OPINION
7A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY OCTOBER 31, 2008
FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Re-elect Moore for U.S.representative
United States
Representative, District 3
Incumbent U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kan.) has won as a Democrat in the conservative 3rd district two years since 1998. His political triumphs include victories against ultra-conservatives such as Phill Kline and Kris Kobach.
Now he has a new challenge. Moore must beat Nick Jordan, a moderate Republican state senator, with many of the same promises for bipartisanship as Moore.
But Jordan hasn't proved he'll stay that moderate as a congressman yet. Moore has.
Moore
He's a candidate who's voted across party lines consistently during the last 10 years. People
like Moore in Congress are more important than ever at this time when bipartisanship is needed to fix the alling economy. Moore deserves re-election.
He has solidified his reputation as someone who votes issue by issue rather than worrying about his party.
Moore has also
showed he would act on finding alternative energy sources and would try to cut down on America's dependence on foreign oil by supporting the Energy Independence and Security Act in 2007.
cuts. For someone who on his own Web site stresses the importance of math education for the youth, his ideas don't add up. Tax
Jordan is running on a platform in which he promises to shake up Washington. But his plans are flawed. He wants to bring down debt and has criticized Moore for being part of a Congress that has compiled massive deficits.
cuts and debt go hand in hand.
Yet Jordan still promises tax
He's also criticized Moore for voting to approve the rescue plan, but economists have said the economy would be worse off if Congress turned down the plan.
Flawed promises and undeserved criticism
show a lack of experience. Jordan is a respectable candidate, but Moore has proven himself.
Mark Dent for the editorial board
@ KANSAN.COM
To see all of the editorial board's endorsements for this election, visit kansan.com/opinion.
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MATT CHASE
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
What conservatives keep getting wrong
PAUL ARMSTRONG
"All human knowledge is tainted with an 'ideological' taint. It pretends to be more true than it is. It is finite knowledge, gained from a particular perspective; but it pretends to be final and ultimate knowledge."
MAX RINKEL
Reinhold Niebuhr
It's a demoralizing time to be a Republican. The nomination of Sarah Palin has split the party's ideological wing from its moderate pragmatists. Adherents of the former comprise an ideological school that came of age during the Reagan administration. Elevated by Reagan's rise and vindicated by his successes, they brought the concentrated support of their movement behind George W. Bush, and their efforts brought him to power.
Today, they resist the disconcerting implications of Bush's failures. Their reaction to the manifest failures of their ideology during the Bush years has been to demand ever stricter conformity with conservative doctrine.
Indeed, history carries stern lessons about political systems riven by such ideological hackery. It was similar ideological devotion that animated irreligious European intellectuals throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and the history books are replete with chronicles of
The nomination of Palin is their coup, and their aim is to ensure the preeminence within GOP ranks of their ideology, an increasingly rigid canon, which fails to distinguish the present from 1981 and Barack Obama's policies from unfettered socialism.
warring movements and nationalisms, failed governments and other murderous consequences of that period.
This tendency of conservative elites to ideological purity is troubling not only because it portends political oblivion for the GOP in the short-term, but also because it runs counter to the political flexibility and governing pragmatism that philosopher Edmund Burke hailed as essential components of stable governments.
The free market is their gospel, and Reagan is their messiah, and anything less is socialism.
Customarily in America, it is left to liberals, leftists and godless intellectuals to make functional religions of their political ideologies, but now, conservatives too exhibit such tendencies.
Observe Fox News commentator Sean Hannity systematically dividing each of his callers and television guests into monolithic blocks of conservative true believers and unconverted liberals. Visit the Web site of the Heritage Foundation, a renowned conservative think tank, where a large banner asks with apparent seriousness, "What would Reagan do?"
Religion is by nature a dogmatic, uncompromising pursuit. Politics ought to be a pragmatic, flexible one. This important distinction goes back to Alexis of Tocqueville.
To de Tocqueville, the importance of religion in American life is that it acts as a check on the seductive ideologies to which human nature is naturally drawn. It trumps politics, relegating it to lesser realms where moderation and compromise are apt to prevail. By contrast, when the impassioned, uncompromising character of religious disputes is applied to politics, the result is factionalism, division, conflict and the obstruction of good governance.
