That Karl Rove political action committee “Conservative Victory Project” sounds like something out of a Seinfeld episode. Anyone who supported Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio deserves a big case of being told to STFU and STFD.
by Daniel Greenfield
There was a time in the 80s when standup comedians were required by law to wear loud blazers and louder ties and to demand answers to life’s unanswerable questions about senseless products, airline regulations and the other inconveniences of modern life. “Who were the geniuses who came up with that one?” was their demand.
The Republican Party, which has been a joke for almost as long as it has been a party, is in the hands of those same geniuses. Fresh off two defeats in presidential elections, they have come up with the plan of all plans to get back on top.
First, they will nuke their own grassroots by raising money to attack deviant Tea Party candidates and protect true conservatives who support amnesty, tax shelters and tax hikes. Considering that the Tea Party was responsible for the first Republican victories since 2004, spending money going after it is bound to attract voters and improve prospects for more victories in 2014.
Second, they will add 11 million Democratic voters to the rolls through amnesty for illegal aliens as part of a brilliant plan to stop being a national party and settle down to fighting pitched battles for local council seats. Even the geniuses behind the election polling and ORCA should be able to win a few those. And if they can’t, then it’ll be time to raise more money to keep down some of those pesky Tea Party types trying to run for school boards while saying politically incorrect things.
Fortunately there is a clear path to victory. All we have to do is convince the Party of Consultants that all is lost and that they should come out as Democrats now. If they do that, then the Democratic Party will be a useless ruin within a decade. If they don’t do that, the Republican Party will have the same policies as the Democratic Party, except for the part where it wins elections.
The establishment wanted Romney in ‘12. And they got him. They assured us that he was the only electable candidate. And when he lost, they told us that he didn’t fail, the country failed him. And if a campaign built on Staples couldn’t catch fire, it must have been due to the descent of the country into a nation of takers.
And they have a plan for ‘16. They’ll run an immigration friendly candidate like Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio to win the Latino vote. Sure, Rubio lost the non-Cuban Latino vote in Florida, and unless the entire population of Cuba gets imported to the United States and legalized between now and ‘16, he’ll only win, at best, as much of the Latino vote as Bush did, or as Rick Perry did, which isn’t enough to win an election, especially once you’ve legalized the 10 percent of Mexico that lives north of the Rio Grande. But after they blow that one, the geniuses will step up to the plate and blame the Tea Party for a loss by another of their perfect candidates because during the primaries Rubio or Bush was forced to disavow Amnesty II or Amnesty III.
The Republican Party of ‘12 looks a lot like the Democratic Party of ‘88. It’s outdated and running on fumes. All its slogans are tired and its leaders seem completely out of touch. Even the most unfair attacks stick to it, because it has no momentum. It isn’t going anywhere because it’s enclosed in a shell of outdated ideas and tired figures from its past who prevent anyone from coming to the fore. That same state of affairs led to the unlikely candidacy of Bill Clinton among the Democrats, but assuming that an obscure southern governor will battle his way through the Republican primaries to reveal a talent for national politics may be hoping for too much. And if he did, the establishment would spend their cash reserves to crush him in favor of a reliable choice like Paul Tsongas.
It didn’t have to be this way. The Tea Party gave the GOP a shot in the arm. Suddenly it was acting and thinking like a revolutionary party. There were ideas in the air, energy on the ground and anger coalescing into action. And then it all got shut down for four months of infomercials about Staples because the establishment had gotten what it wanted and decided to play it safe before the big game.
The Republican Party has no ideas. Its only ideas involve deciding which liberal platform to “evolve” its way up to and how to sell that “evolution” to the base. And a lack of ideas comes from a lack of beliefs.
There comes a time in every struggle when a man wonders why he’s doing this. And if the only answer is to win, then he isn’t really fighting for anything. He’s being competitive. Or he’s fighting to make money. Or because it’s all he knows. All three attributes describe the Republican Party now. Its leadership does not believe in anything. It believes in winning in that abstract corporate competitive way. It doesn’t really know why it’s fighting though, except that the other guys will make a mess.
