Five Memes Destroyed by Scott Brown’s Victory
4. Conservatives want to drive moderates from the party.
One of the most tiresome complaints from RINOs over the last few years has been that conservatives want to drive them from the party. Why, if the Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Jim DeMint crowd has their way, there won’t be a moderate left in the party!
One problem: that’s simply not true. While conservatives have shown little enthusiasm for moderate candidates in strongly red states and districts, we’ve said again and again that we’re willing to support moderate candidates if they’re the best the GOP can do in a particular area. In Scott Brown’s case, while he’s well to the right-of-center, he’s not a firebreathing conservative. To the contrary, he’s pro-choice, he supported RomneyCare, and he has previously supported a cap-and-trade system. Yet Brown received fierce support from conservatives all across the country.
Advertisement5. Barack Obama’s charisma can carry the Democrats through to victory.
Yes, Barack Obama beat John McCain handily, gives a good speech, and has been treated by the mainstream media like he can do no wrong. Of course, George W. Bush’s approval rating was also in the high eighties at one point. How did that work out for the Republican Party by the end of his second term?
In Obama’s case, his approval rating has already dropped like a rock and he has been unable to provide much of a boost in key races around the country. Obama has now personally campaigned for Creigh Deeds, Jon Corzine, and Martha Coakley — all of whom went down to defeat. Barack Obama may have the support of Democrats across the country, but he doesn’t seem to be able to get them to turn out anymore and his appeal to independents seems to have evaporated. So any hopes that Barack Obama’s “star power” could shield the Democrats from heavy losses in 2010 have now faded.
Koslings seem convinced that NOW is the time to ram HCR bill through.
At australia’s last election, the (conservative) prime minister lost his seat. He’d held it for over 30 years, and it was basically considered a safe liberal seat. When he contested that election he was the longest-serving (and generally considered politically very successful) prime minister in the country’s history – and still held that position. So that one electorate kicked out a highly successful serving PM, and by a pretty reasonable margin.
What happened?
(1) He lost his mojo. His magic trick of keeping interest rates down by flogging everything that wasn’t nailed down finally came to an end, everybody knew it, and the government’s history of foreigner-bashing, lying and screwing people over suddenly became relevant again. The voters of bennelong no longer had any expectation that he would be PM any more after the election. So he went from being a magically powerful candidate (e.g. ted kennedy) to a fairly ordinary rooster.
(2) The labor party fielded a very good candidate (e.g. scott brown) against the suddenly not very interesting incumbent (e.g. NOT ted kennedy)
(3) While the PM had been sitting on that seat, it had changed. 10 years of blaming foreigners for the weather didn’t matter as long as he kept the goodies rolling in as a perk of being PM – but he wasn’t going to _be_ PM any more, and the surprising increase in foreign migrants in that (previously blue-blood) seat meant it was no longer a conservative “safe seat” any more. So … out he went. One of his previous colleagues said he’d be carried out of parliament in a pine box. I’m glad we were saved the expense of the planks and nails.
All politics is local. Never forget that. Obama is undoubtedly taking a hit for the trouble of, you know, DOING STUFF – but (as I understand it) massachusetts already has pretty fine health care measures as it is, so you could easily overestimate the depth of feeling on that score.
Another possibility is that the dems just fielded a really bad candidate, or the demographics has changed since ted took his seat 93 years ago (or so).
I’m underwhelmed. But, then, I also don’t really care.
One more important meme I hope is going away with this paradigm change is that if you beat a drum loud enough and long enough it will become truth. I think a major contributor to President Obama’s rise is that the Democratic party started early enough and established the momentum of the negative spin against conservatives and Republicans. I hope that the mean spirited and downright vile emasculation of opposing voices will be drowned out by this turn of events. If we can establish momentum then it is possible to get and maintain leaders who have more virtuous and ethical qualities. This will help us attain what is good for us in the long run. Leaders whose self interest and agendas are always at the forefront of their decisions will ultimately lead to this miserable excuse we have for political discourse and lack of values or stewardship of assets and economic growth.
PS. I don’t really think President Obaba won because he was the candidate of hope and change. He won because his party made the opposition look evil to America. The party, Hollywood and the media were all complicit in this. They have no where to go now because they can not backpedal without losing face. They are still blaming everything on President George Bush, God Bless him, and he is basically a good person who cares for his country. Isn’t that what we all want to be? If they can do this to someone who tries to do his best in the midst of all of us then what hope do we have to expect a stronger virtuous person to succeed where President Bush failed. Does Sarah Palin really deserve the personal attacks she has had to endure? It this really how we want the political status quo to be in our country? Just some thoughts.
The voting citizens woke up to the Obamanation governments profligate spending, taxes, pork spent on nothing, not creating the proper environment for the economy to grow. Now the Obama doubling down will crush the Democrats in the 2010 election. Time for all Republicans to focus and stop playing the “go along get along”!
I’d say meme no. 4 is a classic case of projection. “Progressives” have been doing their utmost to drive moderates out of the Democratic party literally for decades. Never mind Joseph Lieberman- consider that Ronald Reagan started out as a Democrat. And that today, neither Harry Truman not JFK would be welcome in the party’s leadership, based on their policies as Presidents.
While there are certainly some groups in the GOP who are obsessed with “ideological purity” (the “Creationists” come to mind), the difference is that as Zell Miller observed, in the GOP, they are required to stand in the back of the “big tent” and keep their voices down. In the Democratic party, those from the left who are “purists” to a degree that would make Marx proud, and Trotsky blanch, are up front, on the podium, screaming at everyone else through megaphones. With thugs stationed at all the exits to soundly thrash anyone who tries to get out- or just tries to talk back.
I find it fascinating that they wear their “ideological purity” as a badge of honor- when to an impartial observer, it is no more rational, and in fact just as loopy, as the “mirror image” elements in the other party they affect to be frightened of. While that “mirror image” is doing just the same thing, but to lesser effect; mainly because the GOP is generally smart enough not to give them any more attention than they warrant.
As for myself, both lots remind me of what Wellington said after reviewing his troops just before Waterloo; “I don’t know if they will strike fear into the enemy, but by G-d they frighten me.”
clear ether
eon
“So any hopes that Barack Obama’s “star power” could shield the Democrats from heavy losses in 2010 have now faded.”
Really?
Does this include the fact that 50+ million dumbed down “love” products of the Woodstock generations are still roaming the streets of every square inch of our country? All it would take right now is for Obama to pull off one, sweet little act of success and these people would swarm the Earth like mad hornets going after some idiot that poked a stick into their nest.
If we were dealing with normal people under normal circumstances the logic behind this article might hold water. We’re not. We are dealing with endless hordes of mindless attack droids every last one of which vote Democrat.
The lesson is unrelenting diligence and swift follow through by the voters no matter what political party they belong to, where they live or what they believe our founding fathers might think of them.
What charisma?
“… Kennedy’s widow …”
Who or what’s a “Kennedy?”
Not that dead Swimmer feller, surely?
Until recently America’s most hideous living enemy?
(A title since inherited by the every-bit-as-execrable John Sidney RINO McRainman!)
Destroyed Meme #6:
That Barack Obama is the Messiah who can endlessly feed the multitudes from the limited number of loaves and fishes produced by the productive members of our society.
Destroyed Meme #7:
That Barack Obama can heal the sick–every last one of them–without increasing costs, rationing care, or imposing crippling taxes.
Destroyed Meme #8:
That Barack Obama can bring the economy back from the dead by applying dead and failed Marxist theories and policies.
Yes, your new leader, Scott Brown is now putting the word out that he is in control of things and I have to say it is “real leadership” that has been lacking in the conservative movement over the past year. He has given the direction and the purpose that the Palin-Tbag types failed to provide. Its Scott Brown and the Independant Republicans in the Northeast and far west that will now take control from the extremists and lead the party in the right direction. There is no longer any room for renagade, disorganized country bumpkins in the movement other than for cosmetic purposes. NY-23 has taught the Cons a hard lesson. Good Luck to Scott and his party !
Another meme that bit the dust: Voters in a leftist state will never support a right-of-center candidate. That is to say, party affiliation trumps all.
Yes, I know: A majority of voters in the Bay State are “undeclared” (i.e., independent). But they nevertheless overwhelmingly vote for liberals — at least in Congressional races. They had not elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate, for example, in nearly 40 years.
