It’s Time for Republicans to Up Their Game
No matter what challenges he faces, President Obama has at least one thing going for him. They’re called Republicans.
Especially helpful to Obama — and of very little use to the rest of us — are the detached and clueless leaders who make up the Republican establishment in Washington. Although they’d like to harness the enthusiasm for the tea party movement to help them win elections, they really don’t connect with that crowd because the very thing the protesters are angry about — the runaway spending, the irresponsible borrowing, the exponential growth of government, etc. — the Republican leaders had a hand in creating. They spent billions of dollars of taxpayer money during the years of the Bush administration, and they’ve never taken serious goals like reducing the national debt. They’re the reason that many Americans don’t see any difference between the two major parties.
Take Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who — during a recent appearance on ABC News’ This Week — showed just how out of step he is with those who want to reform government. Guest host Matthew Dowd, a Republican strategist and ABC News contributor, filleted McConnell with a few simple questions that McConnell either had trouble answering or ducked altogether.
First, Dowd asked McConnell why, despite a string of election victories for Republicans in Virginia, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, a recent poll showed that — when asked whom it trusted on health care — 49 percent of respondents said they trust Obama, 37 percent said they trust the Democrats in Congress, and only 32 percent said they trust Republican leaders in Congress.
This is striking, especially when you consider that Obama and Democrats have turned in an atrocious performance on health care reform. Does that mean that, in the eyes of many Americans, Republicans have done even a poorer job of handling the issue?
McConnell immediately steered the question away from Congress and toward the health care bill. Then he spent the next two minutes rattling off Republican talking points about why the Democratic-sponsored legislation is deeply flawed.
We already know that, Senator. But that wasn’t the question.
The Coffee Parties will prevail.
Lesson #1: Do not feed the trolls (above).
Lesson #2: Do not expect this author to think any deeper than a 1960′s drugged-out hippie (“if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem, dude…and pass the weeeeeed…”).
I mean – really, now: – “it means sounding like the solution — instead of the problem.”
To suggest a reason why Republicans are irrelevant is that, “…the very thing the [Tea Party] protesters are angry about — the runaway spending, the irresponsible borrowing, the exponential growth of government, etc. — the Republican leaders had a hand in creating” is to imply that anyone less than “pure” need not apply for Government service.
Laws and Sausages. Ya don’t wanna see them gettin’ made.
(Said by Bismarck…more eloquently…heh)
Lesson #3: C’mon, PJM, is this what you want to reflect as your level of “critique” and “thought”?!
Well Ruben at least this is not another illegal amnesty piece of garbage.
Politicians are inherently untrustworthy. The least trustworthy — the ones you can literally count on to betray you — are the ones that openly ask you to trust them. This is as true of Republicans as it is of Democrats.
Just now, we’re albatrossed with Democrats in control of the White House and Capitol Hill. Yes, they’re liars and thieves. Yes, they must be disposed of, and the sooner the better. But it would be fatally foolish to imagine that simply replacing them with Republicans will solve America’s problem with government run amok. The Founders knew better.
We need a return to strict-construction Constitutionalism. Until we get it, our slide downhill into tyranny and penury will continue to accelerate. Nothing else will serve; certainly no gaggle of smiling sharks whose principal qualification for existence is skill at trolling for votes and campaign contributions.
Mitch McConnell and most of the other Republican Dinosaurs suck only slightly less than their Democrat equivalents. I didn’t need a 2-page article to know that.
Term limits please.
Don’t forget McConnell still has to deal with the Snowes, the Graham and the McCains of the GOP Senate group. This requires him to walk a thin line. But it also means GOP Senate leaders, until Snowe, Graham and McCain are shown the door by their voters, have to coddle pouched eggs and should simply stay off the airways.
then there’s Steele. Now that’s a game that needs to be upped more than one notch.
The Beltway GOP can’t be relied upon for much of anything. They are too comfortable, too corrupt and too out of step. Anyone in a leadership position who can’t debate the clueless Dowd should retire ASAP.
I think he should have oozed confidence, talked at length about what Republican plans are, and promised to take seats from several demorats he then named. That would have looked great in a demorat fund raising letter and it sure would have helped to motivate the opposition. In addition, it would probably have made several of the surviving RINOs want to run to the nearest camera and swear that they’re not confrontational and want to play nice with the democrats.
Why shouldn’t he keep the focus on democrats marching relentlessly off the cliff? What’s wrong, isn’t there enough fodder around to write, “they’re all alike” articles?
have a day
Republicans have a big problem in that when they were in charge, they were a fiscal disaster. The banking crisis, deficit spending, and bailouts–so no matter what they say, we know what they do.
Talk is cheap for the party out of power, but they can’t even do that right.
The eternal question is: Do they Get It? The answer thus far is: no.