A party without ideas borrows them from its enemies. [.......]Going after the Tea Party is sound strategy for the establishment, not from the standpoint of winning elections, but of keeping their jobs. If you lose, then you need someone to blame. The establishment is protecting its scalps by claiming the scalps of the reformers who might give them the boot. That’s one way of winning a circular firing squad. And of losing all the elections that follow.
Without ideas or beliefs, the Republican Party stands for very little except being the Party of Staples
Without ideas or beliefs, the Republican Party stands for very little except being the Party of Staples, and while Staples seems like a very nice store, it’s not really enough to base a whole country on. If the United States is to be reduced to a superstore full of office supplies, then America is no more exceptional than a stack of writing paper, four rulers and some office furniture shoddily made in a factory in some polluted Chinese megalopolis.
As the Staples Party, the Republicans are interested in importing more cheap labor into the country. It may not be good for the country, but it is good for the people who sign their checks and that’s good enough. And if Amnesty destroys the Republican Party, then they’ll find someone else to make their checks out to. [.......]
The Republican Party is an organization at war with its base
The Republican Party is an organization at war with its base. The Republican leadership and its backers think big. Their base thinks small. That inability to think small, to echo the concerns of ordinary people lost two elections. Reagan and Bush won, in no small part, because they appeared to be part of the small world of ordinary people. They shared their culture and concerns. They gave signs of being able to think small, and though the media ridiculed them for it as buffoons and dopes, Bonzo and the Bushisms had the last laugh. But that sensibility never sank into the leadership.
The establishment has failed to come to terms with the fact that the GOP cannot be a party of urban liberals and has been the exact opposite of that for some time. It can’t even be the party of wealthy people who live in liberal areas and agree with liberals on many things, except national defense and excessive regulation. [.......]
The Democratic Party knows who its base is. Its goal in office is to expand that base while shrinking its opposition. That is why it wants Amnesty. If the average illegal alien was likely to turn into a Republican voter, the entire Mexican border would have been irradiated and pop stars would be recording videos urging their fans to turn in any illegal aliens on their block. And that is because the Democrats may be evil, they may even be incompetent outside their conspiracy and campaign zones, but they aren’t stupid.
The Republican Party has no interest in doing things like that. The very accusation will lead to a dozen rebuttals in the form of editorials, radio commentaries and skywriting efforts. [.......]
A sane party would draw up a strategy by asking who its base is, what they need and how it can maximize their turnout. A party run by people who give lunatics a bad name, asks who the other party’s base is and begins planning to win them over by drastically increasing their numbers while disenfranchising and disgusting its own base. The only reasonable explanation for this is that the Republican Party is animated by a fever dream of returning to the scene of its triumphs in the first half of the twentieth century when no one could be paid to vote for it twice.
[.......]
The Republican Party has spent so much time trying to win over swing voters that it has lost sight of the fact that it is presiding over an empty hall, a vast echoing space in which nothing is happening. The Tea Party may be the last hope of the GOP, its final chance to connect with a base, gain some fresh energy and ideas, and emerge in fighting shape in ‘14 and ‘16. And if it can’t do that, then there’s always room on the standup comedy circuit of the big empty hall.
Read the rest – Who were the geniuses who came up that one?
I’ve been saying this since before the last election. YOu have to protect your base. That means the Tea Party, for Republicans. Yes, you will be called extreme. So fucking what? They are going to call you extreme anyway. They called Romney, the Massachusetts Moderate, an extremist. At the same time, the Democrat base are the real extremists. They are hard-core Leftists, socialists at best, Communists at worst, and I never once heard them characterized as such by the GOP. Politics is War. You don’t win by nicing your enemies to death. The Democrats get this, and that, more than anything else, is why they are winning.
@ Iron Fist:
I would have to disagree with this tactical approach. How about we go back to a strategic approach? The last one to do this was Reagan. He stood FOR something. “It’s morning in America…” Seems trite, perhaps, but it worked. And it worked in a situation very similar to the one we find ourselves in today. Give me a candidate that stands for and can articulate the basics, and he’ll get my vote, my money and my time.
