Voice For Liberty

Category: Politics

  • Reaction to Star Parker shows intolerance of left

    Before author and columnist Star Parker spoke at Wichita State University earlier this week, attacks were already launched, providing illustration of the rampant political correctness and intolerance in effect on the modern college campus.

    An editorial in the WSU Sunflower, the student newspaper, took issue with Parker’s visit to WSU. Not only was Ms. Parker herself attacked, but also Johnny Stevens, the Wichita businessman who had the idea to bring her to WSU and who paid the not inconsiderable expenses of the event.

    Here’s an example of the overblown rhetoric at Wichita State University, as used in this editorial:

    WSU College Democrats co-chair Katherine Paige contended, “It is ethically problematic to ask a group that believes in the value of public schools, helping the homeless and those in poverty and the separation of church and state to condone the wholesaling of our campus to conservative radicals such as Star Parker.”

    A few points: First, the university rented some of its facilities to a private person for one evening. Contrast this with the taxpayer-funded use of the university every day to promote leftist political agendas.

    Then, does this writer really believe the premise of her statement, that the public schools are doing a good job? That government really helps those in poverty? That it is “ethically problematic” to allow views other than those she agrees with to be expressed at a university?

    If so, this is more evidence of the decline in critical thinking and civility at our universities.

    The editorial also mentions “anti-government conservative propaganda,” presumably to be presented at Parker’s lecture. The implication of the writer is that the facilities of the university are to be used only for the glorification of government. Is no dissent allowed, even if the speaker pays for the privilege?

    That is what’s really troubling about this editorial, if it is representative of WSU students today. Not willing to allow alternative views to be heard, they turn the idea of “liberalism” on its head. Instead of being tolerant, the writer of this editorial and the WSU College Democrats co-chair show themselves to be as close-minded, intolerant, and bigoted as they believe are the conservatives they hate.

    Besides this, the editorial is wrong on two factual accounts. One relatively minor error is the report that Stevens “contacted the WSU Alumni Association with the hopes to bring Parker to the University.” Stevens said that this never happened.

    A more important error is the claim that WSU student fees will be used to pay for some part of this event. Stevens assured me that he is paying for all expenses the university might incur. He donated money up front, and his instructions were that he would supply additional funds if necessary after all the bills were known so that no university funds would be spent.

    Will the Sunflower publish a correction?

  • Star Parker delivers message in Wichita

    In an energetic message delivered to an audience at Wichita State University this Monday, author and columnist Star Parker spoke about breaking the cycle of poverty and other issues facing our country.

    Early in her talk, Parker noted the irony of the welfare office in Washington (the Department of Health and Human Services) being located on Independence Avenue. The approaches that have been tried over the last 45 years to conquer poverty haven’t worked and have led to two generations of government dependence with disastrous consequences, she said.

    Speaking of her own experience being on welfare, the rules of welfare are “don’t work, don’t save, don’t get married.” These rules are designed to keep poor people on welfare, not allow them to break out of poverty. There’s something wrong with our society, she said, if we allow this to continue.

    She believed the lie that “I was poor because rich people are rich.”

    There used to be a healthy black community, but the war on poverty has been very harmful to family life. Fathers used to be in the black home. But the government moved in and began to bankrupt family life.

    At the time, Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan looked at the plans for Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and recognized that it will hurt black families more than help them, Parker said. Then, black out-of-wedlock births was one in four; today it is three in four. Even though there was poverty and racism, black family life was largely intact.

    The ideas of the conservative right work for all Americans, including poor people, she said. Traditional values, including the duty to be self-sufficient and responsible in the choice they make, are an important factor in getting out of poverty.

    Who is in poverty, Parker asked? 53% of the poor live in families with only one parent. We need to “mention marriage every now and then,” she said.

    Developing a work ethic is also important, she said. “Work is how you get out of poverty.” But there is a hostile environment in Washington and elsewhere that says the wealthy need to be penalized. That means they can’t produce as many jobs as they could.

    The welfare state and moral relativism has caused harm to all of America, she said. The black family was most vulnerable, so it was hurt first. Now the rate of births out marriage for Hispanics and whites is higher than it was for blacks was when the war on poverty started.

    Regarding education and school choice, Parker made the point that the rich — even the middle class — already have school choice. It’s poor people that benefit most from school choice programs across the country. She told of the Washington, DC scholarship voucher program, where 1,700 poor children each year were able to attend better schools. Parents desperate to get their children out of DC schools applied, 40,000 of them, so there had to be a lottery to decide who would get the scholarship.

    But President Barack Obama canceled this program.