The second paragraph in #8 reminds me of what I consider to still be the republican’s unstated motto: “Not as bad as the democrats.”
Not much of a principle to lead a country with, is it?
Sorry, but November is not going to turn on who has a better version of socialized medicine. And the GOP knows that.
Hand-wringing over whom Americans “trust” to reform health care is the height of irrelevant thesis. Government has no more business reforming the health care sector than it does the banking, investment, insurance or auto industries. Americans are finally beginning to sense this fact, now that government is moving to control our society’s very means of sustaining health and life itself.
Today’s Congressional Republicans and the RNC have utterly discredited themselves by trying to beat the Democrats at their own socialist game. Knowing they would have grudging support of conservatives in 2000 and beyond, their strategy shifted left – to gaining favor with the shameless Left Wing Media and garnering support from the so-called “moderates” (read: non-leftist Americans who’ve never read the Constitution). The result was “compassionate conservatism” (also see: Socialism Lite®).
Ironically, had it not been for 9/11, this scam would have worked, too. But the response to that event – which, aside from cutting taxes, was the only thing that galvanized conservatives behind the GOP – was too easily politicized and thus misrepresented and demonized for years, leading us to the deficit-exploding, economy-hobbling Democrat majority in 2006 and the nation-destroying administration of BHO in 2008.
What America is now left with (pun intended) is a far-far-left faction controlling the media and the Democrat party, “balanced” – with very few exceptions – by a gang of far-left and center-left quislings in the GOP, who are now desperately looking for ways to co-opt their erstwhile base – Americans who are now onto their game, and aren’t having any.
That sea change illustrates a key point this article misses: the party in power may enjoy the advantage of incumbency, but it also must deal with the disadvantage of blame when things go wrong (or when the media is able to CONVINCE enough of the public they’re going wrong). Clinton was expert at this (for example, it was Hillary who held the public’s attention on the failure of… HillaryCare, not him). That skill, and the GOP’s idiotic choice in candidates, is what got him a second term after the Republicans took back the majority in ’94. BHO, not so much. He’s had every opportunity, job and office simply handed to him at every step in his career, and that’s left him utterly unprepared to deal with the realities he’s facing. Wallowing in a hot tub of narcissism and inexperience, he’s ineptly made himself the public focal point of every controversial – failed – policy, instead of allowing Reid and Pelosi to take that heat. Thus, he’s added himself to the public embodiment of the problem. In a word: stupid.
The GOP is wise to keep their mouths shut and avoid any commitments as a response to all this. It’s all they’ve got, as McConnell demonstrated. And – for now – it’s all they need: they know what’s going to happen in November, and that any GOP incumbent lacking a viable, fiscally conservative challenger is likely “safe”. So their path of least resistance back to the majority right now lies not in “sounding like the solution”. That would only be wasted effort aimed at taking political ground which has already been handed to them by the hapless, overreaching Democrats. More importantly, in a time when they want to stay as far out of the political picture as possible, it would give The Left Wing Media ammunition (see also: the party of ‘No”).
Why would of a single poll (you cite) relative to “trust” about healthcare present some challenge to Mitch McConnell in an interview ?
Poll after poll shows that, while agreeing “healthcare” could use some reform, a substantial majority of Americans thinks the current 2400 page healthcare scheme offered up by democrats is a monstrous boondoggle. Not to mention a big government power grab, which the bill seems to be far more concerned with than the health of Americans.
Furthermore, isn’t it just possible that Republicans have heard the tea partiers as to the travesty of out of control spending of the past and fully intend to remediate that in the future ?
At the very least, there’s a better shot at controlling spending with Republicans than with Democrats.
Thanks for covering this issue. So tired of the Rush and company argument that republicans are not as bad. Relative to what? The devil. Well they aren’t as bad as Stalin for example, but that’s just not good enough. Let’s compare to Thatcher who privatized several industries and sold off public housing to homeowners. She would carry around a copy of Hayek and throw it on the table to make her point. How do our Republicans compare to her? Not well.
Rueben filed his credentials as a left wing liberal loving Democrat so long ago he thinks we don’t know where his heart is at home .
Truth is, this piece is another smear all politicians with the broad brush to damage your Republican opposition .
It works because people believe nothing can be achieved in the present state. Democrats know this is an effective neutralizer.
Battles are not won by fence straddlers. They are won by those willing to fight under a banner and fully committed to victory.
So the fat and lazy Ruben Jr. sits around in his underwear watching TV, then he rolls out of his smelly bed on Monday and excerpts a few minutes which fit his commie narrative before falling back into his mindless anti-American stench, and PJM obligingly shovels his crap onto their otherwise pretty good website… Remind me why this drive-by tool is publishing alongside the likes of Victor Davis Hanson and Richard Fernandez again, Roger????
