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Wednesday, October 17. 2007

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The Republicans, with the exception of Ronald Reagan, failed to lead when they controlled the power. They failed at politics. They proved they are an opposition party, not a leadership party.

A Maggie's Farm reader and a disheartened Conservative, in comments here

Posted by Bird Dog in Quotidian Quotable Quote (QQQ) at 08:52 | Comments (27) | Trackbacks (0)

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For the life of me, I can't understand it. Republicans are horrible street fighters-even when they have significant advantage in numbers. I made mention last year that if the Republicans had enjoyed a 75-25 advantage in the senate, they would have somehow found a way to fail.

Bullies will remain bullies until you crush them.
#1 Thalpy on 2007-10-17 09:25 (Reply)
What do you call the democratic version of leadership? Leadership by investigation, scandal, tax increases, appeasement to our enemies...Just curious.
#1.1 Scott Wiggins on 2007-10-17 09:56 (Reply)
It's hard to sell the ideas of Federalism and the fact that voters will benefit from the government doing LESS.
#2 NJSoldier on 2007-10-17 09:57 (Reply)
Thalpy,

As I see it the white collar country club sterotype of the Republicans is still very much the dominant theme.. Yes, they made an attempt at erecting a "Big Tent" but that is now a flaccid memory. Yes, they have a majority of the Red/Blue map covered. At least in the last elections. And we hear of the distain the common man has for the Democrats but that "distain" is a foot wide and a half inch deep, owing to the fact that Joe SixPack doesn't have the foggiest idea the stakes in this geopolitical world and is happy as long as NASCAR is on TV and the wife can go to the mall.

The Republican pooh bahs LOVE to be "members" of the Congress and especially the Senate, especially if it doesn't require getting their Brookes Brothers soiled. The invitiations still come in for honoraria and the wives love the reflected glory, provided they don't have to get their persona too close to hoi polloi.

Republicans as street fighters. An oxymoron. The Republicans are the kids who were in the National Honor Society, Debate Club, and the Chess Club I, II, III, IV..
College took them into the Student Government where they learned how to lose gracefully to the thuggish Democratic kids who'd read Saul Alinsky, Marx, Marcuse, et. al. BUT they were BMOC and headed into estate tax law or Wall Street.

The Democrats know how to fight. They just fight for the wrong things, like socialism over capitalism, unbridled immigration over a moderated approach toward homogenizing the population before it arrives, splits into "Little Havanas", "Little Minsks" and now open demands of "Chicano Nationalism, Revanchism and the Aztlan Myth."

No, get ready for a different America.
#3 Habu on 2007-10-17 10:16 (Reply)
Habu, you are right, of course. Its coming, what can be done?
#3.1 Thalpy on 2007-10-18 09:09 (Reply)
The Republican congress led by Newt Gingrich brought the contract with America, welfare reform, and a balanced budget amendment that failed to pass the Senate by one vote. Bill Clinton lobbied against the balanced budget amendment. He was successful. President Bush passed some of the largest tax cuts in our history. Aren't you happy with a 15% capital gains rate vs 25%? The world was on the brink of economic depression following the bursting of the dotcom bubble, 9-11, and the recession that started under Clinton. Many economists would acknowledge President Bush's tax cuts as not only turning around the US economy but the world's economy. I was living in Germany at the time and they were truly suffering with 12% unemployment and budget deficits exceeding 4% GDP. Japan had been in recession for a decade. France, like Germany had double digit unemplyment and deficits that exceeded EU rules. We have not had a terrorist attack in this country for six years. Do you think we could say the same under a Kerry Presidency? A man who believes terrorism is a law enforcement issue? We saw how Clinton handled terrorism. He wished it away and fired a few Tomahawks at tents in the desert. Meanwhile, the terrorists plotted 9-11. I submit that we have seen democratic leadership on terrorism...The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have set free tens of millions from tyranny. You would think that fact would be recognized by the democrats and the world in fact. Yet, the Nobel goes to a failed politician who is a known pathological liar with a concocted story of manmade global warming. President Bush and Republicans in Congress have shown extraordinary leadership that has moved the country and the world. There was a day in this country when these facts would have been acknowledged. Unfortunately our media are performing at the twelve year old level as they seek to undermine all things Republican. Don't fret about Republican leadership, it is there. Just hope we can get the word out to the Amercian people. I recommend that we follow Reagan's 11th commandment, "thou shall speak no ill of a fellow Repulican". End of rant...Regards.
#4 Scott Wiggins on 2007-10-17 10:23 (Reply)
Thanks, Scott. We're back to Gramsci - for the 176,254th time. Control the media, control the narrative. Basic Marxism.

