Tuesday, August 03, 2004
Political Discourse
Published on my home blog page 5/24/2004:
There is little political discourse today. Everyone speaks to those who agree with them. I thought I would pull up something from the other ideological bunker, and consider what was said.
For that purpose, I went to the National Review Online. The column Impromptus by NR Managing Editor Jay Nordlinger looked interesting, touching on a number of topics.
The first is to argue that because of same-sex marriage, “the Salvation Army may have to leave New York. Why? Because the city may force it to offer employee benefits to gay partners, and the Salvation Army is . . . well, a religious organization (and a traditionally religious one).”
Set aside whether the Salvation Army’s threat to leave New York is political posturing. See first the language of compulsion, not choice. This is used selectively. Welfare mothers choose not to work, in the conservative formulation. The Salvation Army may threaten to leave New York, may choose to leave New York, but are they forced to leave New York?
Let’s back up a step. The issue is employee benefits for partners of homosexual employees. Is the Salvation Army forced to have homosexual employees? Is that a violation of their religious beliefs? Why is that less onerous than providing benefits? It couldn’t be about … money, could it?
This segues to:
“I have said before in this column that the gay-marriage debate seems to be lost (i.e., that the anti side seems to have lost). For one thing, all the elites support gay marriage, no matter what the majority may think (and the majority is not aroused). Virtually every employee of the big media supports it; virtually every Hollywood actor; virtually every pop singer; virtually every professor — etc. And what the elites want, the elites usually get, in my observation. (They haven't yet stopped the war, have they? But they may be getting close.)”
When last I checked, conservatives controlled both houses of Congress, the White House and with it the Justice Department, the military, and the intelligence community. The Supreme Court is certainly no enemy to conservatives.
Note carefully the description of the political opposition to conservatives as “all the elites.”
Let’s talk about elites.
George Herbert Walker was one of the most important investment bankers in the Mississippi Valley. His ties to Robert Brookings and Averell Harriman led to his installation as president of the new Wall Street investment banking firm W. A. Harriman and Company, which invested heavily in German industry until Hitler made things difficult.
Samuel Bush’s father was the first Bush to attend Yale. Samuel went to Yale. Samuel was the head of Buckeye Steel Castings, and through this had ties to the Rockefellers, Standard Oil, and National City Bank.
Samuel’s son. Prescott Bush , went to Yale, where he was in Skull and Bones. Prescott Bush married George Herbert Walker’s daughter. He was brought in as a vice president at W.A. Harriman and Company in 1926. He ultimately became a managing partner of Brown Brothers Harriman, and sat on the boards of CBS, Prudential Insurance, Pan American Airlines, Dresser Industries, and others.
Their son, George Herbert Walker Bush, went to Yale, where he was in Skull and Bones. After graduation he was placed in Dresser Industries, where his father had been on the board for eighteen years, and whose chairman was also Yale grad and Skull and Bones member.
His son, George Walker Bush, went to Yale, where he was in Skull and Bones. After his Air National Guard stint, he went to work for an agribusiness company run by a fellow Yale Skull and Bones member who had worked with his father at Zapata Petroleum.
Elites?
Gee, this has been fun. Let's do it again soon.
There is little political discourse today. Everyone speaks to those who agree with them. I thought I would pull up something from the other ideological bunker, and consider what was said.
For that purpose, I went to the National Review Online. The column Impromptus by NR Managing Editor Jay Nordlinger looked interesting, touching on a number of topics.
The first is to argue that because of same-sex marriage, “the Salvation Army may have to leave New York. Why? Because the city may force it to offer employee benefits to gay partners, and the Salvation Army is . . . well, a religious organization (and a traditionally religious one).”
Set aside whether the Salvation Army’s threat to leave New York is political posturing. See first the language of compulsion, not choice. This is used selectively. Welfare mothers choose not to work, in the conservative formulation. The Salvation Army may threaten to leave New York, may choose to leave New York, but are they forced to leave New York?
Let’s back up a step. The issue is employee benefits for partners of homosexual employees. Is the Salvation Army forced to have homosexual employees? Is that a violation of their religious beliefs? Why is that less onerous than providing benefits? It couldn’t be about … money, could it?
This segues to:
“I have said before in this column that the gay-marriage debate seems to be lost (i.e., that the anti side seems to have lost). For one thing, all the elites support gay marriage, no matter what the majority may think (and the majority is not aroused). Virtually every employee of the big media supports it; virtually every Hollywood actor; virtually every pop singer; virtually every professor — etc. And what the elites want, the elites usually get, in my observation. (They haven't yet stopped the war, have they? But they may be getting close.)”
When last I checked, conservatives controlled both houses of Congress, the White House and with it the Justice Department, the military, and the intelligence community. The Supreme Court is certainly no enemy to conservatives.
Note carefully the description of the political opposition to conservatives as “all the elites.”
Let’s talk about elites.
George Herbert Walker was one of the most important investment bankers in the Mississippi Valley. His ties to Robert Brookings and Averell Harriman led to his installation as president of the new Wall Street investment banking firm W. A. Harriman and Company, which invested heavily in German industry until Hitler made things difficult.
Samuel Bush’s father was the first Bush to attend Yale. Samuel went to Yale. Samuel was the head of Buckeye Steel Castings, and through this had ties to the Rockefellers, Standard Oil, and National City Bank.
Samuel’s son. Prescott Bush , went to Yale, where he was in Skull and Bones. Prescott Bush married George Herbert Walker’s daughter. He was brought in as a vice president at W.A. Harriman and Company in 1926. He ultimately became a managing partner of Brown Brothers Harriman, and sat on the boards of CBS, Prudential Insurance, Pan American Airlines, Dresser Industries, and others.
Their son, George Herbert Walker Bush, went to Yale, where he was in Skull and Bones. After graduation he was placed in Dresser Industries, where his father had been on the board for eighteen years, and whose chairman was also Yale grad and Skull and Bones member.
His son, George Walker Bush, went to Yale, where he was in Skull and Bones. After his Air National Guard stint, he went to work for an agribusiness company run by a fellow Yale Skull and Bones member who had worked with his father at Zapata Petroleum.
Elites?
Gee, this has been fun. Let's do it again soon.