What I’m seeing in too many comments here is a denial the author is spot on regarding his critical point. Too many beltway Republicans have too much self-interest in “getting along”, and too few have actual principles upon which they stand. The public doesn’t need the media telling them this to instinctively “know it”, either. McConnell is one of many who unfortunately for their country are politicians, not statesmen, indistinguishable in large part from their opposites across the aisle.
Voters uncritically returning to office the Snowes and McCains of this world are woefully out-of-touch. More to be pitied for being fools than censored.
SOLUTION = Vote no to ANY incumbent. As for Republicans vs. Democrats : “For a difference to be a difference it must make a difference and some differences don’t”. Tea Party folks seem to know this. Republicans don’t get it and Democrats don’t care.
The greatest threat to American prosperity, liberty and leadership is the current flock in the GOP leadership. One cannot continually run campaigns whose message is “we’re not as bad as the Democrats” and expect to get anywhere. In addition, recent Republican policies and actions have been more akin to the Democrats of the 80′s than Republicans of the 90′s! If the Democrats had not moved so far out into left field, you wouldn’t be able to tell any Republican policy from Democrat ones.
In short, I agree with Ruben (WOAH!). What we really need is a complete overhaul of the Republican leadership with the focus on replacing the RINO’s with true conservatives. Until such time, there truly is no reason to vote for Republicans!
STARVE THE BEAST!!! DON’T GIVE MONEY TO THE RNC!
You know that not so old, but not bad saying: “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” Obama clearly believes that he has solution to the health care problem (and it is a *big* problem) and has been relentlessly pursuing that the way he’s been going after al-Qaeda and the Taliban (right winger or not, you have to give him credit for really after things he believes are important.) Right wingers and most conservatives think his idea is the wrong approach and have been as relentless at disparaging it. Elected Republicans seem content to just pick their noses, scratch their butts, and randomly cite some of the talking points floating about on the right wing nut-o-sphere. Utterly useless.
@19. BC: – Obama clearly believes that he has solution to the health care problem…
And based on your clueless, talking-point-ridden posts to date, in your eyes that’s all he needs: who cares if he actually HAS a solution, as long as he BELIEVES he has a solution.
Sorry, even if he weren’t so utterly disingenuous, BHO wouldn’t get “credit” for paving the road to hell with his good intentions.
Here is the answer to our countries problem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x59wNGHe6iI
Goy, well said as usual. One problem not explained is that the liberals are getting away with the lie that if this bill doesn’t pass health care reform will die. No one I know from the right thinks the health care system is all hunky dory even though most agree the proposed fix will make it worse. The difference here is we think it needs a scalpel – - not a braodaxe like the statists propose. They need to emphasize that it is the COMPREHENSIVE part that is unacceptable and focus on the pragmatic achieveable components. The message should be that it needs to be tweaked not replaced. The very least the GOP should do is provide a short but revealing list of all their suggested tweaks ignored by Obamocrats. Making promises on malpractice reform and interstate competition offers an opportunity to disprove that lie on one hand but also exposes the Dem plan as the sheer power grab it really is. It’s re-form alright. It will re-form the relationship between government and citizens unlike any legislation since the New Deal. This is all well and good for BC trollers et. al. whose only concern is that someone else picks up the tab for their meds.
19. Except Obama isn’t part of the problem- he is the problem!
BC:
1. It is a bad saying.
2. Healthcare is not a problem.
3. Obama has the solution to too little government, not my health.
4. Obama has never served a day in his life, much less hunted actual terrorists – he has simply left Bush’s strategys in place.
5. The only thing worse than government is effective government. Now that’s a good saying.
According to this liberal ignoramus:’ Especially helpful to Obama — and of very little use to the rest of us — are the detached and clueless leaders who make up the Republican establishment in Washington.’
WRONG! The Republicans have awakened and so far have done a good job of stopping the Democrat destruction of our healthcare system. So for the now at least, Republicans are very useful to those of us with a clue.
@22. Frank: – One problem not explained is that the liberals are getting away with the lie that if this bill doesn’t pass health care reform will die.
Right. And if you ask yourself why that lie is effective, the root of the problem is clear: most Americans are IGNORANT of the fact that our Constitution does not give Congress the authority to legislate itself a Taxpayer-funded health care insurance company for all Americans. The bum line is, “well, we have Medicare and Medicaid don’t we?” To which the appropriate response is: those are extra-constitutional excursions into areas the general government has no authority to pursue, which is why they’re not properly funded and, thus, completely insolvent today. Same goes for Social Security, which is an economic implosion in slow motion right now.
- The difference here is we think it needs a scalpel – – not a braodaxe like the statists propose.
