My View
A Conservative Who Once Worked in
Canada
National Summary had the opportunity to interview
Toni from My View to ask her about the web site she runs and
about her insight to politics.
Toni is passionate about politics and about our
Free Market economy. My
View is informative and witty and covers a range of topics and
issues.
Below are her responses to our interview
questions. And National Summary would like to thank Toni for her
time and effort for this interview.
Web Site: My View
Q. Please give us a little bit of personal
background about yourself.
From MN - small farming community in west central MN. Grew up a
Democrat, not a big shocker for MN. My family is a large (9
children) boisterous group which was pretty much apolitical. I
don't remember any political discussions growing up. Have a
college degree in Secondary Education, it wasn't my cup of tea
plus at the time there were no jobs except in Argyle, MN (waaayyyy
northeast MN next to Canadian border). I also have a Business
Degree with an emphasis in Accounting.
My professional experience: Divisional Controller in a $500M
telcom company. Systems design, development, implementation,
project coordination for accounting systems with a couple telcom
companies. Plus I did a year stint in Mergers and Acquisitions
in telcom. Now I'm unemployed by choice, just a personal break.
I'll go back to work in a few months but I'm just enjoying my
new area (TN).
Q. And also give us a background about your interest in
politics.
I worked in Canada for a year in the early 90's. That turned a
corner for me. I appreciated the US more and found out how
insidious socialism can be. I had an inkling previously through
a boyfriend who worked in the Secret Service and was always
telling me how wonderful Ronald Reagan was, I didn't truly
believe him till the 90's. I wasn't a fan of Bush I and still am
not a fan of Bush I (at least his politics).
Q. What inspired you to create your web site?
I had been a blogophile for quite awhile, a couple years. I
finally got tired of not having anyone to rant and rave to about
the neo-socialists ruining our country. The blog helped me to
vent, I was surrounded by Democrats. The bonus has been all the
great blog friends and e-friends I've made from it.
Q. What have been the biggest challenges to maintaining your
web site?
Challenges? Not many really. I get a bit neurotic about posting
something especially when I was in the process of moving from MN
to TN. But there really hasn't been any anxiety. Mostly, I've
learned a lot. Pushed myself to learn new software and uses for
software. It's probably the cheapest hobby I've ever had.
Q. What has been the greatest satisfaction you have gotten
from your web site?
Definitely the interaction with other bloggers and commentators.
It's an online community of people who I never would have met
without the blog. That was unexpected. It's the best of all
worlds. Also, from this I think expanding my thinking beyond my
own skewed perspective.
Q. The 2004 presidential election has been one of the most
polarized elections in recent memory. Do you think that today
people are more politicized than ever before?
Yes and it's good. Talk radio had not evolved quite enough to
counteract Clinton’s first election. I believe the Fairness
Doctrine was revoked in maybe 1989. Between talk radio and the
internet I don't think William Jefferson Clinton would have been
elected into office. I know I would have bit my tongue and voted
for George Bush I instead of Perot. I probably would have been
better informed.
I was an internet junkie
before most people ever knew it existed. I worked with a new
business start up of WAN and LAN geeks and they showed me a lot.
I just didn't use it for political news then, it was more for
house designing and landscaping and gaming. I think if the
internet wasn't here most people would be believing the majority
of the garbage foisted on us by the Democrats. The biggest heist
on the American public was the pro-abortion agenda.
Q. Do you think the bitterness and divisiveness in politics
will recede or are things just getting ready for something
bigger in 2008?
I think the bitterness and divisiveness is here to stay.
Democrats are not used to NOT being in power (look at the last
100 years and see what parties had the presidency and the
Congress). I find it interesting to see the counter culture of
today in colleges and universities to be conservatives. The
coming generations are going to be paying the piper for all of
the socialist programs enacted from the 1960's and on. It could
be that the Republican Party will splinter. Where the Democrats
just rename their politics ( i.e. Progressives) but continue to
radically move toward socialist/communist philosophies.
The Republican Party is
driven towards big spending and pro-abortion leaders. What I
think this will do is drive the true conservatives out of the
party towards maybe a Constitution Party. Whether this is
successful will be determined in the future. The pragmatists we
have all listened to say control of the Congress and Presidency
is better than Democrats in power. I'm not so sure about that
anymore.
