Fire Hydrant of Freedom
Politics, Religion, Science, Culture and Humanities => Politics & Religion => Topic started by: ccp on November 15, 2008, 08:06:02 AM
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I agree with some of the following though not all. I think he is right on target at the Republican party's banckrupcy in ideas and inability to adapt. Falling to the position that the reason for the failure of the party is due to its diverting from its core principles is hopefully not going to win out the minds of what is left of the leadership and dircection of the party and dooming it to further defeat. If Shawn Hannity and Rush are going to lead this party than they party follows them the way of the pied piper.
If anyone questions the barren thoughtfulness of the party just witness that some in the party think that putting Palin at the forefront and labelling her a leader of the party is a good idea. Anyone who now thinks this woman can attract anyone new to the right is dreaming. She is turning into a total mindless cad inmo. I am surely dissappointed and becoming quite embarassed by her.
I was wrong to think she has her own wisdom or ability to engage in real insightful conversation.
***Ship of fools
Nov 13th 2008
From The Economist print edition
Political parties die from the head down
Illustration by KAL
JOHN STUART MILL once dismissed the British Conservative Party as the stupid party. Today the Conservative Party is run by Oxford-educated high-fliers who have been busy reinventing conservatism for a new era. As Lexington sees it, the title of the “stupid party” now belongs to the Tories’ transatlantic cousins, the Republicans.
There are any number of reasons for the Republican Party’s defeat on November 4th. But high on the list is the fact that the party lost the battle for brains. Barack Obama won college graduates by two points, a group that George Bush won by six points four years ago. He won voters with postgraduate degrees by 18 points. And he won voters with a household income of more than $200,000—many of whom will get thumped by his tax increases—by six points. John McCain did best among uneducated voters in Appalachia and the South.
The Republicans lost the battle of ideas even more comprehensively than they lost the battle for educated votes, marching into the election armed with nothing more than slogans. Energy? Just drill, baby, drill. Global warming? Crack a joke about Ozone Al. Immigration? Send the bums home. Torture and Guantánamo? Wear a T-shirt saying you would rather be water-boarding. Ha ha. During the primary debates, three out of ten Republican candidates admitted that they did not believe in evolution.
The Republican Party’s divorce from the intelligentsia has been a while in the making. The born-again Mr Bush preferred listening to his “heart” rather than his “head”. He also filled the government with incompetent toadies like Michael “heck-of-a-job” Brown, who bungled the response to Hurricane Katrina. Mr McCain, once the chattering classes’ favourite Republican, refused to grapple with the intricacies of the financial meltdown, preferring instead to look for cartoonish villains. And in a desperate attempt to serve boob bait to Bubba, he appointed Sarah Palin to his ticket, a woman who took five years to get a degree in journalism, and who was apparently unaware of some of the most rudimentary facts about international politics.
Republicanism’s anti-intellectual turn is devastating for its future. The party’s electoral success from 1980 onwards was driven by its ability to link brains with brawn. The conservative intelligentsia not only helped to craft a message that resonated with working-class Democrats, a message that emphasised entrepreneurialism, law and order, and American pride. It also provided the party with a sweeping policy agenda. The party’s loss of brains leaves it rudderless, without a compelling agenda.
This is happening at a time when the American population is becoming more educated. More than a quarter of Americans now have university degrees. Twenty per cent of households earn more than $100,000 a year, up from 16% in 1996. Mark Penn, a Democratic pollster, notes that 69% call themselves “professionals”. McKinsey, a management consultancy, argues that the number of jobs requiring “tacit” intellectual skills has increased three times as fast as employment in general. The Republican Party’s current “redneck strategy” will leave it appealing to a shrinking and backward-looking portion of the electorate.
Why is this happening? One reason is that conservative brawn has lost patience with brains of all kinds, conservative or liberal. Many conservatives—particularly lower-income ones—are consumed with elemental fury about everything from immigration to liberal do-gooders. They take their opinions from talk-radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and the deeply unsubtle Sean Hannity. And they regard Mrs Palin’s apparent ignorance not as a problem but as a badge of honour.
Another reason is the degeneracy of the conservative intelligentsia itself, a modern-day version of the 1970s liberals it arose to do battle with: trapped in an ideological cocoon, defined by its outer fringes, ruled by dynasties and incapable of adjusting to a changed world. The movement has little to say about today’s pressing problems, such as global warming and the debacle in Iraq, and expends too much of its energy on xenophobia, homophobia and opposing stem-cell research.
Conservative intellectuals are also engaged in their own version of what Julian Benda dubbed la trahison des clercs, the treason of the learned. They have fallen into constructing cartoon images of “real Americans”, with their “volkish” wisdom and charming habit of dropping their “g”s. Mrs Palin was invented as a national political force by Beltway journalists from the Weekly Standard and the National Review who met her when they were on luxury cruises around Alaska, and then noisily championed her cause.
Time for reflection
How likely is it that the Republican Party will come to its senses? There are glimmers of hope. Business conservatives worry that the party has lost the business vote. Moderates complain that the Republicans are becoming the party of “white-trash pride”. Anonymous McCain aides complain that Mrs Palin was a campaign-destroying “whack job”. One of the most encouraging signs is the support for giving the chairmanship of the Republican Party to John Sununu, a sensible and clever man who has the added advantage of coming from the north-east (he lost his New Hampshire Senate seat on November 4th).
But the odds in favour of an imminent renaissance look long. Many conservatives continue to think they lost because they were not conservative or populist enough—Mr McCain, after all, was an amnesty-loving green who refused to make an issue out of Mr Obama’s associations with Jeremiah Wright. Richard Weaver, one of the founders of modern conservatism, once wrote a book entitled “Ideas have Consequences”; unfortunately, too many Republicans are still refusing to acknowledge that idiocy has consequences, too.***
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CCP:
Very interesting article.
May I ask you to put it in this thread?
http://dogbrothers.com/phpBB2/index.php?topic=1736.0
thank you,
Marc
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Is GOP Still a National Party?
by Patrick J. Buchanan
01/20/2009 Print This
As President Barack Obama delivers his inaugural address to a nation filled with anticipation and hope, the vital signs of the loyal opposition appear worse than worrisome.
The new majority of 49 states and 60 percent of the nation Nixon cobbled together in 1972, that became the Reagan coalition of 49 states and 60 percent of the nation in 1984, is a faded memory. Demographically, philosophically and culturally, the party base has been shrinking since Bush I won his 40-state triumph over Michael Dukakis. Indeed, the Republican base is rapidly becoming a redoubt, a Fort Apache in Indian country.
In the National Journal, Ron Brownstein renders a grim prognosis of the party's chances of recapturing the White House. Consider:
In the five successive presidential elections, beginning with Clinton's victory in 1992 and ending with Obama's in 2008, 18 states and the District of Columbia, with 248 electoral votes among them, voted for the Democratic ticket all five times. John McCain did not come within 10 points of Obama in any of the 18, and he lost D.C. 92-8.
The 18 cover all of New England, save New Hampshire; New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland; four of the major states in the Midwest -- Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota; and the Pacific Coast states of California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii.
Three other states -- Iowa, New Hampshire and New Mexico -- have gone Democratic in four of the past five presidential contests. And Virginia and Colorado have ceased to be reliably red.
Not only are the 18 hostile terrain for any GOP presidential ticket, Republicans hold only three of their 36 Senate seats and fewer than 1 in 3 of their House seats. "Democrats also control two-thirds of these 18 governorships, every state House chamber, and all but two of the state Senates," writes Brownstein.
In many of the 18, the GOP has ceased to be competitive. In the New England states, for example, there is not a single Republican congressman. In New York, there are only three.
"State by state, election by election," says Brownstein, "Democrats since 1992 have constructed the party's largest and most durable Electoral College base in more than half a century. Call it the blue wall."
While that Democratic base is not yet as decisive as the Nixon-Reagan base in the South, and the Plains and Mountain States, it is becoming so solidified it may block any Republican from regaining the White House, in the absence of a catastrophically failed Democratic president.
What does the Republican base look like?
In the same five presidential contests, from 1992 to 2008, Republicans won 13 states all five times. But the red 13 have but 93 electoral votes, fewer than a third of the number in "the blue wall."
What has been happening to the GOP? Three fatal contractions.
Demographically, the GOP is a party of white Americans, who in 1972 were perhaps 90 percent of the national vote. Nixon and Reagan rolled up almost two-thirds of that vote in 1972 and 1984. But because of abortion and aging, the white vote is shrinking as a share of the national vote and the population.
The minorities that are growing most rapidly, Hispanics and Asians, cast 60 to 70 percent of their presidential votes for the Democratic Party. Black Americans vote 9-1 for national Democrats. In 2008, they went 30-1.
Put succinctly, the red pool of voters is aging, shrinking and dying, while the blue pool, fed by high immigration and a high birth rate among immigrants, is steadily expanding.
Philosophically, too, the country is turning away from the GOP creed of small government and low taxes. Why?
Nearly 90 percent of immigrants, legal and illegal, are Third World poor or working-class and believe in and rely on government for help with health and housing, education and welfare. Second, tax cuts have dropped nearly 40 percent of wage earners from the tax rolls.
If one pays no federal income tax but reaps a cornucopia of benefits, it makes no sense to vote for the party of less government.
The GOP is overrepresented among the taxpaying class, while the Democratic Party is overrepresented among tax consumers. And the latter are growing at a faster rate than the former.
Lastly, Democrats are capturing a rising share of the young and college-educated, who are emerging from schools and colleges where the values of the counterculture on issues from abortion to same-sex marriage to affirmative action have become the new orthodoxy.
The Republican "lock" on the presidency, crafted by Nixon, and patented by Reagan, has been picked. The only lingering question is whether an era of inexorable Republican decline has set in.
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http://pjmedia.com/blog/a-new-face-for-the-gop/?singlepage=true
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Adding New Cultural Indicators to the Republican Brand Image
Since Election Night, the cry on the right has been, "culture, culture, culture." And we're probably going to get a bunch of good ideas and a bunch of bad ideas coming out of this new focus.
I've talked in the past about Obama as a ubiquitous pop-cultural phenomenon, and looking back to Obama's rise in 2007-2008, perhaps we ought to look closer at his coverage in the non-political media than in the political media. Because we've had a lot of black politicians before, a lot of liberal politicians before, and a lot of charismatic politicians before, but clearly Obama managed to achieve a level of public adoration (deification?) unique in modern political history.
In the end, maybe the institutions that we consider the MSM were less relevant to Obama's rise than the glowing coverage of him in places like Rolling Stone, Us Weekly, Men's Vogue, Fast Company, Men's Health and so on. (We can put Vanity Fair, GQ, Esquire and The New Yorker in the quasi-political magazine category.)
Think about Obama's embrace of Jay-Z and Beyoncé. There are a lot of Americans, particularly young Americans, who have no real interest in, say, how federal stimulus money gets spent. But they're sure as heck interested in Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Almost every politician before Obama wouldn't have touched Jay-Z with a ten-foot pole. One look at the lyrics of "Girls, Girls, Girls" (you've been warned, it depicts the rapper assessing and categorizing his harem by ethnic stereotype) and they would run screaming from any stage with Jay-Z. But Obama assessed, correctly, that the "cool" factor of having an association with Jay-Z would overwhelm any complaints about Obama's de facto association with or approval of the seedier side of the life depicted by the hip-hop star.
So along comes Obama, and he's worlds apart even from what we had seen nominated by the Democrats in recent cycles like Al Gore and John Kerry. He's black, he's urban, he's young, he's only recently wealthy and tells tales of financial woes as recent as 2000. He can sound like a preacher when he needs to (listening to Jeremiah Wright all those years) but also is the kind of politician your average outspoken atheist could warmly embrace. As a result, you have large swaths of a not-usually-terribly-engaged, not-usually-terribly-interested voting public gravitating to him: African Americans, obviously, but also young voters, urban voters . . . they look at him and see a cultural figure who reflects themselves, not merely a political figure.
What cultural markers is the Republican brand associated with? Two things come to mind, the aspects of life that Obama said rural Pennsylvanians cling to, guns and religion. And those are pretty good ones; the country is full of people who take religion seriously and there are a lot of people who enjoy their right to own a firearm, for reasons ranging from hunting to sport shooting to collecting to self-defense. But as we've seen, that's not enough to get a majority of the popular vote or 270 electoral votes, and there are some pretty big swaths of the country -- mostly the West Coast and Northeast -- where those indicators either don't help us or work against us.
So, thinking of new cultural traits the GOP could attempt to adopt as some of their trademarks, just off the top of my head . . .
Foodies? There are a lot of folks who are passionately interested in food, in a way there just weren't a generation ago. (See Vic Matus's great article from a while back on the rise of celebrity chefs.) Why can't the GOP be the Foodie Party, the one that fights moronic dietary laws like Bloomberg's ban on 20 ounce sodas, California's idiotic foie gras ban, the ludicrous talk of the Food and Drug Administration putting even more stringent regulations on raw-milk cheeses on top of the existing ones. (For Pete's sake, slap a warning label on it letting people know about the risk of raw-milk cheeses.) We ought to be standing up to the Nanny State, and making the case that grown adults who we entrust with a right to vote, a right to own a gun, and a right to speak their minds ought to have the right to eat whatever they want.
College-Age Drinkers: Propose lowering the drinking age to 18, on the argument that you'll see less binge drinking on college campuses if 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds can just go into a bar or restaurant and order a beer. If you're really worried about lowering the drinking age across the board, make it legal for those between 18 and 21 to consume alcohol in a licensed establishment, so that a bartender or server could cut them off if there are signs of dangerous intoxication.
I guarantee this would make the College Republicans a heck of a lot more popular on campus. Speaking of which . . .
Wasteful college spending: Turn the highest-paid university presidents in America into the new villains of our economy, hiking tuition and letting standards slide while they take home ever-bigger paychecks and wildly generous payouts upon retirement. How soft are the Democrats on this issue? They ran the highest-paid university president in America (more than $3 million in a year) for Senate in Nebraska last year. At least the companies run by greedy CEOs are forced to compete in the marketplace; universities can keep going under bad management by sucking up government aid, forced tuition hikes, and alumni donations for a long while.
Isn't it time to bring a salary cap to university administrators?
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TOPEKA, Kan.—Even if he doesn't enter the race himself, this state's Republican governor, Sam Brownback, is determined to play a starring role in the next presidential election.
Associated Press
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback says he wants to create a 'red-state model' for the national Republican Party.
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How? By turning Kansas into what he calls Exhibit A for how sharp cuts in taxes and government spending can generate jobs, wean residents off public aid and spur economic growth.
"My focus is to create a red-state model that allows the Republican ticket to say, 'See, we've got a different way, and it works,' " Mr. Brownback said in a recent interview.
Coming off the largest tax cut in state history on Jan. 1, Kansas is now on the leading edge of a growing but still largely untested quest among conservative governors to create growth by dramatically revamping state tax codes.
The Brownback experiment is stirring both praise and anxiety among Kansas conservatives even as it helps spark similar overhaul proposals in the GOP-led states of Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio and Oklahoma.
The focus on fiscal innovations in the heartland comes as conservatives nationally seek ways to revive the GOP's standing in the aftermath of its stinging election losses last year. Bruised by the continuing budget battles in Washington, where divided government has led to near-gridlock, top Republicans nationally are holding up Kansas and other GOP-dominated states as examples of what the party might accomplish if left to its own devices.
Mr. Brownback recounts how Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reacted when the two talked recently about the work under way in Kansas.
"Mitch said, 'This is exactly the sort of thing we want to do here, in Washington, but can't, at least for now,' " Mr. Brownback said. An aide to Mr. McConnell confirmed the conversation.
In some of the GOP-led states, governors are looking to slash income taxes while increasing state sales taxes, betting that formula will be better for the economy. Others want to turn projected surpluses from a slow but steady recovery in the national economy into tax cuts. Mr. Brownback is making a riskier wager: that sharp cuts in income-tax rates will pay for themselves by igniting growth. The supposition is that a tax cut will spark more growth, hence more revenue from all taxes, including sales taxes.
Mr. Brownback has boasted that his state is set to go head-to-head with Texas, which has neither a personal nor corporate income tax, in luring new businesses and residents. Lawmakers in other states, in turn, are worried about keeping pace with Kansas or other neighboring states.
"If we don't do this, we continue to see the prospect of falling further and further behind," said Phil Berger, the Republican president of the North Carolina Senate.
The overhauls have reignited a long-standing debate over the efficacy of tax cuts in generating economic growth. Proponents point to a record of growth in many of the nine states, such as Texas, Tennessee and Florida, that have no state income tax. Skeptics note that the U.S. economy sputtered for much of the past decade, despite the tax cuts under President George W. Bush.
Either way, economists agree it could be years before clear conclusions can be drawn from the experiments under way in Kansas and other states.
If successful, the combined tax cuts and pared government spending could reignite slumbering state economies and draw in new residents, while positioning Mr. Brownback and governors such as Louisiana's Bobby Jindal and Indiana's Mike Pence for potential White House bids.
But if they fall short, the policies could leave Kansas and other states scrambling to fill big budget holes for education and social services, while driving investors to other states.
The tax gambles under way in the red states contrast sharply with proposals put forward by some Democratic governors. The governors of Minnesota and Massachusetts have proposed raising income taxes while cutting the sales tax. The trend promises to create unusually stark divisions between conservative and liberal states.
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Elections in November left all but 13 states with one-party control of both the legislature and the governor's office, the most in decades. Fully half of all states now have veto-proof legislative majorities, making intraparty disagreements the chief potential threat to legislative agendas.
In Kansas, about a dozen centrist Republican lawmakers were targeted by conservatives and voted out of office last year, so Gov. Brownback now enjoys the backing of an overwhelmingly conservative legislature. He is savoring the moment.
"We've got a series of blue states raising taxes and a series of red states cutting taxes," he said in his sunny, cavernous office on the second floor of the Kansas capitol. "Now let's watch and see what happens."
The governor may have few Democrats to worry about—Republicans hold a four-to-one advantage in the state legislature—but his proposals have created fissures in the state's GOP, underscoring that aggressive efforts to pare government and cut taxes can be tough even in a Republican-dominated state.
Mr. Brownback, who made a brief bid for the White House in 2008 while still in the U.S. Senate, signed a steep income-tax cut last year, the first step in what he hopes will be the eventual elimination of the state's income tax, which still generates about 40% of the state's general-fund revenue. He has chopped thousands of state jobs, merged government departments and removed thousands of Kansans from the welfare rolls.
For guidance, Mr. Brownback has leaned on Reagan-era supply-sider economist Arthur Laffer, as well as on Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group funded by the Wichita-based Koch brothers. One of AFP's top consultants, who drafted mock state budgets while working for the group, is now the state's budget director.
But the governor faces an array of challenges. His income-tax cuts, which took the top rate from 6.45% to 4.9% at the start of the year and are targeted to hit 3.5% by 2017, are projected to leave a significant hole in next year's state budget, which starts in July.
The official state economic-forecasting agency predicted last fall a drop of $700 million in revenue in the next fiscal year, equivalent to about 12% of this year's budget, with the decline growing steeper after that. Mr. Brownback's budget proposal for the coming year, released in January, put the figure even higher, at $800 million, or four times what the state spends annually on all its prison facilities.
To make up for the revenue drop, the governor is pushing to preserve what was meant to be a temporary increase in the state sales tax, and to eliminate two popular deductions, including the state write-off for home-mortgage interest payments. Those moves would raise about $600 million next fiscal year. He also wants to transfer more than $100 million from a state highway fund to cover other expenses.
Estimates prepared by the state's legislative research department predict that, even with the steps Mr. Brownback proposes, Kansas is on track to be short of money. The estimates suggest that the state will need to lean on its reserves in the coming years, and lawmakers by 2017 will be forced to make $780 million in spending cuts to prevent a deficit, which isn't allowed under Kansas law. A Brownback aide said the forecasts don't take into account the beneficial impact of the tax cuts.
Still, Mr. Brownback faces stiff opposition to keeping the sales tax at its current rate of 6.3%, not only from the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and many conservative lawmakers, but also from Democrats in the Legislature. The rate is set to fall back to 5.7% in June. A trade group for real-estate agents is lobbying strongly against cutting the mortgage-interest deduction.
At the same time, a recent state-court order in a long-running dispute over state support for the schools said that Kansas was underfunding public schools by more than $400 million a year—a ruling Mr. Brownback and GOP lawmakers are now pushing to overturn.
Mr. Brownback and others believe the tax cuts will eventually pay for themselves by drawing in new businesses and stirring job growth.
The state forecasting body remains unconvinced. In a November report, the group said over the long term, "new economic growth" would likely help offset just "a portion of the revenue loss."
Mr. Brownback and his top aides acknowledge they have taken a leap based partly on faith. "Our out-year forecasts are pretty much guesses," said the governor's revenue secretary, Nick Jordan.
Mr. Brownback said he hopes some new oil exploration in the state will generate unforeseen revenues. Others in his administration point to signs of a turnaround in the aviation industry around Wichita.
Talk of eliminating the income tax altogether has drawn applause from conservatives in the statehouse, who say it will help Kansas compete with low-tax states like Texas. But the proposal has also stirred dissent from centrist ranks of the Republican Party.
Republican critics worry the state's schools and infrastructure will suffer. Others are concerned that an over reliance on the state sales tax may shift too heavy a burden onto the less affluent.
"I fear for what the Republican Party is doing to the country and to Kansas," said Jean Schodorf, who lost her seat in the state Senate last year after decades as a Republican officeholder. "All of what we have built in this state is in jeopardy."
House Speaker Ray Merrick, a veteran GOP lawmaker and Brownback ally, praises the effort to eliminate the state's income taxes as "a bold plan," but says the state has to avoid being rash. "The devil is in the details," he said in an interview. "We don't need to rush this."
Similar strains are showing in other GOP-controlled states looking to follow Kansas' lead.
In Indiana, days after Gov. Pence was sworn into office in January, he proposed reducing the individual income-tax rate to 3.06%, from 3.4%, over two years. The former congressman, who was a member of the House Tea Party caucus, is looking to make a mark for himself after eight years of tax cuts and budget cutting under former Gov. Mitch Daniels.
"Because we can afford to cut taxes for every Hoosier, I believe we should," the new governor said in his first speech to the Legislature.
But leaders in the Legislature, where Republicans have large majorities in the House and Senate, haven't been quick to back his plan. Some question whether it makes sense to cut taxes at a time when the economy still appears fragile and the federal government is passing on new costs to the states.
Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma said his priorities are more focused on ensuring fiscal stability. Nor is he convinced an income-tax cut will provide the promised boost in economic growth. He wants to restore some of the government services cut during the recession, while making investments in transportation and education.
Related Reading
Tough Loss Leaves GOP at a Crossroads (11/07/2012)
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"My encouragement to everyone is to look at long-term sustainability and not just an election cycle," Mr. Bosma said.
Over the past eight years, former Gov. Daniels cut corporate income taxes and began the phaseout of a state inheritance tax. The Legislature required any large surpluses to be split between funding state pensions and a tax rebate.
Like Gov. Pence, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin wants to turn projections of a surplus into a tax cut. On Monday, she proposed cutting the state's top income-tax rate to 5%, from 5.25%, a proposal that is smaller and simpler than one that failed a year ago despite large Republican majorities in both the House and Senate.
"This is not the last tax cut we will see from my administration," Gov. Fallin told legislators on Monday.
Other red states are considering similar proposals or even grander plans to eliminate the income tax.
Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman is pushing to end the state's income taxes and offset the lost revenue by broadening the sales tax to more items, while Gov. Jindal of Louisiana is discussing an end to the state's personal and corporate income taxes. He is looking to replace the revenue by raising the sales tax and broadening it to more items.
Republicans are weighing similar proposals in North Carolina, where developments will be watched all the more closely considering the state's status as a presidential battleground state. Gov. John Kasich in Ohio, another battleground state, proposed on Monday cutting income taxes by 20% over three years.
In Kansas, Gov. Brownback compares what is happening on the tax front in his and other Republican states to the GOP-led welfare overhauls in Wisconsin and Michigan in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which paved the way for a sweeping national overhaul in Congress in 1995.
"There will be no model for what we want to do nationally until we can examine how several states have done it first," he said.
Write to Neil King Jr. at neil.king@wsj.com and Mark Peters at mark.peters@dowjones.com
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http://www.dickmorris.com/making-latinos-republican-dick-morris-tv-lunch-alert/?utm_source=dmreports&utm_medium=dmreports&utm_campaign=dmreports
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http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/2013/01/09/
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Latinos Could Be GOP Allies
By DICK MORRIS
Published on TheHill.com on March 12, 2013
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A new poll taken by Mexico's leading public opinion researcher shows that U.S. citizens of Latino descent are potentially strong allies of the Republican Party. The survey found strong indications that Latinos in the U.S. are deeply worried that the Democratic Party could lead their new country down the same path to debt and dependence that bedeviled the nations they left to come here.
By 59-34 percent, U.S. Latinos agreed that "Democrats are closer to the leaders we had in Latin America, always giving handouts to get votes. If we let them have their way, we will end up being like the countries our families came from, not like the America of great opportunities we all came to."
By 78-16 percent, U.S. Latinos agreed that Latino immigrants must "not go the way some have gone into high unemployment, crime, drugs, and welfare.
They must be more like the hard working immigrants who came here and worked their way up without depending on the government." More important, when asked which party most shares this sentiment, they chose the Republicans, by a margin of 45-29 percent.
These startling findings come from a voluminous survey conducted by the former Public Opinion coordinator for the office of the Presidency in Mexico, Rafael Giménez. The survey interviewed 1,100 U.S. citizens of Latino origin using telephone, cellphone and many in-person interviews conducted between Jan. 15 and Feb. 15 of this year. The survey was organized and funded by John Jordan of Jordan Winery, a prominent Republican donor.
Latinos feel Republicans are more likely than Democrats to work hard to reduce the incidence of teen pregnancy (45-31); more likely than Democrats to agree that "the family fabric in America is being ripped apart. Parents are too permissive. There is too much divorce, too many unwed mothers, and too many children who don't listen to their parents" (49-32); more likely than Democrats to avoid "ruining the United States" through too much debt (39-37).
By 47-31, Latinos agree that Republicans would do more to "strengthen churches so they can help the poor and teach values of faith and family." By 89-8, they think that "too many people depend on the government and its handouts. That way of thinking is very bad and leads to lifetimes of unemployment, poverty, and crime." And, by 45-37, they believe the Republican Party is more likely to share their view than Democrats are.
So why did the Latinos vote by a margin of three to one for President Obama and the Democrats? According to Giménez's survey, the answer is immigration reform. While national surveys last year showed immigration third or fourth among Latino priorities, this survey put it first by a two to one margin over jobs, which came in second.
Latinos want all "undocumented" immigrants -- by 85-7 they prefer that word to "illegal" -- to be granted legal status immediately, as well as a path to citizenship. But, they are divided on how long the path must be. While 56 percent want immediate citizenship, 44 percent are willing to wait "a few years."
More ominous is their view of why the Republican Party has opposed immigration reform. By 61-32, they say the party is "biased against Latinos and Hispanics."
Latinos are suspicious of those opposed to immigration legislation. While 47 percent credit them with opposing it because they feel that "only people who have obeyed the law and entered the country legally should become citizens," 41 percent see a darker motivation: that they do not want "a lot of Latinos in the U.S." and are "using the law as an excuse to keep them out."
Last week, in this space, I discussed a national survey of Republicans by John McLaughlin that found broad support for immigration reform. His survey found 66 percent of U.S. Republican likely voters support immigration reform with a path to citizenship and 75 percent back the bill from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) after hearing an overview of its provisions.
The issue of immigration reform is life or death for the Republican Party. The party's voters realize it. Let's hope their congressional representatives do, too.
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Memo to the GOP: Liberty Is Colorblind
Promote Freedom in Every Quarter of America!
By Mark Alexander • March 21, 2013
"A little matter will move a party, but it must be something great that moves a nation." --Thomas Paine (1791)
GOP 2014? 2016?
A record number of conservatives, from grassroots Patriots to national GOP leaders, gathered for the 2013 CPAC confab last week, sponsored by our friends at the American Conservative Union.
CPAC attendees represent the GOP base, though many would not call themselves Republican. This is mostly because the GOP has squandered the conservative legacy of Ronald Reagan, and too many of its current congressional leaders are part of the problem rather than the solution.
Among the more notable speakers at CPAC was Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), the grassroots voice of the Tea Party movement. Paul aptly summed up the GOP's problem and solution in his rousing remarks: "The GOP of old has grown stale and moss-covered. I don't think we need to name any names, do we? Our party is encumbered by an inconsistent approach to freedom. The new GOP will need to embrace liberty in both the economic and the personal sphere. If we're going to have a Republican party that can win, liberty needs to be the backbone of the GOP. We must have a message that is broad, our vision must be broad, and that vision must be based on freedom."
Indeed.
Sen. Paul, who offered a few words about our mission last week -- "The Patriot Post provides a clear and substantial voice for America's Constitutional Conservatives" -- is more than just Ron Paul, part deux, as some of his establishment Republican colleagues lament. Rand has much broader appeal than his father, and yet his appeal is every bit as strong as that exhibited by Ron's constituents. Rand Paul represents a fusion between Libertarian and conservative Republican principles, a fusion that, at its core, is already reflected in the Republican Party Platform. (You can read all political platforms on our Historic Documents page.)
The problem is, most old-guard Republicans pay as little attention to the GOP platform as they do their oaths "to support and defend" our Constitution. Instead, they subscribe to the Left's so-called "living constitution." As a result, the only political "fusion" they generate in confusion.
Shortly after CPAC concluded, the Grand Old Party released an election 2012 "after action report" with GOP initials -- the Growth and Opportunity Project. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus ordered up this 97-page report, and not a minute too soon. Priebus, who proudly carries and reads his copy of our Essential Liberty Pocket Guide, and who arranged for its distribution to all 14,000 attendees at the last GOP convention, said, correctly, "I don't think our platform is the issue."
While Priebus chairs a party with some members who are virtually indistinguishable from their Socialist Democratic Party opponents, he is not among them. Priebus is cut from the cloth of Patriot warriors, not armchair diplomats, and his vision for the future of the Republican Party reflects that spirit.
It's a spirit that is evident in the Republican report's introductory sentence: "The GOP today is a tale of two parties. One of them, the gubernatorial wing, is growing and successful. The other, the federal wing, is increasingly marginalizing itself, and unless changes are made, it will be increasingly difficult for Republicans to win another presidential election in the near future."
The GOP review notes the obvious -- the party is out of touch with the people, especially women, minorities and young voters. That was our message to the Romney-Ryan ticket by way of our Grassroots Memo to Mitt last October. We outlined for Romney what his establishment Republican political handlers would not -- precisely what grassroots Americans needed to hear from him if he was going to defeat Barack Hussein Obama. Unfortunately, that memo never penetrated the gauntlet set up by his handlers.
