Florida DC Works For Us endorses Edward Lynch as their candidate for FL-19. I took a look.... by Larry Warrick
(libertarian)
Saturday, December 19, 2009
In endorsing Edward Lynch as their preferred candidate to fill the Florida district 19 seat soon to be vacated by Robert Wexler (and after an "extensive vetting process"), the board of DC Works For Us released the following:
"He is the conservative, constitutional candidate. He has gone toe-to-toe with Rep. Alcee Hastings in Healthcare Debate and won decidedly. No tolerance for illegal immigration. Fiscal responsibility. Pro-Victory in the Iraq and Afghanistan fronts. Pro-Israel. He is one of us. He has always been by our side at every protest and rally. He represents us and our interests. How novel!"
Novel indeed. But who is 'us' and what are 'our interests'? In endorsing Ed Lynch, DC Works For Us is not just addressing their own body of membership, but encouraging each voter of FL-19 to send him to Washington, DC as our representative on April 13. So 'us' is the voters of FL-19. Our interests are many and varied, a typical sampling is included in the endorsement:
Healthcare
Opinions on healthcare read like a to-do list: Mr. Lynch wants competition to drive down costs. He wants to overhaul current government interventions and reduce fraud. He wants government to promote healthy living and reward those who live as the government 'recommends'. He wants tort reform to encourage preventative, as opposed to defensive (definition), medicine. He wants to increase co-payments to reduce demand on the overall system. He wants to massage the tax code to make it easier on the 'poor'. He wants to ensure the indigent are covered under Medicaid. In short, Mr. Lynch is interested in fiddling with the system instead of asking the one question that I'm betting wasn't asked during the "extensive vetting process" he recently underwent. In a nutshell, why is he not questioning the source of the authority for government to act, or in any way control costs, waste, lifestyle, malpractice, prevention, treatment, demand, taxes or benefits? Where, in the name of all that is American, is the Constitutional mandate? Did anyone ask?
Illegal Immigration
Being of Hispanic origin, Mr. Lynch says his stance on immigration invites a lot of comments. It shouldn't. He sees our borders as an analogy to the walls of our houses: "[O]ur nation is "our house"". So it is. Then he flips tunes and argues for an easier legal immigration system, effectively making the door to our house easier to open whilst improving the locks on the windows. As for existing illegal immigrants "we need to enforce our nation's laws against anyone who is breaking them". Bravo!
Fiscal Responsibility
His section on Federal Budget and Spending Reform is enlightening: "[T]he primary problem that afflicts our federal government is unrestrained government spending, and that reckless profligacy is the fault of both Democrats and Republicans". He goes on to list many instances of government profligacy and warns of the dire consequences we face in the future if this is not brought under control. I agree wholeheartedly with his facts and predictions; his analysis of the primary problem is off the mark by a country mile. Uncontrolled government spending is a symptom, not a cause. The root cause of all our problems in government is a flagrant disregard for the restraints placed on said government by our constitution. Had Congress followed its constitutional mandates, there would be no 'spending problem'. Did anyone ask him about that during the "extensive vetting process"? Yes? No? Sorta?
Iraq and Afghanistan
"The most important role of government is the protection of the American people and our homeland." Indeed. He goes on to point out all of the scary characters stalking the world and soberly advises "we need to take [them] very seriously". We should not give up these "forward positions" because they are "important fronts in our global war on Radical Islam". To this end, we should further bolster our military with expanded quick-strike capabilities; build more missiles, and my personal favorite, "[a] more effective and streamlined approach to homeland security that will protect our nation from terrorists, both foreign and domestic, and WMD". Don't forget the WMD, I know they're hiding there somewhere! In short, we need to expand our offensive capabilities overseas whilst expanding our offensive capabilities at home. If you don't find the Patriot Act or the Department of Homeland Security offensive enough, maybe this approach will help you see the light. So much for fiscal responsibility and respect for our constitution..
Israel
Contrary to Mr. Lynch's assertion, nobody 'gave' Israel to the Jews. A brief history is here. With the gradual fall of the British Empire in the Middle East immediately after WWII, the region of Palestine was clearly up for grabs, hostilities resulted in stalemate between Arabs and Jews over the territory (ironically due to lack of combat resources on both sides). This further resulted in partitioning by the UN (such far-sighted folks). From Mideastweb: "The United Nations Special Commission on Palestine (UNSCOP) recommended that Palestine be divided into an Arab state and a Jewish state. The commission called for Jerusalem to be put under international administration. The UN General Assembly adopted this plan on Nov. 29, 1947 as UN Resolution (GA 181)". According to Mr. Lynch: "The overwhelming truth is that Israel is our staunchest ally in the middle east (sic) and any nation that is our friend deserves our fullest support". Reading this, I wondered at the ratio of electioneering to truth (FL-19 has a large Jewish population, and they vote) from a man who, judging by his words, has very little actual knowledge of the history of the region or the depth of Israel's allegiance to the United States. Support (or lack thereof) for the State of Israel should be a matter for each individual to determine for his (her) self, Jew or gentile. There is no constitutional mandate for congress to take my hard earned money, by force, and use it to support any other sovereign state, no matter how 'worthy' the cause.
The stated goal of DC Works For Us is to turn the FL-19 seat from a 'D' to an 'R'. The logic goes that recent polls show independents splitting the Republican vote leaving the Democrat with the winning margin. "Even Fox News has listed the poll that a Democrat candidate would win 33% of the vote, Tea Party 23% and Republican Party 18%. People's first response is "Yeah, us! We have more than the Republicans." But, please, do the math. As they say in the Navy, "Second place is the first loser." We still lose. However, if you combine 23% and 18%, you have 41% and that, my friends, is more than 33%. That is how we win."
Here we go with the horse race mentality again. In a nutshell, don't vote for the independent or third party candidate because we'll lose your vote and the other guys will win!' Pick the winner (us!) and vote for that one. Don't waste your vote! Use it on us!
"He is the conservative, constitutional candidate". Conservative? Well, in the sense that Rush Limbaugh is conservative, yes, I guess he is. Constitutional? I may be a little jaded on that one. There are a lot of Republican buzz words in his literature. The same buzzwords his Republican counterparts were using in 2000 and 2004 - not a good omen. According to Brig. Gen. Jim Cash, USAF (Ret.): "...Our Congress is in dire need of new and principled public servants who can bring fresh ideas to the table, and who show total loyalty to the Constitution and the principles that guarantee our freedom". Sadly, the only reference to the constitution on his entire campaign website is this quote from this retired 1-star General. I wonder how the third party and independent guys are doing?
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