Moreover, of those voters in Massachusetts who DO express a party preference, Dems outnumber GOPers three to one. So it’s accurate to say that Republican Congressional candidates typically fair poorly in the Bay State. Bearing that out: Martha Coakley was a double-digit favorite a few short weeks before the election.
But, reflecting the mood of millions across the country (regarding the behavior of governmental officials during the past year), voters in Massachusetts chose to send Washington a very big message: Shape up or ship out.
And for that, we owe them a heartfelt “thank you.”
See: http://bereapundit.com/thank-you-massachusetts
Matthew:
You might want to read this article about Massachusetts healthcare before you start to crow about how socialized medicine works so well.
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/01/22/cohn-heads
2. Matthew: interesting points but I am not sure that Mass voters would agree that Romneycare is working. Costs were supposed to decrease but have actually increased dramatically. The analogy with Australian politics does not fit exactly. Brown and Obama have opposite political views. Obama won last year. Brown won this year. If all politics is local, what explains the swing? The feeling is that there has been a bait and switch (ran as moderate, leads as far left) by Obama.
Republican and Conservative parties need to appeal to liberals who can no longer stand nor stomach the progressive nanny state but don’t wish to accept a different fundamentalism and/or creationism as an alternative, fiscal conservatives who also believe the war on drugs and attacks on “gay marriage” are diversions and mistakes, any and all libertarians who hate socialism, collectivism and statism and everyone who values freedom. I guess that would be me and those like me. Indeed, keep the Ron Pauls and the fundies in the back row and quiet.
“During the Bush years, Karl Rove was supposedly engineering a new conservative majority that was going to last for the long haul. We all know how that turned out.”
George W. Bush was not a true conservative. His wasteful spending policies doomed all realistic chance of a “permanent” conservative domination. A Ronald Reagan type of presidency would have made the hopes of a new conservative majority a reality.
#2 Matthew – the problem with your outline that ‘all politics is local’ is that it is an ‘ideal template’. And ideal templates and reality don’t always match up.
Brown’s win in Mass. wasn’t based on local issues. His campaign was purely on national issues. He won with his clear and open statements against the Democrat’s national health care plan, against their massive deficits and tax increases; against their cap-and-trade; against civil protection for terrorists. These are all, every one of them, national issues. Not local.
Even though you, in your elitism, don’t care.
@ #6 eon,
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. What’s truly amazing when we start talking about moderates, is how the “center” mark keeps shifting and always to the left. Today’s moderate Republican was yesterday’s moderate Democrat. Yesterday’s hard left liberal is mainstream liberal today. I don’t believe this is an accident or an indication of society’s slow “evolution” to progressive in general. I think there is a broad, strategic campaign to make sure that mark is always drifting toward blue. The “conservative monster” theme in general is starting to stink pretty bad especially when it’s the moderate wing of our own Party that’s propagating it.
16. David Thomson:
“During the Bush years, Karl Rove ….
agreed Bush was not really applying conservative standards. to eager to compromise. if you are correct no compromise is require or desired.
I don’t know how much Karl Rove figured into his truly disastrous policies at the end of his term as Karl had left the White House. I generally agree with what I hear from Karl Rove.
The Sixth meme: Fox News – Fair and Balanced.
“Did Senator Specter step over the line? We’re gonna report, you’re gonna decide. But the answer is yes.” – Steve Doocy
Poor Citizen:
You will tout Brown as a “moderate” until he runs again and then presto chango he will become a right wing extemist That’s how you Fascists (oops I mean Progressives) treated John McCain. Moderate until he won the nomination.
Let’s not forget about memes created:
He’s the NEW MESSIAH . . .THE CHOSEN ONE . . . THE RESURRECTOR . . . THE SAVIOR OF CONSERVATISM . . .THE ANOINTED ONE . . . Sarah who?
Scott Brown is THE WHITE JESUS!
Oh, I think I’m gonna faint . . .Oh, I’ve never seen such a smile . . .Oh, he’s so charismatic . . .Oh, I know he was just a state senator and just got elected to the US Senate but he should run for president . . . Oh, he came along just in time . . .Oh, he’s such a good speaker . . . Oh, what a wonderful family . . . Oh, he’s so historic . . Oh, he’s gonna change everything . . Oh, now I won’t have to worry about paying my taxes.
Of course, that would only be a critic’s point of view, wouldn’t it. You a$$holes have no standing.
Matt – My relatives who haven’t escape MA yet tell me their healthcare is a mess and bankrupting the state. Doubling down with federal healthcare would have meant throwing good money after bad.
As for Obama – I’ve seen it in the military and civilian jobs – it’s far easier to criticize than actually deliver. His lofty campaign promises that his disciples believed sound like total BS now. Reality has exposed him and his followers for the dimwits they are.
Hi. I’m Scott Brown This is my truck. And these are my investment properties. How many? I don’t know. I’ll check with my staff.”
Some things never change.
24. skeeziks:
Hi. I’m Scott Brown This is my truck.
too bad you will not apply that rational to Obama and his lovely wife.
Destroyed Meme #? People watch the media and hang on their every word.
It used to be everyone watched the same TV shows so they could know what everyone was talking about at the office or at school. Now everyone is trying to keep up with all the political discussions. They can’t underestimate the intelligence or knowledge of people anymore.
More people are watching or listening to Fox News than the MSM, and are slowly learning about where else to find out what is really happening and motivating the politicians. People are researching before voting and voting more. More people believe their votes really count now and that we are in an important battle.
If they believe they don’t remember what the Constitution is all about or never knew, they are catching up.
11. If you believe that one, then you’re more delusional than you accuse the far right of being.
22. You’re the only one saying that. We conservatives don’t idolize our politicians, not even Reagan.
Daphni:
I see you have fallen for the liberal meme on the effectiveness of Fox news. I am sorry but it BS. The Alphabet networks command far more viewers then all cable news combinted.
http://www.journalism.org/node/1363
11. Poor Citizen:
24. skeeziks:
The Tea Baggers seem to have trumped the Barack Suckers… it’s gonna be a rough year for you guys.
“I’m laughing at the superior intellect.” James T. Kirk to Khan…
With regard to the issues of this article – I disagree. I don’t think that the Democrats are working within any of these ‘memes’; I think they are oblivious to reality and these memes are supposedly related to reality. These Democrats are working within ther own ideology and it has nothing to do with any reality. Their view is that there is a utopian or ‘right way’, held within their ideology, and their task is to implant this infrastructure within America.
In this way, these Democratic ideologues are no different than any fundamentalist ideology – including that of the Islamists who also want to remake the world according to their ideology
#22, 24 – The problem, skeeziks, with your comments is that they are empty. They are rants, made up of buzz words, devoid of any connection to reality. You have to, if you want your comments to be accepted as non-empty, provide some links between your words and the reality of Brown.
So far, all you’ve done is tried to claim is that he’s really an Obama, or really a McCain, but you’ve provided no evidence! Therefore, you aren’t in reality a critic; just a ranter.
#11 Poor Citizen. Do you think it’s reasonable to insult the Tea Party movement, with scatalogical references? Why do you do this? Do you reject their criticisms of big expensive govt? Do you reject their right to criticize?
Both Obama and McCain have to go. And so too, the radical Democrats who run Obama according to their utopian marxism.
skeeziks, Brown stood on a principle. Obama stood on his teleprompter.
Hi, I’m John Edwards. This is my baby. How many do I have…I don’t know, I’ll have to check with my staff.
Scott Brown is apparently the first person to hold the “Kennedy” seat in over half a century, who hasn’t wound up having to cover up a nude mistress found dead.
But hey, being “progressive” means lying, cheating and murdering is ok…as long as you talk like an anarchist.
“…Barack Obama beat John McCain handily, gives a good speech…”
Correction: Obamidiot READS speeches, and vacuous, cliche’d ones at that.
Recommendation for upcoming republican president:
Do not be omnipresent. Barack Obama has taught us many things by his poor examples and one of them is this:
Some people might get a thrill seeing your face plastered on every available surface…but when they stop liking that , they are going to be pissed that you did that in the first place.
Hi, I’m Scott Brown. This is my truck.
I recently ran over Ted Kennedy’s toes & Mary Jo Kopechne smiled.
