377 Years Later, The Tradition Continues

Tomorrow we gather with friends and family to celebrate the American tradition of Thanksgiving which had its beginnings in our country's earliest days among the English settlers who landed in the wilderness of Plymouth in 1620. Like many details of those times, the facts are a little sketchy but a basic understanding has grown from surviving documents.

The View from Plymouth Rock indeed emanates from the Town of Plymouth, Massachusetts, but rather than blogging from the Rock itself, The View originates from a small nearby settlement called Winslowe's View. But let's face it, The View from Plymouth Rock is more illustrative than would be the View from Winslowe's View.
On December 11, 1621, one of the first settlers, Edward Winslow, for whom our community is named, wrote a letter, which has survived to provide a glimpse of what was probably the first celebration of Thanksgiving:

"Our corn did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown. They came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom. Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."

By 1623, the tradition seems to have gained strength as Governor William Bradford issued the first Thanksgiving Proclamation:

"Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.

Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the daytime, on Thursday, November 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty three and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings."

William Bradford
Ye Governor of Ye Colony

Thanksgiving has become a uniquely American tradition and while some cynics like to to poke holes in its historical underpinnings, we, as a country, set aside our differences for a day and celebrate our abundant blessings. Happy Thanksgiving from the View.

Historic Parallels

Okay, its taken us several weeks, but we are ready to move on. Which is more than we can say for some people. Today, Doonesbury was still whacking away at Sarah Palin.
Obama wasn't our pick, but he won the day and we are now ready to subscribe to the "give him a chance" school of thought. Besides, if it turns out badly, we can revert to the I-told-you- so stance.

And while we wish Mr. Obama well, it strikes us that much of the gratuitous adulation from his campaign is carrying over to the transition period. For instance, he is repeatedly being called the next JFK. Okay, both were young senators when elected. Obama has an attractive wife and a cute young family, just like JFK did. Beyond that, the comparison gets very thin. What we seem to need is someone to invoke the Lloyd Benson comparison, along the lines of: We knew Jack Kennedy. He was our president, from Massachusetts, when we were young and the future looked endlessly golden and inviting. Senator Obama, you are no Jack Kennedy.

And then, there's the Abe Lincoln comparison. As illustrated by the Ron English portrait nearby, some folks have given this a lot of thought. And maybe there is a twisted parallel if someone could connect the dots between Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and Obama's election. Good luck to that. More recently, we have been reminded of Lincoln's courage in appointing a "Team of Rivals" to his cabinet rather than a gang of sycophants. Before you point to Hillary Clinton as an example of Obama acting Lincolnesque, I would have you recall last summer when Hillary dragged her feet in terminating her campaign amid rumors of her taking the fight to the convention. Then, magically, the Clintons agreed to fold their tent and support Obama, and everyone wondered what kind of deal was cut. Well, now we know. Maybe concern about the conflicts raised by Bill's money-raising schemes will block Hillary's confirmation as Secretary of State, but don't bet on it. In the meantime, is this an example of hope we can believe in?

But don't despair, the channelling of ex-presidents continues as we hear that Obama may well be the new FDR as he comes riding in to save us from the financial crisis that has recently melted down half of every one's 401 (k). There seems to be an expectation that he will unfold a New New Deal that will solve our financial ills the same way FDR's New Deal fought the effects of the Depression. Not to rain on this parade, but by the time Obama is sworn in, there may not be much left in the old Treasury after the bail out for the banks, insurance companies and the auto industry. Obama is calling for a significant stimulus package to stave off the looming recession. Since he has also refused to postpone any of the new spending programs he has promised, I have a feeling that 95% of U.S. Taxpayers may not be seeing that tax cut for a while.

Okay, okay, I did say we have to give the guy a chance. But at the same time, we have to wonder just what achievements in his background point to his being an effective president? If the past is prologue, then perhaps hope is the answer after all, as in, "We sure hope this guy can do the job".

Reflections III, and Beyond

While not readily apparent from the MSM, we have been through merely an election and not a total societal transformation. Victory may be sweet, but it is not permanent. Most of the campaign issues will arise again in public debate, sooner rather than later. But before relegating the election to history's dustbin, The View would like to take a final look at one particular facet; namely, the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's Vice Presidential running mate.

In the final days leading up to McCain's announcement, the overwhelming concern was that he would select a pro-choice VP. Joe Lieberman and Tom Ridge were the names being bandied about. When Sara Palin was introduced, many Republicans were immediately relieved, and then impressed, not only for her solid conservative positions, but also for the energy and enthusiasm she brought to the ticket.

