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(51?e Aftuattce The ADVANCE, Morch 22, 2023/Page 7A
A free press is not a privilege but
organic necessity in a great society.
-Walter Uppmann
COMMENTARY
out of
CONTEXT
A compilation of quotations on a variety of
issues by national, state and regional writers,
well-known personalities, just plain everyday
people and from various publications
collected by the editors of THE ADVANCE.
Quotes for our Times:
Jessica Chasmar, digital reporter on the
politics team for Fox News and Fox Business:
DeSantis releases graphic video showing trans
surgeries after Biden calls governor’s policies
‘cruel’.
Biden didn't specify what policies he was
criticizing, but Florida recently joined a hand
ful of states in banning gender-transition sur
geries and treatments like puberty blockers
and cross-sex hormones for minors.
"It is not 'sinful' to prohibit the mutilation of
minors," DeSantis fired back in a tweet Tues
day. "It is not acceptable for the federal gov
ernment to mandate that procedures like sex
change operations be allowed for kids."
Liz Peek, Fox News contributor and politi
cal commentator: If Biden wants to win in 2024
this is the surprising strategy he'll use.
The alternative? Lie about everything, of
ten and emphatically, and hope people will
believe you. That is the road Joe Biden is tak
ing. ...
As to veering towards the political mid
dle and reaching across the aisle, a promise
made by campaigner Joe, his constant at
tacks on "extreme MAGA" Republicans show
his true stripes. He blames his predecessor
Donald Trump for nearly every mishap, includ
ing the Ohio trail disaster and the recent bank
failures. And he shamelessly lies to Americans
about Republicans' plans to do away with So
cial Security.
Chuck DeVore, vice president with the
Texas Public Policy Foundation, was elected
to the California legislature, retired U.S. Army
lieutenant colonel, and author: The big lie
about Biden in 2024 takes a detour through
California.
Even with Newsom's flaws, he could come
back from poor showing in South Carolina
when the Democrats hold dual primaries in
Nevada and New Hampshire on the same
day. Newsom should do well in these states
with next door Nevada's strong union base
and New Hampshire's elite white liberal vote.
If Newsom could hold on until Super Tues
day, he might have a shot at dethroning
Biden with strong showings in California and
in Texas, where Newsom went all-in to help
Beto O'Rourke in his unsuccessful campaign
against Republican Governor Greg Abbott
last year.
California's Gavin Newsom, vapid and
entitled, might be the Democrats' only op
portunity to replace an increasingly mentally
vacant Biden on the 2024 Democratic ticket.
Tucker Carlson, host of FOX News Chan
nel’s flagship primetime cable news program,
Tucker Carlson Tonight The Biden administra
tion sees bank crisis as a means of expanding
their control.
All right. So, the money the Biden admin
istration is using for this bailout apparently is
coming from the FDIC. So, the feds have it
covered. Don't worry about the details. Every
thing's totally fine.
Hold on. Slow down, pal. How did this hap
pen? ... You're going to spend 5,000 words try
ing to understand, but in a really simple way
that's easy to understand. Their liabilities were
bigger than their assets. Very simple. How did
nobody notice that, the people were paid to
notice it? Well, Joe Biden, unfortunately an
swered none of those questions. He just ran for
the door.
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In defense of Reagan
RICH 1
LOWRY
COLUMN |
Presumably, Donald
Trump will never produce the
dark secrets promised about
Ron DeSantis’ past. But his
team thinks it already has one
— the Florida governor once
was a Reagan Republican.
“There’s a pre-Trump Ron
and there’s a post-Trump Ron,”
someone in the Trump camp
told Axios. “He used to be a
Reagan Republican. That’s
where he comes from. He’s now
awkwardly trying to square his
views up with the populist na
tionalist feeling of that party”
In his CPAC speech dou
bling down on “MAGA,”
Trump said, “We are never go
ing back to the party of Paul
Ryan, Karl Rove and Jeb Bush.”