In our own post-election analysis, we bullet-pointed the consequences of that failure to communicate, and we plotted a road forward to our time-tested conservative roots.
The key recommendations from the Growth and Opportunity Project center on a return to the basic message of Liberty, especially in outreach to urban Latino, black and young voters -- and, last but not least, the voters who really determine elections, women.
The GOP is spending $10 million to hire an army of grassroots folks permanently posted to communities across the country. The report notes that you reach people where they are, not where you want them to be. There were also some practical suggestions such as creating a national voter database that could be accessed regionally and redirect PAC and other group funds to fund field staff and technology rather than only media ads. In other words, greatly enhance the ground game, which Democrats have done so well. Other key suggestions included tightening up the primary schedule and reducing the number of debates so that Republicans spend less time attacking each other and more time drawing sharp contrasts between themselves and their real opponents. The next Republican National Convention is also likely to take place sooner than August of election year, which would give the nominee more time to focus on his or her opponents on the Left.
Post Your Opinion: What else should Republicans do?
As Rand Paul declared, "We need a Republican Party that shows up on the South Side of Chicago and shouts at the top of our lungs, 'We are the party of jobs and opportunity. The GOP is the ticket to the middle class.'"
The GOP must run candidates with presidential character; candidates who can promote, far and wide, the Reagan model for restoration and adapt it for the 21st century. Their focus must be on restoring Liberty and the Rule of Law.
The first step to accomplishing that goal is to understand that Liberty is colorblind. It's not a "white thing." The concept of Liberty is timeless and transcendent, and it can have the same appeal to all people if the messenger will only remember that. Republicans -- even some of the most conservative members within the party -- are mired in the minutiae, and the larger message of Liberty is lost.
President Reagan said of Liberty, "An informed patriotism is what we want. ... Man is not free unless government is limited. As government expands, liberty contracts. ... I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. ... The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is."
If Republican leaders do not refocus on Liberty and the successful fusion of Republican and Libertarian principles, then, in the words of Rush Limbaugh, "They're finished. They're done. They're yesterday's news. They may not survive. Don't doubt me."
And to that I add, don't doubt me.
Pro Deo et Constitutione — Libertas aut Mors
Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis
Mark Alexander
Publisher, The Patriot Post
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http://reason.com/blog/2013/04/01/rick-santorum-were-not-the-libertarian-p
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Moving CCP's post to here:
Now the self appointed and money backed power broker in the Republican party, Rove would look at this and think here is an opportunity for his party. He would segment the voters the same as the little mass marketers do, and think he could win some of those dissatisfied voters to his camp. How? The same old Republican message. He can't or won't see it doesn't work. Oh yeah it might win an election here or thre but we are losing the battle for ideas. Against a party that as Levin describes votes as a juggernaut. Against a party that has figured the way to win the war, not little battles is to steal enough tax payer money and bribe over 50%. To promise some rich people pots of gold if they will fund them and punish those that don't.
There is always hope as long as we are alive but I think the game is over. How in the world is it that many are already touting another Bush? We already had two. I am not trying to sound like a broken record but Bush one gave us Clinton and Bush two gave us the monstrosity we have now. I have little hope. The country has simply gone socialist, fascist, communist, or whatever you want to call it. Nearly check mate.
http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2013/06/26/poll-ohioans-souring-on-president-barack-obama/
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http://www.dickmorris.com/the-rehabilitation-of-the-republican-party-dick-morris-tv-lunch-alert/?utm_source=dmreports&utm_medium=dmreports&utm_campaign=dmreports
Seems rather befuddled to me , , ,
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http://www.dickmorris.com/saving-the-republicans-from-death-dick-morris-tv-lunch-alert/?utm_source=dmreports&utm_medium=dmreports&utm_campaign=dmreports
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The Collapse of the Democratic Party
Originally published at the Washington Times
At least since the election of President Obama in 2008, Republicans have been hearing that their party is on the verge of extinction. The only thing the media pundits haven’t seemed able to agree on is what will be the cause of death.
Some of the eulogies have claimed that the Republican Party is dying of old age, “literally.”
Other commentators predicted endlessly that the GOP is doomed because it supposedly cannot appeal to hispanic Americans and other minorities.
Still others smeared Republicans as anti-women and claimed ridiculously that the party has destroyed its chances with the sex that makes up half the population.
Most pundits seemed to agree that younger voters--“millennials”--would never support Republicans because of their supposedly prehistoric views about things like the Constitution and the rule of law.
Jonathan Chait summed up the left-wing establishment’s view of Republicans’ inevitable demise when he wrote in 2012--in a long feature piece for New York Magazine--that “the modern GOP—the party of Nixon, Reagan, and both Bushes—is staring down its own demographic extinction... [C]onservative America will soon come to be dominated, in a semi-permanent fashion, by an ascendant Democratic coalition hostile to its outlook and interests.”
What a disappointment all of these commentators were in for! Since President Obama’s election in 2008, the Republican Party steadily gained strength. By almost every metric, the party is at historic high-water marks. In the House, Republicans have the largest majority since 1928. They have a majority in the Senate. They have 32 governorships. They have the greatest number of state legislators and greatest number of state legislative bodies in their history.
The results of this week’s elections further grew the Republican Party’s historic strength.
In Kentucky, Matt Bevin won the governorship in an upset that makes him the state’s second Republican chief executive in four decades. He did it by running against Obamacare and national Democrats. Kentucky also elected Republican Jenean Hampton to the lieutenant governorship. She will be the first African American elected statewide in Kentucky’s history.
In Virginia, Republicans held the state Senate despite an outside group funded by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg spending millions of dollars to turn the chamber to Democrat control.
In Houston, Texas, voters defeated the left-wing mayor’s attempt to let biological males use women’s restrooms, and vice versa. The measure went down with 61 percent of voters opposing the bathroom ordinance--a significant blow to the left in a city that is by no means conservative.
In addition, Republicans won a number of other state legislative and statewide elections to continue to build on the trend of winning in areas previously won by President Obama.
Finally, after this week’s elections, the Washington-media establishment may be starting to show signs of recognition that, far from 2010 and 2014 being anomalies on the way to Republican extinction, it is the Democrats who are facing historic challenges in their nationwide appeal.
Chuck Todd, moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press, noted on Twitter this week that “outside of Obama's campaigns in 2008 and 2012, the Dem track record everywhere else is, well, abysmal since his election.”
In fact it may turn out to be President Obama’s two campaigns that were the anomaly: extraordinarily well-run, with an exceptional candidate in favorable political environment. Everywhere else, as Todd points out, has been disastrous for Democrats.
You have to wonder: if in 2016 Republicans win the presidency, hold the Senate, keep the House and maintain their historic strength at the state level, will the same pundits in the news media be calling on the Democrats to compromise their core principles and change their views, as so many were eager for Republicans to do following President Obama’s reelection? I’m not holding my breath.
Your Friend,
Newt
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http://www.vox.com/2015/12/30/10685276/gop-optimism
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Opportunity Is Key to Fighting Poverty
By Lewis Morris
A number of prominent Republicans gathered in Charleston over the weekend for a detailed discussion of poverty in America and what can be done about it. The Expanding Opportunity Forum was hosted by the Jack Kemp Foundation and moderated by House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina. In short, there are a lot of conservative solutions to poverty, and, given the Left's 50-year track record of failure, it's time to give them a try.
Six GOP presidential hopefuls joined the discussion, including Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, John Kasich and Mike Huckabee. They were joined by Gov. Nikki Haley and Arthur Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute. Current 2016 frontrunners Donald Trump and Ted Cruz spent the weekend on the campaign trail instead, but they missed a substantive discussion and an opportunity to show some empathy for the plight of millions of Americans.
The GOP needs to prove to voters this year that it has not only the ability, but also the willingness to find solutions to the ongoing poverty problem in America. As Rubio stated at the event, "We have an outmoded, outdated government ... and a Big Government Left that is more interested in protecting the status quo than in modernizing our policies to address the challenges of the 21st century."
Since Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty in 1964 and established his "Great Society," the federal government has spent over $22 trillion in entitlements and grants for programs that have made little to no progress. And in all that time, poverty has never been driven below 10% of the population.
As we begin the final year of Barack Obama's term in office, one in seven Americans lives in poverty. There are a record 46 million people on food stamps, 14.5 million more than when he took office in 2009. Nearly 70% of the federal budget is currently being consumed by government income-redistribution programs, and close to 50% of Americans reside in a household that is receiving that assistance.
This is not progress; this is regression — a rolling back of the hard fought economic gains that American industry created over decades. Government agencies dominated by the Left give away money and prizes to minorities and the poor for the sole purpose of winning votes. There is never an attempt made to actually lift people out of poverty. In fact, it is better for Democrat office holders if the poor are kept right where they are. For if the poor are no longer poor and beholden to the government, then what reason do they have to vote for Democrats?
As Benjamin Franklin once said, "I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."
It will take more than convincing the poor that they are indentured servants on the Democrats' poverty plantation. Republicans have to offer concrete solutions and pierce the stereotype that they are unmoved by the plight of the poor.
Ryan put forth a plan in 2014 that would create federally funded opportunity grants that states could use to distribute aid to citizens as they saw fit. This plan combined 11 current entitlement streams and offered a flexible and equitable means of aid to the poor that was also accountable and measurable.
Ryan's plan was much maligned, but it was a start. And the confab last weekend in South Carolina was another step in the same direction. It continues the conversation that needs to be had about what to do about poverty in America. It takes into account all the various sources of poverty, and looks for a solution that lifts all people out of poverty rather than by making everyone equally poor.
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http://www.vox.com/2016/1/14/10761208/democrats-doomed
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Building a Republican Party for the Future
Originally published at the Washington Times
It’s good practice for teams, businesses, and even political parties to learn as much from failure as they do from success. That was the principle Republicans applied after losing the White House in 2012, when under the leadership of Chairman Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee launched the Growth and Opportunity Project to study how the party could be more competitive. In the 2014 midterm elections two years later, that study and the changes Chairman Priebus implemented as a result paid off in spectacular fashion. At every level from state legislatures to the Congress, the Republican Party is today objectively the strongest it has been in generations.
After the victories of 2014 and 2015, Chairman Priebus understood that the inverse of the old adage is true as well--the party has a duty to learn as much from success as it does from failure. I was honored when he asked me to lead a project to surface the “lessons learned” from these campaigns. Our report, released this week, is the result of dozens of interviews with candidates, campaign managers, and campaign staff for Senate, House, and governors’ races across the country.
The more we learned, the more we were struck with the scale of the changes Republican candidates are navigating--changes in the political environment, in the technology and tactics of campaigns, and in the strategies required to win.
Perhaps the most historic and underappreciated of these changes is the political realignment that has taken place over the past eight years.
As we write in the report:
According to the Gallup Poll, the country has gone from 35 clearly Democrat states and five clearly Republican states in 2008 (as measured by party affiliation), to 14 Democrat states and 20 Republican states in 2015. That is a dramatic swing in the Republican direction.
[...] The GOP has also seen historic growth in state legislatures. Under Obama, the GOP went from 3,223 Republican legislators and 4,082 Democrat legislators at the beginning of the Obama administration to a complete reversal, with 4,113 Republicans and 3,165 Democrats. Republicans gained 890 legislative seats since the first Obama election. The Democrats had a net loss of 917 seats. [...] To get a sense of the depth of the Democratic Party’s decay at the state legislative level in the Obama era, consider that since President Obama took office, 85 of 98 legislative bodies have become more Republican than they were when he was inaugurated.
This realignment has brought with it enormous opportunities for Republicans to expand their appeal to groups that have traditionally supported Democrats but many of which have been served poorly by bureaucratic socialism and the stagnation, frustration, and corruption that comes with it.
Contrary to the media-propagated notion that demographics doom Republicans in the long term, the surprising strides by a number of candidates in 2014 suggest that changing demographics offer a once-in-a-lifetime growth opportunity for Republicans if they learn that they can be very inclusive without compromising their principles.
As we write:
Demography is not destiny. Demography is opportunity. In Ohio, Governor John Kasich got 27 percent of the African American vote for re-election. In Texas, Senator John Cornyn became the first Republican in his state to beat his opponent 48-47 among Latino voters in Texas. He received 54 percent of the vote from Latino men.
Cory Gardner went from between 6 and 8 percent support among Colorado's Latino voters in January to tying incumbent Senator Udall at 48-48 on Election Day. Colorado Republicans worked Pueblo, a largely Hispanic area they had traditionally ignored and which now has a Republican Latina state legislator and boosted Gardner's vote above the historic pattern.
Also in Colorado Coffman's surprisingly easy re-election was built in part on his learning Spanish and debating in it (his opponent was more fluent but Coffman got great credit for trying). Coffman also focused on the Ethiopian Christian community which invited him to four churches the last Sunday before the election while freezing out his opponent.
In Virginia, Congresswoman Barbara Comstock's decisive win was helped by focused attention to Pakistani, Indian, Vietnamese, Korean and Latino voters.
In Texas Senator John Cornyn won Asian-American voters, had a plurality of Hispanic voters and also had websites in Vietnamese and Hindi.
The Republican State Leadership Committee points to a surprising number of Republican minority state legislative victories. For example, the margin of control in the West Virginia House is a Republican African American woman. Republicans received an estimated 50 percent of the Asian American vote in 2014. There are more than 110 Republican minority state legislators and with each election the number grows. Leadership can translate demography into an opportunity, not a problem.
But as we also found, “If demography is not destiny, paying attention to minority voters may be. In every campaign we studied, there was a direct correlation between paying attention to minority communities, events, activities and key dates and the increase in votes...Showing up is the essential first step to building bridges to minority communities.” Inclusion is the key to growing a permanent governing majority.
Republicans candidates for every office from state legislatures to the presidency have the chance to build on these lessons in this year’s elections. And they ignore them at their own peril.
Among other lessons, a few are particularly important to remember at this point in the contests, as general election campaigns are beginning to take shape. In particular, what we learned renewed our conviction that big ideas matter, and that communicated well, they can be decisive.
As we write:
The right big idea or ideas, expressed in clear and simple language with the right tone, can win campaigns. Larry Hogan's intense focus on cutting taxes while refusing to comment on controversial issues propelled him to a shockingly large and unexpected victory as Governor of Maryland. Maine Governor Paul LePage's focus on welfare reform won the votes of a decisive block of voters that may have been the margin of victory in his reelection. And Matt Bevin's focus on reform and smaller government led him to a stunning and surprisingly large victory in the Kentucky governor’s race. The right ideas can act as shields against attacks in addition to defining a positive vision. In Colorado, Cory Gardner seized the initiative and defined women's health on his terms before the left could push him into a "War on Women" defensive position. That focus on ideas, language, and tone was worth more than all of the defensive ads he could have bought after he was negatively defined. It may have clinched his election to the Senate.
Anyone concerned about the future of the Republican Party would benefit from reading these 2016 Election Principles. Candidates up and down the ballot owe thanks to Chairman Priebus for his commitment to learning from the past and building a party for the future.
Your Friend,
Newt
P.S. I discussed the Lessons Learned project and answered questions about Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and the 2016 election live on Facebook this afternoon.
Watch the full Q&A here>>
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"Republicans" maybe . But not very conservative
Cory Gardner, John Kasich, John Cornyn and worst of all Barbara Comstack all have Conservative liberty scores that are low (less than 50%). Not much above the Democrats and indeed some Democrats have higher conservative scores than Comstack who is at a ridiculous 25% score. She may as well be a crat. She votes with them most of the time!
So what the hell good is that.
Newt is on hash oil. As Mark Levin says, " I worry about Newt"
These are the rhinos of rhinos:
https://www.conservativereview.com/scorecard
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I suspect Newt is looking to get back into the game , , ,
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"I suspect Newt is looking to get back into the game , , ,"
He sure sounds like it. He grinned from ear to ear when someone asked him if he would say yes to a VP pick.
a few days ago.
We have always liked him around here but the last time he ran as I think you pointed out he does have his "flaws".
I would be happy if Trump uses his skills for something but - I guess probably not a good idea though for VP. Yet it seems a mistake not to use his persuasive skills for something. He is a huge talent.
How my life would have been different if I had his gift of gab.
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I agree with your assessment. Newt's insider knowledge and skills with Congress could be particularly valuable for Trump, for whom these things are a great void.
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http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/comic/the-wind/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DayByDayCartoon+%28Day+by+Day+Cartoon+by+Chris+Muir%29
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Nicely written and thought provoking:
https://www.hotgas.net/2016/07/left-republicanconservative-party/
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Nicely written and thought provoking:
https://www.hotgas.net/2016/07/left-republicanconservative-party/
Agree, well written.
Pat will leave the R party until it (or a new party) is re-formed by Trump. But Trump is now in charge of the party the way I understand it. Reince and everyone else serves at his pleasure. Reince is also doing everything asked of him by Trump. Any timidity in a shakeup is now Trump's. He wants to say "you're fired" selectively.
If Pat means wait for all of congress to be reformed in Trump's image, the timing of that is never.
If Pat thinks forming a third party, two parties on the right, is a better idea, he is wrong and at odds with Trump who could have much more easily launched a third party caampaign.
My daughter's commencement speaker was the band director at a college renowned for their music. He hit all the right notes, follow your dream, save the world, etc. Strike out on your own and do anything you want, all by yourself, to make the world a better place. But if you really want to make a difference, form 'a band'. In politics, that is 'a party'. Major parties have more impact than minor ones.
The two party system works better than the alternatives although we seem to currently be at an all time low point. The best way to reform the party of the right is from within. Ted Cruz's de-funding ideas didn't work because we didn't have the votes. Build a wall didn't work because we didn't have the votes - or the right people to carry out the law. Conservatives sit in their homes and businesses being conservative but mostly don't organize, give a dollar or lift a finger to save the country. People like Boehner and Cantor can occasionally be defeated from within, but not when the left controls the debate and we keep losing on their terms.
I've written the-way-forward rants before and our side has done none of it, really done the opposite. Our 18 month campaign of ideas resulted in Obama's approval rating rising while the country and the world deteriorate under his watch. Trump's messaging is still mostly wrong.
Trump is running as a great person, not as a new movement. Pat started a website and would like to start a movement. Great. But more than half of the right will not join and then we are divided and the left wins. To be fair, the left wins anyway so no big, new loss.
We can get special privileges and treatment and cronyism out of government by doing the things that already are our principles, simplifying the tax code, treating everyone the same, ending the goodies that go beyond a genuine safety net. You keep American manufacturers here and see new companies formed faster by streamlining the red tape and knocking down the disincentives. That is already our platform. You hold politicians to their promises through the primary process and the elections, and we don't.
So I oppose his strategy by commend his activism. I wish everyone took it that seriously.
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http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/gop-leadership-v-gop-base/
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My only comment to this statement is what "future" for the Republican Party does the National Review think they are talking about when Trump likely loses? The only hope will be for a catastrophic Hillary term for the country as a whole including most independents and women taken in with that angle. It will certainly be catastrophic for freedom lovers and our sovereignty who feel are only hope we are left with is Trump.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/441014/maine-republicans-cultural-divide-future-challenge-gop
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Every and any time one even falls back into the kind of thinking that we can compromise and work with Democrats just stop it and re read this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/the-containment-of-trump-_b_13574018.html
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"f Trump continues to insist that Russian cyber-warfare represents no threat to America and is not even worth investigating"
Which is why Obama et al had so many investigations in the various deep penetrations of our government's systems , , , :roll: :roll: :roll:
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By Sol Trujillo
Dec. 21, 2016 6:31 p.m. ET
97 COMMENTS
When President Ronald Reagan nominated Lauro Cavazos in 1988 as the first Latino to serve in a presidential cabinet, he made history.
Today, President-elect Donald Trump is on the verge of making history too. With 16 cabinet-level officials and more than two dozen administration appointments announced, he is on track to appoint the first cabinet without a Latino in more than 28 years. For a president-elect who ran on restoring economic growth, ignoring U.S. Latinos makes little sense. Latinos are driving American economic growth, and they are at the core of what I call America’s New Mainstream Economy.
I encourage Mr. Trump and his advisers to read a new report by economist Jeffrey Eisenach, “Making America Rich Again: The Latino Effect on Economic Growth.” The study shatters myths associated with the U.S. Latino community and documents a growing segment of the U.S. population that is better educated, more employed, more entrepreneurial and more engaged than many understand.
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Most Americans know that the Latino population in the U.S. is growing fast, but what is less understood is that it has become a major source of entrepreneurs. Latino youth—the workforce of the future—are graduating at higher rates and are more connected online than other segments of the population. The overwhelming majority speak English and were born in the U.S.
Consider these findings in Mr. Eisenach’s study:
• Latinos are driving new business creation. The number of Latino-owned business grew 46% from 2007 to 2012, compared with a decline of more than 2% for non-Latino businesses. There are now more than four million Latino-owned business in the U.S. If not for Latinos, the U.S. would have fewer businesses today than it did in 2007.
• Those businesses are hiring. Head count in Latino-owned businesses increased 22% from 2007 to 2012, against a 2% drop in hiring over the same period for non-Latino businesses.
• Latino incomes are rising fast. Latinos were responsible for 29% of real income growth in the U.S. from 2005 to 2015, with the number of Latino households earning incomes of more than $150,000 growing 194%.
Those numbers are real, and they are unambiguous. Latinos are driving job growth, income growth and new business formation. According to Mr. Eisenach’s report, if U.S. Latino consumers were a country, they would represent the world’s 14th largest economy and that economy would be growing faster than India’s or China’s. That is one important part of the New Mainstream Economy story.
The story gets even better. Today with more than 56 million living in the U.S., Latinos comprise some 17% of the nation’s population. But the median age for Latinos is 28 years old—nine years younger than the overall U.S. population—and Latinos are increasingly well-educated. The share of Latino high-school seniors enrolling in college immediately following graduation jumped 20 percentage points in the 12 years from 2000 to 2012—to 69% from 49%. This now outpaces enrollment rates of white (67%) and black (63%) non-Hispanic high school graduates.
Latinos are also early adopters of that other great driver of U.S. economic growth—technology. Latinos are more likely to use cellphones and smartphones than the general population, just as they are more likely to use online shopping tools and be early adopters of new technology. Latino-driven economic growth is a reality today that will be even more powerful tomorrow.
I am a lifelong businessman. I have run global, large-cap companies, and I have run startups. In all those roles, my instinct has been to look for growth opportunities and to seize them. The New Mainstream Economy represents America’s growth opportunity—and the Latino community is at its core.
The Trump administration must understand this economic reality if it is going to succeed in restoring the kind of growth that will bring prosperity to all Americans. Less regulation and lower taxes are effective recipes for a stronger growth climate for U.S. corporations and for small- and medium-size businesses. Improved access to capital for small- and medium-size businesses is also paramount. Diversity of experience and perspective is always a strength both for a business and for a nation-state.
Those who have been appointed or who will be nominated should seek advice, counsel and information regarding this New Mainstream Economy from those who live it. There are many influential, experienced and knowledgeable Latinos who can offer such advice.
The president-elect prides himself on being a winner and a builder. If he wants to build a winning economy, he cannot simply replicate successful pro-business strategies of the past. He must boost the powerful engines of today’s New Mainstream Economy—a task that requires tapping the expertise of the Latino community.
Mr. Trujillo is chairman of Trujillo Group Investments and former CEO of U.S. West, Orange and Telstra.
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Ok Mr Trujillo
I nominate Jorge Ramos for Trump's cabinet.
Will he work for you? :evil:
I suppose Trump could consider Susan Martinez.
Is being Latin part of a cabinet job requirement? I haven't checked recently.
I prefer cabinet posts based on qualifications and political philosophy rather then genitalia, sexual preference, ethniciity, race etc.
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Enough with the tokenism. Pick the best person for the job. Just as you shouldn't discriminate against someone because of race, ethnicity, gender, you shouldn't discriminate for someone's...
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Agreed and agreed. At the same time, I do like the way he paints Latinos:
"documents a growing segment of the U.S. population that is better educated, more employed, more entrepreneurial and more engaged than many understand"
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Agreed and agreed. At the same time, I do like the way he paints Latinos:
"documents a growing segment of the U.S. population that is better educated, more employed, more entrepreneurial and more engaged than many understand"
Where I grew up, there were lots of people of hispanic ancestry. It wasn't an issue one way or the other. My town's mayor was named Silva before this was some kind of issue. The cops I knew growing up had names like Archuleta and Gallegos. I knew wanted to be like Sgt. Archuleta, and I never gave the origin of his last name a thought. It wasn't a concern I was aware of. Maybe that's something we should strive for as a nation.
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http://www.wnd.com/2016/12/my-farewell-column/
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http://www.wnd.com/2016/12/my-farewell-column/
I am saddened to see this. Brilliant man.
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http://www.wnd.com/2016/12/my-farewell-column/
I am saddened to see this. Brilliant man.
Yes. Thomas Sowell is synonymous with wisdom. We may need a Conservative Wisdom, Thomas Sowell thread to bring out as much as we can of his previous work.
A tribute from Michells Malkin:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/12/28/thank_you_professor_sowell_132656.html
Sowell's academic work digs into civilizations and cultures across the world and throughout history, not just current headlines. His past as a Marxist and his journey from Harlem High School to Harvard Law School grad and Univ of Chicago PhD in economics give him an authenticity on many topics that no one can match.
Some time ago I gave Thomas Sowell's great book Basic Economics with a $50 bill in it as a graduation gift to a young friend. I hope he read far enough into it to find the money.
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A BIG Start-up Opportunity in Politics?
Posted: 09 Mar 2017 12:09 PM PST
The New York Times pointed out yesterday that Trump ran his candidacy like an Internet start-up. His goal was to use Internet technology to disintermediate the established system (parties, media, etc.) of getting a President elected. Bannon even brought into the team start-up culture mantras:
"move fast and break things"
“figure out what needs doing, and then just do it. Don’t wait for permission.”
I agree and I've been saying something similar for a year. However, I have one important caveat. Unlike wildly successful Internet start-ups, Trump didn't build a technological platform. Instead, he ran an open source political insurgency using social networking. While open source insurgencies are extremely powerful (they have toppled governments and fought wars), they are very difficult to govern with. For example, open source insurgencies dissolve into infighting without an active enemy to fight. Trump's work around for this has been labelling the media as the opposition party and generating controversy.
Because Trump's start-up didn't build any technology, he doesn't have a cohesive social network to synergistically unite his political supporters. A synergy that could turn it into a dominant political force. It's still operating in open source insurgency mode (something Steve Bannon understands in his bones).
This means there is still a massive opportunity available.
An opportunity to build the first political social network that replaces a traditional party apparatus.
One that operates completely different than any political party we've had in this country.
A political platform that provides direct participation (think apps) in the political process on a daily or hourly basis rather than once every two years.
A platform that could grow to 60 m active participants in less than two years.
A platform that establishes norms of conduct and expectations of the future rather than rips them down.
A political network that allows us, as a country, to aspire to greatness again.
Sincerely,
John Robb
PS: This window of opportunity will close fast. Anyone could launch the moonshot to get this done and before it even comes out of stealth alpha, the competition could be over.
PPS: This is likely to be a phase transition in our political system. This means that any errors at the start are amplified manyfold downstream (think in terms of assumptions built into the US Constitution haunted us later in our history).
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Intriguing, but IMHO with loaded with the dangers of mob rule.
===================================================
How Trump and Bannon Could Restructure US Politics Overnight
Posted: 10 Mar 2017 03:57 PM PST
We live in a world where we can get nearly everything instantly.
Instant information. Instant entertainment. Instant communications. Instant transactions.
Simply and rightly, we have come to expect our decisions to yield instant results from the systems that serve us.
Well, that's true for every system except our political system.
We're only allowed to interact with our political system, in a meaningful way, only once every two years and only then by filling out a multiple choice quiz in an election booth.
That's akin to an Internet that only available for a couple of hours every two years at 1,200 baud.
It's crazy in this day and age. Worse, there's increasing evidence it is driving us crazy. We are filling the time in between these electoral events with around the clock political warfare. A ceaseless drumbeat of outrage and conspiracy, amplified by the online echo chambers we spend our time in.
Fortunately, I don't believe this disconnect will last long. A form of direct democracy is coming. One that lets people directly influence the decisions of the people they send to Washington.
A form of interactive democracy that doesn't require any changes to the constitution since it works at the party level and not the national.
When it does, it's going to hit us fast, taking off like wildfire since it fulfills a fundamental need that the current system does not provide.
Here's a quick example from the perspective of the Trump insurgency. Other political parties would need different approaches, but they could if done in the right way (simple approach, scaled quickly by using disruptive marketing, grow from there), grow as quickly as this.
Launching the populist app:
Trump or Bannon picks an issue: the narrower and more inflammatory (disruptive marketing) the better. Make the vote a yes or no.
Trump asks his supporters to tell him what they want (he doesn't ask those opposing him).
His supporters download the app to their smart phones and vote.
A little programming and marketing magic radically improves the number of Trump supporters using the app and reduces spammers/non-supporters attempting to skew the vote down to a trickle.
Millions of Trump supporters download the app and vote.
Once the decision is in, the app makes it easy to call or spam message to the user's Congressional representatives. Millions of calls roll in.
A bill that codifies that issue is fast tracked in Congress. Massive pressure via the app and the White House gets it passed quickly.
Connecting action and results quickly generates buzz. Repeat. This time with 10 m downloads.
The app evolves. The pressure from the network increases. It consumes the Republican party.
Notice how the system, in a barebones fashion, could become a staple of governance nearly overnight.
Notice too how this doesn't in any way change the system of governance that is already in place. It's a plug and play upgrade (for many and something deeply scary downgrade to many).
Regardless, networked politics is coming. It won't matter if you like it or not. It's inevitable.
How networked politics evolves from this humble beginning is the tricky part.
Get it wrong and we're making the same mistakes we did with the governance of the nation-state prior to WW2 or in replacing feudal with representative governments -- it could end in horrific violence.
Get it right and we could zoom forward economically, socially, and culturally.
Sincerely,
John Robb
PS: This example is barebones. I've left out most of the nuance. If you want that, you will need to hire me to help you design and build it. I'm an idealist, but I'm also a mercenary capitalist.
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I am not a huge fan of him but he makes some good points. Time for a new party to emerge?:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/our-progress-in-degeneracy/article/2007343#!
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This may be a real problem.
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/donald-trump-freedom-caucus-twitter/2017/03/30/id/781559/
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The panel on Bret Baier tonight thought it a real error for Trump to pick a fight with the FC, pointing out that when Ryan wanted to dump Trump as candidate when the pussy grab tapes were revealed, the FC guys all solidly stood with Trump.
There also was commentary that Trump was led in the negotiations by the advice of Ryan and that Ryan should have known the lay of the land better.