Daphni, you’re onto something. People aren’t sheep who blindly listen to Cronkite, Huntley, Brinkley (Couric, Sawyer, & Oprah now) anymore. There are far more sources of news & info available and people are becoming more & more sophistocated in their knowledge. Fox, internet news, talk radio (which was practically dead before Rush), blogs, alternative publications (to the liberal Time, Newsweek, NYT, LAT, WP, et al), and more, are keeping people apprised of what really happens in Washington, and not some liberalized, sanitized version that the lamestream media feeds us. In the old days, a Senator or Representative could talk conservative at home, then go to DC & vote liberally and get away with it; those days are gone.
What has recently happened in Virginia & New Jersey plus Scott Brown’s election are examples of the people rising up and saying no more big spending, no more secrecy, no more ramming things we don’t want down our throats, no more handouts to thuggy unions & greedy financial (mis)managers, and no more socialization of our economy.
Elected Republicans take note: you’d better show some fiscal restraint or you’ll be kicked out too, in a repeat of 2006.
Wow. Check it out – Vivo comes back as a “skeeziks” to entertain us with more astounding logic and wit.
Not.
32. cfbleachers:
Scott Brown is apparently the first person to hold the “Kennedy” seat in over half a century, who hasn’t wound up having to cover up a nude mistress found dead.
He’s too busy covering up his nude willy. What’d Palin call it? Oh yeah, porn. Congratulations, you elected a porn star! Family values are back!
Yep, the truth hurts, and your responses show the desperate self-salving that is the inevitable result of arbitrary principles.
This is gonna be fun.
Ooh, Scott Brown, he’s so charismatic. And that smile! Ooh. He’s the future! He’s a meteor! He’s a superstar! He’s a . . . he’s a . . . . he’s a . . . does anyone have a towel?
32. cfbleachers:
Hi, I’m David Vitter. This is my diaper.
Hi, I’m Tom Foley. This is my page.
Hi, I’m Oath Keeper Dyer. This is my niece that I just raped.
Shall I continue?
It’s stuff like this that makes me think that this is becoming a nation of morons. Everyone agrees that Moakley ran a terrible, terrible campaign. And while Massachusetts has this reputation of being a hard core blue state, that’s only in the urban and academic areas — out in pickup truck and SUV land beyond the borders of civilation, we have the usual large assortment of conservatives like everyone else. Scott had 40% of the vote to start with. If Coakley didn’t disappear during December and didn’t wait until the last minute to even run ads, she very likely would have won. If her opponent in the primary, Mike Capuano — who has broader support and very likely not have taken the holidays off — would very likely had won. Come 2012, Capuano will very likely be the Democratic contender and will likely easily defeat Brown, who according to town by town results basically was still shut out from all of the urban and academic areas despite very lukewarm support for Coakley there.
And the people in those civilized areas of the state are pretty p.o.’d at how the Republicans and the increasingly clueless mainstream media have been ignoring these boring old facts to instead make a much more exciting BFD about how this was all really a referendum on Obama. Brown, unless he shows a lot more intelligence and independence than he did during his campaign, is toast come the next election cycle.
BC, not that it makes any difference to you, because you have yet to heed admonitions about mixing insults with condemnation (in other
words, stop digging, because you are making the hole you are in larger), I do so again.
As for the deafness, blindness and dumbness exhibited by the political class, they do not want to get the view point expressed thusly: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100023350/barack-obama-and-gordon-brown-biff-the-bankers-good-politics-bad-economics/
Really, life is good today.
It’s nice to bask in the sun of victory.
First the communists lose the elections in Mass.
Then the Supreme Court pulls down the McCain-Feingold gag that allowed only the socialist media corporations to campaign.
Added bonus, the trolls are present in forces and are MAD !
Life is good.
We need to recharge our batteries and be ready to fight for the next defeats of the communists and of the friends of the terrorists.
#40 BC. Could you provide some evidence for your assertion that:
” the people in those civilized areas of the state are pretty p.o.’d at how the Republicans and the increasingly clueless mainstream media have been ignoring these boring old facts”?
Could you also provide some evidence that the people in ‘those areas’ are ‘civilized’ (and please explain the term) while the people in the other areas are ‘uncivilized’ (and please explain).
By the way, are you aware that Brown ran on national or Obama-issues? He ran against Obama’s Health Care, against Obama’s treatment of terrorists as civilians; against Obama’s cap-and-trade, and against Obama’s massive spending and deficits.
And could you also explain why these issues are rejected by the ‘civilized’?
I’m sure you don’t want to come across to us as an ignorant ideologue who considers His ideology as superior and sneers at ‘regular folk’. Heh – shades of the 18th century Regency Landowners who sneered at ‘those people in trade’ and considered ‘working’ rather than just collecting rents (taxes) as something only the peasants do in their trucks..er..field carts. You don’t really want to be a Regency snob, do you?
your responses show the desperate self-salving
Skeeziks, in case you hadn’t noticed, we’re jubilantly braying over our success and cruelly dancing on the grave of your cherished ideal. Change your meme at least.
Meme #6 (or which ever)- REPUBLICANS DIDN’T TRY TO HELP – For a year now we have heard the consistent drum beat from the Obama administration and leaders in congress that the Republicans were being real stick-in-the-muds about all the awesome changes that Obama had planned to unleash on the American proletariat. So awesome were these changes that Obama himself admitted that we proles may not even understand them at first.. but will love them later.
It was in this atmosphere of delusion that the Republicans helped in the only way an ultra-minority can… by refusing to rubber stamp anything. The Democrats, as is the case with most ultra-majorities, had everything they needed to pass anything they wanted.. except full and unquestioned power. Sixty seats was not enough, you see, because where sixty seats is filibuster proof, it is only precariously filibuster proof. By the mere action of showing a near forty seat solidarity the Republicans forced the Democrats to at least consider what it was they were planning on unleashing.
Remember, in the heady days of late July 2009 the health care bill was written and ready to be voted on without reading it. So gung-ho were the Democrats to accomplish this undemocratic absurdity that many of the Democrats defended the idea of not reading the bill .. and did so publicaly. The Republicans and enough Democrats to matter had saner heads on their shoulders and fought for the audacious hope that they could read the bill to which they were tying their political futures.
But it wasn’t just the Republicans being road blocks, or some blue dog uprising. This was, miracle of miracles, a group of politicians thinking about their constituents. What plays in the beltway doesn’t always play in Peoria. This health care bill had materialized into a 2,000 page monstrosity. As such it was no longer connected in any way to the “empty vessel” wishes of the American people when “health care reform” was an idea unfettered with real policy put to paper. Now the bill had real form, and most people hated it. To assume that a February poll on health care reform not yet written was translatable to the hsop of Horrors that was the July bill was folly… but that indeed was the driving force for hard line Democrats.
Now consider this.. where would the Democrats be if their leadership had listened to the Republican opposition? They would have come to a compromise solution on health care who’s passage into law would be old news on January 19th. It wouldn’t have been everything the Democrats wanted.. or what they believed they were entitled to with a 60 seat majority… but it would have been better than what they have now. Indeed, they would have had a feather — albeit smaller feather — in their cap, and Coakley, not Brown, would have been the new Senator from Massachusetts.
Instead the Democrats didn’t take Republican opposition seriously and may have lost everything in the process.
So you see? Republicans did indeed try to help. Going it alone, and flamboyantly so, the Democrats lost everything and gained nothing in the process.
Now we have some Democrats and Republicans — the newly minted Senator Brown among them — calling for a draw back and a more open and new approach to health care reform. Will the hard liners see this as the olive branch it is intended to be? Time will tell. But if they go the harder-tougher route they can’t expect a better solution… just more losses.
@40. BC: – It’s stuff like this that makes me think that this is becoming a nation of morons.
You’re a bit slow on the uptake. As usual. That sad facet of America became apparent over a year ago.
- If Coakley didn’t disappear… If her opponent in the primary… blah, blah, blah…
LOL!!! If you only had a brain.
#40 – Now, take that rationale and apply it to the McCain campaign. I’ll wait here until you come back with your conclusions….
Every time I see being “pro-choice” described as a “moderate” position and that “pro-life” is a “Conservative” one, I resent it. The abortion debate has nothing to do with Conservative or Liberal continuum! It is a separate axis along with so many other so-called “Social Conservative” issues.
#45 Mayor
Your post is a precious analysis of the stubbornness of the “democrats”.
