To: members@vastrightwingconspiracy.con
From: mightybastard@vastrightwingconspiracy.com (membership ID: TK-421)
Password: 0bama15aween1e
Folks,
We're handling these scandals all wrong. The IRS Scandal and the Justice Department wiretapping the AP- we need to point out the real dangers here, not score political points.
Everyone's talking about how these scandals hurt Obama. That's not the point, nor should it be.
For one thing, Obama's irrelevant. He won in 2012 on a campaign of "I'm not Romney", and never pushed an agenda. Plus, he's terrible at the job of, you know, actually running the country. He's going to spend the next 18 months with one goal in mind- trying to vote out the GOP House. After that... I don't know; he'll play some golf and make some speeches, trying to set up a Legacy. Outside events will drive the topics in Washington; the President won't.
So forget about figuring out how these scandals hurt Obama. Instead, try to find ways to make sure they never happen again.
The Conservative Argument against Big Government can be stated in two bullet points.
1) A Leviathan Bureaucratic State is so inefficient that it causes more harm than good compared to a smaller, limited government
2) A Leviathan Bureaucratic State grants so much unchecked power to others than abuse of the system is inevitable and causes harm to innocents.
The IRS Scandal is a perfect example of #2. A bunch of IRS employees used their power to grind a political axe. They targetted groups they didn't agree with, threatening them with audits.
Everyone understands that the IRS is a frightening group. It has the power to tax our income, to take our homes, and to arrest us if we don't fill out there 20,000 pages of tax forms exactly right. People dread the idea of dealing with the IRS.
And the people responsible used that dread to intimidate political groups they didn't like.
I don't want firings; I want arrests and perp walks for those responsible.
But more importantly, I want transparency in the way the IRS targets groups for audits to make sure this doesn't happen again. The IRS has gotten so powerful that these types of abuses are going to happen unless they change how the IRS can use its authority.
THAT'S what we should be going after- some limitations to what the IRS can do to prevent these types of abuses.
Same with the AP Scandal, although I'm thinking the media should do the heavy lifting for us there. Using the Department of Justice to record private conservations reporters have? We all know the media is in the tank for the President, but I think this will cause a few unpleasant dinner dates between them.
But stop targetting Obama- he's irrelevant. Concentrate on finding ways to make sure this doesn't happen again.
Sincerely,
TK-421
PS- You'll notice I haven't mentioned Benghazi. That was a serious screw up- four men were killed when they were put in a dangerous situation. In retrospect, it was obvious they needed more protection. By all means, hold hearings to figure out why this happened. But this is less of a scandal and more a case of incompetent screw ups. The IRS and AP are scandals; Benghazi was incompetence. Combining the two only muddies the water.