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http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/03/purge-anti-trump-republicans-nick-ayers-243416
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https://www.salon.com/2018/01/14/sorry-dems-trump-isnt-all-that-weird-and-socialism-isnt-coming/
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https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2018/02/06/newt-criticizes-gop-for-not-pressing-joe-kennedy-on-this-point-after-his-rebuttal-n2444570
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https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2018/02/06/newt-criticizes-gop-for-not-pressing-joe-kennedy-on-this-point-after-his-rebuttal-n2444570
The spineless better learn to fight.
The left has no interest in compromise.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=79&v=kyRuEzlpTXg
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does this guy suggest Repubs do to attract the babe , baby , and minority and victimhood crowd?
Besides free college more women amazon warrior movies free child care at the expense of employers, and white hating ?
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/374452-outgoing-gop-rep-republican-party-heading-into-trouble-electorally
I can think of debt reductions and SS reform at least .
I don't know how to get women to the Rep party though
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A Look Ahead at the Post-Trump GOP
It is possible that the party needed him to broaden its appeal and that he has to disappear for it to survive.
A Look Ahead at the Post-Trump GOP
Illustration: Phil Foster
By Bobby Jindal
Jan. 31, 2018 6:08 p.m. ET
364 COMMENTS
Barack Obama famously aspired to be transformative like Ronald Reagan rather than incremental like Bill Clinton. What about Donald Trump ? His friends and foes alike seem to share only the conviction that he changes everything. But it’s worth considering how lasting his legacy will prove to be. What will happen to the conservative populist movement that he masterfully discerned and harnessed—but did not create—after he is done?
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the real danger with Mr. Trump is that he may end up changing little. This is not to detract from his real accomplishments in undoing much of the Obama regulatory regime, enacting pro-growth corporate tax reform, and appointing judges who recognize they are not legislators. But Mr. Trump is clearly a one-man show, sticking his finger in the dike to hold back liberalism’s flood, while both parties seemingly learn nothing and try to wait him out.
It is easy to lose sight of the substance and be distracted by the disruptive style, the aura of celebrity, the in-your-face tweets, and the unapologetic combative demeanor. While the new judges represent permanent change, and the lower tax rates may last a while, most of the executive orders and regulatory actions can be easily reversed. Mr. Trump is a man, not a movement; he embodies executive strength, not a philosophy. When his time in office is up, he may leave behind millions of frustrated, voiceless people facing a status quo government and two limp, self-serving political parties eager to return to what they were, which wasn’t much.
Trump voters elected a president, causing them to think they had won the revolution. They hadn’t. Their power is one man, and he has an expiration date. It’s not clear that the GOP, as a party, has learned anything. The Republican elite’s desire for self-preservation, along with its recognition of the obvious populist conservative wave, has resulted in a temporary truce within the party. But the GOP will not be a populist conservative party as long as the current congressional leadership remains in place. These leaders would rather lead a shrinking GOP to contain and crush the populist uprising.
The Democratic Party is in no better shape. Consider what Mario Cuomo said about it in 1984: “And in between is the heart of our constituency—the middle class, the people not rich enough to be worry-free, but not poor enough to be on welfare. The middle class—those people who work for a living because they have to, not because some psychiatrist told them it was a convenient way to fill the interval between birth and eternity.”
Cuomo’s Democratic “heart” is today a description of the people who elected Mr. Trump. It’s a far cry from Bernie Sanders and his call for “Medicare for all,” or the progressive notion of a guaranteed universal income, or the obsession with identity politics over pocketbook issues. If the Republicans have become the party of big business, the Democrats have become the party of big government, and their idea of bipartisan compromise is to marry these behemoths.
The Trump movement should and can be bigger than him. Now that elite Democrats have renounced the blue-collar working-class voters who supported them as recently as 2012, Republicans must learn to consolidate and build on that base. The next Republican presidential nominee after Mr. Trump will have a fighting shot at bringing home the people who like lower taxes and dead terrorists but bristle at his crude behavior.
Mr. Trump has both a high floor and a low ceiling, and it is up to the Republican Party to figure out how to maintain the former while shattering the latter. One clue is to remember Bob Dole’s admonition in 1996 that anyone who believes “that we are not open to citizens of every race and religion” could find the exits, “which are clearly marked.” We used to be the party of limitless possibility. The moment immediately after Trump is the one that counts. It is possible that it took him to broaden us and that our subsequent existence will depend on his disappearance.
Where does all this leave us? We need to take over and reinvent the GOP. Mr. Trump won’t be the man to do it. We should create a more populist—Trumpian—bottom-up GOP that loves freedom and flies the biggest American flag in history, shouting that American values and institutions are better than everybody else’s and essential to the future.
Democrats are the past. They worship at the altar of identity politics, which means they believe in everything and nothing. We believe in one shared exceptional American identity, open to all who embrace it. I’ll bet millions of Americans would sign up for that, but not for anything less.
Mr. Jindal served as governor of Louisiana, 2008-16, and was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.
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Thanks for post CD
I had privilege to meet Bobby and his wife at my nephew's wedding some months back.
I agree with his post
I agree with everything he says but not sure about this sentence:
" he embodies executive strength, not a philosophy. " I would suggest maybe he does have a philosophy => America first.
But this and everything else Bobby states is exactly so in my opinion . He GETS IT! No one else in the swamp that I have seen do and he is right about that . After Trump if we do not get new Republicans we will be again fighting a rear guard action against the relentless progressive wave and will lose again with the same losers that will or cannot change their ways.
Maybe Bobby might be :
"The next Republican presidential nominee after Mr. Trump will have a fighting shot at bringing home the people who like lower taxes and dead terrorists but bristle at his crude behavior."
I certainly like all he has said in this post. Go Bobby!
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Much to like about Jindal and agree that we should keep our eye out for him. FWIW my take on his candidacy is that, influenced by certain local political realities of Rep primaries, he overpandered to the evangelical vote.
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"overpandered to the evangelical vote."
agreed
back fired
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"overpandered to the evangelical vote."
agreed
back fired
I agree too. Also he didn't connect well with voters at least nationally. He is a very smart, conservative guy, two term Governor; served in Congress too; there is some important role for him to play in policy, Cabinet level, chief of staff, etc.
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The idea being, why should Republican voters care about elections? We don't have any idea what our Republican legislators are trying to do or want to do next.
-------------------------------------
Eliana Johnson of Politico on Meet the Press yesterday:
Chuck Todd: That’s what you talk about Eliana. Where's the agenda?
Elian Johnson: I don't think that there is one between now and the November elections which I think makes it very difficult for Republicans.
---------------------------------------
Eliana Johnson is one of the best reporters out there observing things from the Republican side. She's not even ripping them; she's just pointing it out, there is no agenda right now.
HOW CAN THAT BE?! Don't we face an even steeper hill AFTER the 2018 midterms? Don't we need popular issues we tried to pass and need more Republican votes to do the work of the people? Or are all the rules, laws, taxes and regulations we face right now just right?
What should the agenda be right now, realistically, if we were to set it for them?
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Terminator has road map to make Republicans relevant again in Cal and elsewhere :
https://www.yahoo.com/news/age-trump-schwarzenegger-wants-centrist-gop-063655838.html
Simply put become libs with an R in front of your name.
I admire his efforts but I believe he has lost his way frankly. I don't know why Kasich even calls himself a Republican frankly .
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Terminator has road map to make Republicans relevant again in Cal and elsewhere :
----------------------------
Only the results of liberal policies, see Venezuela, have the possibility of making Republicans relevant again there. And even that doesn't change minds.
Kasich led the Never-Trump charge in Ohio. Trump won by 8 points - and has governed better than expected.
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CCP: Please post in California thread as well. TY
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Shriver and Hollywood turned Arnold into a democrat.
This is unbelievable:
http://www.breitbart.com/california/2018/03/22/schwarzenegger-rich-donors-starve-gop-becoming-liberal/
He personally went the way of California.
He is now more a political opponent an not ally.
Why does he bother with the Republican Party ? Talk about a rhino.
Trying to stay relevant I guess.
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Maybe the steroids shriveled his testicles?
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https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/03/22/conservative-millennial-explains-trumps-policies-better-black-americans/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBell%22&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWW1ObFltWTVZekkwWWpnMyIsInQiOiJZMm5iUk1uTlJGUHZ0bTh6QUJUSVc0VlowQkdXSlhjNkl2cVlhUmdPU1p3aW5GcWtCT3VwZWk3UmFRQldTc2FNNG0wY2hEUTl1MVJjVFQ1SGpOKzg1b3pcLzJhNTlDakYxcTZCSmt0Vnd2K2RCMDlXVnJFR21vM3Vpb0RZaTZrcFwvIn0%3D
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[schwarzenegger] "Maybe the steroids shriveled his testicles?"
Funny and true I suppose. Didn't he get caught cheating and he must now bow to her every wish or something.
The lesson I've noticed is beware the politics of the spouse. In the case of Trump, the person who may have too much influence from time to time is daughter Ivanka.
We are lucky that Ahnold is irrelevant but lacking in voices to replace him.
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Early Arnold:
"I came first of all from a socialistic country, which is Austria, and when I came over here in 1968 with the presidential elections coming up in November, I came over in October, I heard a lot of the press conferences from both of the candidates Humphrey and Nixon, and Humphrey was talking about more government is the solution, protectionism, and everything he said about government involvement sounded to me more like Social Democratic Party of Austrian socialism."
Schwarzenegger continues:
"Then when I heard Nixon talk about it, he said open up the borders, the consumers should be represented there ultimately and strengthen the military and get the government off our backs. I said to myself, what is this guy's party affiliation? I didn't know anything at that point. So I asked my friend, what is Nixon? He's a Republican. And I said, I am a Republican."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3080688/
Get the government off our backs?? I have heard that in a long time. Is that what the big new, "Republican" spendibus bill is all about?
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More Spendibus bill ranting (or whatever it's called).
In hindsight, there was one way out of our leftist trap of growing government dependency, spending, taxes, fees, deficits and debt. Spend less - and we didn't.
Remember the bold spending cuts that were recently in the President's budget. Crafty correctly called that a throw away - dead on arrival budget.
We needed to create a downward spiral on government program demand and on taxation and an upward spiral on private sector growth. How could we have done that?
Let's assume for a second that the recent tax rate cuts deliver growth as promised. They seem to be doing that if we don't screw it up first with other initiatives, like a trade war or a spending binge. Oops.
If the economy grows and the workforce participation grows as they are, fewer people will need government social services. So follow the tax rate cuts with real spending cuts. Then less money into program budgets and results in a lower incentive to not work and even more people who can, choose work. If so, we can head into a second round of cutting tax rates and social spending cuts. Additional growth is spurred until government shrinks down to basic services and a real safety net for those truly in need. Our debt and liabilities become affordable to an re-energized private sector.
But no. Instead we broke our own loop twice (with a spending surge and tariff-taxes) before even trying the supply side solution. Stupid.
Now the loop turns the other direction. 'Republican' growth fails. R's lose enthusiasm, voters and power. Leftists step in, win, raise spending, raise tax rates, shrink growth, shrink employment, and increase the number of people needing assistance and the amount of money they need. The spiral continues in their direction now - until fewer and fewer pulling the wagon cannot handle the ever-increasing load put upon it.
As G M has said, we fix this only after total collapse and, see Venezuela now, we fix it even more doubtfully after collapse.
If winning the House, Senate, Presidency, Courts and majority of state houses wasn't our opportunity to get this right, when is?
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"If winning the House, Senate, Presidency, Courts and majority of state houses wasn't our opportunity to get this right, when is?"
That is the question !
Why bother to vote ? Makes little difference.
Turnout in Nov may be small from Repub side .
They give us no reason to be enthusiastic.
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"Why bother to vote?"
Easy question.
Speaker Pelosi. Majority Leader Schumer. Federal judges. Military spending! Congressional investigations.
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"Why bother to vote?"
Easy question.
Speaker Pelosi. Majority Leader Schumer. Federal judges. Military spending! Congressional investigations.
After the betrayal on spending, don't be surprised to see Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer.
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Paraphrasing John Wayne:
"Life is tough. It is tougher when we are stupid."
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The Reagan Presidency was very successful on balance but Republicans last week took his one big failure, the sellout on social spending, and brought it forward on steroids.
Schumer got spending increases while in the minority that he could not get in the majority.
We are building ships that President Kamala will turn into flower planters or just give them to more needy nations.
Reagan stood for smaller government. His other accomplishments were monumental.
The fall of the Soviet Union was history changing. Economic growth for a quarter century was fabulous. But the legacy of Reagan in the long term was NOT smaller government. When demand for government keeps going up and up and up, the party of smaller government, as if there were one, has no political relevance.
George W Bush's was our most recent 'big government conservative' (oxymoron alert!) President. Bush left CRAp in place with the federal government controlling 90% of the home mortgage market, lending on government-directed criteria other than creditworthiness. He buddied up with Kennedy to expand the federal government role in education and presided over federal government expansion in healthcare. He grew domestic spending while he was cutting tax rates and fighting two wars. What could possibly go wrong? See Murphy's Law. The country was ready for hope and change and the direction of change from big government should have been a sharp right turn away from these failed policies. But that's not what happens in America. When Republicans fail, Leftists take power. Enter Obama, Obamacare, Solyndra, Cash for Clunkers, Shovel Ready Jobs and people like Cass Sunstein, Jonathon Gruber and Ben Rhodes writing policy while Alinsky, Ayers, Marx and Khrushchev were unavailable.
Back to last week, 2018, what went wrong?
1. The filibuster threat. Republicans don't have 50 votes out of 51 to break it and there aren't 9 or 10 conservative Democrat Senators (oxymoron alert) to join them.
2. The shutdown threat and the Republicans fear of it.
3. All these programs go into one take it or leave it bill.
4. We can't defend our country if we pick the leave it option.
20 years ago or so Newt promised budget process reform. Either it didn't happen or it didn't last. We were going to go to zero based budgeting, not baseline budgeting. Either it didn't happen or it didn't last. We were going to reform the CBO to put out honest, dynamic scoring. Either it didn't happen or it didn't last.
An admittedly growing national economy require LESS government support to the citizens (and non-citizens), but instead we spend more, on everything!
Now President Trump says, "I won't sign a bill like this ever again."
How so? Impeachment? No more budgets at all?
What is and where is the structural reform that will prevent this exact same situation from happening again (and again and again)?
I have an idea. Put a federal spending limit in the constitution. If you want to spend more next year, grow the economy more this year.
Then setting priorities and making choices has meaning. You fund spotted owl mating research more by cutting food stamps, not just fund everything to offend no one.
If you have the Presidency, the bully pulpit, and both chambers on capital hill and majorities in more state houses than ever, and want to never sign bull like this into law ever again, then do something about it.
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"Why bother to vote?"
"Easy question. Speaker Pelosi. Majority Leader Schumer. Federal judges. Military spending! Congressional investigations."
"After the betrayal on spending, don't be surprised to see Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer."
-------------------------
All true. Conservatives still have reason to vote, but lack enthusiasm to vote, which seems to be what determines the outcome.
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Finally starting to "get it".
Along with recent article from Bobby Jindal here is one along similar lines from Alex Castellano:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/04/19/trumpism-without-trump-218013
Gives me some hope.
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Marco makes some good points.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/04/build-national-american-conservatism-to-counter-existential-threats/
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He believes Repubs will lose house and maybe the Senate.
My latest thought is all this constant badgering of Trump by the Left may well back fire and increase Reb turnout. I know I am extremely angry at the Left's attempts to get Trump removed from office and certainly will be voting in Nov, but I am thus just one vote :
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/04/23/exclusive-bozell-last-chance-gop/
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http://thedeclination.com/easy-rhetoric-is-easy/
Easy Rhetoric is Easy
by Thales | Apr 24, 2018 | Culture War, Politics, Power, SJWs |
Surfing around Instagram, you will find a large number of scantily-clad women travelling the world petting cute little animals, talking about “body positivity” and posing provocatively, generally with the juicy bits only barely covered enough to avoid attracting the attention of the censors. Invariably, every cause spouted by these Instagram ladies is boilerplate Leftism. Save the whales, maybe, or fat is beautiful, or white men are vaguely shitty and probably shouldn’t even exist. Also, Christianity is crap, and Atheism is morally superior to the zombie sky wizard.
Now, we roll our eyes at this and go about our business. Why, after all, should we worry excessively about near-porn fusing with idiotic Leftism?
Truthfully, this is a massive problem. Leftism is seen, even by most Rightists, as the default position. It’s the ‘no thinking required’ setting. If you want to spout some kind of philosophical nonsense to make yourself look smart and cultured while your boob is falling out, you do Leftism. It’s easy rhetoric. Hey look, there’s a man with no fish. Saying “somebody should give him a fish, look he’s starving” is the easy rhetorical answer. Defeating this argument is simple with dialectic, but few people care about dialectic. It’s boring. Nerdy. Too many words. Better to just call somebody a bigot and move on.
Defeating Leftism with rhetoric is much more difficult. For not only must you use a convincing argument, that argument must be truthful and honest. The Leftist may use deceit without remorse, because to him the end justifies the means. You may not. Furthermore, Leftism itself is tailored toward sounding good. Rightism is full of unpleasant truths about human nature and the how things work in the real world. People don’t like to hear these things. Only when it comes to money does Rightism have a rhetorical advantage. Even the most ardent Leftist feels the pinch of the tax man.
This means superficial Instagram would-be porn stars are going to spout Leftism. It requires minimal intellectual investment. And in order to please these attention-seekers, hordes of thirsty men will likewise spout Leftism. After all, they want some of that boob that’s falling out. Sure, baby, climate change is a horrible tragedy. Want some dick? This effect is amplified by the constant Leftism spouted both blatantly and subtly by the media and entertainment establishments. Remember V for Vendetta? Or the Handmaid’s Tale? These are the caricatures bandied about by the establishment. You can have semi-nude Instagram girls, or you can have some kind of twisted theocratic dictatorship. Framed that way, who would choose the latter?
Delusional rhetoric is the centerpiece of Leftist thought. These people believe – or at least act like they believe – that we live in the most oppressive, terrible society ever, when it is far closer to the exact opposite. If a more tolerant society has existed, it certainly wasn’t for very long. Usually tolerance at the level we’re at today results in societal collapse – indeed, it may be heading that way now. But either way the point is, the oppression they crave, the oppression they rant about (not the contradiction it first seems) does not exist.
Bend over and let your thong bikini ride between your ass cheeks, snap a picture, and rant about how Trump is a racist… and you are rewarded with thousands of followers, likes, and comments mentioning “goddess.” Which, as a side note, has become something of an irritant to me. As a man, I don’t expect to be referred to as a “god” and, furthermore, would be somewhat pissed that somebody would refer to me that way. I’m not that arrogant. So what’s with this “zOMG you’re such a goddess” crap?
Anyway, I digress. Just notice how much society rewards people who claim oppression. It’s actually a benefit. People compete and jockey for oppression points, because the more you have, the more attention you get. Pop out a boob, and you get even more. Don’t have a boob? No problem. Call yourself trans – you don’t even have to shave the beard – and now you’re a goddess too. Stunning and brave, of course. Just make sure to tell everybody that Barbara Bush was a horrible racist and deserved to die. Then pop out a non-existent boob, and you’ll be flooded with positive comments.
Of course, if you’re trans and anything but a raging Leftist, expect the Blaire White treatment. You’re no longer stunning and brave, you sexist, transphobic transsexual. The contradictions don’t seem to bother them much.
It’s all mass delusion, but it’s a strange sort of self-reinforcing mass delusion. It’s like a brain virus, and once you have it, obtaining a cure is exceedingly difficult – because you have to realize that you are sick in the first place, something Leftism explicitly tries to avoid. Don’t question the narrative heretic… er… I mean racist. If there is any sort of religious dictatorship threatening to micromanage every facet of our lives, it’s coming from the Left, not the Christian Right. Of course, their dictatorship doesn’t make women wear strange red bonnets, but it does make you sign a consent form to have sex, so there’s that. The boob on Instagram is free, though.
All of this is simple rhetoric. And it all stems from something Francis at Liberty’s Torch said some time ago (I’ll have to dig up the link again later). White Christian men are the last group for whom hatred is celebrated. That, in polite company, you may trash and insult without mercy, and expect to receive accolades for it. The people of the in-crowd can take dumps on a God-fearing farmer of Podunkville, pat each other on the back, and go drool over Instagram girls saying they are going to end the objectification of women by wearing see-thru lingerie on the Internet. It’s easy rhetoric. There’s no social cost to it, and plenty of social benefit.
It is the ease of this rhetoric, the reward for it, that really pushes people into Leftism. Oh, sure, there will always be welfare queens and hardcore Marxists who spout this crap, but the regular Joe is responding to a need to be accepted. The middle manager trying to angle for promotion to the upper tier is saying what he thinks people want him to say. And yes, even the flaky Instagram girl is just responding to what will get her the most likes and comments.
It is the ease of this rhetoric that must be defeated more than the rhetoric itself. Even if a Milo or Ben Shapiro gets in a slick comeback; even if Thomas Sowell comes to the party armed with every economic statistic known to man and has them on immediate tap, it won’t be enough. Such victories are short-lived, and the culture at large goes back to ‘if you want upvotes, talk about Islamophobia!’ Rightists are fighting an enormous cultural current, and are doing so admirably. But it is the current itself that must be changed.
The bikini girl on Instagram should be at least as likely to talk about taxation as theft as she is to take rhetorical dumps on Donald Trump. Only then will the rhetorical battle be on level ground.
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http://thehill.com/homenews/house/392168-trump-tightens-grip-on-gop
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second post
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/06/09/dick-morris-republicans-must-rethink-18-strategy/
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****Re: The Way forward for Republican party
« Reply #73 on: Today at 07:14:08 PM »
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/392168-trump-tightens-grip-on-gop***
what is interesting about Sanford is his conservative Liberty score is 93% which is excellent ! so he has voted almost exclusively conservative
yet he is still voted out
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Interesting.
So why does he have such a hard on for President Trump? What is his position on immigration?
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second post
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/06/09/dick-morris-republicans-must-rethink-18-strategy/
Govern by doing what is right for America but run for reelection based on what you have done that is currently polling well.
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[Mark Sanford] What is his position on immigration?
Generally good but:
...voted "against a funding bill that would have shifted some money to the construction of a border wall with Mexico."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2018/06/12/trump-urges-republicans-to-oust-rep-mark-sanford-in-primary/?utm_term=.1a1b0f542644
Maybe Sanford was taking the conservative moral high ground during his time in Congress but his one famous previous personal detour that included a whole series of public lies made it impossible for him to effectively tout that quality about himself.
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http://thehill.com/homenews/house/392168-trump-tightens-grip-on-gop
As Trump succeeds there is a delicate balance to maintain. Give credit where credit is due. and there is plenty right now. Give loyalty where loyalty is due, but the party needs to always be a party of principles, not the party of one person even if one person is (currently) making the difference.
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"The Left won't stop unless it is stopped. Which means that, for us, total victory in the defense of Western civilization and the American ideal is the only option."
"Ascribing good motives to our friends across the aisle is a fool's errand."
"there can be no peace with the Left: in their zeal to destroy the pillars of the American Republic,"
"The only consistency they have[ the Left] is their desire to win "by any means necessary."
"neither the Clintons nor the Obamas would even have been possible were it not for the Bushes, pere et fils [from father to son], who gave us both of them. We owe it to ourselves never to let that happen again."
more at link, Michael Walsh, https://pjmedia.com/michaelwalsh/no-substitute-for-total-victory/
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Would this be what he has in mind when he thinks of the other side?
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/07/04/democrats-majority-rules-norms-trump-2020-218947
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Would this be what he has in mind when he thinks of the other side?
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/07/04/democrats-majority-rules-norms-trump-2020-218947
Yes. The Left is so blatant with their tactics that even with a 93% media advantage the public turns against them just for hearing their ideas in their own words. Puerto Rico, California, felons, AND illegal aliens voting, the whole idea is to change elections in their favor. It cheapens the vote of everyone else and they are starting to notice it.
That whole thing about the electoral college causing the "wrong" result is a rejection of our constitutional, limited government form of government. The Founders didn't create an electoral college because they didn't know how to count popular votes; there was a little more to it! The Left doesn't like parts of the constitution, right to bear arms for example, they invent other clauses that aren't in there, gay marriage and abortion for examples, but then want all the benefits of the constitution when it favors them.
They can amend the constitution the way it is defined within it, or they can have a revolution, the unarmed against the armed. Good luck.
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http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/09/19/newt-gingrich-if-republicans-want-to-defeat-democrats-in-2018-must-do-this.html
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http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/09/19/newt-gingrich-if-republicans-want-to-defeat-democrats-in-2018-must-do-this.html
"Republicans at every level – must break out of the small-ball, district-by-district campaign model and create a national message that defines a set of big choices that contrast the Republican positions and those of the left."
-----
Newt is right in my opinion. We are constantly bogged down by small matters distracting us from the large ones like how to pursue peace and prosperity.
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Doug,
I agree with Newt too.
But what about the phrase "all politics is local".
I am going to email my nephew for his/Josh's opinion on this matter.
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Has it not been remarkable the absolute awakening from the never trumpers and other mid stream repubs like those at National Review, FINALLy as to what we on this board have been saying for at least a decade or two.
You can't play nice with the Dems . You can't reason with them , conciliation only emboldens them , compromise only leads to the one step closer to furthering their total power and does not placate them
I only can hope they have really woken up to this long fight
No more compromise - just win
Trump has been right all along.
OK I am off my soap box. :wink:
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https://www.westernjournal.com/gop-needs-infusion-kanyes-dragon-energy/
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Youtube compilation of Nikki Haley below. Watch it. I can't find our thread for her but it won't hurt to have this posted twice. The way forward includes better messaging, better leaders and better participation from the like-minded citizenry. If not Mike Pence or perhaps with Mike Pence, Nikki Haley will be at the one or two position in one of the next two Presidential elections.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/12/thanks-for-the-memories-nikki.php
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She certainly bears watching. She is very well positioned politically as well.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6VAw234xig
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZroLHO52bOM&fbclid=IwAR0RgNW2MyYjQHBfbtov5VQOmSNWHX46NhPiJtFGFzaf63JJpX_SUVgAC6E
Check out Van Jones at 01:45!
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https://www.westernjournal.com/dick-morris-political-technology-unraveling-limits-targeting/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=deepsix&utm_content=2018-04-03&utm_campaign=can
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https://dailycaller.com/2019/06/05/republicans-trump-mexico-tariff-threat/?utm_medium=email
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Middle Class angry at the elites:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/06/western-middle-classes-angry-elite-hypocrisy/
compare to :
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/josh-hawley-attacks-silicon-valley-elites/
I am still a bit confused how this might work (after Trump).
we pit the people against the elites?
But who are exactly the elites . I don't want it to be rich vs rest of us.
I am not against the rich but am against the rich who thrust their political will on us aka George Soros , the Koch bros.
If we can define the elites somehow with a different word perhaps.
Those who gain and maintain control over us the world . The tech titans the Soros the wealthy who manipulate the system for their own benefit outside the same rules we are forced to follow.
Us against the Orwellian nightmare.
Maybe this is a way for the Repub party . Just cannot get my mind around this.
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How about "We the people against the Tech Overlords of the Goolag"?
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https://www.fayobserver.com/news/20180218/historic-civil-rights-protester-urges-blacks-to-become-republicans?fbclid=IwAR1OmuhMLxZXgBemg-D0r7mq8b1UObJZhOee8Q6CCZwLe4BX3coc7Z2nAaM
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in third photo down in this historic photo I have seen in past:
https://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/6-legacy/freedom-struggle-2.html
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Looking at the list of accomplishments, America for a moment under Trump began to stop the bleeding; we slowed the momentum of a country headed down the tubes. But most of what is wrong is still wrong, and Republicans have lost the House, are vulnerable in the Senate and trail at least in polling in the Presidency. We still need better leadership and far better messaging. More needs to be done!
The first step is to show positive economic results that no one can effectively argue with - like Reagan did in 1984. Two related factors are holding back new growth right now, the slowing global economy and the ongoing and escalating trade war.
Trump needs to change the focus of the trade war to the endgame. It is time to paint a picture of a world free of these barriers and protectionism. He needs to be clear that these tariffs are temporary. They will be removed bilaterally, not unilaterally, but they will be removed. Up until now, the focus has been negative, on how this hurts them more than us and how we will keep escalating as necessary. Shift the focus to the endgame, free trade and widespread growth. China needs that too.
We need to resolve our trade issues with the rest of the world and have our allies join the fight against China until it is won. The EU growth rate has shrunk to essentially zero: https://tradingeconomics.com/european-union/gdp-annual-growth-rate Aren't they ready to join in? Success on this will revitalize the global economy, the US economy, and improve Republican chances in the upcoming election.
Solve the trade war, restart growth, win the public trust, win back the House, hold the Senate and the White House and then address spending including entitlements. Trump said he would shift to that in his second term. Sounds like an empty promise, but why not do it? It worked for Bill Clinton who co-opted the Gingrich agenda and bragged about "ending welfare as we know it". Why was that something to brag about? Because people know that life dependent on government for their essentials sucks. Blacks and Hispanics make great entrepreneurs. So do do whites, Asians, and the rest The safety net we all support is (mostly) supposed to be a temporary leg up, a boost to help people get on the great American ladder of opportunity, not an alternative to it. When more people joined in the productive economy after the Clinton-Gingrich reform, the deficit vanished. Why not do it again.
A country with a healthy, growing economy, a functional border, not reliant on the Middle East for energy, getting paid for our products and services sold in China and around the world, with people at home joining in and fewer and fewer people dependent on government - that is the nightmare opposite of what Democrats are selling today.
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We still need better leadership and far better messaging. More needs to be done!
but we have the tweeter in chief who keeps screwing his own message
I am tired of listening to Rush having to defend Trump every single day.
We all are.
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https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/11/what-do-republican-voters-want/
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https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/11/what-do-republican-voters-want/
More questions than answers.
Hawley: “encouraging capital investment in the great American middle,” “investing in research and innovation in the heartland of this country,”
- He IS a Senator from Missouri.
“challenging the economic concentration that stifles small producers and family enterprises.”
- We should all be looking at the anti-trust aspects of these companies trying to take over society. Why are Google, Facebook, amazon able to buy their competitors and takeover other industries as well?
Rubio: already discussed, hard to tell if this is a change of emphasis or complete turnaround.
What about Pence, the geographic heir to Trump (he sits next to him), or Haley?
I'm not sure that things have changes that much, more a matter of which personalities will attract and prevail, in my view.
I don't think being wishy washy on core values is going to win on the Republican side.
What they don't really say in the post Trump analysis is that there are at least two very different scenarios, if Trump wins and if Trump loses next year. We analyze what went right or what went wrong.
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Trump is a symptom of an angry electorate. Until things are unfcuked on the national level, things are not going back to "normal".
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/11/what-do-republican-voters-want/
More questions than answers.
Hawley: “encouraging capital investment in the great American middle,” “investing in research and innovation in the heartland of this country,”
- He IS a Senator from Missouri.
“challenging the economic concentration that stifles small producers and family enterprises.”