Speaking of which, the House Republicans seem to be getting wobbly on gun control. That’ll destroy the party if it happens. Republicans already spend like Democrats. Now they tax like them too. If they go wobbly on civil rights (gun ownership is a civil right), then there is really no reason to continue to vote for them. It’ll wreck any chances they have of winning in 2016, for sure, and lead to a lot of Primary challenges in 2014. This is a red line that they had better not cross.
@ Mike C.:
That still has to get the base out. You have to have the right strategic concept. Romney didn’t have that. HE went with “I’m not Obama” and proceeded not to trash Obama. It was a stupid strategy. We have to do better. And Bifg Ideas aren’t what will hod the House and deliver us the Senate. There, we need better candidates, and we need candidates that will stand strong on a whole host of issues. I don[‘t have much hope for the foreseeable future. We have good potential candidates, but they are tied down by the so-called professional political consultants, who seem incapable of actually winning and, more importantly, governing. Bush won, but he didn’t govern well. We need someone who can not only win, but who can govern and advance an agenda.
@ Mike C.:
Oops -- I’ll have to correct myself. The last presidential candidate to stand FOR something was none other than B. H. Obama. Okay, he stood for something undefined, childish, and, in detail, downright un-American, but it was nonetheless a positive message. You might note that he won.
There’s got to be a way to be FOR border control without kissing up to those out there who are genuine racists.
Republicans haven’t found the way to communicate how conservative values are what will help people regardless of race, sex, national origin, etc.
@ Iron Fist:
That is exactly why I write their name as: Demo☭rats.
Has it occurred to anyone that it’s our fault? (By ‘our’, I mean the conservatives, tea-party, and anyone with moral principles) We’re the ones sitting back whining ‘why don’t the Repubicans do this or that‘ and ‘we can’t get our message out because the MFM won’t give us a fair shake‘.
All whine and no action. We’re not providing a real alternative.
@ Iron Fist:
I believe that had 9/11 not happened, George W. Bush would have been a caretaker President. Just keep the machine runnin’….
mfhorn wrote:
To his credit, Rubio is insisting that we implement complete border control, visa entry/exit verification, employer e-verify, … before the rest of the new immigration proposal gets implemented.
I’ve seen many Republicans that do (Reagan, Bill Whittle, Rush, Levin, … many). Reagan was the only one to go over the head of the MFM to reach the population at large and not just sing to the choir.
I’ve said this before, let me say it again:
Iron Fist wrote:
One way to get our message out — start the 2016 presidential campaign now!
Here’s how we can go OVER THE HEAD of the media and get our message out.
The FCC rules (stemming from Section 315 of the Communications Act) prohibit broadcasters from censoring the content of advertising that is a “use” by a candidate. Essentially, that means that the broadcaster cannot reject an ad that is sponsored by the candidate or the candidate’s official campaign committee, if that ad has the recognizable voice or image of the candidate somewhere in the course of the ad. — the station CANNOT REFUSE to run the ad.
Our candidate can force the MSM to stop ignoring and covering-up of important issues such as Bengazi, Solydra, … or the next Obama outrage and scandal du jour because there can be NO CENSORSHIP in a political ad.
Another important point — politicians have written rules for themselves requiring broadcasters to sell them advertising at the absolute lowest discounted rate.
After Reagan lost the nomination, he made over 1000 radio commentaries from 1975-79. Reagan articulated Conservatism properly — in millions of peoples minds — therefore he easily won the nomination. Reagan held no political office, but he mapped out a strategy to transform the economy, oil, guns, religion, taxes, energy, and welfare. He created a vision of America that propelled him to the presidency in a landslide.
Many of us want to see Allen West for our first Presidental candidate — and start now for 2016. Imagine 1 to 3 min. segments containing thoughts from real conservatives such as Bill Whittle, Rush Limbaugh, Levin, .. etc. played daily on NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, or even MSNBC followed by “I’m Allen West, and I approve this message”. Then when the libs heads predictably explode and their Tourette’s syndromes cause nastiness to spew from their mouths, WE GET TO CALL THEM RACISTS.
Millions of Republicans are tired of our party giving us squishy RINOs to vote for. We need to identify and support the strong conservatives so in 2014 we can expand the House, take the Senate — and take the Presidency back with a real conservatives in 2016. It starts by real conservatives taking over the Republican party. This starts by everyone joining your local county Republican executive committee and become a precinct captain, dammit!