They were so stubborn on the health-care bill because they were not interested at all in reforming/improving the health care system, they were instead trying to impose a STRUCTURAL change to America’s economy and way of life.
The neomarxists of the so-called “autonomous” marxism call this strategy “changing the MATERIAL constitution” of a country.
It is an insidious form of revolution, no less dangerous than a violent revolution and with the same catastrophic consequences.
Cap and trade amounts to the same kind of subversion, and so do the proposed “regulations” for the financial markets.
All that this administration does (or tries to do) always aims at the same target, the heart of America’s might. To destroy it.
“After Bush lost…”?!?
Re:” Barack Obama’s charisma can carry the Democrats through to victory.”
The charisma was based on the campaign image, the Wizard all smoke and mirrors. During the last year, the curtain has been pulled back and the center voters have seen the bumbling, self-important, teleprompter reading, arrogant fool who’s trying to govern by having meetings to convince himself and his helpers that they really, really, really do know what’s best for everyone.
It was telling that Obama said that they simply hadn’t gotten the message out about the glories of his health care takeover, that people would really be for it if they only understood. He’s missed the point, the people DO understand and aren’t buying it.
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Well, one thing alive is well, which you conveniently forgot to note, is that the anger with Bush is still deep and raging so strongly that everyone is voting incumbents out, regardless of party, because the people blame all politicians for the problems which were caused solely by Bush.
Thanks you Massachusetts from a midwest conservative.
Still…..’Don’t get cocky kid”…it isn’t over and never will be.
Thanks.
39. skeeziks:
Hi I’m Barack Obama and this is My Sugar Daddy…Tony Rezko
#3 “After Bush lost”
After Bush lost what? I don’t believe he ran for anything in 2006 or 2008.
Chris Matthews to an increasingly delusional, irrational Howard Dean, whose argument according to Chris was, “If Coakley won, it would support Obama’s agenda; if Coakley lost, it would support Obama’s agenda”:
“Howard, you’re whistling past the grave yard….”
Vinny B: Yes, that’s right. Every politician not named George W. Bush have clean hands and are not in any way, shape, or form responsible for our current problems barneyfrank nancypelosi
He’s too busy covering up his nude willy.
Nude willy? How did Clinton get into this?
What’d Palin call it? Oh yeah, porn.
You think Cosmo is porn? I thought you “progressive” folks thought that it was “just about sex”, during a claim of sexual harassment by a superior over an underling. But posing for a Cosmo cover decades ago bothers you? Hmmm. You seem awfully worked up….did Brown stain your blue dress?
Congratulations, you elected a porn star! Family values are back!
If THAT’S all you got…LOL…you anarchists are in deep trouble.
Vinny wrote: “Well, one thing alive is well, which you conveniently forgot to note, is that the anger with Bush is still deep and raging so strongly that everyone is voting incumbents out, regardless of party, because the people blame all politicians for the problems which were caused solely by Bush.”
Vinny, did you know that Martha Coakley was NOT the incumbent? I suspect most Massachusetts voters knew that.
“One of the most tiresome complaints from RINOs over the last few years has been that conservatives want to drive them from the party.”
…
“One problem: that’s simply not true. While conservatives have shown little enthusiasm for moderate candidates in strongly red states and districts, we’ve said again and again that we’re willing to support moderate candidates if they’re the best the GOP can do in a particular area.”
How nice of you to tolerate people that you pejoratively call RINOs. No tinges of hypocrisy there. Would you have supported Governor Ronald Reagan of California when he signed the country’s most liberal abortion law prior to Roe v. Wade? Or how about Barry Goldwater who represented an Arizona so red that it banned Martin Luther King day? Barry was a fierce critic of “firebreathing” Christian moralists who were taking over the Republican party before he died. But it is gracious of you to tolerate them and the Libertarian Republicans who still think like them.
“In Scott Brown’s case, while he’s well to the right-of-center, he’s not a firebreathing conservative. To the contrary, he’s pro-choice, he supported RomneyCare, and he has previously supported a cap-and-trade system. Yet Brown received fierce support from conservatives all across the country.”
You forgot to mention that Brown got naked for Cosmo. And that Glenn Beck announced the day after his election that he would be placing Brown on a “short leash” and a “chastity belt” because of a joke he told about his daughters. Enforcing morality is far more important than shrinking government – that is what Beck is telling us.
So social conservatives tolerate “RINOs” (the one’s who actually constructed the Reagan Revolution in the West during the 70s – Reagan and Goldwater) as long as they are placed on leashes and behave properly once elected.
Yup – not trying to drive anyone out of the party! We are tolerated – just not allowed to touch policy.
And, by all means, claim full credit for having elected Brown! Sound your trumpets! What put him over the top was Massachusetts voters hearing that they too can sign up for school prayer, creationist textbooks and pregnant daughters. Massachusetts is now ready for their cult programming in the merits of using politics to enforce moral exclusion. Just keep that Brown guy on his leash. And lock up his daughters too before they engage in any amoral activity.
Oh, I want to play too
Hi, I’m Chris Dodd and this is my special financing deal that I don’t know about and please stop taking pictures of my Irish ‘cottage.’
Hi, I’m Bill Richardson and here’s my arrangement with a state contractor.
Hi, I’m Timmy Geithner and here’s my TurboTax.
Hi, I’m Tom Daschle, I’d like you to meet my driver.
Hi, I’m Gary Condit and here’s my intern. Damn. Now where’d she get off to now?
Hi, I’m Jim McGreevey and here’s my wife and kids and boyfriend.
Hi, I’m Gavin Newsom and here’s the wife of my aide.
Hello there, I’m Mark Lloyd and here’s my commie creds.
Hi, I’m Tim Mahoney, the guy who replaced Foley, and here’s my check stub for 121,000 I paid my mistress who threatened to sue me.
Hi, I’m Charley, Chair of Ways and Means, and here’s my undeclared properties.
Hi, I’m Murtha and here’s my private airport.
Hi, I’m John Edwards and here’s my baby that’s really not mine. OK fine!
Hi, I’m Eliot Spitzer and here’s my main squeeze.
Hi, I’m William Jefferson and here’s my cold cash.
This is to easy.
Shall I continue?
As far as I can tell Bush never lost a Presidential election. Do you have different information?
4. Conservatives want to drive moderates from the party.
Actually, a case could be made that the reverse is true.
- In 1964 GOP “moderates” relentlessly attacked Barry Goldwater. Democrats merely echoed what the Republicans said that year.
- In 1976 GOP “moderates” worked to deny Reagan the GOP nomination. The result: President Jimmy Carter.
- In 1980 “moderate” GOP officeholders and voters grumbled about Reagan being the nominee. Some threatened to vote for Carter, while others supported the independent presidential bid of John Anderson (the quirky left-wing former GOP Congressman).
- In 1992 many GOP “moderates” voted for the pro-tax pro-abortion Ross Perot. They claimed that Bush I was too far to the political Right. Something similar happened in 1996, although on a lesser scale.
- In 2004 McCain was openly lobbying for the VP slot in the Democrat Party (he wanted to run with his pal John Kerry). Also, the GOP establishment backed Arlen Specter who was facing a challenger from conservative Toomey (how’s that working for you, GOP?). RI GOP Senator Chafee endorsed Kerry and later called for the impeachment of Bush II.
- In 2006 the GOP establishment backed Chafee against a more conservative challenger. After Chafee lost, he left the GOP and endorsed Obama.
- In 2008 GOP “moderates” like ex-governor William Weld and Colin Powell endorsed Obama (they felt that McCain was too conservative). Here is a list of GOP “moderates” who endorsed the Won.
- In 2009 many GOP “moderates” trashed Sarah Palin. GOP candidate for NY 23 Dede Scozzofava endorsed the Democrat in an effort to defeat conservative Doug Hoffman.
- For decades GOP “moderates” have done their best to eliminate conservative Christians from the Republican Party.
In short, many GOP “moderates” have either ditched the party and/or tried to defeat conservative candidates whenever it suited them. GOP “moderates” seem to aspire to somehow push the Republican Party to the left of the Democrat Party.
This small-tent conservative has decided to give the “moderates” who run the GOP what they want – a conservative-free party. In the future include me out, please.
You know, I think they misoverestimated Obama.