- We should all be looking at the anti-trust aspects of these companies trying to take over society. Why are Google, Facebook, amazon able to buy their competitors and takeover other industries as well?
Rubio: already discussed, hard to tell if this is a change of emphasis or complete turnaround.
What about Pence, the geographic heir to Trump (he sits next to him), or Haley?
I'm not sure that things have changes that much, more a matter of which personalities will attract and prevail, in my view.
I don't think being wishy washy on core values is going to win on the Republican side.
What they don't really say in the post Trump analysis is that there are at least two very different scenarios, if Trump wins and if Trump loses next year. We analyze what went right or what went wrong.
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How old is Jindal?
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https://pjmedia.com/trending/ufc-star-whips-opponent-in-dc-fight-shouts-to-trump-that-hell-whoop-his-foes-for-free/
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Good call :-D
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https://patriotpost.us/articles/68486-the-folly-of-unilateral-political-disarmament-2020-02-11?mailing_id=4856&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4856&utm_campaign=digest_no_reply&utm_content=body
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One or two interesting ideas here. Why not put carbon capture on natural gas instead of coal? It's far easier and more efficient because NG starts many times cleaner than coal.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/02/republican-climate-change-agenda-innovation-carbon-capture/
"With a new generation of advanced, smaller nuclear reactors poised to begin coming online in the next five years, nuclear energy is one key area where Republicans can demonstrate their commitment to innovation outside basic science."
-------------------------------
Just because climate change is two and a half to seven times overstated, not fully human caused and not catastrophic doesn't mean humans aren't emitting or that CO2 levels aren't rising.
Good to be thinking about this and important to get out in front of it. Prosperity and innovation are how we win, not prohibitions, infrastructure blocking or doing without.
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Yes, the Reps must get in front of this!!! Trees, nuclear, natural gas!
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".Yes, the Reps must get in front of this!!! Trees, nuclear, natural gas!"
absolutely, this and healthcare !
Take this away from the mini mike who has already bribed a good portion of the country .
money corrupts more than power.... He is showing for all to behold
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https://www.wlbt.com/2020/02/25/eight-elected-officials-announce-party-switch-join-mississippi-republican-party/
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There is value in reading the other side sometimes.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/12/cowards-are-destroying-the-gop/617534/?fbclid=IwAR1uOlxHkVUxM4FBtcXQUw5euEvY8771k_RxNpqf6LcQQV3nFwY-52JaGlI
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"The problem with the Republican “establishment” and with elected officials such as Josh Hawley is not that they are crazy, or that they don’t know any better; it is that they are cowards, and that they are weak"
coming form an article published in the Atlantic means Josh is doing something right
the only cowards are people like this who worked for the Bushes both of whom's policies helped get us in this mess:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Wehner
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"A disability service coordinator who works with adults in assisted living facilities and group homes in and around Milwaukee, says every one of her more than 20 clients told her that they were either pressured to vote for Biden or had a vote cast for Biden before they ever had a chance to see their ballot."
In Nj most people who work in these facilities are surely Democrats
minorities workers from other countries
particularly carribbean many not even citizens
here on work visas etc
I would think $ 50 bucks for each ballot the got signed under a resident's name would do it .
- maybe $25 . that would be nurse fee
for aides it would be less
bloomberg zuckerberg james money
likely went to pay of the ballot people to do this work
with maybe a few bucks to the voters
cigarettes sandwich
dunkin donut box etc
AND of course they are doing it as I type this in Ga.
ABrams one of the ring leaders
why could we not undercover follow what she is doing?
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"Two systems, communist and economically free? Don't kid yourself."
and Wall Street yawns
everytime Maria Bart tries to pin a Wall Streeter or banker on this they start rattling of bunch of BS
lines about how this is not true/ Jamie Diamond explaining this am on Maria from the "best of 2020 "
how this is trivial to the benefits blah blah blah.
and CNBC guests could care less
China slowly and painstakingly figures out how to mess us up
while the leaders slept
while the wall streeters only cared about how much money they could get out of it
Diamond was even pooh paa ing the intellectual property theft
if everyone (him and his friends ) all making money so what.
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https://townhall.com/columnists/patbuchanan/2021/01/08/the-worst-of-days-for-trump--trumpists-n2582778
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https://www.westernjournal.com/dick-morris-republicans-must-force-biden-left/
might work but only if we do not get 4 new Democrat Senators
and cancellation of electoral college
and stop illegal immigration
and voter fraud
good luck with that
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https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/sarah-sanders-governor-campaign-arkansas/2021/01/24/id/1007003/
:-D
if not flooded over by illegals by then
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I only know her in the context of her stint as press secretary and based on that she has my enthusiastic best wishes.
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"I only know her in the context of her stint as press secretary and based on that she has my enthusiastic best wishes."
true , she has never been elected to anything before
but she is articulate which is as important as the experience
and has a father with the executive experience who will help her campaign like she did with his , the name recognition, and will have 75 million backers and money .....etc
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https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-three-winners-at-cpac-2021_3719538.html?utm_source=morningbrief&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2021-03-04
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https://www.newsweek.com/separating-trump-trumpism-key-gops-future-opinion-1572180
I agree with him on all except the election being stolen
it is as plain as day; it was stolen.
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Sen. Rick Scott:
"For the first time in any of our lives, socialism has become the unabashed, governing policy of the Democrat Party. The Democrats are fast abandoning any pretense of allegiance to the first and second amendments to our Constitution, they’ll give up on the rest of it in due time…
Today’s Democrats do not want to simply ‘cancel’ us, they want to destroy anyone who disagrees with them.
Meanwhile, President Biden will continue to dutifully smile and read teleprompter lines about unity while his radical Administration destroys everyone who disagrees or disobeys…
Hopefully, at some point in the future, we will have beaten this threat back and find ourselves strong enough to afford self-indulgent divisions. But that day is not today.
President Trump brought many working-class voters our way, and Hispanic voters are increasingly inclined to vote Republican. Meanwhile, the Democrats have become the party of the elites, the naïve, and the socialist left, giving us tremendous opportunity to recapture our historic strength in America’s suburbs.
Yes, we are up against powerful elites headquartered in Washington and on the coasts, and they endlessly try to lecture, bully, and intimidate us. But we can beat them.
Some of you voted for President Trump enthusiastically, some with reservations, and some with great reluctance. It doesn’t matter. We got 74 million votes, and we can easily add to our numbers if we work together.
Let us look forward and fix our eyes on what is important – an America with plenty of good-paying jobs, an America with great schools and safe communities, an America with freedoms and liberties people around the world would die for. The only way we can lose is if we stop ourselves by needlessly fracturing. Again, now is not the time. Save it for another day.
The Republican Civil War is now canceled."
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"We got 74 million votes, and we can easily add to our numbers if we work together."
:roll:
Are we still stuck on "We'll VOTE our way out of VOTE FRAUD!"?
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he ties any criticism of his nut job personality
with suggesting people are criticizing Conservative values
and that is wrong
yes Bush and Rove in the past were Repubs lite
that said Rove gets it now
I would be lambasted by Trump because I am fed up with him
but I am no rino
https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-brands-former-campaign-advisor-karl-rove-a-rino-after-strategist-criticised-him_3721723.html
he is just incapable of getting it through his delusional head that it ain't about him and that yes he flawed
that he keeps dragging himself into the way forward for us
he will drag us down in '24
as far as I can tell
maybe I am wrong
and if we are stuck with him I hope I am
for now he should be promoting conservative values
call it trumpism (though these are values that come from us - not him)
if you want
but he just has to keep promoting himself
he is getting the way of himself and thus us
I can't take it anymore
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he clearly called for "peaceful" march to the Capital Jan 6
but sickeningly he did wait and hour or two before calling the break in off
his own allies Pence and McCarthy were begging him to say something
and he clearly relished in what was going on before someone (his daughter ) maybe brought him away
from his pathological delusions
to reality
and he finally came out (heart not it in - obviously ) and advised the break in people to go home
This did more harm to our cause then anything
it don't blame for those who were breaking in but he should have immediately called it off
he saw it on TV like everyone else and of course knew what was going on.
he would allow people to go to their deaths if it makes him look good....
he is not the guy anymore.
we are so desperate for anyone to represent us - and I am first to admit he was the only one - we support him - but now I am hoping others FINALLY listen to us - the people who want to maintain USA as number one and help citizens first etc etc
tell me where I am wrong
I am all ears
I want to win not lose
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The American Republic is dead. You aren't voting your way out of this.
he clearly called for "peaceful" march to the Capital Jan 6
but sickeningly he did wait and hour or two before calling the break in off
his own allies Pence and McCarthy were begging him to say something
and he clearly relished in what was going on before someone (his daughter ) maybe brought him away
from his pathological delusions
to reality
and he finally came out (heart not it in - obviously ) and advised the break in people to go home
This did more harm to our cause then anything
it don't blame for those who were breaking in but he should have immediately called it off
he saw it on TV like everyone else and of course knew what was going on.
he would allow people to go to their deaths if it makes him look good....
he is not the guy anymore.
we are so desperate for anyone to represent us - and I am first to admit he was the only one - we support him - but now I am hoping others FINALLY listen to us - the people who want to maintain USA as number one and help citizens first etc etc
tell me where I am wrong
I am all ears
I want to win not lose
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".The American Republic is dead. You aren't voting your way out of this."
i am also totally pessimistic
they are cancelling us on all fronts
we are like the Romans at Cannae
major Republican Party cancellation battles :
1) open the borders to seed the country with endless numbers of one Party voters
bring in their relatives cry about the children who have been used as anchor babies for decades
2). pack the SCOTUS
3). Nationalize like Fascists voting and skew all the changes to favor their single party
4) make PR and DC states for more Democrat Senators
5) end the filibuster
6) end supermajority vote requirements
Only if we can survive all these over next even 2 yrs (let alone 4)
do we even have a chance
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Balkanization is our only chance for survival. They are planning on genocide.
".The American Republic is dead. You aren't voting your way out of this."
i am also totally pessimistic
they are cancelling us on all fronts
we are like the Romans at Cannae
major Republican Party cancellation battles :
1) open the borders to seed the country with endless numbers of one Party voters
bring in their relatives cry about the children who have been used as anchor babies for decades
2). pack the SCOTUS
3). Nationalize like Fascists voting and skew all the changes to favor their single party
4) make PR and DC states for more Democrat Senators
5) end the filibuster
6) end supermajority vote requirements
Only if we can survive all these over next even 2 yrs (let alone 4)
do we even have a chance
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they do read this board! :))
Trump keeps conflating HIS needs with that of Republicans
Yup
finally are others seeing the big red flag about this
he wil bring us all down
for his own ego
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/03/07/trump-will-exact-his-revenge-on-murkowski-for-her-impeachment-vote-n1430603
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they do read this board! :))
Trump keeps conflating HIS needs with that of Republicans
Yup
finally are others seeing the big red flag about this
he will bring us all down
for his own ego
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/03/07/trump-will-exact-his-revenge-on-murkowski-for-her-impeachment-vote-n1430603
We do need to have two good Senators from Alaska, and every red state. The fight against Murkowski is fine, but it's not Presidential and it's not the way forward to increase the in-party fighting. That work used to be done behind the scenes - by underlings.
We grow past Trump by elevating someone else who can advance a conservative agenda.
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agreed
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http://ace.mu.nu/archives/393210.php
More failure theater...
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"And now he's shrieking he'll use "scorched earth" tactics if the Democrats nuke the filibuster -- despite having just refused to use scorched earth tactics, or even normal bargaining leverage, in January."
There are still Republicans who think they can make "deals with Democrats"? :x
There is NO compromise with them
they keep shoving their agenda down are throats
the position is to fight back and beat them down.
What planet do these rinos live on that they still refuse to learn
power sharing with Schumer
Schumer sees it as us giving up power to him
not as he is "Sharing it"
he will take everything he can and not budge the other way
What is really going on in McConnell's mind?
does he think this is the way to get some crumbs?
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https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5b05c48a4f8c69594ac5f96ac70f5ae12a538bee999b7a0ff48ddae6f48df03e.jpg
(https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5b05c48a4f8c69594ac5f96ac70f5ae12a538bee999b7a0ff48ddae6f48df03e.jpg)
"And now he's shrieking he'll use "scorched earth" tactics if the Democrats nuke the filibuster -- despite having just refused to use scorched earth tactics, or even normal bargaining leverage, in January."
There are still Republicans who think they can make "deals with Democrats"? :x
There is NO compromise with them
they keep shoving their agenda down are throats
the position is to fight back and beat them down.
What planet do these rinos live on that they still refuse to learn
power sharing with Schumer
Schumer sees it as us giving up power to him
not as he is "Sharing it"
he will take everything he can and not budge the other way
What is really going on in McConnell's mind?
does he think this is the way to get some crumbs?
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Better leaders, better messaging. Here's one. Dan Cameron, Attorney General of Kentucky
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2021/04/26/kentucky_ag_daniel_cameron_this_country_has_always_tried_to_be_a_more_perfect_union.html
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He sounds good to me
but to a leftist Democrat he is worse then a Nazi. - which he qualifies as since he is a Republican -
he is a Christian.
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He sounds good to me
but to a leftist Democrat he is worse then a Nazi. - which he qualifies as since he is a Republican -
he is a Christian.
You are right, but the connection between Christian or libertarian and Nazi is lost on me. Fascists are big statists, are Leftists, are atheists. Nazi, Fascist or Socialist is the opposite of being a constitutional conservative, Christian or libertarian. If you want equal outcomes, you want coercion and a state run society. It's a feature not a bug of Prog, Left, Social Justice, all of it. It is anti-democratic to protect the integrity of a vote? Only in their pretend, upside down world.
Exodus 20:17
“You shall not covet your neighbor's house...wife...servant...his ox...donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.” - Author: Moses? God?
Put THAT in the next Democrat platform.
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Tim Scott's great rebuttal to the divider President: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2021/04/28/sen_tim_scott_delivers_gop_response_to_biden_address_nation_starving_for_more_than_platitudes.html
The words are here but the delivery is important.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) delivers the Republican response to Pres. Biden's first congressional address.
Good evening. I'm Senator Tim Scott from the great state of South Carolina. We just heard President Biden's first address to Congress. Our president seems like a good man. His speech was full of good words, but President Biden promised you a specific kind of leadership. He promised to unite a nation, to lower the temperature, to govern for all Americans no matter how we voted. This was a pitch, you just heard it again, but our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes. We need policies and progress that brings us closer together. But three months in, the actions of the president and his party are pulling us further and further apart.
I won't waste your time with finger pointing or partisan bickering. You can get that on TV any time you want. I want to have an honest conversation. A common sense and common ground about this feeling that our nation is sliding off his shared foundation and how we move forward together. Growing up I never dreamed I would be standing here tonight. When I was a kid my parents divorced, my mother and my brother and I moved in with my grandparents. Three of us sharing one bedroom. I was disillusioned and angry, and I nearly failed out of school, but I was blessed. First, with a praying mom. And let me say this to the single mothers out there, who are working their tails off working hard trying to make the ends meet, wondering if it's worth it: you bet it is. God bless your amazing effort on heart of your kids. I was also blessed by a Chick-fil-A operator, John Moniz. And finally, with a string of opportunities that are only possible here in America.
This past year, I've watched COVID attack every rung of the ladder that helped me up. So many families have lost parents and grandparents too early. So many small businesses have gone under. Becoming a Christian transformed my life, but for months too many churches were shut down. Most of all, I'm saddened that millions of kids have lost a year of learning when they could not afford to lose a single day. Locking vulnerable kids out of the classroom is locking adults out of their future. Our public school should have reopened months ago. Other countries did. Private and religious schools did. Science has shown, for months, that schools are safe. But too often powerful grown-ups set science aside. And kids like me were left behind.
The clearest case I've seen for school choice in our lifetimes. Because we know education is the closest thing to magic in America. Last year, under Republican leadership, we passed five bipartisan COVID packages. Congress supported our schools, our hospitals, saved our economy and funded Operation Warp Speed, delivering vaccines in record time. All five bills got 90 votes in the Senate. Common sense found common ground. In February, Republicans told President Biden we wanted to keep working together to finish this fight. But Democrats wanted to go it alone. They spent almost $2 trillion on a partisan bill that the White House bragged was the most liberal bill in American history. Only 1 percent went to vaccinations, no requirement to reopen schools promptly.
COVID brought Congress together five times. This administration pushed us apart. Another issue that should unite us is infrastructure. Republicans support everything you think of when you think of infrastructure. Roads, bridges, ports, airports, waterways, high-speed broadband-- we're in for all of that. But again, Democrats want a partisan wish list. They won't even build bridges to build bridges. Less than 6 percent of the president's plan goes to roads and bridges. It's a liberal wish list of big government waste. Plus, the biggest job-killing tax hikes in a generation. Experts say, when all is said and done, it would lower wages of the average American worker and shrink our economy.
Tonight, we also heard about a so-called family plan. Even more taxing even more spending to put Washington even more in the middle of your life, from the cradle to college. The beauty of the American dream is that families get to define it for themselves. We should be expanding opportunities and options for all families, not throwing money at certain issues because Democrats think they know best. Infrastructure spending that shrinks our economy is not common sense. Weakening our Southern borders and creating a crisis is not compassionate. The president is also abandoning principles he's held for decades. Now he says your tax dollars should fund abortions. He's laying groundwork to pack the Supreme Court. This is not common ground.
Nowhere do we need common ground, more desperately been in our discussions of race. I have experienced the pain of discrimination. I know what it feels like to be pulled over for no reason, to be followed around the store while I'm shopping. I remember every morning at the kitchen table, my grandfather would open the newspaper and read it, I thought. But later I realized he had never learned to read it, he just wanted to set the right example. I've also experienced a different kind of intolerance. I get called Uncle Tom and the n-word by progressives by liberals. Just last week, a national newspaper suggested my family's poverty was actually privilege. Because a relative owned land, generations before my time. Believe me, I know first-hand, our healing is not finished.
In 2015, after the shooting of Walter Scott, I wrote a bill to fund body cameras. Last year, after the deaths of Brianna Taylor and George Floyd, I built an even bigger police reform proposal. But my Democratic colleagues blocked it. I extended an olive branch, I offered amendments. But Democrats used to filibuster to block the debate from even happening. My friends across the aisle seem to want the issue more than they wanted a solution. But I'm still working, I'm hopeful that this will be different. When America comes together, we've made tremendous progress. But powerful forces want to pull us apart. A hundred years ago, kids in classrooms were taught the color of their skin was their most important characteristic. And if they looked a certain way inferior.
Today, kids are being taught that the color of their skin defines them again. And if you look a certain way, they're in an oppressor. From colleges, to corporations, to our culture, people are making money and gaining power by pretending we haven't made any progress at all. By doubling down on the divisions we've worked so hard to heal. You know this stuff is wrong. Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country. It's backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination. And it's wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present.
I'm an African American who's voted in the South my entire life. I take voting rights personally. Republicans support making it easier to vote and harder to cheat and so do the voters. Big majorities of Americans support early voting and big majorities support voter ID, including African Americans and Hispanics. Common sense makes common ground. But today, this conversation has collapsed. The state of Georgia passed a law that expands early voting, preserves no-excuse mail-in voting and despite what the president claimed, did not reduce election day hours. If you actually read this law, it's mainstream. It will be easier to vote early in Georgia than in Democrat-run, New York. But the left doesn't want you to know that. They want people virtue signaling by yelling about a law they haven't even read. Fact checkers have called out the White House for misstatements. The president absurdly claims that this is worse than Jim Crow.
What is going on here? I'll tell you: a Washington power grab. This misplaced outrage is supposed to justify Democrats' new sweeping bill that would take over elections for all 50 states. It would send public funds to political campaigns you disagree with and make the bipartisan Federal Elections Commission partisan. This is not about civil rights or our racial past, it's about rigging elections in the future. And no, the same filibuster that President Obama and President Biden praise when they were Senators, the same filibuster that the Democrats used to kill my police reform bill last year, has not suddenly become a racist relic just because the shoe is now on the other foot. Race is not a political weapon to settle every issue the way one side wants. It's far too important.
This should be a joyful springtime for our nation. This administration inherited a tide had already turned. The coronavirus is on the run thanks to Operation Warp Speed and the Trump administration our country is flooded with safe and effective vaccines. Thanks to our bipartisan work last year, job openings are rebounding. So why do we feel so divided, anxious? A nation with so much cause for hope should not feel so heavy laden A president who promised to bring us together should not be pushing agendas that tear us apart. The American family deserves better. And we know what better looks like. Just before COVID, we had the most inclusive economy in my lifetime. The lowest unemployment rate ever recorded for African Americans, Hispanics and Asians. And a 70-year low, nearly, for women. Wages were growing faster at the bottom than at the top. The bottom 25 percent saw their wages go up faster than the top 25 percent.
That happened because Republicans focus on expanding opportunity for all Americans. In addition to that, we passed opportunity zones, criminal justice reform and permanent funding for historically Black colleges and universities for the first time ever. We fought the drug epidemic, rebuilt our military and cut taxes for working families and single moms like the one that raised me. Our best future will not come from Washington schemes or socialist dreams. It will come from you: the American people. Black, Hispanic, white and Asian, Republican and Democrat, brave police officers and black neighborhoods. We are not adversaries, we are family. We are all in this together and we get to live in the greatest country on Earth. The country where my grandfather in his 94 years saw his family go from cotton to Congress in one lifetime.
So, I am more than hopeful, I am confident that our finest hour is yet to come. Original sin is never the end of the story. Not in our souls and not for our nation. The real story is always redemption. I am standing here because my mom has prayed me through some really tough times. I believe our nation has succeeded the same way. Because generations of Americans in their own ways have asked for grace and God has supplied it. So, I will close with a word from a worship song that really helped me through this past year of COVID. The music is new, but the words draw from Scripture. May the Lord bless you and keep you, make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May his presence go before you and behind you, and beside you, in your weeping and your rejoicing. He is for you. May his favor be upon our nation for a thousand generations and your family and your children and their children. Good night and God bless the United States of America.
-
https://emojiguide.org/thumbs-up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMHHsFJiVwE
he blew it away
crushed previous weak responses from
Bobby Jindal or Marco Rubio
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https://emojiguide.org/thumbs-up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMHHsFJiVwE
he blew it away
crushed previous weak responses from
Bobby Jindal or Marco Rubio
Yes. Message and delivery.
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can't find anything online about this since 3/18/21
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https://ricochet.com/podcast/the-classicist/the-woke-breaking-point/
hoover institute "has all the answers"
Need Reagan like figure
[more than Trump figure] to help us fight back
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9575323/The-150-Republicans-including-four-former-governors-threatened-form-party.html
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".The group, which includes four former governors and 27 former GOP members of the House, states that they oppose the 'disenfranchisement of voters' and 'reject populism and illiberalism, whether of the right or the left."
This is DJT - TDS pure and simple
Let Trump keep screeching his ego across the social media chalk board for now (till someone 100 % better shows up ) but to actively oppose him means they also oppose the vast majority of the Republican voters
anyone who wants to follow the other NJ governor named Christie (Todd Whitman)
and join her party - go right ahead :
The group, which includes four former governors and 27 former GOP members of the House, states that they oppose the 'disenfranchisement of voters' and 'reject populism and illiberalism, whether of the right or the left.'
https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/njcgop-whitman-remove-nj-republican-party-now/
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https://www.dailywire.com/news/bret-baier-hammers-liz-cheney-in-brutal-interview-more-people-voted-for-trump-in-wyoming-than-you
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9575323/The-150-Republicans-including-four-former-governors-threatened-form-party.html
.
Point of clarification: People who voted for Biden, voted for Biden’s policies, are not Republican no matter what they once called themselves. People like Bill Weld split with the party long before Trump. Look at the instant publicity they get on CNN. They can get unlimited Soros funding. When do they realize that is not a conservative alternative?
It is a group of people who don't believe in party forming a party. A group of people who don't believe in vote integrity competing for votes. A group of people of people who couldn't recognize peace and prosperity telling us a better way to get there. People who don't appreciate record deregulation voted to re-regulate. People who couldn't field one candidate in 2020 after 4 years of Trump threatening to field a candidate.
They are going to find 85 million voters in 2024 without using any of the 75 million who voted for Trump, and without investigating and dismantling any of the Dem cheat mechanisms?
Color me skeptical.
People who dedicate their lives to helping Democrats win are called... Democrats.
While these self appointed elitists turned leftward, Trump and Republicans captured 100% of the farmer vote, the majority of labor and record numbers and percentages of blacks and Hispanics. Pretty good trade.
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https://www.dailywire.com/news/bret-baier-hammers-liz-cheney-in-brutal-interview-more-people-voted-for-trump-in-wyoming-than-you
Singular focus and it's not fighting the Leftist revolution.
"to tell the truth"
What is the truth about the past election? Wouldn't investigation help solve that? But somehow she knows truth and lie without that and I don't.
"The Big Lie"
The top 100 big lies of our time were not made by Trump or Republicans. To just name this uninformed viewpoint The Big Lie is to seak the language of the Left.
And out she goes.
Why not instead get behind a Nikki Haley, Kristi Noem, Ron DeSantis in a positive fight fir the next nomination, or WAIT FOR THE PROPER TIME TO DO THAT. But no. Trump must be fought now, always, in every breath, ad hominem. Even though she voted for him at least once and with him 93% of the time.
That march peacefully and patriotically is inciteful and opposed to the rule of law is as big of a lie as can be.
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Watched the Baier-Cheney interview-- wow! Baier sure brought the heat!
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"Watched the Baier-Cheney interview-- wow! Baier sure brought the heat!"
yes he brought it on in UFC speak.
I wish he was the one who interviewed Randi Weingarten, the Teachers Union Mafia Boss
and not Martha MacCallum
did you see that dud of an interview the other day?
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I like Martha, but that was really weak on her part.
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Watched the Baier-Cheney interview-- wow! Baier sure brought the heat!
He brought heat in the form of substance and context. Weird part is, I think Baier agrees with her about no election fraud. Why is there no follow up by anyone on that substance?
The Navarro Report tells us what Trump's advisers were telling him at that time:
https://firehydrantoffreedom.com/index.php?topic=1709.msg131082#msg131082
Six dimensions of cheating in six states, 31 areas of cheating backed up with widespread evidence, hundreds of footnotes.
How about someone on CNN (ha) asking her how she is sure all of that is wrong or that none of it would change the election result?
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".Weird part is, I think Baier agrees with her about no election fraud "
yes your right Doug
at end of interview he blurted in one sentence something like there was no election fraud
out of no where
not sure if he was obligated to for Fox News or he really believes it
but that did seem to counter the entire rest of his theme of the interview....
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/byron-yorks-daily-memo-the-gop-is-bigger-than-trump
Excerpts ======>>>
"During Trump's presidency, majorities of Republicans and those who leaned Republican said they considered themselves more a supporter of Trump than of the GOP. For example, in September of 2020, 53 percent said they were a Trump supporter, versus 37 percent who said they were a GOP supporter. In June 2019, 52 percent said they were Trump supporters, versus 38 percent for the GOP.
Now that has changed. In a poll taken in late April, 50 percent said they were more a supporter of the GOP, while 44 percent said they were more a supporter of Trump. The balance between the former president and the party has changed.
Other polls show Trump's favorability rating with all registered voters below 40 percent, and favorability with Republicans around 80 percent. That is still high for Republicans, but less than it was when Trump was president. That's only natural."
PS : I don't recall Byron was ever a "never Trumper" and was supportive of at least most of his policies.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/byron-yorks-daily-memo-the-gop-is-bigger-than-trump
Excerpts ======>>>
"During Trump's presidency, majorities of Republicans and those who leaned Republican said they considered themselves more a supporter of Trump than of the GOP. For example, in September of 2020, 53 percent said they were a Trump supporter, versus 37 percent who said they were a GOP supporter. In June 2019, 52 percent said they were Trump supporters, versus 38 percent for the GOP.
Now that has changed. In a poll taken in late April, 50 percent said they were more a supporter of the GOP, while 44 percent said they were more a supporter of Trump. The balance between the former president and the party has changed.
Other polls show Trump's favorability rating with all registered voters below 40 percent, and favorability with Republicans around 80 percent. That is still high for Republicans, but less than it was when Trump was president. That's only natural."
PS : I don't recall Byron was ever and "never Trumper" and was supportive of at least most of his policies.
Conservatives yearn for a leader with all of Trump's good qualities and none of his bad ones. It would be best for Trump too to back someone new if the right candidate is possible. Better than re-fighting old fights, the referendum now is on the Biden Harris administration.
Note, the poll numbers are unfair when someone is prevented from fighting back in a free speech country.
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".It would be best for Trump too to back someone new if the right candidate is possible."
It would
be ,
if only he were capable enough to do this .
zero evidence of it for 74 yrs.
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Follow the money:
https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2021/05/30/report-israels-army-chief-said-ap-gaza-journalists-had-coffee-with-hamas-men-in-bombed-building/
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Is that the right URL for the Stefanik post?
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no . wrong post ! :-o
my apologies
here is MM post about her here:
https://www.creators.com/read/michelle-malkin/05/21/beware-elise-stefaniks-moneyman
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Interesting.
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https://www.creators.com/read/michelle-malkin/05/21/beware-elise-stefaniks-moneyman
I like Michelle Malkin and the warning is valid.
I would add that Elise Stefanik has her power now and does not need support of one money man anymore who bundled 300k. She only needs to win her district and the most expensive House race ever was 50 million, almost 200 times that. Her district is 56-42 Republican and she is now perhaps the second most powerful woman in Congress to Nancy Pelosi. She knows how to raise enough money to win her district, with or without one bundler. He may need her; she doesn't need him.
https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/new-york-house-district-21
https://time.com/4823581/georgia-election-ossoff-handel-race/
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Hope you are right!
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just reviewed her website
and some supposedly non biased reviews
that said I still cannot make sense of it all
She is for secure borders and "common sense " immigration " reform
whatever that means
did not say she would send back any illegals but site that says that again speaks the big lie about illegal immigration when it states there are 11 million here
we know it is double that or more even
leans conservative
gets good NRA rating
but just not sure
Hard to believe leftist money being spent to her is for just to later have some influence
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I would only add, there's a big distinction between moderate Republican with us 80% of the way, and a RINO who by definition is not there when you need them. cf, McCain on Obamacare repeal, Romney, Cheney on impeachment.
From what I can see so far, she was there when we needed her.
The party needs the center right to be a majority party and the party needs a woman in leadership.
Just the indication of support for a secure border is infinitely better than every Biden-supporting Democrat.
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"the party needs a woman in leadership."
well, we could have the first Olympic gold medalist , first
female president (if Joe doesn't croak first) and first trans president
and CRUSH the glass ceilings and be the envy of the World. :wink:
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A secure border in theory, never in practice.
McCain used the exact same words.
I would only add, there's a big distinction between moderate Republican with us 80% of the way, and a RINO who by definition is not there when you need them. cf, McCain on Obamacare repeal, Romney, Cheney on impeachment.
