Diest TKO wrote:Foxfyre wrote:"Don't ask don't tell' was Clinton's conclusion and was upheld by the then Democratically controlled Congress.
This is my point.
That sometimes the majority makes concessions to the minority. I'm sure you like "don't ask don't tell" a lot better than if Clinton had simply made the military open to gays. I'm sure you expect concessions for your views and concerns.
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Not really the same thing. Clinton capitulated to the majority--the majority opinion of the American people, the majority opinion of the military, and the majority opinion of the Congress. If anything, 'don't ask don't tell' was a bone thrown to a relatively small minority in lieu of allowing it nothing at all. Perhaps that could be characterized as a concession, but the reality is that it has seemed to solve an existing problem.
I am a conservative and as such believe in democracy in all things that do not compromise unalienable rights of any person. As such the majority should be able to define the parameters for their part of the world. If the minority finds that to their disliking, they should go someplace to form their own majority and have things pretty much as they want them.
I as an individual have no right to dictate what manner of society I will live in, but as a free person, I do have a vote in that. If a majority agrees with me, my society will be more to my liking. If a majority disagrees with me, then I will be disappointed. One of our unalienable rights, however, is that we have a right to be heard and our grievances seriously considered. To deny the people the opportunity to express their choice makes our government far more authoritarian and far more tyrannical than it was ever intended to be.
So far as opening up access to our own natural resources, a very large majority of Americans want that.
Quote:McCain has gained some momentum on the energy issue since he first proposed in early June lifting the long-standing ban on offshore oil drilling. Most Americans have responded positively to the idea of offshore drilling which Obama strongly opposed for several weeks. The Democrat now appears to be more supportive of it at least in part because, as the New York Post reported today, "Obama's internal polling shows that he's getting killed on this issue."
A separate Rasmussen Reports survey found that most voters like Obama's proposal for a $1,000 energy credit for working families. But voters are evenly divided on Obama's call for a windfall profits tax on oil companies, perhaps because many fear it will lead to higher gas prices.
Obama's latest proposal -- to draw 70 million barrels of oil from the government's emergency oil stockpile to help bring gas prices down -- is a lot less popular. Only 31% say that $4-a-gallon gas is the kind of emergency that justifies tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but 57% disagree.
LINK
Nobody is saying that we should not also continue to reduce energy consumption when practical to do so or that we shouldn't continue to develop wind, solar, nuclear, and every other possible practical energy source. But there is absolutely no substitute even on the drawing board that will replace petroleum in the near future. Failure to recognize that is short sighted, counter productive, and just plain dumb.