At the moment, the Republicans are ineffective at presenting their narrative. It's possible that Rudy or Fred will prove capable of changing perceptions but handwringing and whingeing about imperfections by the less than faithful doesn't go into the "helpful" column.
#4.1 Rick Ballard (Link) on 2007-10-17 10:52 (Reply)
Scott you make the same points all good and true 11th commandment Republicans make. I won't argue a one of them.

Why then are we ( and I will admit it is a long way off yet, a good thrashing of Iran via massive massive air strikes could show some guts and change the equastion) poised to lose massively in '08?

( three massives used , that's triple word score plus double word scor fore using the word back to back) Somebody do the math for me I'm practicing to be Democrat.
#4.2 Habu on 2007-10-17 11:02 (Reply)
I agree --Bush admin has had some signal domestic victories, and many nations have course-corrected to conservatism since 2000, too. France, Germany, Japan, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, most of latin America, Poland & most of eastern Europe, and the Asian tigers--all have moved toward pro-Americanism, free-marketism, and away from the cynical sweet-talk but autocratic/socialist model popular under the Clintons and the Clinton era organized crime inside the UN.
#4.3 buddy larsen on 2007-10-17 11:32 (Reply)
Where is the smaller, less intrusive government promised in 1980?

Where is the end to government intruding on everything?

And why was the Abscam sting the ONLY sting used against Congresscritters? Aren't they as liable for corruption due to power and money under their control as Big Business?

On taxation we are marginally less taxed, and the economy grown, but that does not seem to have marked the beginning of limited government. The promise to get rid of the Dept. of Education just went by the wayside, and now we have NCLB and less accountability but far more money going into it... for exactly the same reading rate as 1958 when poor Johnny couldn't read.

Leadership? 'Cut taxes and grow the economy' (so we can spend ever more!). Imagine what would have happened if we had far less government and lower taxes as promised... laud the lovely economy now, and ignore that it should be stronger by some factor with less government to absorb spending. Those tax dollars into government do not cycle through the economy as they do in the private sector, it barely reaches once through while on the private side a dollar is leverage to create more wealth and jobs and security.

Instead the R party has acted just like the D, save that they want Big Government to be more moralistic about drugs, pornography and internet gambling than the other side which wants restrictions on transfats, sugar and smoking. Lovely that they combine each other's faults so that more gets picked up by government over time so that it becomes the Big Brother warned about, seeking to get everything under its grasp.

Where is fiscal responsibility and balance of power within the Union? Can't find that on either side of the aisle, which is more a feeding trough than wide chasm. The choices seem to boil down to having an evil of two lessers, as both sides race to the bottom, choosing the innocuous evil of 'its for your own good' instead of the old fashioned outright evil of old.

As for Reagan's 11th, it prevented a deep investigation of the Chinagate/Donorgate scandal involving the People's Liberation Army of China having undo influence in the Clinton Administration. But to press that would have brought up some R Senators that had some shady dealings in their election campaigns. Best just drop it, then, right? If you put the party above the Union, then, simply, you are harming the Nation. And if you want accountable government, wrong-doing on your own side should not stop looking into problems in the other side... unless you truly do fear that you will lose power because of such scandals and cannot stand on your own based on your outlook for the Nation.

Then there is the lovely 'peace dividend' that the R party helped to move forward during the 1990's. Just don't need so many people under arms, world is all nice and peaceful, like, and don't mind the bombings of embassies, killing of diplomats and citizens, and the soldiers killed even before 2000. All just bright and peaceful in the world, downsize the military and spend those savings away! And run down two US Army divisions to the lowest readiness status seen since Vietnam... one of which was 10MD unable to deploy as a Mountain Division when we needed them in 2001. Thanks for that 'peace dividend'. Hope the bike paths and museums and cronies that got the money were worth it.