Well, unless the scalpel you’re talking about will cut away comprehensive health care insurance, de-couple health care from employment and sever the Medicare connection between the federal government and health care, then it won’t be effective in the long run.
The problem with health care is not the so-called “uninsured”. They are a symptom, and the cause is skyrocketing health care costs. The cause of those skyrocketing costs all along has been 5 decades of meddling by the federal government.
You can’t bring down health care costs by making insurance companies more competitive; they’re two different markets, and the former is corrupted by the latter. Too many conservatives are parroting this as a “solution”, IMHO. It may be a good first-of-many-steps, but it won’t have any effect on skyrocketing health care costs. Even tort reform will have minimal impact if we keep paying for health care using the socially suicidal, insane mechanism we have now: where every dollar is paid through a comprehensive, group insurance policy. Insurance is a tool for mitigating financial risk. It should NOT be used to pay for every dollar of routine health care we consume.
HSA’s coupled with high-deductible / low-premium health insurance and direct, out-of-pocket payment for health care will, over time, force the price back into equilibrium with other commodities which remain relatively affordable (because we don’t abuse insurance to pay for them). The increase in liquid, “lendable” cash (in banks) and freedom from being “job-locked” will unleash an economic surge in this country the likes of which we haven’t seen before. THAT is the plan the GOP should be pushing, because it’s one that will resonate with the majority, who are fed up with overweening government.
26. Goy. Good points. I would add that in addition to federal meddling there are some tyrannical state meddlers to blame as well. In Illinois and several other states you must beg (bribe) bureaucrats (the “Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board”) for permission to build a hospital, add on to a hospital, buy equipment for a hopsital, etc. This creates state controlled fiefdom’s that bureaucrats sell throughout the state which, apart from the blatant corruption, also removes competitive forces and artifically increases costs. The states also regulate what health insurance companies’ policies must cover and how much they charge, thus preventing free market competition. I’m a fan of federalism but I am sometimes tempted to hope that the federal government could one day not just stop oppressing us but even protect us from our state governments.
Republicans have a big problem in that when they were in charge, they were a fiscal disaster. The banking crisis, deficit spending, and bailouts–so no matter what they say, we know what they do.
Right, it wasn’t Carter who crafted the law, or Clinton who mandated under threat of fines and “regulatory issues” that the banks make bad loans, it was the Republicans. Chris Boiler Room Dodd and Barney Banking Queen Frank, who are they? Keep on lapping up then regurgitating back that propaganda. You might want to toss in something about a lack of bipartisan cooperation on the part of Republicans as well.
The Republican Party has plenty of problems but the majority of them have been caused by people giving up after absorbing the crap the democrat propaganda machine puts out. If we’re going to have a shot at getting this country back from the democrat slime we’re going to have to take over the Republican Party and follow the 11th commandment while doing so. If you think the Republicans only, “suck less”, then get in the trenches, toss out the weak links, RINOs, and assorted scumbags, to make room for yourself and others who will work for and stay true to the values that built this country. Apathy on the part of average folks is exactly why there are a lot of those who just want to “stay in the game” running the Republican Party.
The democrat party was completely taken over by the far left in just about twenty years, the interval since they were disappointed that Clinton moved to the middle rather than fighting the health care battle back then. And don’t forget, it was the Republicans gaining the majority that forced Clinton to move back to the middle. Do you really think that the Republican Party can be changed overnight when the majority of conservatives don’t even know the name of their representative and definitely didn’t fight to get the most conservative candidate at the top of the ticket? Do you think there’s some magic bullet that will move the “go along to get along” types out when they’re the only ones with troops that show up and do battle over the inglorious minutiae involved in running a party primary or a campaign? Ok, so the Republican Party has more than enough people who are happy as long as they don’t have to call themselves democrat and who don’t really care about the big picture. That’s what happens when people ignore the drudgery of self-governance. They end up being governed either by those with an agenda they’ll bust their butt over by or those who are happy just to drift along and not rock the boat.
No third party, and no conceivable mutation of the democrat party, can or will get this country off the socialist feudalism path the democrats have been working towards for the past six decades. NOW is the time to be getting into the Republican party and finding others who agree that the party has to improve. If the majority of those now all fired up do the same thing they did after the Reagan victories, then we’re screwed. Reagan won, the sun came out, the people smiled, and no one bothered to get in the trenches and to make sure the Republican Party stayed on the right path; they just enjoyed the breather from continuing democrat unConstitutional atrocities. The main reason we’re being royally screwed right now by slime that doesn’t even pretend to care about the Constitution is because so many people bought the democrat line of crap hook, line, and sinker, and didn’t continue to participate when we were winning. You’re right about one thing, Republicans have a big problem when they’re in charge, their troops all sit down and declare that they’ve won the war when they’ve only won a single battle.