From what I can see so far, she was there when we needed her.
The party needs the center right to be a majority party and the party needs a woman in leadership.
Just the indication of support for a secure border is infinitely better than every Biden-supporting Democrat.
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gets it - sort of :
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/condoleeza-rice-trump-populist-americans/2021/06/02/id/1023586/
a bit late
it is not just globalization
it is many things
Also,
I don't like the description of *POPULIST*
indeed i find this label annoying
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https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/former-democrat-explains-why-he-joined-the-republican-party_3844368.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2021-06-05&mktids=7fed606d021d3f8d1c8724cf617eba3c&est=pY14o1kGRvrRia9qcPXn5liSEgZdaUqCKQGmS2qBEmLiF2Sv0qLuUosRsAGm%2FafRGGNM
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For decades some conservatives, yours truly among them, have argued that Latino Americans, with their ethic of faith and family and work, ought to be natural Republicans. On Saturday in a South Texas city on the Mexican border, Javier Villalobos gave America a glimpse of what this future might look like when he became the first Republican elected mayor of McAllen—the 85% Latino seat of Hidalgo County.
“Villalobos’ election should surprise absolutely no one who followed how counties in the Rio Grande Valley swung heavily toward Trump in the last election,” says Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and author of “The Plot to Change America: How Identity Politics Is Dividing the Land of the Free.”
As Mr. Gonzalez notes, the auguries were there for anyone who cared to look. In 2016 Hillary Clinton carried Hidalgo County by 41 points. But in 2020, Joe Biden won by only 17 points. Meanwhile Zapata County—what the Washington Post calls “the bluest of blue counties along the river”—flipped for Donald Trump in 2020, the first victory for a GOP presidential candidate there since Warren G. Harding a century ago.
These developments have Democrats sounding the alarm. A May postelection analysis by a trio of left-leaning organizations noted that while Latino turnout in 2020 grew “dramatically” over 2016, Democrats saw a “significant dip in support in places with high concentrations of Latino and Hispanic voters.” Nor were Republicans simply sitting on the sidelines all the while. When asked by Texas Monthly what was attractive to Latinos about the Republican Party, Chuck Rocha, an adviser to the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, answered this way:
“At the Republican National Convention, the party had one Latino speaker after another telling their immigration story and how they lived the American dream. And if you just sit back and watch that or read the coverage, you might think, ‘Hey, these Republicans are all right. They like immigrants. They want to build entrepreneurship. They want us to all be rich like Donald Trump.’ ”
READ MORE MAIN STREET
Joe Biden’s Covid ‘Science’ May 31, 2021
God Save the Clarence Thomas Court May 24, 2021
Bernie’s SALT in Biden’s Wounds May 17, 2021
Robert Mueller’s Revenge May 10, 2021
Who’s Afraid of Tim Scott? May 3, 2021
A new National Republican Senatorial Committee survey of Latino likely voters in battleground states offers some striking insights here, especially on values and priorities. At a time when even some conservatives are attacking the GOP commitment to free markets, for example, the NRSC result is striking.
The survey asked Latinos to choose between two statements. The first was unadulterated Milton Friedman : “Some people say free-market capitalism is the best form of government because it gives people the freedom to work and achieve.”
The second was what we might call the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez option: “Other people say that socialism is the best form of government because it is more fair and equitable to working class people.”
Almost two-thirds (63%) of respondents opted for the Friedman position, against only 17% for the AOC line. Hardly surprising, given that so many Latinos came to the U.S. in the first place to escape socialism. But capitalism is just the beginning of the surprises:
• 67% are “very concerned” their kids “won’t have the same opportunities me and my family came here to find.”
• 58% said too many people in America are happy not to work and “just live off government assistance.”
• 80% percent agree that “public schools are failing.”
• 67% agree that too many Americans “are losing our traditional values centered on faith, family and freedom.”
• 57% “oppose Democrat efforts to pack the Supreme Court with liberal judges.”
• 72% agree “we should do what is necessary to control our southern border.”
• 65% oppose the Democrats’ “bill that would make voter ID illegal.”
• 50% agree that “many of the policies that Democrats say help all minorities actually end up hurting Hispanic families.”
The NRSC’s conclusion? The political future isn’t California—it’s Florida. Florida’s electorate, the report notes, is substantially less white than it was in 2000, yet it is also more Republican than it was 20 years ago.
Still, if more Latinos are willing to pull the GOP lever these days, it probably owes as much to the Democratic Party’s lurch leftward than any brilliant Republican outreach. Last year’s riots certainly didn’t help among people who value law and order. In addition, Mr. Gonzalez argues that critical race theory, so popular with the political left, will end up having the opposite effect on minorities than progressives think.
“Critical race theory insists that Americans who are not WASPs must see themselves as aggrieved victims who want to transform America,” he says. “But people don’t fit into these neat categories cooked up in the faculty lounges. It’s turning off Americans of Latin background.”
The Democratic postmortem seems to confirm Mr. Gonzalez’s read. The GOP, it concedes, successfully cast Democrats in 2020 as the party of economic shutdowns, defunding the police, keeping schools closed, and socialism. “Republican attempts to brand Democrats as ‘radical’ worked,” it says.
The really bad news for Democrats? This was all back when Joe Biden was still selling himself to Americans as a moderate.
Write to mcgurn@wsj.com.
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:roll:
Must be why California is so red!
For decades some conservatives, yours truly among them, have argued that Latino Americans, with their ethic of faith and family and work, ought to be natural Republicans. On Saturday in a South Texas city on the Mexican border, Javier Villalobos gave America a glimpse of what this future might look like when he became the first Republican elected mayor of McAllen—the 85% Latino seat of Hidalgo County.
“Villalobos’ election should surprise absolutely no one who followed how counties in the Rio Grande Valley swung heavily toward Trump in the last election,” says Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and author of “The Plot to Change America: How Identity Politics Is Dividing the Land of the Free.”
As Mr. Gonzalez notes, the auguries were there for anyone who cared to look. In 2016 Hillary Clinton carried Hidalgo County by 41 points. But in 2020, Joe Biden won by only 17 points. Meanwhile Zapata County—what the Washington Post calls “the bluest of blue counties along the river”—flipped for Donald Trump in 2020, the first victory for a GOP presidential candidate there since Warren G. Harding a century ago.
These developments have Democrats sounding the alarm. A May postelection analysis by a trio of left-leaning organizations noted that while Latino turnout in 2020 grew “dramatically” over 2016, Democrats saw a “significant dip in support in places with high concentrations of Latino and Hispanic voters.” Nor were Republicans simply sitting on the sidelines all the while. When asked by Texas Monthly what was attractive to Latinos about the Republican Party, Chuck Rocha, an adviser to the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, answered this way:
“At the Republican National Convention, the party had one Latino speaker after another telling their immigration story and how they lived the American dream. And if you just sit back and watch that or read the coverage, you might think, ‘Hey, these Republicans are all right. They like immigrants. They want to build entrepreneurship. They want us to all be rich like Donald Trump.’ ”
READ MORE MAIN STREET
Joe Biden’s Covid ‘Science’ May 31, 2021
God Save the Clarence Thomas Court May 24, 2021
Bernie’s SALT in Biden’s Wounds May 17, 2021
Robert Mueller’s Revenge May 10, 2021
Who’s Afraid of Tim Scott? May 3, 2021
A new National Republican Senatorial Committee survey of Latino likely voters in battleground states offers some striking insights here, especially on values and priorities. At a time when even some conservatives are attacking the GOP commitment to free markets, for example, the NRSC result is striking.
The survey asked Latinos to choose between two statements. The first was unadulterated Milton Friedman : “Some people say free-market capitalism is the best form of government because it gives people the freedom to work and achieve.”
The second was what we might call the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez option: “Other people say that socialism is the best form of government because it is more fair and equitable to working class people.”
Almost two-thirds (63%) of respondents opted for the Friedman position, against only 17% for the AOC line. Hardly surprising, given that so many Latinos came to the U.S. in the first place to escape socialism. But capitalism is just the beginning of the surprises:
• 67% are “very concerned” their kids “won’t have the same opportunities me and my family came here to find.”
• 58% said too many people in America are happy not to work and “just live off government assistance.”
• 80% percent agree that “public schools are failing.”
• 67% agree that too many Americans “are losing our traditional values centered on faith, family and freedom.”
• 57% “oppose Democrat efforts to pack the Supreme Court with liberal judges.”
• 72% agree “we should do what is necessary to control our southern border.”
• 65% oppose the Democrats’ “bill that would make voter ID illegal.”
• 50% agree that “many of the policies that Democrats say help all minorities actually end up hurting Hispanic families.”
The NRSC’s conclusion? The political future isn’t California—it’s Florida. Florida’s electorate, the report notes, is substantially less white than it was in 2000, yet it is also more Republican than it was 20 years ago.
Still, if more Latinos are willing to pull the GOP lever these days, it probably owes as much to the Democratic Party’s lurch leftward than any brilliant Republican outreach. Last year’s riots certainly didn’t help among people who value law and order. In addition, Mr. Gonzalez argues that critical race theory, so popular with the political left, will end up having the opposite effect on minorities than progressives think.
“Critical race theory insists that Americans who are not WASPs must see themselves as aggrieved victims who want to transform America,” he says. “But people don’t fit into these neat categories cooked up in the faculty lounges. It’s turning off Americans of Latin background.”
The Democratic postmortem seems to confirm Mr. Gonzalez’s read. The GOP, it concedes, successfully cast Democrats in 2020 as the party of economic shutdowns, defunding the police, keeping schools closed, and socialism. “Republican attempts to brand Democrats as ‘radical’ worked,” it says.
The really bad news for Democrats? This was all back when Joe Biden was still selling himself to Americans as a moderate.
Write to mcgurn@wsj.com.
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https://townhall.com/columnists/wayneallynroot/2021/06/27/calling-all-conservative-billionaires-i-have-the-plan-to-save-america-and-the-gop-n2591602
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https://townhall.com/columnists/wayneallynroot/2021/06/27/calling-all-conservative-billionaires-i-have-the-plan-to-save-america-and-the-gop-n2591602
"Calling all conservative millionaires and billionaires "
my question
are there any?
Koch is always named
but the remaining brother is hardly a true conservative
Adelson passed away
to my knowledge that leaves Peter Thiel..........
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https://townhall.com/columnists/wayneallynroot/2021/06/27/calling-all-conservative-billionaires-i-have-the-plan-to-save-america-and-the-gop-n2591602
"Calling all conservative millionaires and billionaires "
my question
are there any?
Koch is always named
but the remaining brother is hardly a true conservative
Adelson passed away
to my knowledge that leaves Peter Thiel..........
The idea is rock solid, accelerating what is already happening. Do Nevada first; it neighbors the biggest target, California.
One of the Koch brothers died; they were libertarian more than conservative, which is fine, great. Adelson dead, too bad. The money needs to be new donors. There are 20 million millionaires in the US. All of them are getting screwed or will be screwed by a Dem government somewhere, and maybe half of them identify conservative or Republican.
It's time for all of us to start putting our money where our mind is. It's after tax money and you not only can't take it with you but you can't leave it behind anymore to your loved ones, many of whom think inheriting your hard earned money is unfair to others. We need to start identifying movements that can make a difference, and make a difference. This idea is a great start.
Build settlements like they do on the west bank. Make them great and throw in some incentives. Donors could build water systems and parks, offer interest free loans. Help employers and businesses move. Target the four biggest blue states. Just show a Republican voter registration or donation, even a blog post dated 2020 or before.
Democrats had this idea once with how few people it would take to swing a place like North Dakota Left and take two Senate seats but they couldn't swing it.
As the Democrats divide us more and more, worse and worse, a magnet grows that pulls people to move live closer to like minded people. It's time to embrace that.
Swinging Nevada back to red and putting Voter ID laws in other Republican led swing states would make a world of difference.
Just having votes counted honestly might swing the next election.
-
https://townhall.com/columnists/wayneallynroot/2021/06/27/calling-all-conservative-billionaires-i-have-the-plan-to-save-america-and-the-gop-n2591602
"Calling all conservative millionaires and billionaires "
my question
are there any?
Koch is always named
but the remaining brother is hardly a true conservative
Adelson passed away
to my knowledge that leaves Peter Thiel..........
The idea is rock solid, accelerating what is already happening. Do Nevada first; it neighbors the biggest target, California.
One of the Koch brothers died; they were libertarian more than conservative, which is fine, great. Adelson dead, too bad. The money needs to be new donors. There are 20 million millionaires in the US. All of them are getting screwed or will be screwed by a Dem government somewhere, and maybe half of them identify conservative or Republican.
It's time for all of us to start putting our money where our mind is. It's after tax money and you not only can't take it with you but you can't leave it behind anymore to your loved ones, many of whom think inheriting your hard earned money is unfair to others. We need to start identifying movements that can make a difference, and make a difference. This idea is a great start.
Build settlements like they do on the west bank. Make them great and throw in some incentives. Donors could build water systems and parks, offer interest free loans. Help employers and businesses move. Target the four biggest blue states. Just show a Republican voter registration or donation, even a blog post dated 2020 or before.
Democrats had this idea once with how few people it would take to swing a place like North Dakota Left and take two Senate seats but they couldn't swing it.
As the Democrats divide us more and more, worse and worse, a magnet grows that pulls people to move live closer to like minded people. It's time to embrace that.
Swinging Nevada back to red and putting Voter ID laws in other Republican led swing states would make a world of difference.
Just having votes counted honestly might swing the next election.
Nevada's dem power structure will NOT allow for honest voting.
We aren't voting our way out of this.
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:-D :-D
https://populist.press/vernon-jones-destroys-cnn-reporter/
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Major League trolling there! :evil: :evil: :evil:
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If history is a guide this comparison
appears *spot on *:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/07/william-jennings-bryan-revisited/
we need Trump to campaign *not* for himself but for someone else
who can legislate better.
that said we know he will not step aside
hopefully Desantis , or someone else 's rise will make the point moot.
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https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/07/republicans-are-blowing-their-chance-on-crime/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WIR%20-%20Sunday%202021-07-11&utm_term=WIR-Smart
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https://dailycaller.com/2021/07/20/mcallen-texas-mayor-javier-villalobos-latino-voters-republican/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=recaps&tpcc%3D=recaps&pnespid=ke1squRAAleNlJt95WVhQxIfiqImZX31tR9IEUCw
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https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2021/11/15/another-democrat-joins-the-republican-party-n2599118
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https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2021/11/15/another-democrat-joins-the-republican-party-n2599118
"He makes the announcement alongside @GovAbbott, ... "
"Gringo" O'Rourke wasn't there for the send-off?
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https://dailycaller.com/2021/11/15/monday-patriots-dispatch-veritas-raid/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=recaps&tpcc%3D=recaps&pnespid=7LxiC3RVLL0AguHEvDWqFomduxC3S4duJuvgwLZ5rhlm.Xz3YwHStHDj7Atj44euLxUTLX44
Or will it be like seven years of denouncing Obamacare and then having nothing to offer when they come to power?
-
https://dailycaller.com/2021/11/15/monday-patriots-dispatch-veritas-raid/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=recaps&tpcc%3D=recaps&pnespid=7LxiC3RVLL0AguHEvDWqFomduxC3S4duJuvgwLZ5rhlm.Xz3YwHStHDj7Atj44euLxUTLX44
Or will it be like seven years of denouncing Obamacare and then having nothing to offer when they come to power?
Failure theater is a republican specialty.
-
https://dailycaller.com/2021/11/15/monday-patriots-dispatch-veritas-raid/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=recaps&tpcc%3D=recaps&pnespid=7LxiC3RVLL0AguHEvDWqFomduxC3S4duJuvgwLZ5rhlm.Xz3YwHStHDj7Atj44euLxUTLX44
Or will it be like seven years of denouncing Obamacare and then having nothing to offer when they come to power?
Failure theater is a republican specialty.
If they needed John McCain's vote who was willing to backstab his voters, and put some others in that category, they never came to power. If they needed 60 votes in the Senate to repeal what passed with 60 votes, they never came to power. It's WAY easier to be out of power and point to bad governance than to govern well. It's our turn to benefit from that now.
-
https://dailycaller.com/2021/11/15/monday-patriots-dispatch-veritas-raid/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=recaps&tpcc%3D=recaps&pnespid=7LxiC3RVLL0AguHEvDWqFomduxC3S4duJuvgwLZ5rhlm.Xz3YwHStHDj7Atj44euLxUTLX44
Or will it be like seven years of denouncing Obamacare and then having nothing to offer when they come to power?
Failure theater is a republican specialty.
If they needed John McCain's vote who was willing to backstab his voters, and put some others in that category, they never came to power. If they needed 60 votes in the Senate to repeal what passed with 60 votes, they never came to power. It's WAY easier to be out of power and point to bad governance than to govern well. It's our turn to benefit from that now.
The feral government was never to be this involved in our lives. If it actually did what it as supposed to as outlined in the constitution, then we wouldn't have to invest so much energy in trying to manage the negative impact from it.
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"The feral government" -- Freudian slip? :-D
-
"The feral government" -- Freudian slip? :-D
Nope. It's the correct term.
-
some good stuff :
http://republicbrief.com/az-state-rep-reads-dem-whistleblowers-letter-to-the-doj-about-2020-election-fraud-during-election-integrity-hearing/
They say Trump will in '24 guarantee a large Democrat turnout
but I am thinking as long as we have prolonged elections and massive mail in stuff,
the turn out is virtually guaranteed as
the divisions of soldiers getting the mail in ballots brought in have more time to do their conniving.
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https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jan/6/six-more-important-issues-jan-6th/
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I like all but the patient control of health care is only likely to some degree
"One of the clearest things to come out of the pandemic is that Americans want more control of their health care. We don’t want to be treated like a statistic."
Agree but ,
The two biggest D's in Health care is Data and Diversity.
It is all about the numbers......
for the payers, report cards etc
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First, it is a shame to put individuals politically into groups. That said, it's time for Republicans to start winning the votes of gays who are like minded politically.
Along with every elected Dem a short time ago, I was against gay marriage when it was a political issue. That ship has sailed, but gays still don't feel welcome in the Republican party.
Donald Trump was the first US President to support gay marriage before he was President. It's not an issue anymore and people who favor personal liberty should naturally lean RIGHT.
I notice that certain prominent conservatives are gay. I have been following FEE.org(Foundation for Economic Eduction) for their excellent free market economic stories. I was watching a video discussion today where writer Brad Polumbo was mocking the AOC most narcissistic claim that conservative men hate her because they can't sleep with her. Something about the way he said AOC was an attractive woman but not his type made me wonder further and I found this:
https://quillette.com/2019/02/18/the-politically-homeless-life-of-a-gay-conservative/
How does a man with such clear free market, limited government views find himself politically homeless. We are past the gay marriage issue. Gay conservatives, if there are any, should be welcomed, not homeless.
Some say gay is a choice, and that is offensive to gays. I don't think it's possible, at least for men. You know who you are sexually attracted to and you know pretty early on.
People who politically say gay is a sin are being counter-productive. So is sex before marriage and a lot of things like envying your neighbor's income. Stop chasing people away that we need. In our system, you get to choose between two major parties and the other one wants to destroy the country. God who made people gay, not liberalism. People who agree with us on border security, liberty, privacy, limited government and economic growth, aren't they our allies?
It's a small group? We've been losing key elections by 0.4% of the vote and less. We should not be alienating like-minded people. What did Ronald Reagan say...
On that note on the forum, no gay rips at Pete Buttigieg, IMHO. Our problems with him are the same as for all Dems: Leftist propaganda and policy choices.
As a group, lesbian women might be among the most liberal out there. Maybe a very small percentage of them really lean conservative. We want their vote. Gay men are peer pressured to vote Left, but the economic issues hit gay and lesbian people the same way they hit everyone else. Taxes, inflation, over-regulation, stagnation, crime, privacy, freedom, life, equal treatment under the law, those issues affect all of us. We want your vote.
-
Doug,
so how do we attract
gays who
connect us with the religious right
ronald reagan who they wrongly blame for AIDS
and previous attempts to block gay marriage
etc
many gays associate with victomhood
group of groups
disgruntled
and they are the most viscous politically
-
ccp, no easy answer.
Invite them, respect them. Stop doing and saying counter-productive things.
My take on that, Reagan (and Trump) cut tax rates for gays (everyone), raised incomes for gays. Opened business opportunities for gays. Republicans support greater privacy, liberty.
Hispanics didn't suddenly starting liking Trump and Republicans. They like job wage growth.
The Big One: You mentioned designer babies in the abortion discussion. Watch what happens when someone claims to identify a gay identifier or predictor in the unborn. Who will be pro-life then?
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https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/05/blues-clues-pride-month-sing-along-features-drag-queens-transgender-children-video/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/06/watch-nickelodeon-releases-video-creepy-drag-queen-pushing-black-power-fist-trans-flag-kids/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/chicago-lutheran-church-hosts-drag-queen-prayer-hour-children-video/
What of this, Doug?
-
Certain letter(s) of the LGBTQ grouping will be more attracted to the GOP message than others.
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https://nypost.com/2022/01/20/what-the-gop-should-run-on-in-the-midterm-elections/
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good suggestions from VDH
I would add to #7 reducing the national debt
Gingrich was on ?last night and spoke of suggesting same idea of new contract
watch hillary come out with a counter...............
and try to steal the thunder
a la clintonesque
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Wash Post today
The GOP is either coming together around a new and extraordinary consensus. Or it is coming apart at the seams. Take your pick. Both are true.
Recent debates among GOP candidates for governor and the Senate in Arizona, governor in Minnesota and Senate in Ohio confirmed what Virginia’s elections in November had suggested: center-right voters in red America are as energized as ever. In moderating the four forums, I’ve found the large crowds as informative as the candidates. And the messages they’re sending have revealed much about the GOP in 2022: It is divided, but not in the way Manhattan-Beltway media believe.
Opinions to start the day, in your inbox. Sign up.
The biggest divide can be called “insurgent wing” vs. “establishment wing,” but that’s only one fault line within the GOP. A chasm separates the Republicans — including former president Donald Trump — who eagerly got the vaccine and booster shot as soon as they were available and those who think there is a sinister underbelly of misinformation and power accumulation to the entire coronavirus prevention campaign.
Another deep fault line concerns the 2020 election. Many Republican primary voters believe President Biden’s win is tainted, thinking the election deeply troubled by sudden rules innovations brought on by covid-19 as well as ham-handed outside actors. This group suspects that the $400 million Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated to local election offices delivered Biden’s win via boosted turnout. (“How Private Money From Facebook’s CEO Saved The 2020 Election” is the way NPR framed the donations; those GOP voters — hardly fans of NPR — agree with that framing.) A subset of the “election objectors” mistakenly think material fraud occurred in enough states to have awarded the election to the former president. A smaller group, also mistakenly, thinks former vice president Mike Pence could have set aside the election results.
On foreign policy, there’s another huge split. On one end are peace-through-strength voters who want to reopen Bagram air base in Afghanistan and who believe that America’s commitment to the defense of Taiwan includes, if necessary, American submarines sinking Chinese ships headed toward the island. On the other end, a reborn isolationist wing — stronger than at any time since before World War II — is stirring and organizing.
But despite these gulfs, there is much that unites Republican voters. They care almost nothing about allegations of voter suppression from the left. And while the people who rioted and invaded the Capitol last year need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, the Jan. 6 select committee is a kangaroo court in the eyes of GOP voters, and that will never change.
Three key areas of agreement, around which successful Republican candidates will organize their campaigns, are the wholesale failure of public schools during the pandemic — including teachers unions run amok — and thus the need for school choice; the “breakup of Big Tech,” which means different things to different people but which elicits cheers; and the need for combativeness among candidates assailed by mainstream media, the reputation of which has never been lower on the center-right. Finally, there is a near complete consensus that Trump set the standard for naming judges by nominating only proven originalists. The fruits of that stance are evident, with the Second Amendment safe from threats and Roe v. Wade possibly overturned by July Fourth. Gubernatorial hopefuls and would-be presidents should follow that example.
GOP candidates can go (and some have gone) too far in rhetorical flourishes about 2020, Biden and liberal elites. But the party’s voters have much forgiveness for missteps. The GOP’s divides pale next to stark clarity about the two tribes in America — red and blue. As midterms approach, the excitement is with red, not blue.
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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/defcon-1-moment-new-spanish-language-conservative-network-fuels-fresh-rcna18704?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma
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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/defcon-1-moment-new-spanish-language-conservative-network-fuels-fresh-rcna18704?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma
Good news! Some of the replacement population flooding in might vote with us!
YAY!
-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3UTluKHJro&t=130s
-
The man bears watching , , ,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc3Q6GtbeFM
-
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/more-than-1-million-voters-switch-registration-gop-suburbs-break-biden?fbclid=IwAR3lRPeNoxmOiz6Owfgd7sGK-6lmn5YSAVKWoq14Ex2YxatvEpEpq5aTSJk
-
What is the GOP’s election platform?
Absence of stated policy preferences hurts voters, party and republic
The inability or unwillingness of the Republican Party over the last few years to clarify its intentions with respect to policy has, rightly, damaged the party’s chances to take control of the federal legislative branch in this election cycle. This failure has led to a number of pathologies, the most immediate of which is the creation of the vacuum that has allowed both former President Donald Trump to loiter in everyone’s head and voters to forget (hopefully temporarily) how truly inept and disastrous Team Biden has been.
If you are an elected official nowadays and not talking about issues or achievements, you are invariably responding to the trivia of the day; or, worse, trailing along in the wake of the former president, or, even worse, responding to whatever nonsense the Democrats want to talk about.
The absence of policies and ideas also opens the door for the other side to define and identify their opponents. We’ve seen that this cycle as the vacuum created by congressional Republicans’ aversion to alerting voters about what they intend to do if given partial control of government has allowed the Democrats to define the Republicans and, consequently, now match them in voter enthusiasm.
A focus on policy is also essential to wave elections, in large measure because it helps to frame individual campaigns as part of a national narrative. That especially helps weaker candidates. If Mehmet Oz had some material policies to talk about, he would likely be talking about them instead of raw vegetables or getting drawn into Twitter conversations about how many houses he owns.
Similarly, Herschel Walker would at least have a fighting chance of speaking in public without damaging himself. Candidates like Blake Masters in Arizona and J.D. Vance in Ohio would be able to talk at some length about nationally important issues and policies rather than riff on their general theories about the world.
In short, an emphasis on policy helps keep candidates away from trouble.
The other thing that policy ideas do is acknowledge that work remains to be done. We have not heard much about the border wall in this campaign, despite the fact that the southern border has essentially vanished under Team Biden. Nor have we heard much about the Obamacare subsidies to the wealthy, despite the fact that they were the main impetus behind the disastrous, economically destructive reconciliation. Nor has there been much talk about defunding Planned Parenthood.
Republican candidates have been acting as if the last time they were given the majority they left no element of the agenda undone. Everyone knows that to be inaccurate, and current candidates’ failure to acknowledge previous failures does not instill confidence among voters that previous errors will be corrected.
An emphasis on policies and proposals also strengthens confidence in representative government and is healthy for the republic and its citizens. When voters are told what the candidates are going to try to do if elected, they are better able to decide between candidates. Even if the choice in question is simply framed as avoiding the disastrous policies of the incumbent, at least there is clarity. Such emphasis helps everyone stay focused on the actual purposes of government — advancing the longterm interests of the nation and its citizens — and helps avoid campaigns devolving into candidate self-aggrandizement and ego-gratification.
Campaigns are always about something — the incumbent, the mood of the country, the disastrous economy, whatever. Talking about policies is smart because it helps keep voters focused on material (rather than trivial or cosmetic) differences. It keeps the conversation focused on those topics your side would rather talk about (for the Republicans, that would have to be the economy, inflation, energy prices and the disaster in Afghanistan). By denying them room to maneuver, it precludes your opponents from shifting to topics more favorable to them.
Despite all this, the Republican party, with fewer than 80 days remaining in this cycle, has failed to produce any sort of policy documents or indication of what sorts of things they may attempt to do if given the majority in the House or Senate. That should not come as surprise, given that this same party failed to produce a platform during the presidential election cycle of 2020.
That’s a very serious problem, one that can’t be explained and should not be ignored.
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https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2022/08/29/republicans-desperately-need-an-agenda-n2612316
I suspect they are holding back the "new contract with America"
to keep the Dems from stealing the best ideas
a la BJClinton
with an adoring media willing to pretend all along that is part of their platform
otherwise I have no clue why we can't make a firm policy
instead of infighting over TRUM P for Godsakes
amazing we see McCarthy frequently on air
I can not remember the last time we saw McConnell preaching
DC Mitch with grifter wife ...... for all we know she is CCP spy.......
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The people who take children to give lap dances to drag queens aren’t interested in winning over votes.
It’s all about stealing elections and targeting dissidents from here on out.
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2022/08/29/republicans-desperately-need-an-agenda-n2612316
I suspect they are holding back the "new contract with America"
to keep the Dems from stealing the best ideas
a la BJClinton
with an adoring media willing to pretend all along that is part of their platform
otherwise I have no clue why we can't make a firm policy
instead of infighting over TRUM P for Godsakes
amazing we see McCarthy frequently on air
I can not remember the last time we saw McConnell preaching
DC Mitch with grifter wife ...... for all we know she is CCP spy.......
-
playing right into the hands of the Crats:
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/ben-shapiro-says-republicans-cruising-161752419.html
exactly!
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playing right into the hands of the Crats:
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/ben-shapiro-says-republicans-cruising-161752419.html
exactly!
Trump is the problem, not a weaponized DOJ/FBI. Not massive vote fraud
-
"Trump is the problem, not a weaponized DOJ/FBI. Not massive vote fraud"
Trump IS a big problem
YES.
He can't get 50 % approval, ever.
yes that is a problem
He cost us the Senate in '20 and may very well in '22.
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"Trump is the problem, not a weaponized DOJ/FBI. Not massive vote fraud"
Trump IS a big problem
YES.
He can't get 50 % approval, ever.
yes that is a problem
He cost us the Senate in '20 and may very well in '22.
Vote fraud cost us the senate, not that it really matters.
Remember when Romney was going to put black people back in chains?
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"Trump is the problem, not a weaponized DOJ/FBI. Not massive vote fraud"
Trump IS a big problem
YES.
He can't get 50 % approval, ever.
yes that is a problem
He cost us the Senate in '20 and may very well in '22.
Vote fraud cost us the senate, not that it really matters.
Remember when Romney was going to put black people back in chains?
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/124572-romney-campaign-tells-obama-to-rein-in-his-supporters-on-nazi-comments/amp/
-
you provide
straw man arguments
I point trump could not get over 50 % and you bring up a different topic - cheating
to my knowledge he never got over 50% in any poll
with all due respect did you see this:
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/fbi-election-interference/2022/08/29/id/1085063/
aw come on
this stuff is retarded.....
already
train left yrs ago
on this ....
not that he is wrong but this won't help conservatives win the Senate .....