Apparently this economic growth was bought at a high price. And we continue to pay prices for social security and health care that were no business of the Federal government, at all, before 1942. Didn't get either due to the Spanish Influenza epidemic now, did we? Of course we chose the very worse way to pay for both that have long-term and structural ramifications to our liberty and prosperity, but so long as we are prosperous *now*, that is what matters. And both parties continue that forevermore!

Unfortunately these static parties have been disenchanting the public on this idea of 'democracy', and we have seen the steady decline of participation in our government since the 1960's. And the legitimacy of such government, today, is below that of democracies that have failed previously, with Germany in 1932-33 being a prime case and worry point. Not even a large plurality guides us as a Nation, thanks to these two parties polarizing everything. When democracy is the process of working to common solutions, placing utopia aside for what can be done now. And it is the cumulative 'nows' that both parties have failed the Nation.
#5 ajacksonian (Link) on 2007-10-17 10:51 (Reply)
"Unfortunately these static parties have been disenchanting the public on this idea of 'democracy',"
We live in a republic. The very word democracy is not mentioned in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution.
There is a HUGE difference: It was heavily debated. Here are two souces to explain the vital, very vital, differences.

http://www.mindcontrolforums.com/dvsr.htm

http://www.garymcleod.org/republic.htm
#5.1 Habu on 2007-10-17 11:11 (Reply)
Leadership in America looks like it is going downhill perhaps it is because anyone worth leading is scared off by the MSM. In the end public service is a no win scenario since the Legislative branch behaves like kids during recess who have to be controlled by school monitors.
Fred looks like he needs a b-12 shot and Rudy sometimes acts like a facist and the rest of the field is too splintered to carry the American people. The best guy is most likely Ritt but he is a Mormon and the masses are asses and will think he is going to ram his religious beliefs down everyone's throat.
The Democrats appeal to the folks because they spread the Nanny State philosphy and most of them would rather have somebody else take care of their problems. We know that "somebody" is the Federal government. The stars are aligned for a Clinton presidency similar to the Perons in Argentina. It will be interesting to see how the Mrs. and Mr. President Clinton handle the next four years. I suppose Hollywood is reserving their Lincoln bedroom now.
#6 no real choice on 2007-10-17 10:53 (Reply)
well, we can't simultaneously believe that there's no real choice AND that conservatives don't fight dirty enough. That right there is a helluva difference.
#7 buddy larsen on 2007-10-17 11:15 (Reply)
Buddy maybe it's the cold syrup but I'm not sure I understand your point. They'll always be a choice, electric chair or lethal injection but what does that have to do with the R's not fighting dirty enough?

I must admit I'm getting to the point where I will only be satified when we have another US Rep. Preston Brooks beating Senator Charles Sumner with his Gutta-percha wood walking cane in the Senate chamber event. It would be quite cathartic for me.
#7.1 Habu on 2007-10-17 13:02 (Reply)
ha--how many people anymore have even heard of gutta-percha? But, my point (badly made) is that, it's not that conservatives are nicer people, but that nicer people are conservative. IOW, part of what constitutes the two parties is a difference in how much they respect others. of course, the downside of that intrinsic respect is a keener disappointment when people act badly. Thus you get the "judgementalism" that the left has whipped us with since the late 60s.

But the left has it bass-ackwards, the distemper comes from love, not hate.

What comes from hate is indifference--and from indifference comes the only thing left in human relationships, that is, the left's vital force, the will to power.
#7.1.1 buddy larsen on 2007-10-17 14:17 (Reply)
take a look at this --esp the 'weird' numbers in the under-35 age group.

http://www.julescrittenden.com/2007/10/17/blue-mass/
#8 buddy larsen on 2007-10-17 11:43 (Reply)
I am unaware of one single appointed position in the state of WA that the new Pres. Bush filled with someone from his own party. When AG Gonzales finally, finally, got around to removing a US attorney who had started out Republican, but became Democratic (so much so he refused to investigate a foul, and corrupt election for governor), the media took out AG Gonzales. The postmistress here has been running the post office like it is her own private sorrority--been there for years.