Regards
25. jack wilson: is confusing temporary bowel sounds emanating from the rotting carcass of today’s RNC to activities of a significant political party. Sorry. There may be a few fingers and toes still worth salvaging, but most of that body politic is ripe for embalming. The sooner conservative Americans attend its funeral, the sooner a true Phoenix might rise from the ashes.
I agree with 18. bubblehead: Starve the beast.
The Republicans are just as disconnected from the American people as the Democrats. When it comes to debating anything in the House or Senate or even while they were in Obama’s health care summit, everyone up on the Hill speaks only in talking points or in campaign strategy sound-bites. No one seems well versed enough in the subject to debate beyond these predetermined and preapproved talking points. Americans become frustrated with the process and see it as simply the same old nonsense.
Americans need to hear their representatives speak with in-depth knowledge and with credibility on a subject. Americans need to be satisfactorily informed so they themselves can make sound decisions regarding the matter. The Democrats speaking the same old tired rhetoric and the Republicans responding with the same worn out arguments neither creates an informed public nor a supportive majority.
Therein lies the disconnect, and until our representatives take the time to listen and understand our points of view, none of us are likely to receive adequate representation from either party.
@27. TL: – I’m a fan of federalism but I am sometimes tempted to hope that the federal government could one day not just stop oppressing us but even protect us from our state governments.
I understand what you’re saying, but federal meddling isn’t the answer there, IMIPO. If Americans don’t get off their asses and start holding both federal AND State governments accountable themselves, then they will have – by definition – the government they deserve.
This is a typically confused article from Mr. Navarrette. While he correctly points out that Republicans are not to be trusted by Conservatives, he then postulates the wrong diagnosis.
His flawed analysis confuses a symptom (it costs too much) with an underlying cause (progressive state-as-god government). This has always been the trouble with right-wing liberals such as Mr. Navarrette, and so too the GOP. The reason Republicans have failed so miserably over the past decades to effectively confront progressivism, is that their only position amounts to “it costs too much”. This mantra ultimately falls on deaf ears because it triumphs no underlying principles, thus emasculating Republicans in the eyes of the general public.
Time and again we are confronted with the amazing fecklessness, stupidity, and ideological corruption of the Republican party in confronting evolutionary socialism, AKA progressivism over the last three decades. Mark Steyn’s prediction has already come true… as in Europe, the GOP is now the equivalent of “Christian Democrats” who do not argue against the welfare state, but only that they can run it more efficiently.
Regarding this nation, it seems far too late to do anything that effectively overthrows a progressive mindset now permanently embedded at all levels of society. Conservatives retain few viable options, none of which includes voting. At this point, what we are left with is civil disobedience, state nullification, state secession, or emigration. God help us all.
At this point, what we are left with is civil disobedience, state nullification, state secession, or emigration. God help us all.
If this passes via the backdoor, we will then have a Congress that acted in direct contradiction to settled Constitutional law (settled in 1998) at the behest of a president we have been told we cannot know anything about other than that he’s a clean black man without much accent. If the Constitution is breached outright in this way and the majority of the states don’t get behind impeaching anyone who went along with this effort, asking for God to help won’t be nearly enough to turn the tide. After all, it’s like Billy Graham said decades ago, “if God doesn’t punish America he owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology”. It is fun to see people who won’t bother to govern themselves upset over a group of thugs deciding to ignore the Constitution and do what they damn well please, though. It looks like we’re going to find out, “… if you can keep it”.
The real fun begins if they fail at this and the same people now in shock start drifting back into their routines as if the war is over. Even a huge win this fall and in 2012 will only get us to the point of beginning the real war to roll this crowd back, so, we’ll see how people handle the long haul. They didn’t handle the long haul very well after the Reagan victories; they just drifted away as if there would never be a problem again.
Regards
32–well said! The republican party–from Lincoln on down, has only accidentally or cynically spoken a narrative of personal freedom from government. And there is definitely a sense that they have gone too many rounds in the ring with the marxists, and have lost the will to win.
As I reflect, I am quite pleased with the notion of calling mainstream republicans ‘christian democrats’. I will be using that quite a bit as it is more descriptive than RINO–and RINO is a bit of a semantic play anyhow.
So Ruben must be here to find an audience, as he hasn’t found one at CNN. Let’s see, McConnell is out of touch? Seems all the polls show Obama is out of touch with the average American. He is FORCING this Marxist take-over of healthcare on a population that does not want it. Oh, some boneheads will want it just because they haven’t overcome the leg-tingle inducing spell that has overcome some people, as well as Chris Matthews. Take vivo, who thinks the “coffe-parties” will prevail. Yes, the staggering numbers that the coffee-partiers are proof of such a ground-swell of a liberal mindset sweeping the nation. Oh, that’s not right. The coffee-partiers couldn’t match the numbers of the TEA Parties if they bred like rabbits for 100 years. So Ruben, your lame attempt to tell the Republicans to shut-up is a failure, just like your pathetic excuse for a president, who will be remembered as the worst president in US history. Unless you count destruction as an accompishment.
