cannabisnews.com: Galbraith Leans Left, Right and Everywhere!





Galbraith Leans Left, Right and Everywhere!
Posted by FoM on August 24, 1999 at 10:11:17 PT
Column by The Post's Jack Hicks
Source: Kentucky Post
Where in the world is Gatewood Galbraith coming from?The man who provided some comic relief during the last couple of Kentucky gubernatorial elections has started talking about serious issues. But his stands appear to come from all over the political landscape.
''This experiment in training our children to become cheap labor for corporations must be revised/repealed to effect a return to the nuts and bolts of education: reading, writing and arithmetic,'' Galbraith's platform says of the Kentucky Educational Reform Act.The first part, ''. . . experiment in training our children to become cheap labor for corporations. . .,'' almost sounds like something right out of Karl Marx.But then on government, taxes, guns and other issues the one time ''marijuana candidate'' is vintage right wing Republican. ''Too much government and too many unelected bureaucrats. . . . there is no such thing as a budget surplus. Money left over after the budget has been satisfied belongs to the people and should be returned to them in the form of tax breaks. . . . We see current efforts to restrict gun ownership as a threat to the security of all citizens and the Second Amendment of the Constitution.''Is that Spiro Agnew, Jim Bunning or Ken Lucas talking? Or a guy in an ill-fitting cowboy hat we associate with calls for legalized pot smoking?Galbraith doesn't like vehicle emissions testing or higher gas taxes. He doesn't address clean air, other than to claim emissions testing will do nothing to improve the quality of the air. In the Marx mode, he contends tailpipe testing's main impact is to ''create new wealth for corporations in the form of emission tax credits.''In fact, Galbraith's economic development plank asserts, ''we will work to abolish the corporate welfare system in Kentucky.''He isn't against property rights, though. ''Our great nation is built on individual and property rights. Private property ownership is now threatened by mobs of government agents and stacks of administrative regulations which intrude on the rights and privileges of private property owners to utilize their land as they see fit,'' he said.That would seem to put him in league with many of those corporate types he says are sucking up welfare. Tax breaks, in the form of business write-offs or home mortgage payments, essentially are more welfare handouts, just under different names.But back to emissions testing and gas taxes. The Reform Party candidate maintains that a proposal - actually more of a nebulous trial ballon - by Gov. Paul Patton to increase gasoline taxes by 10 cents a gallon is regressive. ''We should be cutting taxes, not raising them,'' Galbraith said.All that plays well at the gas pump, and proves Galbraith is learning this game of elective politics. Play to their pocketbooks but don't offer answers to problems. He doesn't say how he would pay to repair the crumbling highways, let alone build new ones.And if no tailpipe testing, then why not higher gas taxes? The higher the latter, the fewer cars on the roads and the cleaner the air.For a guy who advocated a citizen's right to smoke marijuana, Galbraith seems mighty intolerant of other bad habits. ''Kentucky does not need casinos to further encourage their citizens to gamble away their hard-earned income,'' he asserts, emphasizing ''does not.''He and his running mate, Kathy Lyons, if elected governor and lieutenant governor, would campaign to defeat casinos in Kentucky, Galbraith said.The candidate would seem to support government intervention in reforming health care, but thinks it has no business butting into the tobacco settlement. ''We pledge to use the power of the governor's office to help return competition to the field of health care insurance and provide that all Kentuckians are able to obtain health insurance at reasonable, affordable rates,'' he said of the former.''Government should stay off the farm and the tobacco settlement money should go directly to the farmers, not to the bureaucrats and social engineers who want 'to build a better society,' '' he said of the latter.Indeed, Galbraith seems to be all over the lot, and it could be by design. What support he appears to be attracting is coming from people often associated with extremist causes.It's obvious that Galbraith is striving for an image as a serious politician, but from what direction? A serious ultra-liberal or a serious ultra-conservative?Gatewood, you were more fun when you wore a silly grin and harmonized with Willie Nelson.Jack Hicksis a columnist and political writer for The Kentucky Post.Publication date: 08-24-99 
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