Elections are, to some extent, about critiquing the opposing candidate. But the Democrats have a way of getting down and dirty fast. Recall how Gerald Ford was seen as a dope, in spite of graduating from Yale Law School near the top of his class. Ronald Regan was termed an amiable dunce and of course poor Dan Quayle was spelling-challenged. So when the left, aided and abetted by the MSM went after Palin, we shouldn't have been surprised. That the attacks went beyond the pale to her family, her church and her education plowed new low-ground. The fact that she had more administrative experience that anyone on either ticket was quickly brushed aside as she was held up to ridicule. Her personal life was combed through while Barack Obama got a pass on Jeremiah Wright. Palin was Called "dumb" and "ditzy" while Obama was simply "brilliant".

We expected the worst from the left and its spokesmedia, and we were not disappointed. But more importantly was the criticism that came from the right which questioned the orientation of palin's conservatism as being too closely aligned with the Christian right. This charge that somehow she offered the wrong brand of conservatism was, in some ways, a shadow of the criticism of McCain's tendency to reach across the aisle on occasion. Thus some found the McCain ticket wanting as it lacked conformance to a narrowly-proscribed conservative ideal. Estimates of the number of disaffected conservatives who may have sat out the election run as high as 4 million.

The Democrats seem to manage to unite its constituency in spite of differing goals. On the one hand, public employee unions support Democratic candidates who support big government and the construction trades work the polls on behalf of Democratic candidates seen to favor public works projects providing prevailing-wage jobs to its membership. At the same time, these groups have no organic reason to support liberal issues like abortion and gay marriage also favored by Democrats. Conservatives, on the other hand, are much quicker to turn their backs on a Republican candidate who fails to provide a full measure of commitment to their perception of orthodoxy.


The conservative agenda is based on a powerful set of principles that have helped this country not only survive, but grow and prosper. It has been recently defeated by a more liberal view that promises instant gratification in the form of short-sighted government programs designed to solve social ills via a re-distribution of wealth. Conservatives of all stripes must realize that the Republican Party is the only vehicle to regain influence. The United States does not have a parliamentary system allowing for the banding together of numerous splinter groups to form a governing coalition. Maybe its fun to boast about being a Libertarian, but that party, and most other third-parties, has a very long way to go before it fields a viable candidate. The Republican party needs to sharpen its focus and develop positive alternative solutions to the liberal tax and spend mantra. But at the same time, conservatives of all stripes need to recognize the benefit of banding together to achieve an acceptable conservative compromise. It is clearly better to achieve most of one's goals than to face years in the political wilderness. With a liberal president and a Democratic congress, we are about to get a taste of the cost of demanding a too-narrow band of acceptable politics.

Reflection on the Election II

Shortly after Congress voted the initial bailout package, John McCain proposed a plan whereby the government would buy up troubled residential mortgages to prevent widespread foreclosures and evictions. The details of McCain’s proposal were sketchy and the plan seemed to reflect an almost desperate attempt to respond to the crisis. The massive scale of the crisis and its swift emergence, caught most by surprise. Moreover, there was little agreement as to the correct remedy. But McCain's proposal was seriously flawed in at least two respects.

While the financial crisis continues to unfold, one lesson is clear. The seeds of this problem was governmental pressure on lenders to lower their lending standards, coupled with an accommodation by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who bought many of these loans from the banks. The lenders and their investment bankers also spread the risk of these loans by bundling them into marketable securities. But the law of unintended consequences is always with us and what started out as an attempt to encourage home ownership to low-income borrowers, also produced a stream of easy money for real estate purchases. Moreover, due to the government's parallel efforts at suppressing interest rates, mortgage money was not only easy, but it was cheap as well as it provided the fuel for the massive real estate bubble which saw legions of normally sane investors turn into real estate speculators.

Barney Frank and his co-conspirators would have us believe that it was the excesses of Wall Street, aided and abetted by Republican de-regulation that caused the mess. Make no mistake about it, Wall Street is in business to make money. At the same time however, avoiding losses is an important part of that effort and the Street is usually very efficient at pricing risk. It could be argued that absent the government's meddling, the market would have self-corrected long before the sub-prime loans achieved plague status. McCain's proposal precluded any effort to accurately describe the underlying causes of the crisis, allowing the Democrats to lay the blame at the Republicans door.