That they are enemies to the natural rights of mankind is manifest, because they wish to see one part of their species enslaved by another. “That they have an invincible aversion to common sense is apparant in many respects: They endeavour to persuade us, that the absolute sovereignty of parliament does not imply our absolute slavery; that it is a Christian duty to submit to be plundered of all we have, merely because some of our fellow-subjects are wicked enough to require it of us, that slavery, so far from being a great evil, is a great blessing; and even, that our contest with Britain is founded entirely upon the petty duty of 3 pence per pound of East India tea; wheras the whole world knows, it is built upon this interesting question, whether the inhabitants of Great-Britain have a right to dispose of the lives and property of the inhabitants of America or not?”
http://18thcenturyreadingroom.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/item-of-the-day-hamiltons-full-vindication-1774/
I offer this excerpt by way of reminding us that we have trod this road before; and in my opinion our current circumstance portends a similar response.
The price of our apathy is the progress of despotism — that our “betters” in Washington have become convinced of their right to dispose of the lives and property of the inhabitants of America. We must convince them otherwise at the earliest possible moment or I fear the descent into the unthinkable will be upon us.
I agree with many of you here: goy, Charles Stevens, TL, and others.
The Republican incumbents in Congress are not much less a threat to this country than the current Democrat majority. They turned their backs on the principles and their base when they abandoned the Contract with America,and set the stage for the disaster unfolding todayu. Now the national committee is trying to stuff handpicked candidates indistinguishable from Democrats down the throats of the voters in state after state.
Donate to candidates, not the party machine
There will be a GOP nominee in 2012. It will NOT be one of the tired old men of the last century or the party will not survive.
Nor will it deserve to.
You observed: “Although they’d like to harness the enthusiasm for the tea party movement to help them win elections, they really don’t connect with that crowd.”
That “crowd” is all of us. Most of the commenters get it. The GOP doesn’t. That’s why they hate Sarah Palin. Whether she’s the right candidate is beside the point. The point is that the GOP perceives her as a threat. We need to write more about why that is so….and find other similar “threats” to vote for.
Republican “leaders” are under the bell jar; what they care about is plunder, not you. Today is Madison’s birthday. Read http://mises.org/daily/4185, then get out your copy of Madison’s Constitution and read it aloud.
I must be in the minority as I think this a very good article. The Republicans stand to make large gains in the November elections, possibly capturing both Houses of Congress, so wouldn’t it behoove the voters to hear what, exactly, the Republican Leaders intend to do with all of that power? Are they going to do the same things that led to their loss of power over the past decade or have they learned something besides the “talking point of the day”?
It’s all well and good to blame Olympia Snowe or Susan Collins for the inability of the Republicans to deliver on their legislative goals over the past two decades but at some point you have to start wondering if they haven’t been delivering their agenda. You can tell me that “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” and the candidacy of McCain for President were aberrations but isn’t there a tipping point where you start to consider that what you see from the RNC is what the RNC is?
Per the Navarrette standard, which makes McConnell sound more like the solution than the problem? Choose one:
a) Answer the questions as Dowd asked them:
We’re doing a crappy job of promoting Republican healthcare proposals, and people don’t trust us because we never showed any interest in reform when we had a chance. We spent money like crazy when we controlled Congress, so we’re in no position to slam Democrats now. We obviously put politics over principles instead of standing up for Bunning.
b) Sidestep the questions:
Americans are concerned about massive spending and debt piling up sky high. Democrats aren’t listening. We are.
Turn their game “up a notch”? Are you kidding me??? Try about 10 notches. The Republicans had their chance not long ago when they controlled Congress and the White House and what did they do? They were just as corrupt as the present group and spent at record-breaking (at the time) levels. They didn’t pass anything they claimed to believe in. Go back further to the Contract With America. Once the class of 1994 got elected they couldn’t run from it fast enough. I can’t find a shred of evidence to suggest they will be any better this time if they happen to get both back again. This is why I now call myself a conservative, not a Republican.
We are in crisis and the best we can expect from the Republicans is Democrats-Lite? We’re goners.
Riddle me this … is Navarette a Republican?
Because if he is not, he has no dog in this hunt and is therefore the supreme poseur.
Since currently more bums are Democrats than Republicans, a fully effective “throw the bums out!” campaign would put the Republicans back in the saddle. McConnell doesn’t need to “up his game,” he needs to retire or be retired.
