Apriori Concepts

I got my Atlantic Monthly today and read a few short articles at lunch. This article, to me, spells out exactly what is wrong with our current political climate.

In short, it states that leaders of both political parties may actually favor being the loser in this year's slate of Congressional elections. The rational being that the party in power in 2008 will have a hard time mollifying angry American voters.

The article indicates that both parties are preparing for a two-year period of do-nothing, so they can be fresh for the '08 campaign.

That means two years of no leadership, two more years with no real energy policy and two excruciating years of partisan bickering bringing the government to a standstill on major issues like balanced budgets and reduced spending.

All of this compounds the feeling I have that we are suffering through a period devoid of real leadership at the national level.

When retaining power becomes a mean to itself, something is very wrong.

Or as someone much wiser than I once said, "Where there is no vision, the people perish."

 

 

Posted by Jeffrey Sykes at 05:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I hear a lot of people complain about the burden of overregulation in North Carolina and its localities.

People are want to complain about just anything. And that is fine.

But Forbe's magazine recently rated North Carolina as the third best state in the country to do business. Our neighbors in the commonwealth to the north were first, followed by Texas.

Our regulatory climate (defined as regulatory and tort climate, incentives, transportation and bond ratings) was also ranked the third best.

We were fourth in business costs and fourth in growth prospects.

With so much going for the state, and our Virginia neighbors, that may bode well for Reidsville and Rockingham County.

What's your take?

Posted by Jeffrey Sykes at 11:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One thing I am excited about is the candidacy of former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner for president. Warner seems to be a moderate Democrat, and as a moderate Republican, that is something I admire. Warner has a business background. He is a self-made man. As governor, he brought Republicans and Democrats together in a very partisan state house to pass budget reforms that erased duplication and saved the state millions. I think we need that at the federal level. Foreign policy and national morality issues historically seem to sort themselves out somewhere in the middle. Unfortunately, the budget sanity of the Clinton-Gingrich era in Washington got drowned out by Lewinsky, partisanship, the 2000 election fiasco, and of course 9-11.

 

We must balance the budget and reduce the deficit at the federal level. Some argue the French Revolution happened because Louis XVI was saddled with such a huge debt that the interest payments on the debt ate up such a large percentage of his budget that he didn't have the cash to mollify the people's complaints.

 

I'm not predicting doom and gloom, but economists and rational politicians agree that it is not feasible to maintain such a large deficit and economic prosperity in this country any more than it was in 18th century France.

 

Colin Powell would be my ideal candidate for president. Powell-Warner would be a great ticket if the extremes carry the nomination in both mainstream parties.

 

Democrats would be wise to nominate Warner and have him pick Edwards for a running mate.

 

 

Posted by Jeffrey Sykes at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)