@Vinny B –
Brown ran on an anti-Obamacare platform and 74% of those voting for him said that Obamacare was their #1 worry, and Coakley and Creigh Deeds were not incumbents. So much for your theory…
adam in california wrote: “Or how about Barry Goldwater who represented an Arizona so red that it banned Martin Luther King day?”
adam, how did Goldwater ban MLK day? Were people really arrested for honoring Dr. King? Or do you mean that Arizona state workers didn’t get a paid day off? There’s a wee bit of difference.
And speaking of wee, was anyone unaware of Hotty McAwesome’s Cosmo shoot? Is this big news? Obama used drugs in his youth, according to his own autobiography. Should he be referred to as President Obama, former dope-head (as far as we know . . .)?
I don’t think Scott Brown’s official title should be “Senator Scott Brown, former nude model (as far as we know . . .).”
Vinny B., there was no incumbent to vote out. There was only the conservative and the liberal. I doubt that there were hysterics about “Bush the Republican is EVIL so I will rebel and vote in a…Republican?”
It makes much more sense that the people are angry at Obama and the Democrats. People are begining to see that their policies will make us all equal in one aspect only. We will all be equally poor.
#1 Crusader:
Koslings seem convinced that NOW is the time to ram HCR bill through.
This is true. This is because all of these memes, while no doubt fodder for the rank-and-file left, are not believed for a second by the core Left.
The core Left knows that their movement is arriving at its end-of-road — open socialism — faster than America itself is yet willing to follow. The Big Lie of the twentieth century — that the Left are “liberals” and representatives of the secular Enlightenment — is slowly breaking down in the mainstream.
There is indeed a realignment happening, because of that; it’s just the one they fear the most. Enlightenment political ideals — moral individualism and political liberty — promise to return to a political milieu formerly dominated by two flavors of anti-Americanism: Leftism and conservatism.
Evidence: the swelling number of independents, abandoning party allegiance, and the appeal of the Tea Parties. People are increasingly aware that they’ve been snookered, sold the same thing in two different packages as an “alternative”, while the choice they wanted was not to be found whole anywhere.
The Left knows that time is short. They also know that the welfare state, once plugged in, is damned nearly impossible to uproot, given the current cultural environment. They know that it provides a solid, nearly unerodable base of votes for them; in fact, it already provides a substantial part of that base now.
This is why they were and are so willing to self-destruct in *this* term, in the pursuit of socializing medicine. They want to move America to the position of Europe, locking in a permanent constituency of dependents that will permanently outvote the productive members of society. This is the meaning and purpose of their substitution of democracy for freedom.
If they fail this time and get crippled in the upcoming elections, they fear that they’ll never get this opportunity again. This is because they know that they are finished as an intellectual movement; their ideas are played out. Their tune hasn’t changed in over a century.
That doesn’t matter in Europe, because the Enlightenment is thoroughly dead there; Leftist ideas have become part of the common cultural framework, and underpin all mainstream political “options” there.
But here? Not yet. The principles of liberty, battered and betrayed as they are by its enemies and purported “friends” alike, is still alive in America. The Left feels that if they cannot administer the killing blow now, the Enlightenment they wish to destroy may yet return, in the one nation to which it gave birth — and they will have failed in their goal of putting out the light.
Hey skeeziks, your own replies at 22 and 24 dont even match – but in reality you Bolsheviks and your policies never match with what you say.
Yea, Scotty boy is the eloquent Messiah (never mind that thats projection to the Nth degree – barry already owns that) but all he’s talked about is his stupid truck and then tried to pimp out his daughters (real class act). Not to mention he is a big govt Progressive ala Romney Care. The only reason conservatives are going on about him is that hes going to put one more straw on the camels back against the final Marxist takeover of this country.
“too bad you will not apply that rational to Obama and his lovely wife.”
I see “progressives” are now calling people who live outside of major cities “uncivilized”. Wow. Nicely illustrates a lot about the movement….
“the anger with Bush is still deep and raging so strongly that everyone is voting incumbents out, regardless of party, because the people blame all politicians for the problems which were caused solely by Bush.”
Where one meme falls a new shall arise.
“he supported RomneyCare”
If a state wants to experiment a certain way, that is fine. It’s called federalism, and while RomneyCare isn’t pure free market capitalism, states should be free to experiment. Just don’t enlarge it to ObamaCare.
#37 Skeeziks. Oh yeah, porn. Congratulations, you elected a porn star! Family values are back!
Aww come on skeez, what the hell do you and your ilk know about family?
Your Bolshevik policies are an affront to family values at EVERY SINGLE TURN.
1. YOU people are the Eugenicists that taught the Nazis all your wonderful ideas about who should live and whom shouldn’t.
2. YOU people have destroyed the black American people as a whole.
3. YOU people encourage women to murder their unborn babies.
4. YOU people are trying to implement the Cloward and Piven strategy to get as many ppl on welfare as possible until the country goes bankrupt.
5. YOU people advocate gay “marriage” even though there is no such thing – and has been resoundingly REJECTED all over the nation. And yet you still “nudge”.
6. YOU people are the ones forever undermining education with your Marxist propaganda camps called schools.
7. Its your health care bill, lock stock and barrel (that Americans are also REJECTING) that’s going to decide who should get the medical care and whom should die.
@ 66. VKI
Thanks for the strawmen. Where did I say Goldwater banned it? How can a US Senator make a state law? Where did I say that? Point is (and only is) that Arizona in the Goldwater was as red a state as you can get. Yet, by today’s standards of the purists now claiming Brown’s victory as something they can own (rather than learn from), Goldwater was a RINO. I’d like to see someone attempt to argue that point rather than strawman me.
The Brown being naked for Cosmo thing was (and is) intended to demonstrate that Social Conservatives simply put certain aspects of Brown and his thinking out of their minds as they (again) claim credit for his election. It is called “cognitive dissonance”. Oh – and the sacred St. Palin called dudes getting nude in magazines “porn”. Given that the standard for “porn” is generally “I know it when I see it” I don’t see any social conservatives telling Palin that merely naked photos aren’t porn. Instead, nothing is said. Cognitive Dissonance.
Two “memes” (I disdain that word for some reason) that should be destroyed in this column:
(1) Skeeziks is object in commentary; are we a little bitter at the loss Skeez?
(2) ‘Creationists’ stand at the back of the Republican tent. Got news for you that believe the garbage. For all the clueless snobs that still believe that, you’re starting to sound like the pompous left. And being most ‘intellects’ have no clue to what a Creationist even is, most of America would be defined as Creationists. If you like the current movement in politic, you’ll stop with the pejoratives and arrogance, or quickly find yourself back in super minority status. I wager a majority of those tea party types would loosely be defined as Creationists if a survey were taken.
California Democrats have not received the memo. Since federal socialized medicine is dead, they are proposing a state health care plan to cover everyone. Such is the level of intelligence existing in Sacramento. The state is already in a $45 Billion financial hole and the Dems propose a new unfunded $85 Billion program.
To ETAB: Bring up this NY Times Map, which shows the election results town by town. Go click on some of the bluer towns, and then click on some of the redder ones. Pretty much *all* of the towns you associate with Massachusetts went blue, with Cambridge going 84% for Coakley. The red and pink towns are no more than compact versions of flyover states. I know people up in the hard red town of Dracut, which borders New Hampshire, and that might as well be Poopkick, TX in terms of overall demographics.
Message from Mass to :
Dear Baloney Fwank:
Watch your seat also.
No pun intended.
What all of the left here and too many main-stream ‘pubs are missing is that Brown won for the same reason Obama won.
The anger was not against Bush personally or Obama personally it is about the corrupt, bankrupt corporatist system that has been going on and getting worse for decades.
Look at what ‘pubs are always being charged with: supporting fat-cat Wall St. bankers. Well those charges were mostly right BUT DIDN’T GO FAR ENOUGH!! The Dems are just as bad and even worse because the reason those fat-cats want to buy the pols is that the pols will make the federal government the private army of the oligarchs! Look at Barney Frank and his Fannie and Freddie connections and the CRA, look at Chris “friend of Angelo” Dodd and on and on. The economic crisis was about as bipartisan as it is possible to get. Driven by rent-seeking money men and pols funnelling billions to them.
Now look at who Obama appoints. Most all of his economic team are the billionaire big shots from Wall street firms like Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, Citicorp etc. Then he triples down on the bet and steals GM and Chrysler for the unions and pays off AIG with billions AND HIDES WHERE IT GOES!!!