    Social security is another government program that is harmful to the poor, Parker said. The little that they might be able to save gets sent to Washington for something they don’t own, they can’t transfer, and on which they get a horrible rate of return.

    In response to a question about the redistribution of wealth through the tax system to provide basic needs such as food and shelter, Parker said that the best approach is to create an environment where people can provide these things for themselves.

    Answering another question, Parker said it’s important for youth to hear all sides. Most curriculum, she said, is slanted towards the left.

    A question about race and racism brought out Parker’s observation that whenever the left is losing on an issue, such as health care, they bring up the issue of race. This is the case even when the people on both sides are black. There’s an industry that benefits from racism, but “most of the barriers of segregation have been removed,” she said. The number one crisis facing African-Americans today is not racism, but sexual immorality, she said.

    Regarding the murder of Wichita abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, she said that people should not take justice into their own hands. The debate is intense, and we need to “take it down a notch.” The death of Tiller was a horrible thing, and it is also horrible to glorify the man and the things he did, she said.

    Additional coverage of Parker’s visit is at Kansas Watchdog.

  • Star Parker to deliver message of freedom in Wichita

    Tonight in Wichita, author and columnist Star Parker will deliver a lecture titled “Breaking the Cycle of Poverty: From Entitlement to Empowerment.”

    I spoke by telephone with Parker and asked her to give Wichitans a preview of the topics she’ll address tonight. One topic she will address is the notion that people do not have the ability to control their own lives. There are some that believe that other forces keep people from being able to live free, she said.

    Also, Parker will look at political freedom and its role in enabling people to live free. Then, she’ll examine the steps out of poverty, including self-government, work ethic, education, saving and investing, and charities, and whose role it is to provide these.

    A recent article in the Sunflower, the WSU student newspaper, criticized her visit to the campus. Parker said “In a free society, we have free speech. For too long, we’ve only allowed on our universities one side of the case to be made. It is healthy for students to hear both sides.”

    She said that her personal experience, having lived on welfare and experienced the social engineering that takes place, gives her a unique perspective on the war on poverty. That war has been fought for 40 years, she said.

    She also disputed the comments about the Iraq war attributed to her by the Sunflower article.

    Parker’s lecture is Monday, October 5th at 7:00 pm In the CAC Theater at WSU.

  • ‘State of the State Kansas’ covers state with video

    Just a few weeks ago Kansas gained a new news-oriented website. State of the State Kansas is different from most news sites, as it focuses on providing long-format video coverage of issues and candidates. Rebecca Zepick founded State of the State Kansas. I visited with her last week and learned about the site and its goals.

    What inspired you to start the State of the State Kansas website?

    Zepick said that while working on John McCain’s presidential campaign, she handled booking campaign spokespeople — and even McCain and his wife — with statewide media in Iowa and other states. She found that television stations didn’t have political reporters. They had just general assignment reporters. So while she prepared her spokespeople for the toughest questions, reporters would ask simple questions like “How do you think John McCain is doing in Iowa?”

    These questions were easy for the campaign to deal with, but didn’t do a lot to provide the public with useful information. There wasn’t much analysis and skepticism.

    Additionally, producers were more interested in booking celebrities rather than discussing issues, but I thought that people were interested in the issues. “There has to be an underlying base of education for the general public, so that when a campaign comes along, you can have an intelligent discussion about policy issues.”

    Sometimes news seems to focus on the “horse race” aspect of campaigns — who’s up or down in the polls, etc.

    That type of coverage is easy to provide, she said. What’s more difficult to provide is educational content, and that is one of the site’s goals.

    Since State of the State Kansas contains primarily video content, what is different about video as compared to print or radio?

    There’s nothing like seeing a candidate face-to-face and watching them, to see if candidates know what they’re talking about and if they’re being evasive. With the video on State of the State Kansas, viewers can see a longer interview, and people can get to better know the motivations behind the candidates.

    What’s involved in processing the video you capture during an interview?

    Zepick said the hardware (Apple Macintosh computers) and software (the simpler version of a video editing program) she uses is inexpensive. The amount of time it takes to edit varies, depending on whether one or two cameras are used, and if slides with questions are edited into the video. But if required, video can be put on the site very quickly.

    From what I’ve seen of your site, it looks like you’ll select an issue, and then have speakers from both sides of the issue.

    Zepick said that in order to remove as much personal bias as possible, she asks simple questions such as “Why do you feel so strongly about this?” Then, let them explain themselves with as little interference from the reporter as possible. For now, Zepick says she’s letting segments run long so that people can become educated and investigate issues for themselves.