We all keep asking why Republicans listen to feckless campaign advisers who tell them to abandon conservative principles in order to get elected — but then they predictably lose. If conservatives controlled the campaign, it wouldn’t happen.
If we don’t start now, I predict 2016 will be a contest between Christie and Hillary — followed by Hillary being the declared winner.
I agree with Rand Paul, we need to stop automatically writing off vast swaths of the nation and we need to run a 50 state campaign.
@ Fritz Katz:
I agree with everything you said. We need to start the campaign now, and it doesn’t need to be (and shouldn’t be) a squishy RINO like Jeb Bush. If the Republicans run Bush in 2016, they will lose, and they will deserve to lose. America doesn’t need political dynasties of any stripe.
@ Speranza:
Why spend money in California? Really. California has a Democrat Super-Majority in its legislature, a Democrat governor, and so forth. Yeah, maybe there are congressional districts you can go after in California, but that is really about it. At a Presidential level, every penny spent in California is a penny that can’t be spent in Ohio. California won’t decide the Presidential election unless we can win it, and we can’t. That is the reality of it.
Iron Fist wrote:
You can pick up congressional seats in California, also you might be able to get a Senator albeit not your type of Senator but nevertheless a Senator. I would rather have a liberal Republican over a liberal Democrat. A liberal Republican (if that is the only one who can get elected) will be one less Democrat we need to defeat to get control of the Senate. The Democracts understand that game (see Ben Nelson in Nebraska) and accept that.
@ Iron Fist:
If Jeb is the 2016 nominee, I will vote Libertarian. I will utterly refuse to vote for Jeb Bush, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee or Chris Christie.
I will only vote GOP if the nominee is Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Susanna Martinez, Scott Walker, Bobby Jindal or Pat Toomey.
@ Fritz Katz:
Rubio is the only one talking about Visa overstays. You are in Florida like me. You know how big of a problem that is.
@ Iron Fist:
I agree, if the GOP caves on gun control they are done.
(Social) Democrats stick more to the party as a whole while Republicans/Conservatives are more affiliated to special interest groups. This is why there is more “diversity” and less party conformity in the GOP.
@ Guggi:
You nailed it!
@ Fritz Katz:
Another thing needed is infrastructure. OFA is the most powerful electoral machine ever assembled. The Right needs a counter to it.
@ Rodan:
Another place that Bush failed us. He should have been about creating an electoral machine fo rthe Republicans, but he never looked beyond his own narrow career. He didn’t even provide a suitible successor for 2008. I can’t believe that the Republican Establishment is seriously considering Jeb Bush for 2016. That would be a tremendous mistake. He would be a bad President if elected, but I don’t think there is any way he could get elected. The Bush name is toxic in American politics these days. Nobody really wants a return to the Bush years, even though when you look at GDP growth and unemployment they weren’t bad years. No one seems to care about that anymore. It isn’t the Economy, stupid. Not any more.
@ Fritz Katz:
Growth & Opportunity Project
(not that they really would listen, but its worth a shot! I do think PRECINCT CAPTAINS!!eleventy!!1 is a biggy though)
@ Iron Fist:
The Democrats totally demonized him and his not fighting back help create this Leftist machine that is behind Obama. Many on the Right do not pine for a return to Bush. He was fiscally very leftist and his foreign policy sucked. The gOP is playing with fire if they push Jeb.
Guggi wrote:
Damn, I wish I’d said that……..
@ mskelly:
They need to do something about their get out the vote efforts. In critical places like Ohio, it was pathetic under Romney. If Romey’s campaign is any indication of what kind of President he’d have been, he’d have been worse than Bush. We are well shut of him, though four more years of Obama may be enough to break the country.
@ Iron Fist:
Look at how Rove is creating an organization to intervene in primaries. That money would be better spent building infrastructure and outreach to groups who normally do not vote Republican. Instead Rove wants to be a king maker in Republican primaries. he’s a scam artist and it sickens me he still has clout.
Part of the problem is that the Dems are cotrolling the debate by controlling
the language.
There is no Republican War on Women. There is not an anti-immigrant mindset,
the key is ILLEGAL.