He didn’t mention Reagan, but
the inclusion of the Gipper in
the hall of shame was heavily
implied.
This way of thinking in a
Republican primary is some
thing new. Once, pretty much
every Republican wanted to be
a Reagan Republican. If the
Trump camp gets its way, Rea-
ganism will have gone from
passe in 2016 to an affirmative
vulnerability in 2024.
There are layers to this in-
tra-Republican debate. It is cer
tainly true that conservatives
became overly obsessed with
identifying themselves with
Ronald Reagan and when
something becomes an -ism, it
is likely to be simplified and os
sified.
Then, there’s the sheer pas
sage of time. Reagan left office
34 years ago. As of 2020, more
than half of Americans were
under age 40, meaning they
have no real memory of Rea
gan.
Neither the pro- nor anti-
Reagan side tends to do justice
to the real, historical political
figure.
Reagan was a free marke
teer but wasn’t doctrinaire. He
accepted the fact of the New
Deal.
He was a free trader, yet
acted to protect American auto
makers and Harley-Davidson
from Japanese imports.
If he was hawkish on for
eign policy, he was always pru
dent. He was cautious about
deploying U.S. troops overseas
and contemplated eliminating
nuclear weapons at a summit
with Mikhail Gorbachev in
Reykjavik.
Although Reagan eventu
ally came to define conven
tional Republicanism, he took
on his party’s liberal establish
ment and brought a populist
voice to issues like the Panama
Canal and crime.
At the end of the day, Rea
gan’s achievements are momen
tous and should be acknowl
edged as such by all Republican
factions. He set the predicate
for winning the Cold War. He
slayed inflation. He ended the
energy crisis. He forced a turn
to the center by the Democratic
Party under Bill Clinton. He
changed the mood of the coun
try
The thoughtless version of
Reaganism doesn’t take suffi
cient account of how circum
stances in the country have
changed in the last 30 years.
Take taxes. The burden of fed
eral income taxes isn’t nearly as
heavy on middle-class families
as it was in the 1970s and 1980s,
when inflation pushed them
into ever-higher tax brackets.
And Republicans have cut taxes
so many times, any positive
economic effect of further re
ductions is limited.
TITLE: Nonetheless, for
the longest time, the standard
Republican approach to do
mestic policy, with some differ
ences in emphasis, was to cut
taxes and reduce the debt, with
everything else fading to the
background. As it happens,
Trump also ran on these two
priorities in 2016, but also
plowed new ground — as other
Republicans should — on a
host of issues.
The example of Reagan,
like that of all accomplished
statesmen, offers broad lessons
Please see Lowry page 10A
tire
NITTY
GRITTY
Silicon Valley Bank
- More Government,
Less Reality
President Ronald
Reagan once said,
“The nine most terri
fying words in the
English language are
‘I’m from the govern
ment, and I’m here to
help.’”
Shock waves are
rippling through the
country after the an
nouncement of the second largest bank fail
ure in the country’s history last week— Sili
con Valley Bank.
This just 15 years after the largest bank
failure in the country’s history — Washing
ton Mutual.
Research shows that the great collapse
in 2008, one casualty of which was Washing
ton Mutual, was one more example of the
damage done by excessive government.
Then, standards for issuing mortgages
deteriorated as a result of pressure from gov
ernment entities Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
and the Department of Housing and Urban
Development on lenders to meet affordable
housing goals. More and more substandard
loans were issued, all taking place under the
illusion of government protection, until the
house of cards came down.
After the total collapse, originating in
government policy designed to allegedly
make our lives better, the Dodd-Frank Act
was passed, now with some 8,000 pages of
regulations to supposedly strengthen Amer
ica’s financial system.
Time and again, a crisis caused by gov
ernment is supposedly solved by creating
even more government.
So now, with the Dodd-Frank Act in
place, passed under the pretense of “solving”
the problems of instability in our financial
system, here we are again.
