Todd Long-The Conservative Comeback-Book Review

One of our local aspiring politicians here in Central Florida has recently written a book explaining his politics intertwined with history and a stab at economics. I have briefly meet Todd on several political rallies and must admit when I first meet him last December 2008 I was totally thrown back by the fact that he was a trial lawyer. Honestly after losing Orange County Republican Representative Ric Keller and his crap and losing my beloved Seminole County Congressional Representative Tom Feeney in the 2008 congressional elections to liberal Democrats I was in no mood for another RINO. It took a couple of beers and self control not to get just a little perturbed. Well I was wrong about Todd.

In his book he explains the frustrations he and millions of other conservative voters have had with former President Bush and the Republican in the congress and senate from 2001 to 2006. Basically we the people voted in one group of people and got a totally different result. Expanded federal government, new entitlement programs, corruption, poorly executed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (until General Petraeus took over in 2006 in my opinion), lack of border enforcement and the constant political charades that pass as politics in Washington. The frustration and disgust is mutually and universally felt by millions including Todd.

The book is extremely well written for what I assume is a first book. It is at a basic senior high school level and is very easy to grasp the concepts that are put forward. The order of discussion is also very coherent and well thought out. The book starts out with the founding fathers and eliminates a lot of propaganda currently passing for fact in the main stream of the media and education institutions. How we got away from being a Christian nation and how the founding fathers viewed religion as part of our being are examined with just enough depth to make the case without boring the reader with tedious example after example. Pretty damn good job for a new author. An examination of socialism, dependency verses capitalism is examined in economic wealth terms as well as spiritual terms. Not something you see in every political book.

The current issues like our $11.5 trillion dept are examined currently and looking at the road of how we got here. Solutions are provided that are specific ranging from a balanced budget amendment to supporting the Fair Tax national sales tax plan. Obama’s disastrous economic policies are examined without vilifying the man. Education and the importance of Christianity in children’s lives are examined. Supporting school vouchers is not going to win Todd any teacher votes and saying so in black and white took some courage for the likely Republican nominee for the Orange County congressional seat in 2010. Supporting 12 year limits on the senate and house members will not endear him to the established members of the Republican or Democratic Party. The stands that Todd made in this book took real courage and I mostly agree and certainly respect that. How many times have we had a politician tell us one thing and do the opposite? Seems like every day at the White House.

The book goes on to cover energy independence, health care reform, entitlement reform, illegal immigration, the environment (surprisingly green for a Republican), and finally the most, for me anyway, interesting part of the book, his assessment of running for congress as a complete unknown. Being a local I remember his radio adds and really liked what he said. But after Bush what was the difference between him and his primary opponent Keller? Really all I wanted was the seat to stay in Republican hands. Todd gives all us interested in politics some real insight to the process as an average Joe trying to make a difference and the obstacles he faced. Sadly only eight pages were devoted to this subject. The book is worth the price just to read his thoughts on that bitter campaign last summer.
Finally Todd is a lawyer not a business person or economist. And as such has blind spots in some of his policy solutions. It’s not his fault per se. He doesn’t circle much in these fields and just doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. Here are a few of his solution that I had a beef with.

Education scores are given for science scores for whites, Hispanics, American Indians and African Americans (these hyphenated classifications make me want to vomit). Well here is the politically incorrect truth. Whites have an average IQ of 100, Asian 101, Jews 110+, Hispanics 93, and blacks 85. Ouch that hurts. Vouchers are the right solution. Let the parents and students self segregate based on academics, athletic, knighting, race or any other way they want to. Forcing students with totally different values, intellects and abilities is beyond stupid. That doesn’t mean if Steve Erkel, the black brainy kid on Family Matters, wants to attend the dork school he should be denied. Go for it. The kid would fit right in there. Let the parents and children decide what is best for them. I said it not Todd.

On illegal immigration Mr. Long is right about non enforcement costing blue collar workers jobs and wages. Want a dirty little secret? Blue collar wages are driven down about 37%, depending on worker demand, by illegal immigration.

On page 159 a proposal to have women seeking an abortion view the unborn fetus on an ultrasound to make them sympathetic and possibly change their minds about the abortion is proposed. Bad idea. Some women who have abortions are haunted for years afterward. No need to make it worse. Or maybe that is the intention?