-
What did the polls say when he beat Hillary?
They’d never lie to us or rig the elections!
you provide
straw man arguments
I point trump could not get over 50 % and you bring up a different topic - cheating
to my knowledge he never got over 50% in any poll
with all due respect did you see this:
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/fbi-election-interference/2022/08/29/id/1085063/
aw come on
this stuff is retarded.....
already
train left yrs ago
on this ....
not that he is wrong but this won't help conservatives win the Senate .....
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I much dislike sentences that begin “Polls have shown . . .” Still, but, yet, nevertheless and however, polls have shown that the confidence Republicans earlier felt in the forthcoming midterm triumphs may not be justified. The gain in House seats is now predicted to be less than expected and hopes for a Republican Senate majority dimmer than a few months ago. Among the causes of this are the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which is said to have roused many women against the Republicans; the poor quality of the current batch of Republican candidates; and the division within the party between pro- and anti-Trumpers. But I wonder if something deeper isn’t in play.
I wonder if the problem isn’t inherent in our political parties, at least in their current propensities. Here the Democrats feature the particular, the Republicans the general. Democrats are for, among other things, fighting climate change, eliminating student debt, taxing corporations more heavily; the Republicans, among other things, are for entrepreneurship, laissez-faire economics, strict construction of the Constitution. With their specific programs, the Democrats seem always on the political offensive; with their general principles, the Republicans on the defensive, seeing it as their chief task to block costly Democratic bills and other attempts at radical change. The best offense is a good defense, or so it is often said in football and other sports; it is less certain that this is so in politics.
Can one hope to win elections based on general principles instead of particular policies and programs? What the Republicans had going for them in the midterms was opposition to inflation, the obvious madness (and sadness) of our open southern border, the crime openly rampant in big-city streets, the wobbly foreign policy of an American president who in this realm and others seems well over his head. However worthy of attack these things are, they leave the Republicans in the respectable but limited position of loyal opposition. What, apart from this opposition, does the party stand for that American voters can get behind in the passionate way that wins elections?
The lack of positive policies or programs leaves Republicans open to the old argument that the party stands for little more than the defense of rich and the maintenance of the status quo. In this scheme—or, as we say nowadays, narrative—the Democrats stand for progress, they are the party of the people, holding the torch of social justice high, while the Republicans stand for regress, the continual enrichment of the 1%, a deep insensitivity to injustice and suffering.
In time not for the midterms but surely for the 2024 presidential elections, it would be of great aid to the Republicans if they were to formulate and promote some significant policies and programs. This might begin with a sound immigration policy that also dealt justly with the so-called Dreamers, the children born to illegal immigrants and raised in this country. How useful it would be if the party looked into the reasons for the escalating cost of higher education and devised better policies than those that now travel under the wasteful banner of “diversity, equity and inclusion.” Instead of being against all economic regulation, why can’t Republicans stand for sensible regulation? Rather than denying climate change, Republicans might get serious about a solution that doesn’t simultaneously cripple the economy and diminish the general quality of life. The party could also unapologetically take up the law-and-order mantle in a way that Democrats, lest they be thought racist, have obviously been nervous about doing.
If Republicans were to promote policies and programs formed from their principles, it would have the not-trivial benefit of putting give-and-take back at the heart of the two-party system. A politics that encouraged the parties to argue over rivaling ideas would invite the intelligent participation of a great number of Americans. The rancor and division that has been the main feature of our politics over the past decades would fade. This might not, as the man said, make America great again, but it would make our politics a hell of a lot more sensible.
Mr. Epstein is author, most recently, of “Gallimaufry: A Collection of Essays, Reviews, Bits.”
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https://www.theepochtimes.com/gop-to-immediately-repeal-hiring-of-87000-irs-agents-if-republicans-flip-house-mccarthy_4750509.html?utm_source=Goodevening&src_src=Goodevening&utm_campaign=gv-2022-09-23&utm_medium=email&est=ovButryFdaMzQ5CvV%2BsUax1h46pqgi6eR25LNwZ%2F1ihMjphqUe29z2%2FmTGySFg6xac6e
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Right after they repeal Obamacare!
:roll:
https://www.theepochtimes.com/gop-to-immediately-repeal-hiring-of-87000-irs-agents-if-republicans-flip-house-mccarthy_4750509.html?utm_source=Goodevening&src_src=Goodevening&utm_campaign=gv-2022-09-23&utm_medium=email&est=ovButryFdaMzQ5CvV%2BsUax1h46pqgi6eR25LNwZ%2F1ihMjphqUe29z2%2FmTGySFg6xac6e
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A fair zinger, but OTOH getting rid of Obamacare would have required real legislative work and here all that is needed is just denying the money.
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A fair zinger, but OTOH getting rid of Obamacare would have required real legislative work and here all that is needed is just denying the money.
The Romney/NRO wing will help the Dems defeat it.
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Romney's capacity and his willingess to be a cunt is never to be underestimated, but I disagree completely with the idea that the NRO folks would not be with us on this.
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Romney's capacity and his willingess to be a cunt is never to be underestimated, but I disagree completely with the idea that the NRO folks would not be with us on this.
NRO is Never Trump - RINO to the core.
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trying to find Kevin McCarthy's promises contract
but only Leftist websites show anything about it
tried his web page and do not see
anyone find not MSM BS reporting of it?
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Judiciary adviser gets fuel to fight wokeness
$1.6 billion donation worries liberals
BY STEPHEN DINAN AND ALEX SWOYER THE WASHINGTON TIMES
He helped reshape the Supreme Court. Now Leonard Leo, a driving force behind President Trump’s judicial selections, is taking aim at broader culture war battles over “woke” politics.
And he’s sitting on a pile of cash to get it done.
Mr. Leo’s Marble Freedom Trust received what is thought to be the largest gift in political history: a $1.6 billion donation from Chicago businessman Barre Seid. The money, first reported by The New York Times this summer, has sent shock waves through liberal activists while conservatives rush to work up proposals to try to get in on Mr. Leo’s action.
Mr. Leo said he is eager to see what he can do beyond the courtroom.
“The conservative legal movement has had significant impact on our legal culture, resulting in a much greater level of adherence to the Constitution and traditional legal principles,” Mr. Leo told The Washington Times in a statement. “I am hopeful that the infrastructure and talent networks we are building now will have similar impact in other areas of American life, well beyond just the law.”
Mr. Leo spent nearly three decades helming The Federalist Society, a right- of- center group that bills itself as a forum for debating the big legal questions of the day. Critics say it’s at the heart of a rightward drift in federal courts. He took a leave of absence to work with the Bush administration to win confirmation of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and then worked first with candidate Donald Trump and later President Trump to shape his judicial picks.
He helped Mr. Trump craft the list of potential judicial nominees that the campaign released in 2016, solidifying pro-life and other conservative supporters and helping propel the political newcomer to an improbable White House victory.
Mr. Leo then assisted as Mr. Trump installed three high court justices and filled lower courts with dozens of conservatives — many of them Federalist Society members.
That record of success has far-left activists worried about what Mr. Leo might do with more than $1 billion at his disposal.
Elliot Mincberg, a senior fellow with People for the American Way, disagrees with Mr. Leo on policy but said he has been an “incredibly influential political figure.”
“Well recognized, but quiet power — and I think that’s what he’s been able to achieve,” Mr. Mincberg said. “It’s an enormous accomplishment for Leo, I have to acknowledge that.”
Meanwhile, a conservative operative said Mr. Leo has been besieged with requests from right-of-center groups eager to tap into Marble Freedom Trust’s new deep pockets.
Conservative activists are excited for an influx of cash to help counter billionaire liberal funders such as George Soros, who has influenced political discourse in the U.S. by funding liberal organizations with millions of dollars to support leftwing Democrats.
Not all are praising Mr. Leo. One said he “monopolizes” money and is making the conservative movement stagnant.
Few public details are available about Marble Freedom Trust, thanks in part to its organization as a trust rather than a corporation.
Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said Mr. Leo likes to work behind the scenes so as not to be “the story.”
“He operates not to get himself personal recognition or attention, but to have impact,” Mr. Shapiro said. “He’s friendly, he’s smart, he’s effective.”
It’s that combination of low profile and exceptional success that has liberal activists worried.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has long dogged The Federalist Society and Mr. Leo with accusations of impropriety over so-called dark money — funds that make their way into political activism and advocacy without going through the full disclosure strictures that apply to campaign money.
After news of the Marble Freedom Trust’s cash windfall broke, the Rhode Island Democrat expressed fear at Mr. Leo’s new reach.
“Leo’s dark-money web funds voter suppression and disinformation, bogus arguments about ‘critical race theory,’ and attacks on President Biden’s nominees. Expect to see a whole lot more of that now,” Mr. Whitehouse said in a post on Twitter.
Accountable.US, which bills itself as a nonpartisan watchdog group, also has a pointed focus on Mr. Leo’s finances.
It issued a report this month showing a dozen groups that have benefited from Mr. Leo’s deep pockets. The group said its report is part of a new project to monitor influence and “to uncover the relationships between powerful rightwing organizations and the influential mega-donors who fund them.”
“As the country braces for the start of yet another perilously uncertain Supreme Court term, Leonard Leo and his ultra-wealthy funders who’ve invested billions into his network of right-wing fringe groups eagerly await the return on their investments — high court decisions that erode our democracy and favor the privileged few over everyday Americans,” said Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US. “We cannot allow Leo’s groups to dictate public policy from the shadows.”
The complaints are nothing new for Mr. Leo. The New York Times said he had a hand in more than half a billion dollars in politically charged activities from 2015 to 2021.
The Honest Elections Project is part of Mr. Leo’s advocacy grapevine and is involved in the high court’s Moore v. Harper case, which is set to be heard in December.
The case involves an election challenge in North Carolina, where a state court struck down the congressional map that lawmakers drew. The Republican- controlled legislature says state courts should butt out. They point to a clause in the Constitution that says the “times, places and manner” of electing members of Congress “shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.”
The Honest Elections Project filed a brief with the Supreme Court, supporting the North Carolina Republican lawmakers’ arguments.
Other groups within Mr. Leo’s network include the Judicial Crisis Network and The 85 Fund, CRC Advisors and the BH Group, which are conservative public relations and consulting organizations.
Consumers’ Research, which has helped lead efforts against “environmental, social, governance” initiatives aimed at green corporate policies, is also part of Mr. Leo’s affiliation.
Marble Freedom Trust is expected to support outfits battling critical race theory and the spread of “woke” culture in business and politics. Groups that get cash are likely to span a range of activism, including hosting events, running ads and battling in the media.
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Midterms Are a Time for Choosing for Republicans
Nearly six decades later, the GOP is divided and Ronald Reagan’s famous speech still resonates.
By Dan Crenshaw
Oct. 27, 2022 1:05 pm ET
Ronald Reagan gave his famous speech “A Time For Choosing” a week before Election Day 1964. Nearly six decades later, the speech remains relevant, and the parallels to the circumstances we face today are striking. The battles against big government and Marxist do-gooders have changed only in the sense that they have intensified. Americans are still debating our role in the world—even as war rages in Europe. We are uncertain of our future, as we were then.
Reagan decried a bloated welfare state, a militant tax-and-spending regime in Washington, and the blatant bribing of Americans with their own tax dollars for their votes. Full Democratic control of Washington over the past two years has produced the kind of government Reagan could have imagined only in a fever dream. The inflationary Inflation Reduction Act and the unconstitutional forgiveness of student loans via executive fiat were shameless attempts to buy votes before a midterm election.
The choice before Americans next month is simple. Will we sell our votes to politicians promising us prosperity if only we give them more of our money? Will we choose to be free—acknowledging the risks and challenges that inevitably accompany freedom—or will we choose to be dependent? Will we, as Reagan said, “believe in our capacity for self-government, or abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves”?
As Republicans, we believe in the challenge of freedom and individual responsibility. We affirm, as the Founders did, that prosperity and innovation and greatness are born from free enterprise, and that the government exists to protect that freedom, not diminish it. The good news is that polling indicates most Americans agree. This election may well be a referendum on the kind of governance Reagan warned us about decades ago.
But it is also a time for choosing for conservatives. We have to choose how we will fight for the great vision that Reagan articulated.
The right is divided these days, which is odd, considering that by any measure there are fewer ideological and policy differences within the Republican Party than ever. Yet factions persist. The divisions are becoming more severe and more toxic. Some in our movement insist on sorting themselves into labels: populists, nationalists, MAGA, mainstream—but without any real clue as to what ideas separate these groups. These groupings function more like grade-school cliques than serious political divisions. They are about style over substance.
These divisions are manufactured by opportunists—mostly online and on television—who can’t string a sentence together about serious public policy but are quick to label anyone and everyone a “RINO” or “establishment sell-out.”
These are the people who say they fight for the conservative movement but in reality only fight for attention, fundraising dollars, clicks and views. They know that Americans have been conditioned to be attentive to Kardashian-like drama, and so they serve it up in our political arena. It’s unhealthy, and we have to stop rewarding it. It makes us seem bitter, unserious and unlikable.
To beat the increasingly radical left, we have to unite, and we have to fight to win. In politics, you win only when you’re persuading those who disagree with you.
This is the choice before conservatives: Will we be happy warriors or furious flame throwers? When we communicate, will we persuade? Or will we serve up a limited menu of red meat? Will we succumb to our grievances and bitterness as the left advances, take the bait they’ve set for us, and become the caricatures they want us to be? Will we do the hard work, play the long game, win majorities and sustain them, in order to implement policy?
I would rather we follow the electoral success of President Reagan, achieved not through grievance but through inspiration. We may win this one election off the coattails of the other side’s seemingly endless incompetence. But we will win the next 10 elections with inspiration, with vision and with the time-tested principles that Reagan defended so well.
That is the choice before us. Let us choose wisely.
Mr. Crenshaw, a Republican, represents Texas’ Second Congressional District
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if he is speaker ?
https://republicbrief.com/breaking-gop-drops-bombshell-1000-page-report-on-fbi-corruption/
or Keven McCarthy:
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3712764-mccarthy-says-hes-better-prepared-for-speakers-gavel-than-in-past/
Kevin has been doing a great job as far as I can tell and I like what he has been saying
(since his being on record as stating Benghazi was a political charade or something to that effect. :-o
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memo will go out to call this the ***McCarthy*** hearings [redux]
https://spectator.org/hard-of-hearings-2/
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A Governing Agenda for Senate Republicans
If the GOP gains the majority, the American people won’t settle for business-as-usual.
By Ron Johnson
Nov. 9, 2022 6:29 pm ET
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The U.S. Capitol.
PHOTO: JOSHUA ROBERTS/REUTERS
I was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, and have now been elected for a third term. The dysfunction I witnessed over the past 12 years made me reluctant to run again. But I pledged to myself that should I win re-election, I would do everything I could to return function and fiscal sanity to Washington.
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Unfortunately, the red wave Republicans hoped for didn’t materialize. It makes you wonder how bad things have to get before voters reject the Democratic policies responsible for so much destruction. Massive, out-of-control deficit spending sparked 40-year-high inflation. The war on fossil fuels has produced record prices, which also contributed to inflation. Radical progressive policies have caused crime to skyrocket, and President Biden’s open border has resulted in a flood of illegal immigrants and deadly drugs.
Republicans campaigned against these failed policies and vowed to reverse them. With Mr. Biden still in the White House and Senate control still in doubt, accomplishing that will be difficult. But the American people expect results. If Republicans gain the Senate majority, allowing the current dysfunction to continue won’t be an option.
If we gain majorities in both chambers, at a minimum we can bring greater function and regular order back to Congress. Rank-and-file members should vote only for leaders who commit to passing a budget that drives a fiscally conservative appropriation process. Ideally, we can find sufficient budget cuts and rescissions from the Democrats’ massive spending bills to produce a balanced budget. If not, the debt ceiling will have to be increased, but only with other legislation attached that will minimize the need for future increases.
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I have four bills in mind: the Prevent Government Shutdown Act, the Full Faith and Credit Act, the Reins Act (an acronym for Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny) and the Reducing the Size of the Federal Government Through Attrition Act. Collectively, these bills would help control the size, scope and cost of the federal government.
Senate Republican Conference rules require us to adopt an official legislative agenda. In my 12 years in the Senate, this has never occurred. Again, members should vote only for leaders who commit to both adopting the required agenda and fully involving the conference in its development. I suggest two agendas, one for the next two years under a Democratic president, and a four-year agenda that can be adopted by Republican presidential and congressional candidates running in 2024.
A few basic principles should apply to both agendas. On the discretionary side of the budget, other than national defense, don’t consider any bill that would increase the size, scope or cost of the federal government. Instead, focus congressional attention on oversight of existing programs to determine which should be reformed, reduced or eliminated. Concentrate on areas of the budget that have the greatest negative effect on freedom, our economy and people’s lives.
The four-year agenda would assume Republican control of both chambers of Congress and the White House. It would prioritize reversing the damage done during the Biden administration and re-establishing constitutional balance. Unlike 2017, Republicans must be fully prepared should voters give us the opportunity to govern.
The agenda items should be obvious: secure the border, regain energy independence, restore fiscal sanity, ease the regulatory burden, and ensure a competitive tax environment.
Having an open and transparent process for development of the agenda will be crucial to gaining the conference’s support. The devil will be in the details, and we must have the substantive policy proposals supporting each agenda item. Empty political rhetoric won’t be acceptable. Once the agenda is completed, explaining and selling our policy proposals to the public is essential. Expectations will probably exceed what is possible with a Democratic administration in power, so underpromising and overdelivering is the prudent approach.
My sense is that Republicans will be on a short leash with the general public—and this definitely includes our supporters. We should fully expect to be held accountable in 2024 if we don’t deliver on our promises.
Conservatives understand the peril the country is in. They know how difficult it will be for Republicans to work with the socialist ideologues who set the Democratic Party’s agenda. But that sympathy will have its limits, particularly if Republicans return to business as usual. We simply can’t let that happen.
Mr. Johnson, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from Wisconsin.
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I see this Senator Cotton on cable
and admit he is not electrifying or entertaining
and have not listened to him because he just comes on Hannity to speak the soundbites
but I listened to him during the Megan Kelly Podcast which is often quite good:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxQKTUDVHEbQ9beJqUbqF99DD3gXBb_3u
and I have to say he comes off as brilliant.
Not sure if he could cross over appeal though to independents .
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He has my attention as well. That said, I too do not sense him reaching outside the Republican minded parts of the population.
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https://dailycaller.com/2022/11/27/opinion-money-winning-elections-corey-lewandowski/?utm_medium=email&pnespid=tql3EX1fabxG3viQuy3pHIqduRisU8otMfSh2.FyoQNmgxv5s2HM2dq_BfbQKz8De5wQkVnA
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https://dailycaller.com/2022/11/27/opinion-money-winning-elections-corey-lewandowski/?utm_medium=email&pnespid=tql3EX1fabxG3viQuy3pHIqduRisU8otMfSh2.FyoQNmgxv5s2HM2dq_BfbQKz8De5wQkVnA
"It’s about messaging and reminding the American people of what the Republican party stands for — lower taxes, less regulation and personal freedom."
- I didn't hear much about that. Does anyone recall what was in this year's contract with America, or even what it was called?
"the general disdain from the mainstream media against Republicans factor into election outcomes as well."
- The "MSM" is WAY more than newspapers and network news these days.
"It’s easy, and lazy to blame former President Donald Trump. He’s the media’s easy target. They blame him for endorsing the “wrong” candidates, not spending enough of his money to help get them across the finish line, for not campaigning hard enough, etc., etc., etc."
- He (Trump) wanted credit for the win. He gets the central blame for the loss. He picked these candidates and he did not go all in with his money or successful messaging.
Trump wanted to win primaries. We want to win the Presidency, House and Senate, and the direction of the country, all headed in the wrong direction. He 'won' and we lost.
All this 'hindsight', but the elections are not over. We are still losing in Georgia. Where is our message there?
After a season like this, the coach or manager (Trump) gets fired.
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"After a season like this, the coach or manager (Trump) gets fired.
yes
I don't believe there are still blind loyalists left to get him elected
Most Republicans are done with him
That said I am worried he will run anyway
and bring us all down with him
Isn't that what narcissists do?
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MAGA is not the way forward - for two reasons:
Make America Great Again is backward looking. Opponents ask, when was America great? At the Founding when slavery did not get settled. After the Civil War when women still couldn't vote? In the 1950s when women were mostly staying home? In the 1980s or 1990s when gays could not marry? Do we want to re-argue any of those?
The answer, politically and necessarily, is to take all that is great from our past and paint a successful vision of how that fits into our future.
The other backward aspect of "MAGA" is that it points back to one person, Trump. He had a miraculous win in 2016 and three years of amazing accomplishments, but he left office a loser and a net negative on the public perception of the Republican Party.
Ask 100 voters this, when you think of Trump, do you think of his many significant accomplishments as President? Do you think of lower taxes, less regulation and greater freedom? Or do you think of his (flawed) personality?
Compare Trump to Reagan, the gold standard of modern American freedom. Look at the debates and look at the results in their reelection efforts. Instead of playing the part of a successful incumbent President, Trump was a complete insecure imbecile in his first debate with Biden, interrupting constantly and acting surprised the 'moderator' was partisan and against him. In the same circumstance, Reagan quietly and confidently waited his turn and then knocked it out of the park as he answered the main concern of his reelection. Trump thinks he was cheated while losing the last three states by only 40k combined votes. Reagan won 49 states, none of them particularly close.
Over the next two years, we aren't winning by looking backward, and certainly not winning by being the party of Trump. That ship sailed.
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"After a season like this, the coach or manager (Trump) gets fired.
yes
I don't believe there are still (enough) blind loyalists left to get him elected
Most Republicans are done with him
That said I am worried he will run anyway
and bring us all down with him
Isn't that what narcissists do?
Right. He is running, and dropping out is not in his nature.
He has enough loyalists to mess up the primaries in a wide field, but not enough to ever be elected again.
We need a primary before the primary - to determine which singular Republican runs against Trump in the primaries.
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good points about Maga
and how the LEFt (successfully apparently ) uses the label as.a club for all Republicans who are not Rinos
MSM -->
Maga = haters
Woke = lovers
I guess
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/11/29/rnc-launches-review-of-lousy-gop-midterm-results/
RNC chair has an Uncle Mitt :-o :-o :-o
I had no idea:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronna_McDaniel
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A Credible Conservative Warrior Emerges to Lead the RNC
If heads do not roll after the disastrous 2024 midterms, it will show that the Republican Party is not serious about putting America First.
By Gavin Wax
December 9, 2022
After the 2022 midterm elections and the failure of the “red wave” to materialize, the conservative base wants RINO scalps while the establishment wants to blame Trump. The battle for the party’s soul is no more apparent than in the leadership battle at the Republican National Committee.
There have been several interesting suggestions for RNC chairman. Lee Zeldin, the candidate for governor in New York who made a strong showing by going on the offense against far-left Democrats; Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder who has become an election fraud crusader following the 2020 presidential fraud; and Scott Presler, the grassroots community organizer who has registered thousands of Republicans on the ground around the country.
But one stands out above the rest: conservative civil rights attorney and California RNC committeewoman Harmeet K. Dhillon.
Dhillon’s record makes her uniquely qualified for the position. She is intimately aware of crucial America First issues and has her finger on the pulse of the movement. There is a wide variety of high-profile cases that Dhillon’s firm has taken on that have national ramifications for defending constitutional freedom.
Years ago, Dhillon took up a case of viewpoint discrimination initiated by Big Tech giant Google against an attorney who brought up legitimate concerns about bias in the workplace. This was long before the issue was on the radar of most conservatives, who were slavishly devoted to the free market. She remains active in fighting against tech censorship, but her work on culture war issues has gained recent acclaim.
Dhillon has taken up the cause of parental rights. She is suing a school district and two teachers on behalf of a mother whose daughter was groomed into transgenderism without her knowledge or consent. While the GOP folds on moral issues, Dhillon is emboldened to defend the values that bind America together. This is the type of leadership that will rally the base and incentivize party unity, which is essential during a time of unprecedented division and confusion.
Dhillon is the gold standard for conservative lawsuits in an age when disreputable attorneys regularly use cases as ways to bolster their public persona or as a quick grift. Dhillon, in contrast, is taken seriously in the courtroom and has a strong track record of success.
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Liberals have been able to project political power through lawfare in recent years or through legal threats or activities designed to enforce their political agenda. Dhillon has been a pioneer in the conservative antidote to lawfare, showing leftist extremists that they will pay the price for their overreaches even if weak-kneed government officials refuse to take action.
As a personnel manager, Dhillon is demonstrating that she understands the stakes. She has floated the idea of hiring Presler to handle voter outreach for the RNC “to inspire and train our ground forces on voter registration and getting every ballot to the ballot box by all legal means.” She is unconcerned with the good ol’ boys club of Republican consultants who would usually box out someone as impressive and unflinching as Presler because he might upstage or overshadow them. She will drain the RNC swamp, something that is long overdue, building upon improvements made with the election of America First committee members throughout the country who have censured soon-to-be-former Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).
Dhillon’s record is second-to-none. But what about current Chairman Ronna McDaniel’s record? McDaniel became RNC chairman after hogging the credit for an unexpected Trump victory in Michigan, where she served as Michigan Republican Party chairman in 2016. This allowed her ascend to the top of the Republican National Committee, where she has overseen failure after spectacular failure. Before it became a political liability, she was widely known as Ronna Romney McDaniel. As Mitt Romney’s niece, she used nepotism to become a favorite of the Republican establishment in Michigan, where Mitt’s father, George, started the Romney political dynasty when he was governor in the 1960s.
McDaniel is the ultimate political chameleon, using Romney’s bona fides to claim an unearned position of authority but reinventing herself as a Trump Republican when that suited her ambitions. Although she masquerades as a Trump ally now, it is clear she has brought the baggage of the establishment with her. The RNC under her control has failed time and again. In the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election, the RNC failed to mount adequate legal challenges to stop the grotesque fraud that was obviously in the works. The attorneys hired by McDaniel were busy collecting their paychecks and twiddling their thumbs while the nation was stolen out from under us. After the election, McDaniel was able to raise tons of money to “stop the steal” but that money also disappeared into the pockets of attorneys, consultants, grifters, and hangers-on.
If there is anyone who is equipped to handle legal challenges in a professional, intelligent, and credible manner who can change election laws and protect voter integrity when it counts, it is Dhillon. She has a record showing that she can fight and win in these high-profile cases. This is the type of competent, forward-thinking professional needed to lead the RNC to prevent another disaster from happening in 2024. If heads do not roll after the disastrous 2024 midterms, it will show that the Republican Party is not serious about putting America First. Getting rid of McDaniel, and cleaning the RNC of the foul stain of Romney’s legacy, would be an admirable start.
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https://amgreatness.com/2022/12/11/dead-dogs-and-licked-boots/
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https://amgreatness.com/2022/12/18/10-steps-to-save-america/
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VDH is a real blessing for America.
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https://thefederalist.com/2022/12/21/gop-cant-be-successful-until-mitch-mcconnell-is-gone/?fbclid=IwAR1HjgdyiDYmXkmhyWWg9EEYxkrCxIQfQ8fsBiKv1dnlkJL8KjSbjaNYCOA
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the only reason I can think of in ramming the giant omnibus through
is McConnel's recall that once before Republicans tried to hold the budget in effort
to reduce spending
AND THE MEDIA BASHED THEM DAY AND NIGHT
FOR "SHUTTING DOWN THE GOVERNMENT'
WITH ENDLESS TALK OF PEOPLE WILL NOT GET CHECKS SERVICES
ETC
AND MSM POLLS TELLING US HOW THE REPUBLICANS WERE THE ONES DAMAGING THE COUNTRY. contrary to reality
so perhaps with this in mind he feels that making concessions is better
I do not agree with him at all if this is the root explanation
but just trying to figure out why he wants to go against what real conservatives want
As I mentioned before
WHY CAN'T WE GET A SENATE LEADER WE ACTUALLY WANT
NOT THE ONE THE DC SWAMP WANTS!!!
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promoting how great our/her ground game is :
https://townhall.com/columnists/ronnamcdaniel/2022/12/23/the-rncs-infrastructure-is-built-to-gotv-n2617463
me:
:roll:
What a bunch of BS
get rid of her
related Mittens
what could go wrong?
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/12/27/exclusive-conservatives-build-governing-machine-ready-2025/
seems like good idea
though not sure in reality it would work
as human nature - right or left - is the same -
and it will usually trump good ideological intentions
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some more detail about McDaniels and Dhillon:
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/01/06/the-race-for-the-rnc-chair-intensifies-a-close-look-at-both-candidates/
though after listening to this I am more confused then before.....
Dhillon sounds a bit more moderate
but then McDaniels has the repeat losing track record
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Yes, confusing. Based on what I've read, I would support the Challenger. If she's too moderate, then let's get a better Challenger. It ought to be somebody from the Florida Republican party.
There's no way the best answer is more of the same.
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Republicans first act is to try to repeal Democrats worst act. I'm impressed!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/house-republicans-pass-legislation-trying-to-block-new-irs-funding/ar-AA169y9C
House GOP Kicks Off Majority With Vote to Defund 87,000 IRS Agents
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https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2023/01/11/why-asians-has-fled-new-york-democrats-n2618147
Republicans should be courting Asians left and right (pun intended!)
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FWIW
since polls are only that: surveys
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2023/01/13/poll-do-gop-voters-want-house-republicans-to-work-with-democrats-or-focus-on-opposition-n2618086
I am surprised more are not in the opposition camp as I am
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There is some gray area between those two choices but the larger lesson is, our faction is roughly a half of a half of the electorate. Hating, dividing and beating up on those who differ in the approach is not how we grow the support. cf. Michael Young opinion piece on Governor Abbott.
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"Do repubs want compromise or opposition?"
YES.
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has some JFK like tones
but must not forget he is VIRULENT partisan democrat who should not let the bipartisan speak cover that up :
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2023/01/18/khanna-davos-is-more-of-the-problem-its-cosmopolitanism-for-elites-that-forgets-citizens/
I believe this is how the Dems , post Biden will try to posture in '24.
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https://dailycaller.com/2023/01/26/desantis-rnc-dhillon-mcdaniel/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking&pnespid=7bxgVyoaO.oY2PmRq2u.CZyPsB20UYJ1IvfgnvIy8RNmnm2mfLn8UcmpkQJmlslxzI07wHLR
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https://dailycaller.com/2023/01/26/desantis-rnc-dhillon-mcdaniel/?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking&pnespid=7bxgVyoaO.oY2PmRq2u.CZyPsB20UYJ1IvfgnvIy8RNmnm2mfLn8UcmpkQJmlslxzI07wHLR
Sounds good.