When conservative political elites elevate ideology to the place of religion, it should raise red flags for moral reasons, if not strategic ones.
If far too few red flags are being raised, perhaps a well-deserved electoral landslide defeat early next week will do the trick.
Armstrong is a Dallas senior in business.
If we lose the T, could we lose Park and Ride?
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Every morning a bus waits outside of my apartment complex at 31st and Iowa. I am thankful for the bus system because it saves me from purchasing a parking pass I would need to drive on campus. If it weren't for KU on Wheels, a majority of students would have difficulty getting to and from classes every day. KU on Wheels provides a much-needed public service to students, as does the Transit System to the city of Lawrence. However, the future of the Lawrence Transit System is in danger.
Park and Ride receives some of its funding from federal dollars provided to the city of Lawrence. If the city has no bus system, it would receive no federal funding, and Park and Ride would lose its federal dollars as well.
The fate of the Lawrence Transit System hinges on two propositions. If a sales tax increase on the Nov. 4 ballot does not pass, the Transit System will not exist.
Students might think that because they may not use the T, the propositions on the ballot may not affect them. But KU on Wheels will be affected by the outcome of the vote, too.
more money at the gas pump and decreases the amount of carbon waste produced by vehicles. The Transit System provides an average of 1,600 rides each day, according to the Lawrence Transit Web site, and in 2006, ridership increased by 8.6 percent.
The T saves people from losing
People who rely most on the T are those with disabilities that do not allow them to operate a vehicle. Others may need to rely on the system based on age or financial hardship. People who may not be able to afford a car use the T as their only mode of transportation.
Likewise, those seeking employment can use the T to search for a job. Without the T, those with disabilities or financial hardships will face even greater challenges.
Also, students can ride both KU buses and T buses for free. T buses operate from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. during the week and also on the weekends. Students without vehicles in the University may rely on both KU buses and the T buses for transportation around Lawrence. Without the T, students must find another form of transportation on the weekends and after 6 p.m. during the week.
I am lucky to be provided transportation to and from campus each day, as I am sure many of you are, too. Remember other people in the Lawrence community who may also rely on public transportation when you go to the polls Nov. 4.
The T is a public service like the fire and police departments. No one would question raising taxes to protect our streets, so why not be just as willing to provide the public service of transportation?
Brown is a Wichita sophomore in journalism and political science.
To contribute to Free for All, call 785-864-0500.
For all of the kids running to catch the Park & Ride this morning; if you can run to catch the bus, you can definitely walk to class.
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Everyday I pick up a Kansan thinking that there is no way it can suck as much as the day before, but each day it proves me wrong.
Why do you always expect me to have lotion? Is it because I'm black?
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I just saw a girl walking around campus with moon boots. Really? Give Napoleon Dynamite back his shoes.
Who wears a Missou sweatshirt on Jayhawk Boulevard?
Where are the KU police? A bike just ran a stop sign.
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So what? So let's dance!
I'm living on PBJ and PBR
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Is it just me, or is there a ladybug problem on campus? And yes, ladybugs are a problem.
Today I realized that professors are just like us. My professor almost bought a Shamwow as well.
Blacking out on a Tuesday night: That is what fraternity life is all about.
Last night I checked my sociology test score, cried, stabbed a knife into my desk, gave up on my hopes and dreams and then went to bed. No more drinking on Tuesdays
What's this about a ladybug?
Eat my hummus and call me something dirty.
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Yo yo yo, it's lunch time
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Barack chalk Jayhawk
And so God unleashed the eighth plague upon the University of Kansas, the rampage of ladybugs to smite the GDIs.
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How come there's so many ladybugs in your room? Because I'm a lady's man.
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My friend is seriously obsessed with Bill Self, and it is starting to freak me out.
To the stripper who I am in love with: Do you live north of the river and were you at the frat house this weekend?
It's my birthday and all I want is birthday sex, but I won't get it. Fuck the world.