I make no claims as any kind of expert in
finance. But reading through articles by
those who are, the amazing story that
emerges behind SVB is its violation of prin-
Please see Star page 9A
By Star Parker
Hubcap
My hus
band and I
are the own
ers of a 1998
Ford Expedi
tion with over
250,000 miles
on the odometer — a testament to
“Built Ford Tough” vehicles and our
devoted maintenance practices over
most of the last 25 years.
We have always driven our vehi
cles “until the wheels fall off,” but I’ve
started to realize that we may not be
able to drive the wheels off of our “Big
Green Machine.” Every time I jump
behind the steering wheel, I wonder if
it will crank, and it always surprises me
when it cranks right up. It drinks oil
and gas like an athlete gulping Gato-
rade during a time out, it only gets 11
or 12 miles per gallon, and the “check
engine” light has been on for two years.
Needless to say, we don’t drive it much.
It looks really rough and weath
ered, and the Blue Book value is proba
bly $100, but every time I look out the
window, I see it parked in the driveway
— ready to take me places. It aims to
please.
I’ve been ready to say “goodbye”
to it for the last five years — especially
during the pandemic when used car
values rose dramatically. But my hus
band and I couldn’t pull the trigger for
one simple, stupid reason — our gold
en retriever, Cali, is madly in love with
the Expedition. Riding in it brings her
great joy. She actually smiles when
she’s in it — really! She balances on
the center console and rests her head
on my husband’s shoulder as if she’s
saying, “Thank you for keeping this
ugly truck.”
So, we’ve kept it.
A few years ago, one of the hub
caps fell off. I got on eBay and ordered
a used one to replace it for $25.
Two or three months later, anoth
er hubcap fell off. My husband didn’t
want to spend any more money on the
old Expedition, and so he asked me
not to order another one. I appealed.
“I can’t stand to look at it with its
lug nuts exposed,” I said.
It was like a woman wearing a
dress with her slip peeking below the
hem line or a man missing a front
tooth.
And so I ordered yet another hub
cap. This time, the metal replacement
part put us back $35. After it was de
livered, we tapped it into place with a
rubber mallet, and all was well in the
world again.
They kept falling off. We’d drive
around looking for the metal plates,
but we never found them. We’ve prob
ably replaced five or six hubcaps to
date — the last one was replaced last
fall, and though my husband used
some sort of Loctite glue product to
secure it into place, it fell off in the mat
ter of a few days.
“Let’s get serious about getting
rid of it,” I said. “I hate looking at ‘Big
Green’ die a slow death in our drive
way.”
“Shhh...” my husband replied.
“Don’t let the dog hear us talk about
getting rid of it. She’ll get upset.”
I decided not to put any more
money into replacing the centers, so
for the last five months, I’ve had to look
at it out in the driveway — the rusty
lug nuts on the rear driver’s side wheel
waving at me. I’d frown and turn away
in shame.
Fast forward to two weeks ago. It
was an unseasonably warm day, and
I put on a pair of shorts and laced up
my running shoes. I jogged two miles
down the little narrow country road
where we live, and noticed two cars
approaching — one coming toward
me and a second one racing up from
behind. I jumped into the ditch to be
safe. As I waited for the two cars to
pass, something shiny caught my eye.
I kicked it with my running shoe and
flipped it over, and there it was — one
of the many hubcaps we’d purchased. It
was filled with compacted dirt and ev
ergreen fronds.
I dumped the debris from its bowl
and polished it with the tail of my t-
shirt then held it up like a trophy.
A few minutes later, I presented it
to my husband. A smile erupted across
his face. He marched to the truck and
snapped it on — making our 25-year-
old Ford Expedition look whole again.
And so there it sits — in our drive
way. I know the day is coming when we
finally get rid of “Big Green,” but for
now, it has all four hubcaps, and that
brings me a sense of peace. Most of all,
our dog is still happy!
From the Porch
By Amber Nagle