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anyone sign up for this:
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2023/02/06/youre-invited-to-a-very-special-event-that-i-may-or-may-not-survive-n1668324
like the Russians we can got rip roaring trashed - until its time to fight
it makes the observations of what the Left is doing more bearable
I recall reading in 'Young Stalin' that he grew up in a dirt poor tiny town .
The adults would get rip roaring drunk then go out onto the dirt streets and beat the hell out of each other for fun.
they would have made great stick fighters :-D
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The Reagan Republicans Take On the Putin Apologists
Left: Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee nomination hearing in Washington, D.C., May 5, 2020. Right: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) gestures as she speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla., February 26, 2022. (Andrew Harnik, Marco Bello/Reuters)
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By ROBERT ZUBRIN
February 19, 2023 6:30 AM
The battle for the soul of the GOP is joined.
The Biden administration’s foreign policy has been a disaster. By implementing former president Donald Trump’s plan to desert Afghanistan, President Biden not only delivered 20 million Afghan women and girls into Taliban slavery and handed control of Central Asia to the Russia–China axis, he sent a signal of weakness that invited anti-Western aggression everywhere. Within a month of America’s self-imposed rout from Kabul, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin began assembling forces to invade Ukraine.
Biden not only refused to deter Russian forces by sending arms to Ukraine, but he publicly assured Putin that the U.S. would not intervene if he attacked. Then, with the war underway, Biden decided to help Ukraine by sending arms, but only in limited numbers by the slowest means possible, with no training done in advance to prepare future options. With decisive combat pending this spring, the administration decided to send all of 30 Abrams tanks to Ukraine — but not even take them out of the thousands we have stationed right now on the continental U.S. Instead, new ones will be built, with delivery scheduled for next year. The administration could readily meet Ukraine’s desperate need for long-range missiles by sending 300-kilometer-range ATACMS, which pack a 500-pound-warhead punch, some 4,000 of which are available now. But instead, the administration has decided to send inferior GLSDB missiles, which offer half the punch and half the range, and which, most critically, have not yet been produced in quantity, and consequently won’t be available in time for the action. The administration also has stalled on delivering anti-aircraft defenses and still is refusing to provide Ukraine with the F-16 fighters it vitally needs.
Vladimir Putin says his invasion of Ukraine is a war against the Western alliance. Biden’s policy would let him win.
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Under ordinary circumstances, such fecklessness of a president to fulfill his most important duty would lead to political disaster. But Biden has been able to get away with it because many of the most vocal Republicans have attacked Biden’s weak efforts to defend the West against Putin as being too strong.
Leading the pack of Putin Republicans has been Trump himself, who has recited the Kremlin line that America forced Russia to invade, while publicly denouncing Biden’s decision to send even the pitiful tank reinforcement he has proposed. Following their leader, Putin Republicans in Congress, led by Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Matt Gaetz (Fla.), have called for stopping all U.S. arms shipments to Ukraine, a step that would guarantee a Kremlin victory. With such outright defeatists set up as his nominal opposition, any half-hearted measures that Biden might take to defend the West can only look superb by comparison.
But now, finally, the Reagan Republicans are speaking up. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on February 7, Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) attacked the Biden administration for its refusal to provide adequate arms to Ukraine. “The Ukrainians stood their ground and fought,” Cotton wrote. “Yet Mr. Biden has dragged his feet all along, hesitating fearfully to send the Ukrainians the weapons and intelligence they need to win. Today, Mr. Biden stubbornly refuses to provide fighter jets, cluster munitions and long-range missiles to Ukraine. As a result of Mr. Biden’s half-measures, Ukraine has only half-succeeded. We should back Ukraine to the hilt . . . We act to protect our vital national interests. That’s the case in Ukraine, and we deserve a strategy of victory to match.”
More on
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2024 Is Make or Break for the Senate GOP
Other Republican senators have joined the fray making similar points.
It’s true that for some time there has been a disconnect between the policy offered by the Reagan Republicans in the Senate and the Putin Republicans who, through their loud antics, have come to be regarded by many as representing the voice of the GOP in the House. But now, with former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley entering into direct contention against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, the issue can no longer be ducked.
Haley is a hard-line voice for Western victory in Ukraine. In an interview with Fox on February 15, Haley called for sending fighter jets to Ukraine and attacked Biden’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, for his defeatism. On February 16, she amplified this on NBC, saying, “This is not a war for Ukraine; this is a war for freedom. We need to give Ukraine everything they need to win.”
Haley’s clear stance on Ukraine elevates her challenge to Trump to a fight over fundamental issues. Likely candidate Ron DeSantis has been keeping silent on where he stands concerning Ukraine, but the job of the president is to serve as commander in chief, not supervisor of Disney World. If DeSantis is going to stand for anything, he will have to decide which side he is on. There can be no bridging the gap between the Reagan Republicans and the Putin Republicans. Nor is there any middle ground. The GOP can be the Party of Reagan or the Party of Putin. It can’t be both.
The Reagan Republicans now have a standard-bearer. Let the battle begin.
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"The Reagan Republicans now have a standard-bearer. Let the battle begin."
very interesting comparison
I don't quite see it.
Most today would compare her more to Romney or even McCain - A rino
OTOH would we call Reagan a rino today?
I like What Nikki has been saying lately - long way to go to convince me though
If the choice for Repubs was between Trump and her I would have to choose Trump .
Between her and Desantis - DeSantis .
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I will be paying attention to him #Vivek Ramaswamy
https://twitter.com/i/status/1628270281591513088 (https://twitter.com/i/status/1628270281591513088)
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I will be paying attention to him #Vivek Ramaswamy
https://twitter.com/i/status/1628270281591513088 (https://twitter.com/i/status/1628270281591513088)
Great post ya. He's new to me. I've been saying the table is set like never before for a new, real leader to emerge. The others better raise their game. Trump's pettiness doesn't stand up to this.
-----
WSJ:
Why I’m Running for President
America has lost sight of the ideals that made it great—freedom and merit foremost among them.
By Vivek Ramaswamy
Feb. 21, 2023 8:00 pm ET
America is in the midst of a national identity crisis. We hunger for purpose at a moment when faith, patriotism and hard work are on the decline. We embrace secular religions like climatism, Covidism and gender ideology to satisfy our need for meaning, yet we can’t answer what it means to be an American.
The Republican Party’s top priority should be to fill this void with an inspiring national identity that dilutes the woke agenda to irrelevance. Instead, many top Republicans recite slogans they memorized in 1980 or criticize left-wing culture without offering an alternative. To put America first, we need to rediscover what America is. That’s why I am running for president. I am launching not only a political campaign but a cultural movement to create a new American Dream—one that is not only about money but about the unapologetic pursuit of excellence.
It may seem presumptuous for a 37-year-old political outsider to pursue the highest office in the land, but I am running on a vision for our nation—one that revives merit in every sphere of American life.
We must restore merit for who gets to come to America. My parents entered this country legally, worked hard and raised two kids who went on to create businesses that improved the lives of thousands of Americans. We need more immigrants like them, instead of those who break the law when they enter our country. That means securing the border unapologetically and eliminating lottery-based immigration in favor of meritocratic admission.
We must embrace merit in who gets to succeed in America. The Supreme Court appears poised to overturn racial preferences in college admissions. As president I will eliminate affirmative action across the American economy. Lyndon B. Johnson’s Executive Order 11246 mandates that federal contractors—which employ approximately 20% of the U.S. workforce—adopt race-based hiring preferences. Top companies now regularly disfavor qualified applicants who happen to be white or Asian-American, which spawns resentment and condescension toward black and Hispanic hires. I will rescind this executive order and direct the Justice Department to prosecute illegal race-based preferences.
We must revive merit in who gets to govern in America. Democracy depends on a simple principle: The people we elect to run the government must be the people who actually run the government. The next time unelected bureaucrats like Anthony Fauci or Merrick Garland reach beyond their legal scope, I commit to doing what the president is constitutionally empowered to do: fire them. I will repeal civil-service protections for federal employees, by executive order if necessary, and replace these managerial protections with sunset clauses. If the president can’t hold his position for more than eight years, neither should most bureaucrats. I will call on Congress to repeal or amend the 1974 Impoundment Control Act and will stop funding agencies that waste money or have outlived their purpose. I will shut down agencies that can’t be reformed and create new ones built from scratch to replace them.
We must restore merit in determining which ideas win in America. The best ideas are born when no ideas are censored. Yet our government pressures technology companies to censor disfavored political speech and gives them special protections to carry it out. Internet companies are bound by the First Amendment when they act in concert with state actors. As Elon Musk did at Twitter, I will release the “state action files” from the federal government—publicly exposing every known instance in which bureaucrats have wrongfully pressured companies to take constitutionally prohibited actions.
Viewpoint censorship extends beyond the internet and pervades our economy. If you can’t fire someone for being black, gay or Muslim, you shouldn’t be able to fire someone for his political speech. I will work with Congress to enshrine political expression as an American civil right, and I will enforce existing civil-rights laws to protect workers from invidious viewpoint discrimination. The federal prohibition on religious discrimination forbids employers from forcing employees to bow down to any religion, including secular ones as defined by the Supreme Court in U.S. v. Seeger (1965) and Torcaso v. Watkins (1961). The modern woke agenda in much of corporate America fits that bill.
Once we revive our national identity around shared principles, we can muster the fortitude needed to defeat the greatest external threat to America: the rise of communist China. Unlike the Soviet Union in 1980, China today powers the modern American way of life. We must declare economic independence.
We must reclaim global energy leadership by rejecting the demands of a new climate religion that shackles the U.S. and leaves China untouched. We must achieve semiconductor self-sufficiency while vigorously protecting Taiwan. We should prohibit kids under 16 from using TikTok. We must use financial levers to hold China accountable for spawning the Covid-19 pandemic. We must even be willing to bar U.S. companies from expanding into China until its government abandons theft and other mercantilist tactics.
We can rise to this occasion if we rediscover who we really are. America’s strength isn’t our diversity but the ideals that unify us across our differences. These ideals won the American Revolution, reunited us after the Civil War, won two World Wars and the Cold War. They still give hope to the free world. If we can revive them, nothing will defeat us.
Mr. Ramaswamy is a co-founder of Strive Asset Management and author, most recently, of “Nation of Victims: Identity Politics,
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A Bad Start for the GOP in 2023
Tester in Montana, high turnout in Wisconsin, and a Virginia blowout.
By The Editorial BoardFollow
Feb. 24, 2023 6:28 pm ET
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State Sen. Jennifer McClellan D-Richmond celebrates at her election party after winning the seat for Virginia's 4th Congressional District on Tuesday, Feb. 21.
PHOTO: JOHN C. CLARK/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Being the opposition party can have its political advantages, but if Republicans are hoping for victory next year, they might want to look around. Montana Sen. Jon Tester said this week that he’ll run for re-election in 2024, meaning no open race there to boost the GOP’s chances of taking the state and the Senate majority.
OPINION: POTOMAC WATCH
WSJ Opinion Potomac Watch
The Trump Grand Juror Who Won't Quit Talking
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Wisconsin’s primary Tuesday, with state Supreme Court candidates on the ballot, brought record turnout of nearly 21% of the voting-age population, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Compare that with 16% for a similar primary in 2020 and 12% for one in 2018. This could signal that abortion is still spurring Democrats to the polls, and the effect from the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last year hasn’t entirely faded.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy can’t get complacent either in that big office with that big gavel. The House majority in 2024 is a jump ball, according to the initial analysis by Larry Sabato’s shop at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. The way they run the data, 44 seats are highly competitive, either tossups or districts that lean slightly one way. Of that group, 20 seats are held by Republicans and 24 by Democrats.
Also Tuesday was a special House election in Virginia’s 4th District, held to replace the late Rep. Donald McEachin. This is not a competitive seat, and the victory by Democrat Jennifer McClellan was no surprise. But she won by almost 50 points, 74% to 26%. It’s a striking margin because McEachin, as the incumbent, won re-election last year by only 30 points, 65%-35%.
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Early omens aren’t predictive, and it’s a political eternity until November 2024. But the point is that the country is closely divided, with political control decided by inches. If Republicans want to win independents, they have slightly more than a year to settle on a better message than they’ve been offering and to recruit quality candidates.
Yet the warning of last November’s washout does not seem to have reached all precincts. Last week the Michigan GOP chose as its next chair Kristina Karamo, who refused to concede in November after she lost the Secretary of State race by 14 points. “Conceding to a fraudulent person,” she said Saturday, “is agreeing with the fraud, which I will not do.”
Other losers in 2022 might try again next year, such as Kari Lake in Arizona, who’s considering a campaign for Senate. The Republican parties in both Arizona and Michigan, two swing states that could be decisive in 2024, are a mess of division and disarray. None of this bodes well for the party nominating a presidential winner in 2024, or winning either house in Congress.
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"A Bad Start for the GOP in 2023
Tester in Montana, high turnout in Wisconsin, and a Virginia blowout."
99+% of the problem is failure to persuade.
<1% is cheat.
Must address election security but not in lieu of persuading voters.
The abortion issue has been bungled. Never should have let the slaughter your young side escape being the extremists on the issue.
I have a representative here who gets away with the Tester act. Talks the moderate game at home. Votes with Omar and Pelosi in Washington. Schumer in the case of Tester. The Tester race in Montana (all Senate races) need to be framed as for control of the Senate, like Fetterman's race. Then there is the McConnell problem. Control of the Senate argument means putting forward the least popular politician in America. Stupid.
Also, Montana is filling up with environmentalists from California and the Pacific northwest.
If Trump and the Republicans had broken up the deep state in washington, maybe Virginia wouldn't be so deep blue.
Our work is cut out for us. So much of the agony is self infected.
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Well stated!
"99+% of the problem is failure to persuade"
To which I would add-- which includes inherent flaws in how humans think-- and that the Goolag is perfectly positioned to purposefully exploit those flaws.
CAPS FOR EMPHASIS: I WANT TO RECOMMEND TO ALL OF US HERE IN THE HIGHEST TERMS THE BOOK: THINKING FAST & SLOW BY DANIEL KAHNEMAN-- a real paradigm shifter for me.
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What was the Contract with America R's put forward last year that voters rejected?
Nothing. It never happened.
Contrast that with success. What was Newt's criteria for items on his Contract with America 1994 that worked?
Working from memory, they all were specific, they were all rooted in common sense, common values conservativism, and they all were polling at 60/40 or better.
Republicans of recent kept trying to win elections by 1%, 0.1% and by negative percent of popular vote, cf Trump 2016, Bush 2000.
Sometimes that worked. Usually it didn't.
Reagan 1980 was a 60/40 message. By 1984 he won by nearly a 60/40 margin, .
Newt's contract resonated similarly; they held the House for 6 cycles, 12 years, before losing the messaging war (and the country).
DeSantis has a 60/40 message and way of governing.
He is taking on the education complex but not gay marriage, for example. His statement on Ukraine is measured. His launch video for national issues hits big themes, not petty personality politics.
Contrast that with what McConnell is selling in Montana for example. Message is 99% unknown and the messenger is unliked - by all sides. Largely self appointed
Meanwhile Democrats are selling clean environment, climate responsibility, gay etc acceptance, racial justice, and more money for everything you care about. Without a rebuttal, THAT is the 60/40 message of our time.
Republicans better raise their game.
More of the same, leadership and messaging, means loss of elections, creed and country.
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What was the Contract with America R's put forward last year that voters rejected?
Nothing. It never happened.
Contrast that with success. What was Newt's criteria for items on his Contract with America 1994 that worked?
Working from memory, they all were specific, they were all rooted in common sense, common values conservativism, and they all were polling at 60/40 or better.
Republicans of recent kept trying to win elections by 1%, 0.1% and by negative percent of popular vote, cf Trump 2016, Bush 2000.
Sometimes that worked. Usually it didn't.
Reagan 1980 was a 60/40 message. By 1984 he won by nearly a 60/40 margin, .
Newt's contract resonated similarly; they held the House for 6 cycles, 12 years, before losing the messaging war (and the country).
DeSantis has a 60/40 message and way of governing.
He is taking on the education complex but not gay marriage, for example. His statement on Ukraine is measured. His launch video for national issues hits big themes, not petty personality politics.
Contrast that with what McConnell is selling in Montana for example. Message is 99% unknown and the messenger is unlocked, by all sides.
Meanwhile Democrats are selling clean environment, climate responsibility, gay etc acceptance, racial justice, and more money for everything you care about. Without a rebuttal, THAT is the 60/40 message of our time.
Republicans better raise their game.
More of the same, leadership and messaging, means loss of elections, creed and country.
Weird how DeSantis took election security seriously and suddenly Florida went from purple to red.
https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/gov-desantis-announces-new-office-of-election-security-has-made-20-arrests-for-voter-fraud/
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Weird how he (DeSantis) had to win the war of ideas and policy in order to secure elections.
Meanwhile, Kari Lake harped endlessly about election fraud but will be making no reforms in AZ.
Maybe she should have polled vote fraud (and polled buddying with Trump) and instead won on winning issues. Then secured the elections.
Just a thought.
Meanwhile the conservatives who sat out from voting or gave not one thin dime to the cause while getting outspent more than 10:1 counting the value of Big Tech and Big Media are also now powerless and soon freedomless.
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https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/mar/1/republicans-reintroduce-sweeping-school-reforms-pa/?utm_source=Boomtrain&utm_medium=subscriber&utm_campaign=morning&utm_term=newsletter&utm_content=morning&bt_ee=iKkl12bprAm1TAHPKwgBMNgLHYYodX8JurtpYz463i5gw62xtDw3GjOfuMC6WD%2Fj&bt_ts=1677759021880
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https://thefederalist.com/2023/03/08/dear-mitch-mcconnell-you-were-not-elected-to-do-the-bidding-of-chuck-schumer-and-cnn/
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Julie Kelly:
What’s happening in our country—especially this week—isn’t so much about the strength of the left but the cowardly incompetence of Republicans.
Democrats don’t fear GOP and for good reason. GOP caved to Mueller, refused to hold a legit trial for 1st impeachment, and cowered on every other issue.
House GOP should seize J6 surveillance video and make that and every USCP record public.
Sorry—did I miss a congressional subpoena for Nancy Pelosi?
Weak GOP on every level-federal, state, and local. That’s how we got here.
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There are some exceptions, but on the whole I agree-- with the caveat that strength does best when guided by intelligence. There is good reason the Reps are called "the stupid party".
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https://rulesforantiradicals.com/blog/f/the-education-of-tricia-cotham
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/04/07/republicans-net-three-new-supermajorities-one-month-bringing-total-25/
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Voting harder! :wink:
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Voting harder! :wink:
Yeah, someone said something about moving to red states to concentrate forces.
Get back to me when the national elections aren't rigged.
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Ummm , , , national elections are conducted State by State.
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Ummm , , , national elections are conducted State by State.
Which is why certain swing states will magically find the votes required to fortify the election. Please see 2020 as an example.
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This may well be turn out to be true , , , or not.
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This may well be turn out to be true , , , or not.
Oh, did the dems and deep state pinkie promise to stop cheating?
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My intended meaning is that we need to outvote and out litigate the cheat. Whether we will succeed remains to be seen.
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My intended meaning is that we need to outvote and out litigate the cheat. Whether we will succeed remains to be seen.
You can't outvote the cheat. They will always "find" enough votes to win.
The courts, including SCOTUS refused to do their duty back in 2020 and ever since. The courts are irrelevant.
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https://media.gab.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=852,quality=100,fit=scale-down/system/media_attachments/files/137/042/460/original/21ea0af821e9f26f.png
(https://media.gab.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=852,quality=100,fit=scale-down/system/media_attachments/files/137/042/460/original/21ea0af821e9f26f.png)
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https://media.gab.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=852,quality=100,fit=scale-down/system/media_attachments/files/137/882/960/original/bd5ad5f5751ce5bf.png
(https://media.gab.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=852,quality=100,fit=scale-down/system/media_attachments/files/137/882/960/original/bd5ad5f5751ce5bf.png)
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There is substance there.
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https://www.theburningplatform.com/2023/04/13/do-not-fall-for-the-normalcy-presumption-nothing-is-normal-anymore/
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https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/may/22/russia-ukraine-war-tests-traditional-conservatism-/?utm_source=Boomtrain&utm_medium=subscriber&utm_campaign=newsalert&utm_content=newsalert&utm_term=newsalert&bt_ee=uBGP1IvwXxlpKNfF7hj%2BFAzWkcctSipMgLD6USQvvQjWlaCvki2N5FSmJ96s7TPh&bt_ts=1684775373965
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personally I am on the fence
we lose either way
if we keep supporting ukraine we lose $ , weapons, neither of which we have an endless supply of
only hope is putin croaks and someone else , more amenable to some sort of compromise comes along - but then again Z says he is not open to compromise
if don't keep supporting ukraine that message will go to CCP loud and clear
I do not believe Putin is going to start rumbling his tanks through other Balkans as a result though that could be possible
result
albania next , romania , bulgaria?
I don't think he will estonia latvia lithuania or poland
after the price he paid in ukraine
either outcome we are losing in the end
and CCP gets stronger
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The best possible thing for Western Europe is if Putin conquered them.
personally I am on the fence
we lose either way
if we keep supporting ukraine we lose $ , weapons, neither of which we have an endless supply of
only hope is putin croaks and someone else , more amenable to some sort of compromise comes along - but then again Z says he is not open to compromise
if don't keep supporting ukraine that message will go to CCP loud and clear
I do not believe Putin is going to start rumbling his tanks through other Balkans as a result though that could be possible
result
albania next , romania , bulgaria?
I don't think he will estonia latvia lithuania or poland
after the price he paid in ukraine
either outcome we are losing in the end
and CCP gets stronger
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"The best possible thing for Western Europe is if Putin conquered them."
Dude! Put down the bottle!
The man was a KGB killer in service of the Soviet Empire who brings this skill set to the present-- he throws discontented associates and opponents out of windows.
See further response in the Russia-US-Europe thread.
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"The best possible thing for Western Europe is if Putin conquered them."
Dude! Put down the bottle!
The man was a KGB killer in service of the Soviet Empire who brings this skill set to the present-- he throws discontented associates and opponents out of windows.
See further response in the Russia-US-Europe thread.
It’s a bottle called strategic foresight.
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OK, enlighten me. :-)
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OK, enlighten me. :-)
Ok, you have established VodkaManBad. Are the leaders in NATO good?
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:-D
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2023/05/24/ford-reverses-plan-to-drop-am-radios-in-2024-cars-trucks-and-suvs-will-restore-on-two-previous-models/
vote as hard as we can!
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:-D
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2023/05/24/ford-reverses-plan-to-drop-am-radios-in-2024-cars-trucks-and-suvs-will-restore-on-two-previous-models/
vote as hard as we can!
Still never buying a Ford.
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Coincidentally, quite recently I answered a survey request Ford made regarding my Maverick pick-up truck and in response to the "Anything else?" question I brought up the matter of AM radio.
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https://dailycaller.com/2023/06/14/republican-study-committee-budget-welfare-work-requirements/?pnespid=qL03Ez1Caqwc3PjSvGq0CMmXuhCtTJUoI7K9kbF6.01myFmfs7YTyTinJ7jaGhAFYDXckBc2
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/jun/14/lawmakers-promise-punish-justice-department-heavy-/?utm_source=Boomtrain&utm_medium=subscriber&utm_campaign=newsalert&utm_content=newsalert&utm_term=newsalert&bt_ee=tG5Rleu1w8NtYUJXAOqlDeDW5G%2FnrRrs0p1JYQtZ1aZo7hsE4CJhvvx8laidZkz4&bt_ts=1686767902973
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Standby for some harshly worded letters!
https://dailycaller.com/2023/06/14/republican-study-committee-budget-welfare-work-requirements/?pnespid=qL03Ez1Caqwc3PjSvGq0CMmXuhCtTJUoI7K9kbF6.01myFmfs7YTyTinJ7jaGhAFYDXckBc2
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/jun/14/lawmakers-promise-punish-justice-department-heavy-/?utm_source=Boomtrain&utm_medium=subscriber&utm_campaign=newsalert&utm_content=newsalert&utm_term=newsalert&bt_ee=tG5Rleu1w8NtYUJXAOqlDeDW5G%2FnrRrs0p1JYQtZ1aZo7hsE4CJhvvx8laidZkz4&bt_ts=1686767902973
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Entirely possible, yet OTOH remember how the Reps utterly blew it when after years of criticizing Obamacare had nothing ready to go when they took power?
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It's almost like they are members of a Uniparty that pretend to advocate for us while really working for the PTB...
Entirely possible, yet OTOH remember how the Reps utterly blew it when after years of criticizing Obamacare had nothing ready to go when they took power?
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Gunther Eagleman™
@GuntherEagleman
I have a couple sitting GOP congressmen sending me DMs asking why I’m fixated on calling them out.
It’s pretty simple, you are failing us.
- January 6th political prisoners are still jail
- 87,000 IRS agents still in the works
- Taxpayer money to Ukraine hasn’t stopped
- 4 Trillion added to the debt
- Border wide open
- No one being held accountable
It was all lies and false promises.
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you want to better fix this
get rid of trump
we will win more Senate and Congressional seats
despite vote fixing (before you post your expected response)
because our side fixes votes too.
we can't win with a what 7 seat majority in Congress
out voted in Senate
and with a Senate majority leader who does not fight for us
and a Dem President administration.
and we vote hard.
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Aside from the Deep State's plans, how would that happen?
If DeSantis were the nominee, then the "DeSantis is Hitler" operation fires up. It's the same routine, everytime.
Meanwhile, nothing of substance is done.
you want to better fix this
get rid of trump
we will win more Senate and Congressional seats
despite vote fixing (before you post your expected response)
because our side fixes votes too.
we can't win with a what 7 seat majority in Congress
out voted in Senate
and with a Senate majority leader who does not fight for us
and a Dem President administration.
and we vote hard.
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https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/06/now-is-not-time-talk-impeaching-biden-weak/
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we should hire the Wagner group
when they are freed up
:wink:
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we should hire the Wagner group
when they are freed up
:wink:
Already working for the GAE.
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Conservative groups release ads on school choice, abortion
Aim to create message GOP can rally behind
BY KERRY PICKET THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Two conservative organizations recently released separate hard-hitting ad campaigns tackling school choice and abortion.
The ads take aggressive stances on two issues the GOP has had difficulty finding unifying messages to rally behind.
Thefirst ad was produced by the political watchdog group Unleash Prosperity Now, which criticizes Democrats’ opposition to school choice as being no different than support for school segregation over 60 years ago.
The political watchdog group Unleash Prosperity Now produced the ad “Education Fairness for All.” It is part of a combined digital and TV campaign and compares several present-day Democratic politicians to the late Democratic Alabama Gov. George Wallace.
Wallace became well known for his opposition to integrating schools in the 1960s, and he coined the phrase, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.”
“In 1963, Alabama Gov. George Wallace stood
in the schoolhouse door to keep Black children out of the best schools. In 2023, a new generation of George Wallace Democrats is again blocking schoolhouse doors, opposing popular school choice programs,” the ad’s voiceover says.
“In states like New York, Arizona, Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina and Texas, Democrats are fighting programs that give Black and Hispanic parents the ability to send their kids to the best possible schools. Yet, many of these same politicians send their own kids to private schools. It’s time for every child in America to finally have equal access to good schools.”
The second ad, launched by the prolife organization Live Action, uses humor through a series of young individuals who complain they are in “dark times” because the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, thereby making most abortions illegal in many states.
So now, they say in depressed and exasperated tones, they have to learn about their potential sex partners and talk about taking responsibility before having sex with one another.
“Now that Roe v, Wade is overturned, a woman can get pregnant just from having sex,” one woman says in the tonguein- cheek video.
One man says, “I’m not seriously considering going down the dangerous path of abstinence until marriage.”
Another woman says, “I find myself in this really bizarre state where I’m asking guys about things like their values and trustworthiness before sleeping with them.”
Another man says, “Before a girl will have sex with me now, she’s asking me all these dumb questions like: ‘Do you love me?’ and, ‘What happens if I get pregnant?’ and, ‘Do you have a job?’ I don’t know.”
Another young woman finally concludes that she has a radical new idea to make the adjustment more manageable by creating a contract between couples before they have sex.
“I think that a man and a woman, before they have sex, need to draw up some sort of contract that says, I promised to take care of you, and you promised to take care of me,” she says. “And we both promised to take care of any kids that we produced together. I know. It’s shocking. But that kind of contract is the only way that I see us moving forward.”
An off-camera voice tells her that she is describing marriage. She first denies it but she suddenly catches herself.
On the other side of the abortion debate, Democrats have already launched campaign ads stressing the importance of the right to an abortion
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not clear I agree
but some food for thought:
https://anncoulter.com/2023/08/02/breaking-trump-still-an-idiot/
The just is forget about endless back and forth with the Dem machine
They will NEVER listen anyway
and since their goal is to flood 98% of the airways with reminding us what a danger Trump as though we have not heard it so many times for 7 to 8 hrs
we should refute it quickly and move on to our winning issues
and policy and ideology
instead of HIM.
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https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2023/09/02/kentuckys-democratic-governor-wont-commit-to-naming-a-republican-if-sen-mcconnell-retires-n1723965
I have no idea where to post this.
For the life of me cannot find the congressional/senate thread
it disintegrated
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https://firehydrantoffreedom.com/index.php?topic=1273.msg11010#msg11010
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https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2023/09/07/stop-dooming-n2628004
Message to us (and GM) - don't give up.
Kurt as smart as me ( :-D ) also concludes Trump can't win ( though I admit anything is possible) and laments he is the one that at this time looks like will be the candidate.
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Just shared that with GM :-D :-D :-D
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"Just shared that with GM :-D :-D :-D"
I hope this is not his response ===>. :roll: :roll: :roll:
:-D
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:-D
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No need to comment on recent embarrassing episode
Question is , is she a net negative or positive for us?
I don't have a clue.
But she does have an election coming up next yr I think .
What a foolish fiasco
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Car Bans Could be a Deciding Factor in 2024
- Daniel Greenfield
9 Democrat-run states, California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington, have moved to ban cars by 2035.
The Biden administration has exploited EPA emissions standards to accomplish the same thing.
The green push to ban cars and force everyone to buy electric vehicles is a core part of the program and also highly unpopular with families struggling with high prices and inflation. Electric vehicles are far more expensive and much less reliable than cars and most can’t afford them.
59% of Americans oppose a ban on cars while only 40% support it. But, in worse news for banners, support for the ban has consistently fallen over the last years by 7% while opposition to it has increased. Republicans and Independents are obviously stalwartly opposed, but even among Democrats, opposition has grown until a third of Dems is opposed.
On a state by state level, opposition remains strong even in states whose Democrat governors unwisely chose to sign on to a 2035 car ban date. In Maryland, 60% opposed Gov. Wes Moore’s car ban while in New Jersey some 58% are opposed including 42% of Democrats. In Washington, 48% opposed Gov. Jay Inslee’s car ban while 38% backed it. Of those who opposed it, 31% were strongly opposed.