Obama and the Democrats are even worse than Bush and the Republicans on matters of financial honesty and integrity and they want to stick it more and more to the little guy tax-payer. Look at all the pay offs hidden in that “Health Care” bill. The special deals and payoffs to Big Pharma, the Insurance companies, the unions and lawyers (where’s that malpractice reform?)
THAT’S WAS WE IN MASS VOTED AGAINST!!! Thats what people didn’t like about Bush. Obama was a blank slate / empty suit that promised change and transparency. He lied and made things twice or thrice as bad as Bush.
THAT’S WHY WE VOTED AGAINST HIM THIS TIME!!!! Any politician that doesn’t get this is going down. This is what the Tea Party movement is about. All of the “social conservative” issues are off axis as was pointed out above. Politicians need to concentrate on the corruption and defense issues AND NOTHING ELSE!!
78BC – you completely missed my point – and that’s really quite astonishing.
I didn’t ask WHERE the votes were; I asked WHY you defined some of the electorate as ‘civilized’ while others were not civilized. I asked you for the definition of a ‘civilized person’.
I also asked WHY you rejected the view that the issues the MA electorate voted on were national/Obama agenda issues.
Once again BC proves to be an epsilon minus semi-moron. Heah BC, it should come as no shock to anybody that pompous leftwing Ivy League professors vote for leftwing candidates but there aren’t enough of them to matter. If you look at the demographics of what makes blue Massachusetts blue you will find it is the welfare class that gives them the edge. Here is a simple formula for you to ponder: the higher the percentage of welfare recipients the bluer the state. Blue states aren’t blue because of an overwhelming number of college professor, actors and public employees. They are blue because the number of single welfare mothers, pimps and drug dealers overwhelms the normal population
I’m not convinced the healthcare bill is dead.
Democrats have the mindset that they won’t have this chance again for 50 years.
Pelosi, Reid, Obama won’t give up that easy on this. They are just looking for the right chance.
To ETAB: ?? ummm, what part of my postings are you not understanding? Wasn’t the “Poopkick, TX” comment enough of a hint about the demographics of a typical town that went for Brown? And did you not understand that if this was a election where one candidate simply completely botched the campaign, that it’s mostly just a story about how a candidate, well, botched a campaign? Would you consider it a political comment if your car stalls out at red lights in a blue state, or would instead think that you needed to take it to a mechanic to check it out?
To tdiinva: Or maybe we’re just a teeny bit smarter.
The Boston suburbs are now “poopkick, TX?” Sure, BC, just keep redefining who those rednecks are.
You’ve been a comic delight this week, BC! I mean it – your posts have sweetened an already wonderful victory. You keep showing you have learned nothing from your defeat and therefore are doomed to continue losing.
Hey, you missed the biggest destroyed meme of all: “Political pundits understand voters and can predict what they will do.”
#39 SKEEZIKS Hey SKeeszoid: Here’s another meme:Frutrated libtard troll! How’s the hope & change(another meme) working for ya?.Here’s another one; “HI, I’m SKWEEZEZITS,AND I HAVE SYPHILLIS”!
skeeziks gushed at #38:
“Ooh, ________, he’s so charismatic. And that smile! Ooh. He’s the future! He’s a meteor! He’s a superstar! He’s a . . . he’s a . . . . he’s a . . . does anyone have a towel?”
And now you understand why Obama fanboys made me gag.
Did anybody see clips from Obama’s townhall stump speech in Elyria today? “My advisors told me I shouldn’t focus on healthcare when we have two wars, a bad economy, and troubling job picture” [...] “Sure, I could have tackled something *easier*, but I knew that healthcare reform could not be put off any longer!”
Dead serious, he actually said that. Check youtube and/or cspan for footage, this guy is the most narcissistict buffoon I have ever heard speak.
78. BC:
…I know people up in the hard red town of Dracut, which borders New Hampshire, and that might as well be Poopkick, TX in terms of overall demographics….
And so do I. And Ashland. And Melrose. And Wilmington. And Dunstable, another NH border town. Born in Arlington and grew up in Melrose. Still have family and friends all over the state.
You want to elaborate on the the Poopkick, Tx demographics of Melrose or Wilmington? Or North Reading? Or so on?
Want to stick with NH border towns for examples? How about Dunstable? 2-1 Brown vote tally. Enough money in that town to buy half of Cambridge. Let’s discuss the Poopkick, Tx demographics of Dunstable.
Either you never venture more than a block from a T station and don’t have a clue about what you’re talking about, or you’re a blatant liar.
74. Secret Agent Man:
#37 Skeeziks. Oh yeah, porn. Congratulations, you elected a porn star! Family values are back!
Aww come on skeez, what the hell do you and your ilk know about family?
It’s not my opinion he’s a porn star, it’s Palin’s. Take it up with her. As for family values, I’ll put my family’s up against yours any day. Now go lay down in some Bombay alley.
Another lie told by liberals and Democrats is that all Americans can’t get enough of entitlements. It’s all “free” stuff, right? So Americans would love Obamacare because it was “free” health care. But once Americans learned that there is no such thing as a free lunch and that the cost of Obamacare would bankrupt this nation while actually providing worse medical care, they revolted in droves. Americans are not dumb. They know when they’re being fleeced. Are any democrats listening out there?
Still, you’ve got to give it to the left. They managed in 2008 to leverage their 20% of the electorate into winning the White House and both houses of Congress. The hangover is horrendous and asprin isn’t helping, but at least we’re on the road back to sobriety.
54. baal:
Hi I’m Barack Obama and this is My Sugar Daddy…Tony Rezko
Hi, I’m John McCain and my sugar daddy is my wife.
61. bour3:
Hi, I’m Timmy Geithner and here’s my TurboTax.
Hi, I’m Glenn Beck and here’s my IRS investigation notice.
Hi, I’m Gavin Newsom and here’s the wife of my aide.
Hi, I’m John Ensign, and here’s my not to my mommy and daddy asking them to pay off the husband of my campaign mistress.
Hi, I’m Eliot Spitzer and here’s my main squeeze
Hi, I’M Mark Sanford and here’s my map of that Appalachian Trail
Hi, I’m Tom Daschle, I’d like you to meet my driver.
Hi, I’m Rush Limbaugh and here’s my maid and drug mule.
This is to easy.
Shall I continue?
Sorry, I shouldn’t have veered off track . . .
Hi, I’m Scott Brown and these are my daughters. Want one?
“And those dreams of a permanent Democratic majority? Well, let’s just say that the dream is dead.”
Let’s just say that the dream of a permanent Democratic majority has become vicious nightmare for the “progressives”. A nightmare that is leaving them hungover from their drunken power binge.
94. skeeziks:
Hahaha good one! But, you’re still an idiot. Please, continue.
90. Commuter:
So now Republicans are the party of arrogant out of touch elitist liberals. Congratulations you’re moving up in the world. Get a little tired of Get R done? Sure, come on in. Stay a bit, but don’t get too comfortable. You’ll be leaving again soon.
To Commuter: Dunstable? Ha! That’s an almost all-white, dry town where absolutely nothing happens. It’s a more numbingly boring than even Belmont, and Belmont is a bore. They have a reputation for a good school system, but not so much compared to Boston’s. The only time people go there is when they’ve made a wrong turn. And the same goes for those other towns you mentioned — nothing happens in them, nobody who wants to be anybody wants to live in them, and the only time they make the news is when a house burns down. If you’re into lawns, car washing, grade and high school sports, and doing all your shopping at malls, yeah, I’m sure they rock your world.
I have some conservative friends who live up in Westford — which you should know is considered a “nice” town — and I’ve been to parties where I’ve met their conservative neighbors: not a friggin clue in the bunch about what really goes on in the world. They use Drudge and they watch Fox News, which means that your average Newton high schooler knows more about what’s going on. And don’t kid yourself on property values — go on Zillow and see how much a basic house in Cambridge near the Mt. Auburn & Harvard area goes for.
You should have stayed in Arlington — at least they have a cool movie theater and you would only be a short bus ride from Davis, Porter, Harvard, and other places where things happen, including cafe conversations by random world class experts (you’re not likely going to overhear someone in Dunstable recently arrived from Washington, and in a cafe chatting with a friend about some of the lesser known issues of dealing with the colossal economic mess that built up over the past several years.)
A shift most paradigmatic.