Went to one of those really, really, really high priced Republican dinners once. The dems, and Microsoft were there to tell the only Republican Senator what they expected in order to "go along". Three tables of 8, one table was the Republicans, one/half were the democrats--the other seats were empty!
#9 anonymous II on 2007-10-17 11:52 (Reply)
That turned out to be one heck of a provocative quote.
#10 BD on 2007-10-17 12:06 (Reply)
Some vintage Reagan:

"Here's my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose."

"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant: It's just that they know so much that isn't so."

"Of the four wars in my lifetime none came about because the U.S. was too strong."


"I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandment's would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress."

"Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other."

"The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program."

"I've laid down the law, though, to everyone from now on about anything that happens: no matter what time it is, wake me, even if it's in the middle of a Cabinet meeting."

"It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first."

H/T Shelly
#11 Scott Wiggins on 2007-10-17 17:44 (Reply)
Fun links, if they haven’t already been offered here:

http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XdWqNEboJe4
#12 Anonymous on 2007-10-17 20:28 (Reply)
Good quotes Scott.

Personally, all the candidates leave me underwhelmed. I want a truth speaker... one even more blunt than RR. How about a Patton, or a Sherman... or a Chesty.

Anyone who will force the great middle to make a decision other than stasis. IOW, where does this country stand anymore.... lets find out. Then I will go build my bunker, because I fear I know the answer before hand.
#13 Luther McLeod on 2007-10-17 20:29 (Reply)
I have mentioned the tension now built into our society by the liberals vs. conservative stress. I described the position as being set in concrete which I fully believe to be true.
In addition I have recently added a parallel between USA circa now and USA circa 1840's and 50's, the ramping up years to the Civil War.

I do believe we will have another civil war in this country. The divisions over some basic issues of human life and rights are becoming so grotesquely distorted that I do not see a political formulation to remedy the bridge that divides us. To name but two, abortion on demand and invasion/illegal immigration. Both irreconcilable in the political arena and both with large constituencies on both sides.

Moral suasion is no longer in legitimate play by either the churches, political institutions or society in general. It is as was said in another post Gramsci’s cultural hegemony writ large. Now as of this writing the conservatives have not marshaled their side and alerted them that the war tocsin will sound sooner rather than later. The liberals have been in combat mode for generations. Once that tocsin sounds the pieces will be in place for the killing struggle to begin for that cultural hegemony.

In many ways and from all indications another Clinton in the WH could be the equivalent of Lincoln’s victory in 1860 for she will certainly revert to her original socialist agenda. If instituted there will be no turning back…. Alia iacta est.
#13.1 Habu on 2007-10-18 00:55 (Reply)
"In many ways and from all indications another Clinton in the WH could be the equivalent of Lincoln’s victory in 1860 for she will certainly revert to her original socialist agenda."

Could you explain this further? I fully expect HRC to leverage full on socialism down our throats but I need to be educated as to the analogy with Lincoln.
#13.1.1 Paul on 2007-10-18 02:39 (Reply)
Paul,
wiki, does an OK job with the explanation..
Best,
Habu

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1860
#13.1.1.1 Habu on 2007-10-18 08:40 (Reply)
Sorry for stepping on your links Anon. They were good ones.... except I can't see myself voting for Mitt.... I mean... they like making babies more than war... don't they :)
#14 Luther McLeod on 2007-10-17 21:02 (Reply)
Folks, I do not believe it is the issues that counts. It is rather the loss of ethical guidelines on behalf of the liberals; it is that they have been training up obedient foot soldiers for the past 40 years-people who obey blindly in order to receive a little nicer house, a little nicer job, or whatever the local democratic party block chairman, or local labor union leader has in his pocket to hand out this week.

IT is the loss of an agreed upon system of ethical behavior in the arena. Debate no longer matters, facts no longer matter--controlling the power is the only thing that matters to the liberals. To use an anology I see it more like the French in WWI trying to fight tanks with horses--refusing to acknowledge that war itself had changed.
#15 apple pie on 2007-10-18 11:10 (Reply)
Agree--they won't be satisfied until only the boot heel matters.
#16 buddy larsen on 2007-10-18 21:48 (Reply)

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