    I asked a question about how it seems that often people on different sides of an issue can’t even agree on a basic set of facts. Zepick said that can be a problem. Suppose an interview subject cites a statistic. If she is not an expert in the subject matter, her hope is that other media sources will be able to watch the videos and call out inaccuracies. This is also why it’s important to talk to both sides. Personal stories are different, however, as they are based on experiences, not objective facts.

    What about the declining resources available to traditional news media?

    Television and newspapers have seen a decline in viewers and advertising, she said. This may have lead to a decline in some aspects of news coverage such a longer feature pieces. That, however, has lead to an increase in the ratings for shows like “60 Minutes,” which feature longer and more in-depth reporting.

    Zepick mentioned the term “fractured media,” and that people may be confused as to which are reliable sources for news. But in a democracy, she said, the more voices, the better. It’s more confusing than in the days of the three major networks, but ultimately better for the people.

    From Zepick’s experience working on major political campaigns, I learned that the typical campaign interview we see on television is not a freewheeling affair. Usually ground rules are established, such as the topics to be talked about — and topics not to be covered.

  • Articles of Interest

    Van Jones, Jay Leno, smoking in Kansas, Obama’s health care speech.

    Obama and the Left: The lesson of the rise and fall of Van Jones

    This Wall Street Journal commentary analyzes the resignation of “green jobs czar” Van Jones. “Our guess is that Mr. Jones landed in the White House precisely because his job didn’t require Senate confirmation, which would have subjected him to more scrutiny. This is also no doubt a reason that Mr. Obama has consolidated so much of his Administration’s governing authority inside the White House under various ‘czars.’ Mr. Jones was poised to play a prominent role in disbursing tens of billions of dollars of stimulus money. It was the ideal perch from which he could keep funding the left-wing networks from which he sprang, this time with taxpayer money. … [leftists who helped elect Barack Obama] are increasingly frustrated because they are discovering that Mr. Obama will happily employ ‘movement progressives,’ but only so long as their real views and motivations aren’t widely known or understood. How bitter it must be to discover that the Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck, who drove the debate about Mr. Jones, counts for more at this White House than Mr. Sirota.” Ouch.

    Rooting against Jay Leno

    Tonight, Jay Leno’s new television show makes its debut. Not all are happy. As reported in the Los Angeles Times story Jay Leno’s new show is surrounded by drama: TV insiders hope NBC’s cut-rate alternative to scripted content fails: “… a fair number of industry insiders — and not just rival executives — will be rooting for it to flop. That’s mostly because, as part of NBC’s controversial experiment to overturn 60 years of prime-time TV traditions with relatively cheap programming, Leno’s new show is perceived as a potential job-wrecker.”

    Evidently the Leno show will cost only one-third of the cost of the scripted dramas that usually appear at the 9:00 pm (Central time) slot, and that means fewer jobs. But because of the show’s low production costs, it can be a business success even with low ratings compared to its competition.

    Kansas casino smoking ban

    The Wichita Eagle story Group claims smoking in Kansas casinos an ADA problem tells of an effort to force the state of Kansas to prohibit smoking in casinos.

    It should be noted that in Kansas, the casinos are owned by the state itself, and the state hopes to collect a lot of tax revenue from these operations. That may be why earlier this year when the Kansas senate passed a sweeping state-wide smoking ban, it proposed to allow smoking in state-owned casinos.

    Whether or not you believe in the merits of the smoking ban, the attitude of the state is clear: regulate everyone else, but not my myself.

    A Bipartisan Plan to Wreck the System

    In a funny — well, it would be funnier if it weren’t so sad because it’s so true — the Wall Street Journal’s Holman Jenkins writes the speech that President Obama should have given last Wednesday. Here’s an excerpt:

    Now, much has been said about our “public option” that’s been confusing and misinformed. It’s in that spirit that I speak to you tonight.

    Critics wonder: How can a new “public option” bring meaningful competition to the health-insurance marketplace and drive down costs?

    They miss the point. The great work done so far has tended to squash competition, and we would continue this work—by restricting the ability of insurance companies to design and market their policies; by regulating what coverage they can offer; by using tax distortions to keep consumers in the dark about what their health care really costs, so they will continue to treat it as a “free lunch” when it actually gobbles up more and more of their disposable incomes.

    People, this is why insurance rates keep going up and up, and why a competitive marketplace, in which consumers reward those who provide high-quality care at low cost, hardly exists. And I say again, with all humility, this is a great bipartisan achievement.

    I think he’s right: the present system is a product of both parties.