In Virginia, which was put on track to a car ban by following California’s illegal emissions mandates, 58% oppose a gas car ban while only 33% support it. Tellingly, while 42% strongly oppose a car ban only 12% strongly support one. Even among Democrats, support and opposition are nearly tied 44% to 43%. In Minnesota, 65% oppose a car ban while only 29% support it. (47% strongly oppose the ban while only 9% strongly support it.)
Nationwide, support for car bans is strongest among urban voters. And yet even there, ban backing never quite tops 50%. In suburban areas, support drops down to 31% and rural areas falls all the way to 24%. That stands to reason because to whatever extent electric vehicles are viable, it’s only in the core density of major urban areas. Outside them, they’re unusable.
Polls also shows support for a car ban is tied to income. Even the cheapest electric vehicles are out of the price range of most Americans. That’s why opposition to car bans climbs for families making less than $40,000 and even those making up to $80,000. The proposed car ban means families being unable to replace their minivan. It means mothers who can’t drop off their kids at school and fathers who can’t drive to work.
A car ban is an extinction level event for American families. If it goes through, 53% of Americans won’t be able to buy a car. Imagine how much their lives will change.
Pro-ban politicians act as if there will be a smooth transition from cars to electric vehicles.
The reality is that electric vehicles are not viable in any way, shape or form. America’s biggest car companies have spent and lost billions trying to make electric vehicles.
Ford is losing $32,000 on every electric car it sells. In 2023, it lost $3 billion on its EV boondoggle. Ford claimed that it will make 2 million electric cars by 2025 (at which point it would then lose $64 billion) but it only sold 61,575 electric vehicles in 2022. GM shut down the Chevy Bolt, its cheapest electric vehicle after losing $7,400 on every one it sold. It promises to profitably sell 1 million electric vehicles in 2025, but it only sold 44,000 at a loss in 2022.
The math on electric vehicles simply does not work. Many people point to Tesla. But the truth about Tesla is it made money through the fines that California imposed on makers and buyers of cars. In 2022, Tesla made $1.78 billion from carbon credit sales. Companies that make actual cars have to buy the credits from Musk’s Saudi company and pass on the cost to consumers.
While subsidizing electric vehicles for the rich by fining working class car owners worked well enough for Tesla, it’s not a pathway to shifting the entire country over to electric cars. What will really happen by 2025 is that the vast majority of Americans will be cut off from the market. They’ll be left trying to keep old cars and used cars on the road for as long as possible.
Why aren’t politicians talking more about this? Some are operating in the D.C. bubble and don’t recognize the profound impact this will have on the lives of hundreds of millions of people. Others see a 2035 deadline as being so far in the future that it doesn’t need to be dealt with now. And still others are constantly reacting to a passing parade of crises and outrages.
Car bans are far from the only issue out there, but it could have a deciding impact in 2024.
Democrats have committed to a policy that is wildly unpopular outside their small base of urban college graduates who idealize 15 minute cities navigated by bike shares. And they’ve done so with limited pushback from a Republican party that is schizophrenic and feckless in its inability to focus, to make a coherent case and to message on the things that actually matter to voters.
The car bans are an act of cultural, social and economic warfare by an urban elite against the rest of the country. If successful, they would make life all but impossible in rural areas, and increasingly challenging in many suburban areas. They would tear apart families, wreck jobs and push struggling people underwater.
Politicians have gone from two cars in every garage to no cars in the garage at all.
It’s hard to think of any single policy to devastating in its scope and so likely to outrage the working class voters that Republicans are trying to court as car bans. And yet Republicans are failing to talk about them because they are as detached as Democrats from the consequences.
Republicans assumed that they would win in 2022 by passively profiting from the miserable economy. The midterms proved that to be a profound miscalculation. If Republicans want to politically profit from the poor economy, they have to do more than put up stickers pointing a finger at Biden. They have to connect the economic misery directly to Biden’s policies.
Car bans could be a deciding factor in 2024, but only if Republicans and moderate Democrats talk about them. Otherwise another disastrous radical policy will bury much of the country.
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https://thefederalist.com/2023/12/04/to-win-republicans-have-to-be-smarter-and-tougher-than-sen-james-lankford/
Post updated to include full text. These questioners need to be called out.
To Win, Republicans Have To Be Smarter And Tougher Than Sen. James Lankford
BY: MOLLIE HEMINGWAY
DECEMBER 04, 2023
You win elections by saying truthful things, not being sad and scared like Lankford and most other Republican senators are.
Career Democrat and ABC host George Stephanopoulos completely emasculated Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma this weekend on his Sunday show. Right at the beginning of the interview, Stephanopoulos advanced a flurry of disinformation and lies, to which Lankford, who purports to be a conservative senator of the burgundy-red state of Oklahoma, bowed down in complete supplication:
Stephanopoulos: Your party’s leading candidate for president was on the stump yesterday repeating lies about the 2020 election. He’s called those convicted in the Jan. 6 insurrection hostages. He faces 91 separate felony counts himself. He’s raised the prospect of executing the former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and terminating parts of the Constitution. In the face of all that and more, are you prepared to support Donald Trump if he’s your party’s nominee?
Oh, for crying out loud. What an absolutely preposterous line of questioning. Any Republican elected official with a room-temperature IQ and even a modicum of self-respect would be livid at the propaganda and lies and immediately push back. But not Lankford. Here’s how he responded:
Lankford: Yes, we haven’t had a single vote yet, George. This is still weeks and weeks away from our first votes that are happening actually in Iowa, then New Hampshire and South Carolina. And there are a lot of people that are going to make that decision. That’s not going to be me making that decision, that’s going to be the American people that actually make that decision.
Stephanopoulos pressed him, and Lankford remained impotent in the face of the questioning. In fact, he was so bad throughout the interview, he even quoted Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s controversial homeland security secretary, as a role model on immigration enforcement. The entire state of Oklahoma looked worse as it went on.
She writes what he said and what he could've should've said. Will update...
Now, Lankford is more than welcome to stay out of the Republican primary or endorse whomever he thinks is the best candidate, but what he should not feel free to do is allow the corrupt media and other Democrats to destroy the country through propaganda and lies. Americans are absolutely desperate for even the tiniest bit of Republican backbone and leadership, not mealy-mouthed kowtowing to the press.
When you claim to be a conservative senator of a state so Republican that two out of every three voters in 2020 voted for Trump, and a lifelong Democrat operative in the media asks you a completely loaded agitprop question, you should hit it out of the park. Like so:
“First off, George, your audience should know that you just regurgitated back a diatribe of lies, mistruths, and Democrat propaganda. I’m not surprised, given your professional background and track record of maliciously pushing the false and dangerous Russia-collusion scam for so many years during and after the 2016 election, but I can’t allow your lies to go uncorrected.
“The public knows full well there were major issues in how the 2020 election was conducted — from Mark Zuckerberg’s more than $400 million on partisan get-out-the-vote efforts in key swing states, to the deliberate Hunter Biden laptop suppression that the major news and tech companies along with 51 intel officials participated in, to the tens of millions of mail-in-ballots and voting changes that did not follow state laws. So drop the dishonest, holier-than-thou nonsense about 2020 being the cleanest, most perfect election with nothing allowed to be scrutinized or discussed.
“Second, the public is also wising up to the fact that what the corporate media have spun to them about Jan. 6 hasn’t exactly been the complete truth. Yes, we know your line that this was the worst moment in the history of the world, requiring our FBI to do nothing other than arrest people who were anywhere near the event. Well, that, and arrest pro-lifers who are praying and parents who are attending school board meetings.
“But most Americans know that we have not gotten good answers about why Nancy Pelosi turned down security provisions ahead of what intelligence suggested would be a very contentious day, or what exactly was being done by the federal informants and federal agents who were present for the day’s events. They’re extremely worried about how left-wing rioters and criminals seem to be able to do whatever they want with very few repercussions, even when they’re attacking the Supreme Court, federal courthouses, the White House, churches, homes, and police precincts. And now with the release of some of the videotapes from that day, we see that most of the activity that day was not in any way what was hyped up and presented by the Democrats’ Jan. 6 show trial.
“Finally, the Biden administration is at this moment doing everything in its power to put their leading political opponent in prison. They raided Mar-a-Lago, George. When other countries do things like this, when Putin does stuff like this, we say that means they don’t have free and fair elections. It seems the Democrats’ main strategy this election cycle is to attempt to put effective Republicans in prison, to bankrupt them, and to prevent them from speaking out about what is being done to destroy this country. I’ll note this isn’t working with the American people, as Trump now leads widely in almost all polls against Biden, a strong renunciation of what’s going on.
“So I ask you, George, are you prepared to start focusing on the major policy issues facing the country, or will you continue to push lies and propaganda to help put your political opponents in prison?”
You know, something like that.
To state the obvious
here, using small words so that even the absolutely feckless and embarrassingly lame Senate Republicans can understand, praising Mayorkas, failing to correct lies about Republicans, and mumbling about how you’ll vote Republican if you are forced to is not a way to win elections. Yes, I’m sure it’s what Mitch McConnell told Lankford to go out and do, but it yields nothing but failure. The people of Oklahoma deserve an actual man to represent them, not whatever it is they’re getting in Lankford.
You win elections by saying truthful things, not being sad and scared like Lankford and most other Republican senators are. He should be lambasting Stephanopoulos for not covering the major issues facing the country in an even remotely evenhanded or honest way.
That’s how you go from being a party full of absolute losers who are on their back heels constantly to one that makes people want to vote for you.
Mollie Ziegler Hemingway is the Editor-in-Chief of The Federalist.
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pay walled
seems like more and more sites are doing this
PJ media
at times
Townhall etc.
Kurt Schlicter had scathing criticism of McDaniel who so far is failing at fund raising at allied lawfare and had never won an election cycle.
He does point out Trump seems to really be ahead though we all know that can change overnight.
He is not convinced Trump is likely to win. I am more optimistic but not convinced by any margin of error.
oh here it is, not paywalled:
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2023/12/04/can-trump-actually-win-in-november-n2631909
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Doug's article here:
https://thefederalist.com/2023/12/04/to-win-republicans-have-to-be-smarter-and-tougher-than-sen-james-lankford/
Agree with Mollie 100%
tired of idiot Repubs going on enemy broadcasts
and agreeing with the enemy party
Screw you Ken Buck, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger etc.
And very screw you Stephahopolous ! and Dana Bash and the list is way to long to post.
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On Fox News Sunday, Virginia Lt Gov Winsome Sears,
"We must go after every vote."
I will add video and transcript links.
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What I have seen of her is quite strong.
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On Fox News Sunday, Virginia Lt Gov Winsome Sears,
"We must go after every vote."
I will add video and transcript links.
Perhaps she should be head of RNC
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I'm sure she would do a fine job, but I'm thinking US Senator would be a better use of her.
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Look: points the Republicans should hammer on at every opportunity.
Wokesters Without Endowments
Could it be that progressive leftists are running out of other people’s money? Perhaps not yet on a number of famous campuses, but wokesters without gargantuan endowments seem to be having an increasingly hard time funding radical politics in a world of competing priorities.
Rich Kremer reports for Wisconsin Public Radio, which is staffed by employees of the University of Wisconsin-Madison:
The Universities of Wisconsin will have the opportunity to give pay raises to its 34,000 employees and build a new $347 million engineering building in Madison under a deal approved Wednesday by the Board of Regents. But the universities will also freeze DEI staffing through 2026 and eliminate or refocus about 40 positions focused on diversity.
The vote was the second in five days by the board, and follows a months-long stalemate between the board and Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, who blocked funding for the raises over objections to campus diversity, equity and inclusion programs and staffing...
In a statement after the vote, Vos said “Republicans know this is just the first step in what will be our continuing efforts to eliminate these cancerous DEI practices on UW campuses.”
Speaking of the fight against cancers, imagine the possibilities for life-enhancing innovation if Wisconsin can now move beyond simply freezing DEI positions and instead convert all of them to new openings in medical research. Reasonable people might argue that the political activists should be replaced entirely by mathematicians, but this is the sort of healthy debate that should flourish on a vibrant campus driven by courageous curiosity.
Meanwhile on the West Coast it’s now looking nearly impossible to fund what would have been the country’s most expensive and unjust experiment in civic wokeness. Jose Martinez reports for CBS News in San Francisco:
The future of African-American reparations in San Francisco is facing an uncertain future after Mayor London Breed announced that a proposed office won’t be funded due to budget cuts.
The office would have been a precursor to attempting to redistribute money from people who never owned slaves to people who were never enslaved. It wasn’t just the principle of such a plan that was troubling, or the difficulty of trying to precisely define the level of ancestral guilt or victimhood within the great American melting pot. It was also the money. In March this column noted the work of a city-appointed reparations committee and asked:
How massive would this new race-based spending scheme end up being? “The committee hasn’t done an analysis of the cost of the proposals,” reported the AP at the time.
But Lee Ohanian, a fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, examined the work of the committee and wrote in January:
I have analyzed some parts of this proposal and estimate that its cost, presented on a per-household basis, will be nearly $600,000 per non–African American San Francisco household.
He warned that “this estimate may be too low” but provided a ballpark number of recipients set to receive the proposed payouts:
Paying $5 million to 35,455 individuals totals about $175 billion. To put this in perspective, the city’s budget for the current fiscal year is $14 billion, while this proposed sum exceeds the current state budgets of all US states except for California, New York, and Texas.
Speaking of Texas, it would surely become the new home for much of San Francisco’s current population if this proposal is ever enacted.
As for the San Franciscans who haven’t left yet, both opponents and supporters of reparations now seem to be getting fed up with the results of municipal governance. Mr. Martinez of CBS reports:
Marquis Muhammad, a long-time resident and business owner in San Francisco’s Fillmore District, expressed frustration over the pace and approach of African-American reparations in the city.
“I am a victim... so you see me out here with my products right here on Fillmore…I’ve been here since 1999 and my customer base has moved out of the city,” said Muhammad.
Perhaps what’s most in need of repair are the incentives to stay in places like the City by the Bay. The remaining voters seem to be catching on. Joel Kotkin writes at UnHerd:
Is sanity finally returning to America’s blue cities? The places that incubated inept policies such as “defund the police” and “sanctuary cities”, but welcomed open-air drug use, are beginning to have second thoughts. In Seattle, Portland and San Francisco... lawmakers are looking at ways to curb public drug use — a move that has been symptomatic of a wider pushback against progressive policies.
Take Houston as a different example. This week, progressives lost two-to-one in the mayor’s race, electing a moderate Democrat, John Whitmire, and rejecting Barbara Lee, one of the reliably far-Left Democrats in Congress. In addition, the city elected more conservatives and moderates to the city council.
In Houston, as elsewhere, crime was cited as by far the city’s biggest issue. It was also behind the defeat last month of a Soros-backed prosecutor candidate in Pittsburgh’s district attorney race and in Seattle’s contest for city attorney, which a Republican won.
For years this column has been trying without success to find an example of a great civilization built by progressive leftists. One hates to sound like a pessimist but the project now seems doomed to failure.
James Freeman is the co-author of “The Cost: Trump, China and American Revival” and also the co-author of “Borrowed Time: Two Centuries of Booms, Busts and Bailouts at Citi.”
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A: Run candidates like her:
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2023/12/14/meet-the-totally-badass-republican-mom-of-seven-running-for-that-santos-seat-n4924754
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Good to see any evidence of their dominance slowing.
From the article: "crime was cited as by far the city’s biggest issue (Houston). It was also behind the defeat last month of a Soros-backed prosecutor candidate in Pittsburgh’s district attorney race and in Seattle’s contest for city attorney, which a Republican won."
In my state (MN) we have a Soros Sec of State and a Louis Farrakhan Attorney General. Those two are the voters' fault, but at the legislative level the woke Left candidates have typically 6:1 or more advantage in political contributions that seem to come to them out of thin air - from far away. The money seems unlimited while conservatives are typically blocked by tech and social media from reaching their audience.
Every victory of the right or loss of the Left (cf. Trump wins once, U Penn President resigns) seems only like a pause in the march to Leftism.
Conservatives are putting their money in the mattress while Liberals give it out like candy.
Any progress at UW Madison is welcome; maybe we can get 1% of the student body to split away from Leftism. Meanwhile there aren't any conservative professors applying much less getting hired. The bigger progress seems to be the (coming?) fall of so called higher education rather the any chance of them attaining any semblance of balance.
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https://nationalinterest.org/feature/how-conservatives-can-get-climate-policy-right-202219
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https://www.caesarrodney.org/energy-updates.htm
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Post here as well please:
https://firehydrantoffreedom.com/index.php?topic=550.msg3521#msg3521
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Trump vs. the Non-RINOs
DeSantis and Haley are both products of the Republican Party he transformed.
Kimberley A. Strassel
Jan. 11, 2024 6:26 pm ET
Even if Donald Trump doesn’t become the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, he will have left his stamp on the GOP. His biggest legacy is the one he most steadfastly refuses to acknowledge, as it’s become his biggest headache. Mr. Trump isn’t at risk from any “RINOs.” He made sure of it.
With just days to the Iowa caucuses, the front-runner is getting a bit nervous and trashing his top rivals hourly. Nikki Haley is berated as a tax hiker, a Social-Security robber, a border-fence softie. Mr. DeSantis gets hit for a long-ago vote against ethanol, his handling of the pandemic and taxes. The attacks are often false or misleading, and so it goes.
Mr. Trump’s favorite line—his standby crack, his go-to zinger—is that he’s running against “establishment” candidates—Republicans in name only, “weak” and “ineffective” wimps who bow to corporate and political “elites.” Close your eyes, and it’s almost as if Mr. Trump is back on the 2015 debate stage tearing up Jeb Bush or John Kasich.
Only this isn’t your daddy’s GOP, and that’s thanks to Mr. Trump. Eight years ago tens of millions of Americans handed him the GOP nomination—and then the presidency—for one reason alone: to send a message to the Republican Party and Washington. They were tired of leaders who tiptoed around sensitive topics like the environment, who ladled subsidies on big business, who ducked flashpoint cultural issues, who took dictation from U.S.-despising international organizations. They wanted someone who would throw a punch, and Mr. Trump loves the roundhouse.
The Republican Party may tend toward self-sabotage, but its leaders aren’t stupid. The Trump-voter message was received, absorbed and in some cases put into practice under the man himself. Mr. Trump is correct that his initial endorsement of Mr. DeSantis helped the Floridian win his 2018 governor’s race, even if he now neglects to mention that Mr. DeSantis earned it by running as a Trump-like pugilist. “We have some absolute warriors,” said Mr. Trump in 2018, singling Mr. DeSantis out as a “true FIGHTER” and praising him for being “strong on Borders, tough on Crime, & big on Cutting Taxes.”
To the extent Ms. Haley became nationally known, it’s because she served as Mr. Trump’s combative ambassador to the United Nations, shocking internationalists by withdrawing the U.S. from the Human Rights Council, vigorously defending Israel and berating Iran, and championing U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accords. At her 2018 resignation press conference, Mr. Trump extolled her for a “fantastic job,” praised her as someone who “gets it,” and credited her with making America “very much respected again” by revitalizing the ambassadorship into “a more important position.”
All this makes the former president’s claims that he’s running against a RINO Borg laughable. Mr. DeSantis didn’t burst onto the stage by bending the knee to elites. He earned scorn from blue-state and public-health officials by reopening Florida in May 2020. He picked fights with corporate titans from Disney and Anheuser-Busch to the ESG investment-manager cabal. He infuriated the left by shipping migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, for goodness sake. Ms. Haley, far from a pushover, is touting her own rock-solid conservative agenda. How brassy is she? Brassy enough to call out Mr. Trump on his own “establishment” record—his refusal to confront the entitlement crisis, his rolling over for Covid-era slush-fund spending, and his coddling of foreign strongmen like Vladimir Putin.
Mr. Trump might be taking a victory lap. Instead, he understandably sees in this new generation not flattery but a real threat. Mr. Trump won in 2016 by playing the double outsider—nonpolitician, antiestablishment. Only he is a politician now—four years in office will do that to you—while his top rivals are anything but the “uniparty.” Mr. Trump can get away with likening them to Mitt Romney so long as voters aren’t paying much attention. But if the primary after New Hampshire becomes a true one-on-one race, voters will have more opportunity to evaluate a remaining rival on the merits. The RINO claim will fall flat.
One risk for Mr. DeSantis and Ms. Haley is that they follow the Trump model too closely and descend into the sort of name-calling and cat-fighting that popped up in their Wednesday night debate. Conservatives admire Mr. Trump’s fight, but many have grown weary of the attendant drama. And that helps account for the half or more of early-state voters who want someone else. It’s possible to be a warrior without being spiteful, and voters want a nominee who puts winning and getting things done ahead of settling scores.
Americans can debate how Mr. Trump has helped or hurt the GOP, but voters shouldn’t kid themselves that this is the Republican Party of 2016. Least of all Mr. Trump. RINOs are today the endangered species. Mr. Trump is facing a far more spirited pack—one he was instrumental in creating.
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https://amgreatness.com/2024/01/17/the-intellectual-foundations-of-maga/
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This WSJ opinion piece could abide in several categories though, perhaps embracing undue optimism, I put it here and hope Republicans, particularly those with higher ed creds, embrace its message.
The group scrutinized are the vocational fish among which I swim. I never cease marveling their utter inability to address pressing problems promptly, the irrelevant structures and strictures upon which they overlay on everything, and indeed the fact they can’t empty a wingtip Oxford full of urine without a printing a dissertation on the heel.
They should be easy to beat, their structures and strictures all sorts of abandonable due to their utter ineffectiveness, irreproducibility, and failure to deliver on myriad adamant claims. All that is required if for those of us able to empty a fluid filled shoe without consulting elaborate instructions to loudly and frequently state the obvious: these imperious, supposedly educated, would be overlords sporting the tams issued by their Ivy League or putatively lesser schools are naked regardless of how shrilly they claim to be sporting new diverse, equitable, and inclusive climate change and pronoun appropriate clothes:
The Them-vs.-Us Election
By Kimberley A. Strassel
Most Americans wouldn’t consider a banking titan a spokesman for the common man. But give JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon credit for putting his pinkie finger on the phenomenon—the divide—that best explains today’s unsettled political environment.
In an interview Wednesday with CNBC, Mr. Dimon took issue with a disconnected liberal elite that scorns “MAGA” voters. “The Democrats have done a pretty good job with the ‘deplorables’ hugging on to their bibles, and their beer and their guns. I mean, really? Could we just stop that stuff, and actually grow up, and treat other people with respect and listen to them a little bit?”
The powerful, the intellectual and the lazy have long said that the “divide” in this country is between rich and poor. They divvy up Americans along traditional lines related to wealth—college, no college, white-collar, blue-collar, income—then layer on other demographics. This framing has given us the “diploma divide” and the “new suburban voter” and “Hillbilly Elegy.” It’s sent the political class scrambling to understand Donald Trump’s “forgotten man”—again, defined economically.
That framing fails to account for the country’s unsettled electorate. There’s a better description of the shifts both between and within the parties, a split that better explains changing voter demographics and growing populist sentiments. It’s the chasm between a disconnected elite and average Americans. This is becoming a them-vs.-us electorate and election. Political candidates, take heed.
This gulf is described by unique new polling from Scott Rasmussen’s RMG Research, conducted for the Committee to Unleash Prosperity. Mr. Rasmussen says that for more than a year he’d been intrigued by consistent outlier data from a subset of Americans, which he later defined as those with a postgraduate degree, earning more than $150,000 a year, and living in a high-density area. Mr. Rasmussen in the fall conducted two surveys of these “elites” and compared their views to everyone else.
Talk about out of touch. Among the elite, 74% say their finances are getting better, compared with 20% of the rest of voters. (The share is 88% among elites who are Ivy League graduates.) The elite give President Biden an 84% approval rating, compared with 40% from non-elites. And their complete faith in fellow elites extends beyond Mr. Biden. Large majorities of them have a favorable view of university professors (89%), journalists (79%), lawyers and union leaders (78%) and even members of Congress (67%). Two-thirds say they’d prefer a candidate who said teachers and educational professionals, not parents, should decide what children are taught.
More striking is the elite view on bedrock American principles, central to the biggest political fights of today. Nearly 50% of elites believe the U.S. provides “too much individual freedom”—compared with nearly 60% of voters who believe there is too much “government control.” Seventy-seven percent of elites support “strict rationing of gas, meat, and electricity” to fight climate change, vs. 28% of everyone else. More than two-thirds of elite Ivy graduates favor banning things like gasoline-powered cars and stoves and inessential air travel in the name of the environment. More than 70% of average voters say they’d be unwilling to pay more than $100 a year in taxes or costs for climate—compared with 70% of elites who said they’d pay from $250 up to “whatever it takes.”
This framing explains today’s politics better. While this elite is small, its members are prominent in every major institution of American power, from media to universities to government to Wall Street, and have become more intent on imposing their agenda from above. Many American voters feel helplessly under assault from policies that ignore their situation or values.
What unites “rich” and “poor” parents in the revolt against educational failings? A common rejection of disconnected teachers unions and ivory-tower academics. Why are growing numbers of minorities—across all incomes and education levels—rejecting Democrats? They no longer recognize a progressive movement that reflexively espouses that elite view. Why are voters on both sides—including “free market” conservatives—gravitating to politicians who bash “big business” and trade and are increasingly isolationist? They feel the system is rigged by elites that care more about the globe than them. And why the continued appeal of Mr. Trump? The man is a walking promise to stick it to the “establishment” (never mind that most of his party’s establishment has endorsed him).
This lack of trust and cultural divide are no healthier than the simpler rich-poor split, but they’re there. The challenge for Mr. Trump’s GOP opponents as they move past Iowa is to recognize the sense of alienation. That doesn’t mean calling to burn everything down (Vivek Ramaswamy tried that and freaked people out), but it does require a campaign that offers more than vague promises to “strengthen the cause of freedom” or run on “your issues.” The polling suggests that most Americans are looking for a leader who promises to return power to the people. They are looking for a freedom agenda. Anyone?
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https://amgreatness.com/2024/02/21/irreconcilable-differences-californias-gop-falters-from-within/
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https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/08/ronna-mcdaniel-trump-step-down-00140291
It seems like the hatred or love of Trump dominates everything in Presidential politics today.
I am trying to figure out what she did wrong.
How much is her, how much is Trump?
Mismanagement?
What could be done better?
I certainly don't have faith in Lara Trump....
Though she is only the proposed co chair.
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I don't know she did anything wrong except not find the path to winning.
Also there is no innovation in fund raising. We're getting killed on that front. All they know how to do is hound people for money with scare tactics and no strategy.
Trump like Obama has had no positive coattails.
As we've said here for eons, our side has no clear, consistent, persuasive message.
The nominee is supposed to have control of the national party, but picking a family member is not too subtle.
Our nominee might win but he most certainly drives away certain very important groups.
We are in a trap and don't know our way out. Democrats are in an even worse one, but have some huge advantages.
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For reasons I don't have the time to list, I think Ronna was not up to the job, but moving on , , ,
"As we've said here for eons, our side has no clear, consistent, persuasive message."
THIS. Too bad Newt is not in a position to make this happen again!
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https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/ron-johnson-mcconnell-senate/2024/03/02/id/1155695/
seems sensible
Just think how strong our nation would be if we were without a crazy national debt.
Is Rick Scott the best choice?
May be in view of his background.
But I don't think he has Senate support to be chosen leader.
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https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/ron-johnson-mcconnell-senate/2024/03/02/id/1155695/
seems sensible
Just think how strong our nation would be if we were without a crazy national debt.
Is Rick Scott the best choice?
May be in view of his background.
But I don't think he has Senate support to be chosen leader.
My college classmate Ron Johnson would be a good choice. Not a showman but solid on the issues.
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He was your college classmate ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Johnson
I see he is from Minnesota.
Did you know him?
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He was your college classmate ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Johnson
I see he is from Minnesota.
Did you know him?
I also had looked him up and noticed we were in the business school, U of M, at overlapping times. In Wisconsin he doesn't mention growing up or going to college in rival MN!
No I didn't know him but we might have been in the same classes. We both likely had the same economics professor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Heller
During the LBJ discussion I was going to mention my days listening to Walter Heller, Chief Economic Adviser to President JFK and LBJ, and then to Presidential candidate Ted Kennedy in 1980 who thought President Carter wasn't Left enough. Heller helped me find Supply Side Economics. He would show us his writings in the WSJ. One time I lost his handout and had to go find it in the library to find it on the WSJ editorial page. He never mentioned he was hired to write opposing views, and that the main editorials made far more sense. Robert Bartley, Jude Wannisky and co.
https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Fat-Years-How-Again/product-reviews/002901915X
https://www.amazon.com/Way-World-Works-Gateway-Contemporary/dp/0895263440
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Rep. Donalds gives MASTER CLASS on how all repubs should respond on left wing media entrapment interviews:
listen between minutes 13 and 25 for Cong. Donalds superb performance:
https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/february-25-jake-sullivan-rep-byron-donalds-and-gov-gavin-newsom-204892741809
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looks like we will get Mitch McConnell lite
with Cronyn or Thune who have Liberty scores low 50s compared to 44 for McConnell.
Rick Scott who has run before but may not now is up there with Ted Cruz at high 80%.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/barrasso-opts-against-run-for-senate-gop-leader/ar-BB1jnddk?ocid=msedgntphdr&cvid=77912fb7bb4b4bb5e28dba2b7ccda915&ei=48
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looks like we will get Mitch McConnell lite
with Cronyn or Thune who have Liberty scores low 50s compared to 44 for McConnell.
Rick Scott who has run before but may not now is up there with Ted Cruz at high 80%.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/barrasso-opts-against-run-for-senate-gop-leader/ar-BB1jnddk?ocid=msedgntphdr&cvid=77912fb7bb4b4bb5e28dba2b7ccda915&ei=48
Right, why wouldn't they pick someone from the middle of the Republican caucus, like Josh Hawley or Marco Rubio, not someone from the center between Chuck Schumer and Ted Cruz.
https://progressivepunch.org/scores.htm?house=senate
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/report-cards/2020/senate/ideology
Not too late to fix this, but calling my Senators, Klobuchar and the lady from Planned Parenthood (Tina Smith), probably isn't going to help.
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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P1gWtWVmcXs
If we could get suburban Moms to see this. She tells a story of a young girl who survived the cartels human trafficking. Are women voters really in denial that these policies have these consequences? They are ok with gang rape and destruction of our cities and families, but motivated about the freedom to kill their own unborn. What are America's priorities?
A time for choosing.
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Did Google owned Youtube really think I wanted to see angry Joe after this great talk, or is that all agenda driven?
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because they do not like Trump and he ruins the Republican Party I say if you don't vote for him there will not be a Republican party with 4 more yrs of Biden and the crats.
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working for Rs
we should respond in kind with leftist jurists affiliations as thus:
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-attack-judge-daughter-deliberate-message-1886396
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Not sure if I like that reasoning. Doesn't it mean we think Thomas should be recusing himself?