You want to make women responsible for their behavior? A better idea would be to do away with all payments related to children. No welfare, child support, food stamps. Eliminate it all. Give custody to the parent with the most stable employment background. If that fails start looking at dividing the kids up. If that doesn’t work look at the grandparents. If that doesn’t work adoption and finally bring back the orphanages. A dirty little economic secret is that since the 1950’s the biggest change in the family has not been the lack of faith in Jesus Christ but the change in a money supply to unwed mothers and divorced mothers. Charles Murray of the America Enterprise Institute has written several papers and books on the subject. Any economist worth his salt can do a regression analysis of the divorce and unwed mother rate from the 1950’s and find the relationship between increased economic incentives to reward bad behavior and a increase in that behavior. Why my friend in graduate school did just such a regression analysis. People are more inclined to follow Jesus Christ if there are consequences to not following his example. Make the consequences real.

As far as religion in schools as a Libertarian if the parents want it then so be it. I don’t feel if parents object they should be ignored. Let them put their kids in a secular school.

On page 179 there is a condemnation of the news media. We all know the liberal idiots who pollute the air waves on a daily basis. But I don’t think much has changed over the years. Some people want to be informed and some could care less. The media in the 70’s was never fair they just hid their bias better. Hey I am all for honesty. At least know you know you’re getting propaganda from the jerks. I disagree that people are less informed today. If you want to know something you can find it much quicker than back in the day. The same 30% that supported the American Revolution are the same 30% that are well informed today. I have a family of liberals and facts mean nothing to them. Trust me on this. They will seek out the propaganda no matter what.

Abolishing the FCC would be a good first step. The government has no constitutional right to the air waves. Through the whole thing to the industry and have them come up with standards of decency and reporting news events. When they come up with their standards they either sign on or they don’t. If they don’t follow their standards have them sue each other in an arbitration hearing. Fines go to the winner. The FCC is about to silence critics and like any government program is poorly managed and susceptible to politics and dictators. Get rid of it if you ever get the chance.

On health care get rid of Medicaid, Medicare and all federal government related expenditures. Give the people a voucher to the elderly buy health insurance. Eliminate pre-existing clauses. Set up medical savings accounts for the young and so forth. CATO has written several papers on the subject and they have several excellent free market solutions. Mr. Long supports decentralizing government programs to the state and local level. Privatize it all and get the government out of the business.

Pretty much the same thing with social security. Mr. Long does support privatization of social security but also support raising age eligibility requirements if social security is not privatized. Pretty unfair but then again the whole system is unfair. I support giving a rebate to anyone who wants to opt out of the system with interest. That would be fair. And require all private accounts mandated, say 5% of gross income, to be put in federal, state or local bonds. The money will not grow fast but that’s not what it’s for. People can use their income above 5% to invest as they please.

On the ethanol mess I couldn’t quite pick up if Mr. Long was for or against the tariff on Brazilian ethanol. As any respectable economist will tell you tariffs punish consumers at about a 9 to 1 up to a 19 to one ration. For every domestic dollar gain to industry consumers lose $9 to $19. Bill Clinton knew this dirty little economic secret and when he signed NAFTA it helped our economy. Never support tariffs. The government’s policy on energy should be one of encouragement then getting out of the way. Period. Do that and gas will be $1.50 a gallon.
The green people will be disappointed that Mr. Long isn’t for cutting down every tree and eliminating every environmental regulation. Oh well. But as stated before industries should self regulate themselves with the government acting only as the referee throwing the flag when someone cheats. Industries know who cheats, how they do it and if they can get away with it. Setting up a financial system to rat out and fine the bad players would clean up any industry pretty darn quick. I have worked with thousands of contractors over the years and they know all the tricks of the trade. Having them hire industry insiders to check out the other guy would be much more effective than government for life employees looking to make friends.

Overall this was an excellent first book that is very suitable for younger readers and those without a lot of political knowledge. For hard core politicians, economist, business people getting Mr. Long’s positions on issues is refreshing. Mr. Long makes no apologies for his religious faith and takes some very politically dangerous positions. Honesty in a political book is a rare thing these days and he is to be complemented on his frankness. Well worth the read. Best of luck in 2010.