Yoo hoo, BC. You still haven’t answered my question. You used the term ‘civilized’. Please define. And please define its opposite, i.e., uncivilized’.
And no, YOU are the one who is trying to reduce the loss to a ‘badly run campaign’ which is an empty metaphor. What was the CONTENT of this campaign? Hmmm? What were the issues that were presented to the electorate? Hmmm? Were they just local or were they national? Hmmm?
I’m sure you aren’t so pretentious and intellectually vapid to actually mean that someone who goes to a cafe is ‘civilized’ and someone who washes their car is ‘uncivilized’. So, again, kindly define YOUR terms.
BC:
It may be true the true blues are teeny bit smarter then us unenlightened types but given your inability to put together a coherent argument on this or any other thread you must be the exception that proves the rule.
>>Well, after Bush lost, Democrats allowed themselves…<<
Wait, what? When did he lose?
99. BC:
‘I have some conservative friends who live up in Westford —…’
Poor pick. Know the town well. Westford, Poopkick TX type of place. Full of people that work along 495, down RT3 to Billerica, and up in Nashua. Took their Northeastern, BU, MIT and so on educations out to the suburbs and 500k houses. Moderates, not conservatives. Don’t claim otherwise because of the distorted views of a friend you might have there to whom everyone to the right of Barney Frank is a conservatice.
Your Poopkick TX type of demographics – uncivilized hillbilly bunch of gapped toothed Mechanical, interbred SW, and redneck and Electrical Engineers.
Just like Dunstable. And it’s painfully obvious you haven’t a clue about what folks from places like Melrose, as blue a town as there is, saw in Brown.
There isn’t a Starbucks on every corner in Westford or Dunstable – the lots are 2 acres – and they do like their highschools – how’s Cambridge doing on that score by the way? But admittedly having to exclude the faculty of Harvard and MIT and the health professionals, there’s more brainpower in any one of the towns I mentioned than all the cafe posers in Cambridge and Brookline could muster.
Which brings us to this:
‘…you’re not likely going to overhear someone in Dunstable recently arrived from Washington, and in a cafe chatting with a friend about some of the lesser known issues of dealing with the colossal economic mess that built up over the past several years…’
You are really clueless throwing that out as a Cambridge perk. In Dunstable they talk about the fact that it’s growing and paying for it, because they know they’re the ones who will. And that is why they, and the folks in Melrose and Ashland and Dracut, voted for Brown.
I normally don’t have an issue with what I read from you. You’re not one of the skeezik type of vapid and vulgar fanboy tools. I can’t say I ever agree with your take on things, but you stand up and try to support your opinions. However, the crap your spewing about it being the uncivilized and unwashed of Mass that voted in Brown is just characterizing and embarrassing yourself in front of any PJM reader from Mass – not from Barney’s district anyway – and anyone else who knows the state.
Not that it’ll do you any good to hear it or that you’ll take it but here’s some advice. This is telling:
‘If you’re into lawns…’
Your problem is that you’re a dime a dozen snotty cocooned liberal elitist in the People’s Republic of Cambridge. Your lawn is between Memorial Drive and the Charles and someone else mows it for you. Anything between the Cambridge line and RT128 is Indian country to you, beyond to RT495 howling wilderness, and outside 495 there be conservative dragons.
Grow out of it. What you saw Tuesday wasn’t the conservative bogeyman coming out of the suburban closet. It was the ants telling the grasshoppers to f**ck off.
tdiinva:
“You might want to read this article about Massachusetts healthcare before you start to crow about how socialized medicine works so well.”
I don’t think that article is describing anything that isn’t happening elsewhere. Shortages of primary care doctors is pretty consistent across the developed world (as far as I can tell).
Like I’ve posted before, “socialised” medicine works pretty well here in oz. We spend half what you do per capita on health care, everybody is covered by a combination of public and private health insurance and we get the same or better health outcomes across the board.
>ECHO 76. Tex Taylor:
‘Two “memes” (I disdain that word for some reason)’
Chalk 2-up on that one.
I have the same prejudice. Something between myth and idea I gather which has possibly passed-on-ness. But I still do not care for it – stinks of you know what. Would prefer not to hear it but I know words are just words so can deal. I don’t require the world revolve around me just that it not go into a tumble.
“Well, after Bush lost, Democrats allowed themselves to buy into the same conceit.”
Since it hasn’t been corrected, it must not have been mentioned. Bush wasn’t running. Dude, it was McCain.
“While conservatives have shown little enthusiasm for moderate candidates in strongly red states and districts, we’ve said again and again that we’re willing to support moderate candidates if they’re the best the GOP can do in a particular area.”
Tell it to Mr. Dodge.
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/what-now-for-the-tea-parties/comment-page-1/#comment-485290
Matthew:
If by Oz you mean Canada then you better re-check your statistics because you don’t get better healthcare outcomes in the Great White North:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjhmOGU0MDdhM2Y5YmEyMzVmNjZhZWZiMTA3ZTQyOTA=
The only reason that your numbers don’t like the UK is that at the margin you have people coming down to the US for high end healthcare.
Study after study has demonstrated that the reason that the US is behind Canada is lifestyle, not the medical system. If fact if you adjust for demographics the US has a higher life expectancy then Canadda.
It’s interesting that advocates for socialized medicine tout life expectancy as the key number. That’s not entire story to the shortcomings of socialized systems that ration care. When you wait 6 months to a year to have hip or knee replaced your life is on hold. Productivity is lost and you live in pain. That doesn’t happen down here to many people.
It also may come as surprise to you that you don’t wait for primary care in the United States. I can go see a doctor in the practice I go to the same day. It might not be my doctor but I will see someone. The long waits for primary care in Massachusetts occurs in the socialized sector because reimbursement rates are driving primary doctors out of the market. If you extend it to the entire systems doctors will quit and everybody will be waiting and some people won’t even have a primary care doctor just like Canada.
The real reason that American healthcare costs more is that we treat sick people while the rest of the world only treats the healthy. Your impression of the quality of Canadian healthcare is based upon having good health. Wait until you are sick before you compare.
Just remember, when SARs came to North American both the US and Canada had the same number of cases. Nobody died here. We know what happened up in Oz
To save you the embarrassment of attacking my knowledge of Canada my mother is Canadian
104. Commuter
To be really technical about it, there is no Starbucks at all in Westford. Although we are pleased to have a Dunkin Donuts and a McDonald’s. Mostly moderate town, too. Although for this event, Coakley signs were almost absent (I saw 2), and Brown signs were up and down most streets by the dozen.
- Just an observation
TO ETAB: So you still don’t think I was clear enough by what I mean by “civilized”? Hmmm….while there are a lot of definitions of what the word “civilized” exactly means — whether it more applies to just polite behavior or more towards being well educated in the arts and sciences — there is however universal agreement that “barbarian” means just the opposite: uncouth, trashy, greedy, loud, little or no interest in the arts and sciences, poor reasoning abilities, quick to anger, and easy to stir up into a mob.
You tell me which group(s) this at least “sort of” describes better.
BC:
Anybody who has been to a Tea Party Demonstration and an ACORN or SEIU demonstration knows that it is your side that is the violent mob, not ours
Scott Brown is The White Jesus!
Spread The Word.
Obama’s lovely wife? Every time I see her ugly mug I am reminded of a line Rodney Dangerfield used in Caddyshack: “Last time I saw a mouth like that, it had a hook in it.”
And I wouldn’t bother arguing with Poor Citizen. He’s living proof of the old axiom: Never argue with an idiot. They’ll bring you down to their level then beat you with experience.
The visual for this article, a hammer, very lame. Somebody should be ashamed of themselves. Here’s two visuals
that would have been much more apt.
1. Separated type like it was slightly blown apart.
2. One or as many as five sticks of dynamite with fuses lit.
If you want art direction, hire an art director.
#110 BC – No, I asked for YOUR definition of ‘civilized’. YOU were the one who divided the Mass. electorate into ‘civilized’ and ‘uncivilized’ and claimed that the civilized voted for Coakley.
Are you now saying that anyone who voted for Brown is ‘impolite in behavior’ and/or, lacks ‘arts and science’ education? Do you have any proof of their education – i.e., are they all pre-college or university? And proof that they are impolite?
Are you seriously declaring that anyone without such an education is impolite?