For myself I know I will
never vote for a Democrat, I don't care if it's Zell Miller. You
don't give power to the enemy and in my eyes the Democrats are
the enemy. But I might vote for a third party candidate again.
When Republicans lose they seem to be driven back to the
conservative base. Right now, Republicans are ignoring their
conservative base.
Q. The president's approval ratings are dismal. In your
honest opinion, do you think that the media has been unfairly
biased against the George W. Bush.?
I think the media hates and detests George W. Bush to an extent
that they can't tolerate anything positive about him. But then,
that happened with Ronald Reagan too, the difference is in
Reagan's time the Democrats controlled Congress. The media is
incapable of not blaming George W. Bush for whatever calamity
befalls the world.
Q. If so (to the above question), do you think that the
Democrats have gotten a free ride from the press?
No, I don't think so. But in general anything negative on the
Democrats almost has to be force fed to the media to be
published or reported. Can the media adore Hillary or Bill
Clinton enough? They still talk about Clinton's woes as the
fault of an over eager Ken Starr, ignoring completely the lying
under oath. I could go on unendingly about the duplicity of the
media with the Clintons. But even looking at the 2004 election,
the defense of Kerry by many in the media was sickening. PBS had
a 2 hour special on supposedly the election. It was a 2 hour
partially taxpayer funded infomercial for Kerry. With the war in
Iraq and Afghanistan for that matter - the media is completely
and totally broken. There's no hope.
Q. What has been your overall impression of the Bush
administration?
I give GW positives on his foreign policy and negatives on his
domestic policy. The only positive I can think about for GW from
a domestic policy was the tax cut. There are a few specifics
which greatly disappointed me in that GW didn't veto the bills.
There's McCain-Feingold election funding disaster, Farm Bill,
Education Bill, 911 payments to victims. Current hurricane
funding is bad precedent.
I do get somewhat
frustrated with GW's turn the other cheek mentality in dealing
with the opposition, I think GW loses many opportunities to
bring the American public into his camp but because of his
silence this opportunity is lost.
Q. Who do you see as being the major contenders for the 2008
Republican nomination for president?
I don't really favor any of the current contenders being touted
for the Republican nomination. The only remote possibility is
George Allen. But I had also read a bit on Mark Sanford who is
the Governor of South Carolina but have not read much on him
from conservative bloggers. It would be a stretch for me to get
excited (which means getting out and helping with the election)
about John McCain, Rudy Guliani, Condi Rice or Mitt Romney.
Romney is the only one I'd be willing to learn more about but at
this point I'm not convinced.
Q. Who do you think will be the 2008 Republican nominee?
George Allen
Q. Who do you think would be the worst 2008 Republican
nominee?
John McCain
Q. Who do you think are today's most influential conservative
female authors, columnists, or bloggers?
Authors/Columnists would be Malkin and Coulter although I enjoy
Star Parker and Debbie Schlussel too. I think Charmaine Yost
http://www.charmaineyoest.com/
does a great job too
with blogging politics, then there's Andi's World
http://andisworld.typepad.com/welcome_to_andis_world
And also Amy
http://dumbgirl.squarespace.com/blog
Both of whom are Army
wives. I'm sure I've forgotten some which for anyone reading
this if I didn't include you, my apologies.
Q. Is there a female author or politician that has greatly
inspired you?
I think Ann Coulter was one of my original favorites. But Ayn
Rand is the original author who got me thinking and set the
preamble for me to move towards conservatism.
Q. There are so few women in the blogosphere. What is your
opinion on why there are so few?
I actually am finding more every day. There's a lot of them out
there especially in the military venue. They aren't all
political but they are usually big on supporting the troops.
Q. Many segments of the media have all but declared Hillary
Clinton as the Democratic nominee. What kind of impact do you
think she will have on undecided female voters?
I find it difficult to predict. Generally speaking most women
have been Oprahfied and don't tend to "think" for themselves.
They "feel" and turn this into their opinions. In speaking with
other women of any age if everything they say is prefaced with
feel then I know they have no clue what they are talking about.
I don't have much confidence in the female undecided voters to
analyze candidates based on anything other than their emotions.
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