As a result of the relaxed lending standards, borrowers who might have otherwise not qualified for a loan were provided mortgages, often for a higher percentage of the purchase price of the property. But when borrowers failed to meet their payments, concern was raised, not for the lender's losses, but rather the borrower who faced the loss of the property. This might be an acceptable social sentiment, but it makes no sense from an economic standpoint. The proposal to have the government purchase the troubled mortgage to "protect" the homeowner from eviction implies a back door entitlement program that most taxpayers would find unacceptable. This flies in the face of Republican free-market principles and invited questions of McCain's grasp of basic economics.

While this issue, by itself, did not decide the election, it is one of the issues that, emerging late in the campaign, worked to McCain’s ultimate detriment. The View will look at several similar issues in future posts. Within the continued irony that marked this campaign, McCain’s opponent remained virtually silent and emerged largely unscathed by the financial crisis, just as he did on so many counts.

Reflection on the Election

For many of us, it went down to the wire, believing that victory was possible, right up to the point that the toss-up states began falling like ten pins into the Obama column, and it became clear that the polls (God help us) were right and the freshman senator from Illinois had won the day and the keys to the Oval Office. And while this impossibly-long campaign has wrung the starch out of everyone involved, especially the voters, we woke up Wednesday morning knowing that the system works and the task of governing will be passed to the new president just as it has been for the past two hundred, plus years. New faces with new ideas will assume control and history will decide if they are able to deliver on their promises as they face the known and unknown challenges. It is heartening to know that the American Ship of State sails steadily on.

It's never easy to lose, especially in a contest as public and decisive as a presidential election. Those of us that counted on John McCain to carry our standard to victory must work hard to overcome the temptation to finger point and assess blame. Rather than wallowing in the slough of despond, we must try to learn from the results so as to help with the ongoing commitment to promoting our principles. Life goes on and so does the crusade.

One of the basic underlying facts of this election was that on election day, two-term Republican president George Bush held a 25% approval rating. 75% of the American people found his performance lacking. One of the primary reasons for this was the highly divisive Iraq war. The war began amid conflicting intelligence about the existence of Weapons of Mass destruction in Iraq, and the lack of a clear case between Sadam Hussein and Al Queda. John McCain understands loyalty and in spite of his support of the surge that points towards military victory, concern over a clear purpose of the war remained like a throbbing tooth in the jaws of many Americans, even among those providing staunch support for the deployed military. War is a burden, no matter how just its cause. A war lacking crystal clear purpose is, among other things, a political albatross.

The lengthy primary season and the saga of Hillary Clinton diverted attention from the vulnerability of the Republican party until relatively late in the process. While there was a certain schadenfreude in watching the Clinton's get their comeuppance, it seemed to defer coming to grips with the challenges faced by the Republicans attempting to win a third presidential term.

When the financial crisis hit and its murky causes were allowed to be lain largely at the Republicans door, the GOP's fate was probably sealed and it would have taken a super candidate to overcome these challenges. John McCain is a fine man, but he was no super candidate and no one ever said he was. At the end of the day, the vote was certainly decisive enough to clearly establish the winner. But given the handicaps to the Republican cause, it's a wonder that the margin of victory wasn't substantially greater. This is not to quibble. Mr. Obama has won and fully deserves all the laurels due the victor. The ship of state sails on.

At the same time, the lessons of history must be learned lest we risk their recurrence. The View will continue to examine some of the major campaign issues that, had they been handled differently, might have made a difference.

3 Days to Go - Presidential Race Tightening

Conventional wisdom tells us that the in-office party always pays the price for economic calamity, whether warranted or not. Let's leave the discussion of the Democratic complicity in the financial crisis for another time and simply posit its validity as an assumption. To the extent that this holds true, the Democratic candidate, it would seem, should be showing a wide lead. This just hasn't happened. In fact, the polls (which The View loves to vilify) are showing a tightening race, only three days before the election.

As picked up by early-riser EaBo Clipper in RED MASS Group, the Reuters/C-Span/Zogby Poll is showing an interesting trend. According to pollster John Zogby:

"Is McCain making a move? The three-day average holds steady, but McCain out polled Obama today, 48% to 47%. He is beginning to cut into Obama's lead among independents, is now leading among blue collar voters, has strengthened his lead among investors and among men, and is walloping Obama among NASCAR voters. Joe the Plumber may get his license after all. "Obama's lead among women declined, and it looks like it is occurring because McCain is solidifying the support of conservative women, which is something we saw last time McCain picked up in the polls. If McCain has a good day tomorrow, we will eliminate Obama's good day three days ago, and we could really see some tightening in this rolling average. But for now, hold on."

Now, more than ever, we must commit to get to the polls on Tuesday, and bring at least one friend.