You explain that the ‘uncivilized’ who live ‘beyond the borders of civilization’ (#40) are “uncouth, trashy, greedy, loud, little or no interest in the arts and sciences, poor reasoning abilities, quick to anger, and easy to stir up into a mob.”
Do you have any evidence that the people who live in these areas exhibit these traits? Why, for example, would you say that they show ‘poor reasoning abilities’? What’s your evidence? I feel that YOU exhibit poor reasoning abilities because you are generalizing about a population without particular evidence – a basic syllogistic fallacy (no minor premise).
And why does having an interest in the arts and sciences (and interest is yet another ambiguity) imply that one can have good reasoning abilities? The two aren’t necessarily connected.
So far, BC, you haven’t proven your claim that the ‘civilized’voted for Coakley and the ‘uncivilized’ for Brown.
Face reality BC, when TSHTF the typical urbanite, doesn’t know whether to scratch their watch,or wind their butt until some “barbarian” comes to save it.We see it play out every time a city is hit with a disaster.I’d pick a country boy with practical skills over a sanctimonious, preening fop like you any day.
To ETAB: “And why does having an interest in the arts and sciences (and interest is yet another ambiguity) imply that one can have good reasoning abilities? The two aren’t necessarily connected.”
True reasoning means you’ve backgrounded yourself with enough knowledge on a given topic, whether solving a physics problem or deciding who to vote for, to evaluate all the major options at least enough to intelligently pick a path to a solution or a best choice. I have the luck of knowing plenty people on both sides of the ideological divide. Take school costs, teacher salaries, and unions for instance: you bring up that topic with a group of older suburban conservatives, and you can pretty much assume that it will be a simplistic discussion along the lines of vouchers and such — much of it repeating stuff seen in the WSJ or on Fox News; I shared lunch the other day with several typically “Cambridgey” 20something girls working at a research institute when the topic of tying teacher salaries to test results came up — the ensuing 15-20 intense discussion was like a live creation of research article, with virtually nothing said unless the source could be cited, and this also included detailed comparisons of the Singapore and Australian educational performance tracking systems. It’s like the difference between a basketball game between several older guys not in the best shape and who don’t play often, and a college varsity team.
There is nothing wrong with being an older, out of shape dude playing a weekend basketball game occasionally, but if he starts thinking he’s just as good as a player in a division 1 college team, no. And if he disses those player as know nothing youngsters who haven’t been out in the real world, he’s just being really goofy. These put downs of academia I see way too friggin often here and on other right wing sites are just as goofy. People who *really* understand what, say, the real issues with health care are down to the most arcane details did not vote for Brown. Period. Granted that media “coverage” has not exactly been helpful, but still. If I seem overly snarky about suburbanites and their fuzzy headed ways, what goes around, comes around….
Sure skeeziks, we’ll spread the word, and the word is, “Skeeziks is a lunatic.”
Well one thing is clear at this point.
“skeeziks” == lamer troll. An epic fail.
Living proof that the gene pool hasn’t been drained yet.
#117BC – Nope, I still don’t see that you’ve made a logical or empirical case to substantiate your claim that the ‘civilized’ voted for Coakley and the ‘uncivilized’ voted for Brown.
You haven’t been able to answer a single one of my objections to your claims. All you do is come up with more generalized claims..moving on from your first civilized/uncivilized claim as indicative of voting intentionality, to ‘arts and science’ and ‘impolite’…all of which are empty of both data and causality.
Do you have actual evidence of your claims that the people who voted for Coakley are ‘civilized’; and that those who voted for Brown are ‘impolite, greedy, etc etc.? Do you know about their education? Do you have evidence that an arts and science degree (and the two are quite different)..renders one more intelligent? No, you don’t. Don’t you think that making such claims with such a lack of evidence is itself an unintelligent action? As I said, you are missing the minor premises!
You now come up with another empty example. These young researchers are relying on secondary research sources – which they accepted as ‘gospel truth’ because they have neither the experience nor the critical thinking capacities to confront and QUESTION those articles. That is typical of people trapped in academia; they get trapped in the intellectual cocoons of ideology.
And it’s strange how you praise their insistence on refering to these articles, yet you yourself don’t provide any references, any evidence, for your claims about the intellectual and psychological nature of the people who voted for Coakley or Brown. You just make assertions…rather similar to those ‘old armchair guys’.
Nor do you provide any evidence that the people who ‘really’ understand the health care issues did not vote for Brown. YOU assert this but provide no evidence!
So – again, not a valid argument.
The troll can’t do it.He might as well say the higher the crime rate the more cosmopolitan the community.Right BC?
tdiinva:
“If by Oz you mean Canada”
No. I meant australia. We’ve had “socialised” health care since WWII. As I understand it, we wipe the floor with you guys on outcomes and we spend less than 1/2 per capita. Does our system have its problems? Absolutely – but the problems we have, you guys can only dream about.
Got a dissenting view here, Matthew. I don’t think socialised health care works so well in Oz, well, for my family anyway. My husband pays the maximum Medicare “Levy” i.e. tax because of means testing, plus we are forced to have private health insurance as well because of the punitive “fee” equal to cost of private health care if we don’t. And if I go to hospital and have an operation (which has happened 3 times in the past 2 years) only the cost of the bed is covered. All surgical fees, doctors’ fees, anaesthetists fees etc which are supposedly covered, are recouped by my private health care at the rate of about 15%. I am out of pocket by some thousands each time. That’s because the scheduled fee, which the govt gives you a percentage of, is so ridiculously low and out of date that no doctor who wants to continue his business will charge it. The private health funds then give you a ‘top up’ based upon the same ‘scheduled fee’ which means that if the actual doctor’s fee is, say, $1000, the govt will say that the scheduled fee is $100, and then Medicare gives you about $35 of that and my health fund will generously contribute about $25 more.
As usual, the cost of everybody else’s health care is borne by those who earn enough money that the govt can take it all away and give it to those who are allowed to be public patients and don’t have to take out private health care. Guess who they vote for?
#9
Brian,
How nice to see somebody confirm the finding that insistence on perfection is the surest way to deny victory to a cause.
Ideology be damned, give me an effective leader.
Of course he thinks we’re stupid!!
“WE”* elected him head to the highest office in the US !!
He had nothing! No experience, accomplishments, and refused to reveal his past records. YET- WE STILL ELECTED HIM.
Normally, you wouldnt even hire a JANITOR so carelessly.
WE* ARE STUPID!! But slowly getting smarter. Stupidity SHOULD BE PAINFUL. It’s Nature’s way of saying “for your own good, dont do that again”
***”WE” = the voting public in general. Not conservatives in particular.
Committing Political Harakiri
Literally, hara-kiri or harakiri involves “ritual suicide by disembowelment” committed by samurai warriors for their shameful actions, so maybe desparate kamikazi attacks better describes some Republicans’ statements in the wake of Scott Brown’s laying waste to Martha Coakley last week in Massachusetts.
By any estimation, except White House flak Robert Gibbs’, Brown’s victory and accession to the Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy seat in the U.S. Senate marked a monumental step toward a resurgent Republican Party and signalled an unmistakeable sense that November 2010 and November 2012 could mean a major shakeup, a sea change, in both the national and local landscapes.
In a Sunday interview with Chris Wallace on that enemy cable news channel, Fox News, master spinmeister Gibbs cited a Washington Post poll which purportedly showed Coakley’s ignominious shellacking really represented an endorsement of President Obama and his policies.
I heard of a poll that proves pigs learning to dance the tarantella means they are honoring Fred Astaire’s memory.
Gibbs’ sideshow aside, some GOPers still fail to grasp the import of last Tuesday and, worse, fail to appreciate the negative effects of carping over issues that may be consequential but not consequential enough to undermine the opportunity Brown’s win brought to the Republican table.
In short, if any Republicans set up roadblocks that negatively affect the excellent GOP chances this coming election cycle and for the next presidential election, they should leave the party or, at the very least, keep their mouths shut.
Case in point are those pro-lifers who are making an issue of Senator Scott Brown’s record on the abortion issue. . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1443)
110. By that logic, it is the so-called progressives who are uncivilized. The whole lot of them are greedy; they care only for ideology, so they really have no desire for truth. They have poor reasoning abilities, instead turning entirely to emotion, and they are quick to anger when people do not cooperate.
It was very interesting for me to read that blog. Thanx for it. I like such themes and everything that is connected to them. I would like to read a bit more soon.
Gloria Smith
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