They do not consort with a racist , violent Tea Party. The Tea Party is not violent or
racist.
They are not trying to push Grandma off of the cliff, they are trying to save Social
Security,
it goes on & on.
Those of you following the Moran conversation over at PJM from yesterday may find the newer comments at #71 and #73 to be of interest.
@ RIX:
The war on Women thing you can thank Santorum for that. He was OK with banning contraceptives. Then Akins ran his mouth.
As for4 the Illegal immigration thing, that has been tainted by a bigoted element lead by people like Ann Coulter. I heard Spanish language ads by Dems using her bigoted comments.
You are right that Democrats control the narrative, but many on the Right provide the Left with fodder. This goes back to lack of message discipline and i am convinced many prominent Conservatives are really Democrat false flag moles.
Another well managed Democrat city. Maybe Ray Lewis will sell some bling &
bail them out.
@ RIX:
Maybe Ray Lewis will be the Mayor who turns them around. After all, he is considered the greatest orator in sports!
@ Rodan:
Santorum sounded like he was running for Pope.
If people like Ann Coulter come across as bigoted the legal/illegal distinction is lost.
Yup, the Dems are controlling the narrative & the Media are enablers.
Oh yeah, Ray Lewis is the greatest thing ever./
RIX wrote:
Naw, they will just keep dropping the threshold to qualify as rich for tax purposes, and put up more “safety” cameras. We don’t have spending problems, they are revenue problems caused by our betters letting us keep too much of our earnings.
@ RIX:
No weapons formed against him shall prosper!
It’s all the fault of the crackers in the suburbs.
Obama Phone 2.0
http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/5/obama-crony-wins-contract-to-give-phones-to-jobles/
Ray is convinced that he is God’s favorite.
RIX wrote:
I thought that was Derek Jeter.
Rodan wrote:
I wish that goofball would disappear. He is such a loser in so many ways.
I saw Karl Pig Vomit Rove on Hannity last night. He immediately brings out his chalk boards.
RIX wrote:
Puttin’ on the Ritz?
Actually, It’s Obama.
They should all wear the foam cheese heads.
Geez, the guy seems so ethical./
Speranza wrote:
That reminds me. I’ve been meaning to write Fox with a list of their regulars whom when they begin to speak, I change change the channel and usually don’t return that day; Rove, Buchanan, Juan Williams…
Speranza wrote:
He scammed alot of people out of money. I can not believe he still taken serious. He’s a liar!
@ citizen_q:
I’m more into NBA Basketball right now. I only watch FOX for a bit. After they claimed Romney was going to win the election and told people to dismiss polls showing Obama ahead, I do not trust them.
@ Speranza:
He’s a Socialist and I wish more on the Right would wake up to what Santorum really is. Yet he is a hero to many.
@ RIX:
Who are we to judge what he does with his jizya?
/
“You did build that—but you shouldn’t be that proud of it.”
NPR discusses “the IKEA effect”—being unable to evaluate your ideas “objectively” because of your effort of investment in it. In other words, if you did build that you have an inflated idea of its value.
True, it’s a cultural thing.
@ 12 Speranza:
Every vote is important. It was foolish to bite on the 47 percent debate. My observation of the voter turnout is that they were all mostly worried about NIMBY benefits. Not an iota about foreign policy. A job. Universal Health care. A mortgage. And stay out of the bedroom. They all perceived as OBama thinking the same way and Romney never got a real voice going.
Rodan wrote:
I agree and feel the say way.
Though instead of Basketball, I watch the crime thrillers my wife likes to watch with her and armchair quarterback their tactical decisions.
“Urban scholar” Richard Florida yammers about how the “knowledge workers” who make cities desirable must now “strategize to boost the pay of service workers.”
@ citizen_q:
So you watch Law and Order and NCIS?
@ Rodan:
Thankfully not Law and Order, not sure why my wife hasn’t watched NCIS, but the various CSIs, Criminal Minds, Hawaii 5.0.
Here’s what the Dems actually stand for, courtesy of Baghdad Jim McDermott:
Of course, by “our system,” he means European-style socialism. It hasn’t worked all that well in Europe, but that’s just because they weren’t smart enough to do it right.
