that each banking institution be evaluated to determine if it has met the credit needs of its entire community. That record is taken into account when the federal government considers an institution’s application for deposit facilities. The Act charged the Federal Reserve System to implement the CRA through ensuring banks and savings and loans met their CRA obligations. The CRA is also enforced by the “FDIC”, CRA Statute.  - wikipedia.org

1989 - Financial Institutions Reform Recovery and Enforcement Act - President Bush Sr. & Democratic Congress

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