8. rashputin:
I think he should have oozed confidence, talked at length about what Republican plans are, and promised to take seats from several demorats he then named. That would have looked great in a demorat fund raising letter and it sure would have helped to motivate the opposition.
Ah, you’re invoking the famous “lull ‘em” tactic, perfected by the 1980s New England Patriots: play horribly for three Quarters, then spring upon the complacent opponent and trounce him. It worked three-quarters of the time.
Mr. Navarrette has a point but the proper tactical plan for the Republicans is to let the Democrats keep digging their own hole. The Democrats are doing such a good job of undermining their brand, why distract them or the voters?
Primary voters should reward conservative Republican candidates with their votes. Then the slates will be tilted towards the conservatives in the general election where Democrats will lose many seats. This Fall will be the time to push a renewned GOP commitment for fiscal responsibility and limited government.
Congressional Republican leadership does have to represent their membership. Change and/or expand the members of Congress who think and vote with fiscal responsibility, and the leadership will reflect that.
It doesn’t appear to me that the posting guidelines are being enforced or observed.
I’ll chime in with a number of previous commenters.
RN asks, What happened to fiscal discipline as a Republican principle?
George Bush. Dick Cheney (attributed to Cheney: Reagan proved deficits don’t matter). Tom DeLay. Karl Rove. Trent Lott. And let’s not forget Old Read My Lips.
These are the visible names in the crowd that is clinging grimly to control of the party in the hope that Democrat incompetence will restore them to power. Unfortunately those hopes are rising.
Vote Republican. We wreck the country slower.
This is sly propoganda. Folks, forget the 2010 elections. Stay home. The Republicans are no better. Just be apathetic… the way your masters like you to be.
Sen. McConnell is minority leader. He was there to accomplish his goals. The ABC analyst was there trying to debate as an analyst. Two different agendas. This was airtime for McConnell to campaign against Obamacare. That’s all. Navarette thinks Dowd “won”, but he doesn’t get to keep score, or even, determine what the fight is about. This is a false argument.
“It’s the Obamacare, stupid!” Dowd can criticize Pubbies all he likes, but McConnell is trying to win the all-important mid-term elections. He could get drawn down into defending the Pubbies admittedly poor record, or he can focus on the Dems’ even poorer record. Which sounds to you like the more politically-astute thing to do? McConnell won, because he stayed on the dems, not the Pubs.
Which is why Navarette wrote this piece, because this is the Left’s new gambit – focus on the Pubs. This is also known as, “Bush did it!” The Dems want to focus on the Pubs, and the Pubs want to focus on the Dems.
I agree that they both suck, thus, the Tea Parties, but the Pubs will win in November as long as they stay focussed on the Dems. This has to be done to stop Obama. An egregious mistake was made in 2008. It must be stopped, then corrected in 2012.
This is outrageous, given that Paul Ryan has done the homework and come up with plans, and is very articulate on the topic. Why can’t McConnell parrot Ryan’s talking points? Or if he isn’t comfortable with all of them, how about the easiest to implement ones? Jim deMint and Tom Coburn have also proposed solutions.
This guy has no excuse.
A short message to the RNC from the tea parties.
“We’ve upped our game. Now up yours.”
a few questions
1. how big is the Tea Party movement?
2. or how many members do they have?
3. which is bigger, the ‘Tea Party’ or the Libertarian Party?
If you answered TEA PARTY to #3 just remember that the Libertarians only got 1/10 of 1% of the vote nationally (2008) and that was a big increase to what they usually got in prior elections. So the Tea Party had better be 100X bigger or it will be only slightly efective.
Personally I like the whole IDEA of throwing TEA into the Bay but
didn’t the Colonists pay HIGHER TAXES as a result of the war?
Now don’t get me wrong. I am not against the ‘TEA PARTY’. But I
am going to be really ticked off if they don’t finish the job!!
I would gladly pay higher taxes, even double, or triple, if that is what it takes to rid the United States of Satanic Liberalism, the Satanic Liberal Media, to split the country up, or to pay for another Revolutionary War.
but honestly I do not believe there are enough Tea partiers’ to make it happen
“They’re the reason that many Americans don’t see any difference between the two major parties.”
What a load of garbage. Not one word in that sentence is true.
Take your left-wing propaganda and keep it on CNN with the rest of the left-wing propaganda.
Navarette, you are a jackass.
Congress needs a complete change of membership. Many of these people have been there for DECADES. Can the leopard change his spots? Yeah – faster than Congress can change its collective character. These people do what they know how to do and they have been doing it for decades. Does anyone really think if McCain won again (heaven forfend) he would be any different than he has been? He “changes” for the campaign, then goes back to what he is. When there have been people there for OVER FORTY years, how can anyone expect that things will be different? Many are relics of another era. Many looks back to the 1930′s (for cryin’ out loud) as the apogee of American politics. They are the practitioners of the old time leftie way of doing things, ie – GEEZER POLITICS. The left wing is so old, so dated, so yesterday. And still they cling to memories of their glory days. Socialism, marxism, fascism, whateverism is for GEEZERS.