//
@ citizen_q:
AH Ok!
@ buzzsawmonkey:
By “Knowledge Workers” he means Hipsters.
Rodan wrote:
Yes.
I am continually in awe of the seamless propaganda machine that is NPR; the creation of pernicious memes couched in reasonable tones and plausible cliches mouthed by “scholars” of largely specious antecedents.
Conservatives in this country really need to learn from this operation. Limbaugh bombast is intermittently amusing, but he will never make large inroads into the educated classes; there needs to be a large, concerted effort to capture the hearts and minds of the university-sullied.
@ Rodan:
When they go through a door, and I complain that they should have “Sliced the pie”, or when a planned assault is made and the main characters still use handguns when a M4 sized AR would have been more appropriate she understands what I am talking about and why.
Pretty good for someone raised as an anti-gunner, even if I haven’t generated much interest on her part to join me shooting, yet.
It may be our downtime together after a long day of work and the other daily things we need to due, but I do try to engage her on issues as best I can. It isn’t a far cry from discussing the tactical scene on TV to current issues on the 2nd Amendment for example.
I know where you can find bars full of 20-something “knowledge workers” pulling down 100 K plus a year, and they ain’t hipsters, for the most part.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
They still do not grasp the nature of the Progressive enemy.
I admit to being bewildered that this article, which actually uses Rubio as an example of what is wrong with the Republican party elite, is introduced by Speranza and is followed by comments that praise … Rubio.
Rubio and McCain are doing their best to create 15 million new Democratic voters, and to make way for another 15 million NEW illegals, who will come here “to do the jobs Americans won’t do.” (Of course, some of these jobs would be automated if there weren’t an artificially low price for labor created by the illegals. Others would be done if wages were higher, which they would be without the illegals.)
The core Republican constituency consists mostly of married white people. A positive Republican agenda would be care about their prospects. Illegals are a disaster for this core constituency. And yet, the R elites keep pushing amnesties.
What exactly do big government, affirmative action supporting, amnesty Republicans offer for the base? Nada, it seems to me. So expect turnout drives for this base to underperform. Sure, most habitual R voters will vote R. But as the Ds know, marginal voters OF THE BASE need to be voting.
sk (skzion) wrote:
I post articles because they are interesting and can stir debate. I am not obligated to agree with everything in the article or what the author says.
Mike C. wrote:
“Hipster” is not merely a matter of wearing a soul patch beard or a mass of tattoos. It’s a state of mind.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
I am getting thoroughly tired of Rush Limbaugh.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
‘It’s a state of mind” -- with an iPhone!
@ sk (skzion):
Big hole in your theory. Most of Latin America is booming economically. The birth rates are falling and the desire to come here is practically zilch. Don’t worry, not many more Latins are coming here anymore.
You should sorry about the increasing number of Muslims in America. That is the danger.
Speranza wrote:
He’s good at what he does, and he keeps at it. But his appeal and his demographic are limited. Plus, if indeed he is as essential as the Left, and as too many conservatives, believe him to be, what is being done to replace him, let alone to expand the debate beyond the borders that he has reached? Nobody should be an Indispensible Man—and, while I do not necessarily regard Limbaugh as such, I do not see anyone coming up who would even fill his limited shoes, were he to be hit by a bus tomorrow.
In the battle against the Leftist Sauron, Limbaugh is Tom Bombadil—supreme in his chosen domain, but powerless outside his own domain.
FTFY
Working on Texas:
Senators question creators of curriculum system
mskelly wrote:
Indoctrination, pure and simple. I believe that it is a form of abuse to allow your children to go to public school. Private school is expensive, and home schooling takes time, but there are alternatives to the poisonous socialist indoctrination that our school systm has become.
@ Iron Fist:
Yup.
Here is the symbol I’d use…
@ Rodan:
Rodan, I didn’t single out Latin America. I am even more concerned about the sizable proportion of illegal Muslims (probably the second largest group of illegals). The same amnesty will affect ALL groups of illegals.