  • Goyle holds campaign kick-off event in Old Town

    In front of a crowd of enthusiastic supporters at the Pumphouse in Old Town Wichita, Kansas House of Representatives member Raj Goyle held a kick-off event for his campaign for the United States Congress from the fourth district of Kansas.

    In his brief remarks, Goyle said that after receiving his education out-of-state, he — unlike many young people — came back to Kansas. He told how outside Kansas, out state’s perception is not what we know it should be. The perception is that we’re not forward-thinking or dynamic. So he decided to run for the Kansas House of Representatives in 2006, from a district that had never elected a Democrat.

    He mentioned his work and leadership in passing legislation limiting the ability of Fred Phelps and members of his church from disruptively protesting funerals of soldiers.

    He also mentioned his advocacy in passing a bill that allowed Kansas to accept $70 million in federal stimulus money to extend unemployment benefits.

    He mentioned that he has never missed a vote in the Kansas House He said he has never taken a free personal meal from a lobbyist, nor has he accepted a taxpayer-funded trip.

    Goyle said that the American dream is in jeopardy, and is slowly slipping away, and that he will work every day to make sure that dream is “as available to you as it was for me.”

    He told young people that they should not have to choose between a well-paying, high-quality job and leaving Wichita.

    Analysis

    As Goyle has no serious challenger in the primary, and as he is unlikely to draw a challenger with name recognition and the ability to raise money, it’s a bit of a puzzle as to why he’s hitting the campaign trail so soon, some 11 months before the primary. The real action in the fourth district Congressional race in is the crowded Republican primary field.

    Goyle’s talk was short on substantive discussion of issues, which is probably the strategy I’d follow if I had no serious primary opposition and was speaking to an audience of enthusiastic supporters.

    I attended the event with my colleague John Todd, and as far as we could tell, we were the only non-Democrats in attendance. My presence caused a few tweets on Twitter, one remarking “Oh dear lord!” at my presence. Most of the Democrats I talked to were cordial — including the candidate himself — except for one quite disagreeable union activist who assumed I was there to collect dirt on Goyle, assumed I supported President Obama’s heckler, and painted me as a racist simply because I belong to the same party as Lynn Jenkins, she of the “great white hope” remark.

  • Pompeo announcement stresses health care, energy, national security

    Today Wichita businessman Mike Pompeo officially announced his candidacy for United States Congress for the fourth district of Kansas.

    In his introduction, Cessna CEO and Chairman Jack Pelton praised Pompeo as a businessman, as someone who has signed paychecks.

    In his address, Pompeo said our government has lost its way. Instead of personal responsibility, this government has advocated welfare. Instead of innovation and entrepreneurship, government has advocated bailouts.

    Saying that he has not run for public office, he thinks that is an “enormous plus in these times.” As a businessman, he has seen the effects of regulation and taxes on business.

    Pompeo stressed three issues:

    In health care, the issue is cost. We need to reduce the rate of growth in the cost of health care, and government has never been able to reduce costs or increase efficiency. He said that need to create competitive marketplaces, allow purchase of insurance across state lines, and pass tort reform. Government health care will destroy America’s leadership in innovation.

    The energy bill, while off the front pages for now, will come back. Cap-and-trade, he said, is the largest tax increase in history in the guise of environmental protection. The bill will reduce carbon emissions only slightly, but at huge costs. He said that with this bill, the gas and oil industry in America would become almost economically unviable, at the same time we’re trying to reduce the amount of energy we’re importing.

    On national security, Pompeo believes that President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Reid “simply don’t get it.” A strong defense creates a safe environment for Americans, and we don’t need to apologize for a strong American defense system.

    In closing, Pompeo said “the appropriate role of government is intensely limited.” He believes in sanctity of every human life.

    Analysis

    Today’s announcement was merely a formality, as Pompeo said he’s been campaigning for 17 weeks, and on April 7 of this year, I reported exclusively on the members of his campaign’s launch committee in the story Mike Pompeo congressional launch committee announced.

    Pompeo stresses his business experience, and that’s an appealing background to many conservatives. But government is not business, as the incentives are entirely different in the two fields. There are other businessmen in the running for this nomination, and I suspect that we’ll see government employee Jean Schodorf find some way to cast herself as someone who understands business.

    The Republican field is crowded already, and several more — both well-known and without name recognition — are considering joining the race. It’s a tempting challenge, as Congressional seats like this become available barely once per generation. If incumbents survive their first re-election, it’s pretty much a free ride from then on. In recent years, from 94% to 98% of U.S. House members were re-elected. Many don’t even draw a strong challenger.