#53
I think something better would be tax parity e.g. a low flat tax or low national consumption tax where 60% of the people would not be receiving “refunds”. Sometimes I feel that our current income tax systems should be neither progressive nor regressive, but instead have a small rate at the bottom, a moderately increased rate in the middle, and a small rate, almost as low as what the bottom pays, at the top.
The middle depends on the viability of the top and at the same time consumes more services how you ask?
The middle commutes on highway networks and transit, while the top can sit at home and travel only when needed.
The middle is still relatively highly reliant on public education (depending on residence) and should pay accordingly when it wants bells and whistles, while the top can pay for its own education out of pocket and out of system.
The middle will have the motivation of a lower tax bracket (as opposed to the marginal increase or AMT) to raise its game.
If the top pays less it can spend like spendthrifts and create more middles and more aspiring lows.
For once I agree with Ruben…R’s seem to lack the spine & sense of urgency to lead the coming battle. RINO’s still prefer the BIPARTISAN movement of deck chairs on the sinking ship of state…consider Meg Whitman’s OBAMAESQUE 10% business tax break to stimulate job growth & her careful tip toeing around the teachers’ union. Those of us obliged to pay have reached a tipping point and will no longer be plowed under by an out of control government!
“…R’s seem to lack the spine & sense of urgency to lead the coming battle.”
IMHO, those who have been in office a term or two and have therefore run multiple campaigns can remember a good many campaigns they’ve followed or battled in when democrats scored points and won close election with the bipartisanship boogie that the media has always chanted. That everyone, including myself, knows we can no expect bipartisanship if we’re going to roll these socialists back probably isn’t all that clear given the cautious machinery all office holders have to try and follow their constituents rather than misreading them. I also think it’s going to take Republicans actually seeing the predicted big changes this fall small to believe that the day for working with those “across the aisle” is actually gone as far as the voters are concerned.
I’ve talked to several folks who have worked in campaigns at the state level, and they’re sure not convinced that they won’t end up gored by the ox of bipartisanship again just as soon as they start going down the conservative agenda without regard to what the democrats think. I’m glad that those I know who feel that way are also upset that “their guy” doesn’t care what they think on that topic and is just sticking to what he knows is right.
People who have recently broken with the democrat party or who have always called themselves independent but who now see the democrat party for the socialist anti-constitutional machine it is, need to drop their representatives just a simple line or two letting them know that as voters they know that bipartisanship is no longer reasonable and that as voters they won’t be demanding it. Hearing from a lot of their constituents that they know cooperation with the socialist democrat thugs isn’t reasonable any longer probably have results sooner than most think since it would be an effective counterweight to the caution song many in office are probably getting from their long time advisors who have weathered many an up and down in public opinion.
I’m not denying that the Republican Party seems to lack a sense of urgency, but I think a lot of people with the spine to do battle are restrained by the fact that they’ve seen democrat candidates get traction and votes with the crap about bipartisanship. I don’t blame them for wanting to stay in office to fight these bastards, but I do see that they’re being overly cautious with regard to just openly calling the democrats what they are. Of course, I’ve been hoping that Republicans as a whole would start stating the factual record of the democrat party for years and have repeatedly been told doing so was, “too combative”, in the opinion of those who specialize in reading the voters on behalf of one candidate.
Regards
@58. rashputin: – … drop their representatives just a simple line or two letting them know that as voters they know that bipartisanship is no longer reasonable …
That’s the best approach at this point.
“Bipartisanship” used to have meaning when it was two opposing parties working together by combining the best of two different – but rational – plans. We need to go back prior to LBJ in order to find a time in America where that type of process was possible. Since that time, every explosion of government has relied on irrational premises that have succeeded only in flushing this nation down the toilet.
Not too long ago, “bipartisanship” morphed into simple, blind compromise, which is what we saw from 1988 through 2008. There, the problem was this: if you relentlessly compromise with socialists, you eventually end up with… socialism.
Now that we pretty much have de facto socialism in the U.S.A., and the citizenry has been trained to believe in fictitious entitlements and is prevented at all costs from understanding the meaning of the Constitution with respect to the restrictions it places on government, “bipartisanship” has come to mean one thing: Republicans – and any other party – agreeing with whatever the socialist Democrats feel like doing, i.e., “majority rules”.
This nation needs to be beaten over the head with the factual record of the Democrat Party until it can take no more. Short of that, this Republic will soon cease to exist in any meaningful form.