Regarding Latin America, I have read the types of sources you implicitly cite. I don’t believe them. Criminal illegals (odd usage, but you know what I mean) will still come over. Furthermore, let’s treat all illegals as economically rational. The issue then is not the level of an economy but the difference between them as this filters down to the person considering becoming an illegal. Can anyone really believe that it would be irrational to move to the US? Now consider Obamacare and the effect this will have on this calculus.
The Obama Administration has found the perfect way to honor
our troops.
Penetta has announced that next year military pay increases
will be limited to 1%!
No mention if that includes an Obama phone.
In fact, Rodan, the are also plenty of Chinese and Indian illegals, even though their economies, particularly the former, have strengthened tremendously. I am not concerned about Buddhists, Confuscianists, or Hindus, in terms of their religion.
mskelly wrote:
Depressing.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
He has way too much influence.
Speranza wrote:
Simultaneously too much and not enough, in my view. Too many people rely on him too much, and nobody should be, or be viewed as, that essential. He’s like a monoculture agricultural economy, which is too vulnerable to pestilence.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
For too many people on the Right, his word is Gospel.
Speranza wrote:
Yes. I have immense problems with that. Part of that problem is that there is so little else out there that is anywhere nearly as readily available.
Upthread, I observed that what conservatism needs is something akin to NPR—as well-crafted, as smoothly delivered, as tapped into the current culture, as bolstered by interviews with experts and academics and public figures. It is necessary not only to reach a demographic that Limbaugh and his bombast never will, but to provide a context and a respectability for conservative ideas that Limbaugh, who has built his persona as an oppositionalist figure, can never do. And it would raise up a new farm team of radio personalities.
The mistake the GoP makes with an Akin or a Bachmann is to not find their doppleganger in the Democrats. WE can marginalize an Akin but we also need the other side to marginalize their version of him. Else we lose numbers and they don’t.
Feminists = Chauvinists.
Afro centric thinking is the same as KKK thinking.
You can just move the pieces to the other side of the board and see that they basically think the same and function the same.
@ 80 Speranza: Flags of any type are not allowed here in the diversity community. There are strong hysterical objections that people feel oppressed when they are forced to identify with a certain flag. It’s written into a lot of social justice law already. Coming soon to a school or government near you.
@ 59 lobo91: I’m find with a peaceful life based on merit and opportunity. But beyond the civil boundaries it is still a game of death. McDermott is a parasite living on the deaths of those who protect his peace.
@ 56 buzzsawmonkey: Give people wireless tip jars and attach the transmitter to the skull. If you smile at someone they get .50 from your atm account. Unless you are classified as poverty level, then you get .75 from the smilers.
@ 88 darkwords: plus a .10 transaction fee for every smile.
darkwords wrote:
Brave New World.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
We need to be able to compete. We will not win a majority of the counter culture/hipster types but we should win larger numbers.
Speranza wrote:
NPR has had, what? 30 years? to create, unopposed, a milieu that determines the parameters of respectable thought. The Right has not competed in that area for that entire time; if it did, and did it well, it would change the culture/counterculture, and what it means to be “hip.” Frankly, I think there should be some effort made in the meantime to infiltrate NPR, though I’ve no idea how that could be done.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
We cannot just throw up our hands.
It cannot be “uncool” to be a Republican.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
There in lies the problem. Everyone has the answer, but no one willing to do it or find someone that can do it. Limbaugh does what he does because there is a market. If you believe peoples thinking is wrong, you need to find a way to change their thinking. Degrading everything about them and telling them to STFU and STFD tends to never get them to think your way. Sugar and vinegar as the old saying goes.
@ Tanker:
Hey, Tanker! More fun on that Moran thread at PJM; I’ve got some things at #71 and #73.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
Read them Great stuff, randumengineer is a idiot!
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
You are on a roll!
PJM does have some good writers.
I always wondered what was the story with Charles Johnson’s departure.
RIX wrote:
And Panetta was oneof teh more “mature” Obama appointees!
Speranza wrote:
Part of it seemed to upset Guggi, over in the next thread. I still don’t quite get why, and never got a response.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
I like Guggi but she can be a bit of a spit stirrer.
citizen_q wrote:
My husband watches those.
Whenever I am by myself, the idiot box stays OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lobo91 wrote:
I’m not about to let that pos “WEEEE” on me!