    The selection of Cessna top executive Jack Pelton to make the introduction is a little curious. Pelton serves as chair of the Kansas Energy and Environmental Policy Advisory Group (KEEP). This organization, founded by former governor Kathleen Sebelius and run by the radical environmentalist group Center for Climate Strategies, is no friend to the energy industry, especially oil and gas, the market that Pompeo’s business serves.

  • Americans fail basic test on history and institutions

    If you took a test covering basic questions about American heritage and civics, how do you think you would do? Do you think college freshmen should be able to pass such a test?

    You can take the test to see how well you score. But for college freshmen and seniors, the average result is barely more than half the questions answered correctly.

    This test, created and administered by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, is not difficult. Some questions are so basic that everyone should be able to answer them correctly. Some are more subtle, including the one I missed. But for college freshmen — people who have, for the most part, just graduated from America’s public schools — the inability to answer nearly all these questions correctly is an embarrassing indictment.

    The results of the test show that there’s little difference between liberals and conservatives in their understanding of American civics, with liberals answering 49% of the questions correctly; conservatives 48%.

    By testing students at the end of their college careers, ISI found that college adds very little to students’ knowledge of these matters.

    Perhaps the most amazing finding relates to elected officeholders: “Officeholders typically have less civic knowledge than the general public. On average, they score 44%, five percentage points lower than non-officeholders.”

    You can learn more about this test and its conclusions — and take the test yourself — at American Civic Literacy Program. The test is 33 questions, and you’ll get your score, along with the questions you missed, right away.

  • Articles of Interest

    Wichita airport, golf, Sweden’s economy, federal government hiring needs, depression.

    Drop in fliers could alter terminal plan

    The Wichita Eagle reports that a drop in passengers might cause the airport to alter its plans. “The trouble locally is that Wichita was counting on increased traffic to finance a planned new terminal building to replace its 1950s-vintage facility.” I’ve been in favor of keeping costs at the airport as low as possible, which means making a small renovation rather than a wholesale replacement. See Wichita’s new airport terminal: Has its time passed? and Consider carefully costs of a new Wichita airport terminal: “As Wichita considers building a new terminal at its airport, we should pause to consider the effect an expensive new terminal would have on the cost of traveling to and from Wichita, and by extension, the economic health and vitality of our town. … Airlines are starting to become alarmed at the high costs some airports charge airlines for using their facilities.”

    Wichita City Council approves $1 golf fee increase

    The Wichita Eagle reports an increase in golf fees at city-owned courses. Editorialist Rhoda Holman wrote: “To their credit, the six Wichita City Council members who voted Tuesday to raise golf course fees clearly hated to do it.” What, does hating to do something mitigate its effect or make it heroic in some way? If the city really wants to improve the golfing experience for Wichitans, it should immediately sell all the courses it owns.

    The Swedish Model

    There are those in America who praise Sweden as an example of a country with a huge government and prosperity at the same time. In The Swedish Model, the Cato Institute’s Richard W. Rahn looks at the history of Sweden over the last century and concludes this: “Those who wish to chase the Swedish model need first to decide which model they seek: The high-growth, pre-1960 model; the low-growth model of the 1970s and 1980s; or the reformist, welfare-state model of recent years. The irony is that the current Democratic Congress and administration are rapidly emulating the parts of the Swedish model that proved disastrous and rejecting those parts that are proving to be successful.”

    Federal Government Needs Massive Hiring Binge, Study Finds

    A Washington Post story finds that “The federal government needs to hire more than 270,000 workers for ‘mission-critical’ jobs over the next three years, a surge prompted in part by the large number of baby-boomer federal workers reaching retirement age, according to the results of a government-wide survey being released Thursday.” All told, the study found that the federal government needs to hire 600,000 workers over the next four years, which would increase the workforce by one-third.

    The Real Town Hall Story

    E.J. Dionne Jr. writes in the Washington Post that the impression that television viewers may form of the last month’s town hall meetings may be false: “Much as the far left of the antiwar movement commanded wide coverage during the Vietnam years, so now are extremists on the right hogging the media stage — with the media’s complicity.”

    What Happened to the ‘Depression’?

    Writing in the Wall Street Journal, economist Allan H. Meltzer makes the case that the recession is probably over, or will be soon: “Most economists now believe that the recession is expected to end before much of the government spending takes hold.” The spending referred to is the stimulus bill passed earlier this year. So what should we do? “The proper response now is to repeal what remains of the misguided stimulus and avoid the cap-and-trade program.”