It’s All Over. Not.
Like you, I’ve been reading all the post-election autopsies. Here, for my money, is the smartest I’ve seen so far, from Michael S. Greve at the Library of Law and Liberty, hat-tip, as so often, to the Blogfather, Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit:
For advanced democracies in the transfer state predicament, there are only two ways out. One is a responsible Social-Democratic party that is (1) cognizant of the fact that a wrecked economy would also wreck its constituencies and (2) capable of holding labor unions in line. Successful reform countries—Canada, Germany, Sweden, and (more arguably) Brazil—all have that dynamic in common. America had but forfeited that chance in 2008, with Mr. Obama’s victory over Mrs. Clinton. The moment is gone for good, and Mrs. Clinton (should she enter the 2016 sweepstakes that started yesterday) will go nowhere. The new face of the party is Elizabeth Warren et al—brutal, ruthless hacks from Harvard.
The only other way out is a political force that offers a competing social model. That force, and that model, does not now exist—largely, I suspect, on account of our grimly professional politics. Conservatives felt compelled, for eight long years, to defend the Bush administration, an exercise that left them exhausted and compromised. After 2008, they should have done what opposition parties normally do—rethink, and regenerate. Alas, there was never any time for that: all the energy went into a fight against Obamacare, stimulus bills, etc.
Read the whole excellent thing here.
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Cross-posted from Klavan on the Culture
More post-election reflections at PJ Lifestyle:
It’s the Culture, Stupid: Facing the Long Road Ahead
Politicizing Ourselves to Death: Is the Culture War Over?
When Your Dog Dies, You Can Bring Him Back to Life
” The Great Game is over when everyone is dead. Not before.”
Rudyard Kipling, KIM
I’ve heard this argument before, that those of us who are preaching doom and gloom don’t understand that the problem is salvageable, that it’s not over yet, that the Democrats recovered when Bush was reelected, etc. It’s all of it very clever, and very smart, and it’s all of it predicated on a couple of premises, which you must accept if you’re going to buy the argument:
1. You’ve got to accept that the electorate can be persuaded away from their current philosophy, to yours. I don’t frankly believe that’s the case any more. Obama’s coalition of people who get some sort of Government assistance, with those who dole it out or somehow feed off of the Government, has now reached the tipping point. None of these people *care* if the economy ever recovers. If only one in ten people has a job, as long as that one person is me, I don’t care if you get screwed. You’re one of those evil factory owners who tried to steal wealth from me back when we made something tangible in America. Better to ship your job overseas and let you live in a cardboard box on a street corner.
2. If things do get worse (of course they will), you’ve got to believe that the public (and especially the members of Obama’s coalition above) can be persuaded that it’s bad for *them* and that it’s his fault. The only real way for that to happen is through the media, and we all know how objective they are. Government waste of resources is rampant–but when you waste money, it doesn’t vanish into thin air, it drops into someone’s pocket…and he’s stubbornly resistant to any “reform” movement that curtails his cash flow. If you can’t get to him through the nightly news, you’re left with the internet, where it’s hard to get attention over all the background noise. Witness the campaign contribution scandal this time, where it was obvious Obama’s campaign was more or less actively soliciting foriegn contributions, and opponents of this practice were reduced to contributing to his campaign under the name “Osama bin Laden”, and *STILL* couldn’t get anyone to pay attention. He who controls the news controls the narrative, and that’s game over.
and finally 3. To think that this will end well, you’ve got to imagine that the people on the left have a coherent plan here. The typical feeling, from those on the right, is that the President is either a closet Muslim or a closet Marxist, or a combination of the two. I’ve myself always gone with the Heinlein quote: “Never ascribe to malice what can be plausibly explained by stupidity.” As far as I’m concerned it’s pretty obvious that the man hasn’t a clue what he’s doing. Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results is supposedly insanity. What then is doing something over and over again, expecting a different result, with tons of evidence and rationalization that it’ll work (all of it specious, but never mind)? I think it’s called being a liberal Democrat. I think it’s obvious they’ll raise taxes and increase bureaucracy until the whole thing collapses, and each time they’ll be further stunned when it doesn’t work out the way they expected. When everything does collapse, they’ll make sure they’re personally safe, and shake their heads over the ashes of everyone else’s life.
Remember Nicholas’s law: “In the United States, we judge the level of our compassion by the amount of money we’re willing to waste, failing to solve a problem.”
With man, this is impossible. With God, all things are possible.
God’s will for mankind has been pain and suffering for most of recorded history.
Considering how long Stalin ,Pol Pot and Mao reigned I have no reason to argue your point.
I never thought the time would come that I would wear a sandwich board bearing the legend “The End is Near,” but as a fairly recent born-again christian I find myself near that point.
David said here, “God’s will for mankind has been pain and suffering for most of recorded history.” He’s mistaken. God’s will for mankind has been that mankind honor him with their worship and fidelity to his law. In return, he will protect and provide for them, as he did with Moses and the people he led. When they stray afar from his wishes he either punishes directly or simply leaves them to the results of their own devices. That can be worse than God’s punishment, which is always tempered by his love for us. Remember, indifference is a worse than even hatred.
This country has not only turned away from God, it has spat in his face as it has done so. He will not be mocked. There is no reason to think that he will not, once more, use a ruler and the ruler’s minions and cohorts, famine and poverty, and even a foreign invasion of peoples and practices to chastise. And I believe that is just what we have to look forward to.
While I may not like what I see coming, I am at peace with the results of the election. We’ve earned it.
No, God’s will is NOT for us to have pain and suffering. He could have just let us all kill each other and die in misery if that were the case. However, He sent His Son to die for us. Since then, we have to exercise free will to change our world. In other words, the people who sat at home because they didn’t think Obama could lose or because they couldn’t vote for a Mormon are just as responsible for the current situation as those who voted for Obama.
Great comment.
Shouldn’t that be: “… the amount of taxpayers’ money we’re willing to waste”?
Great comment, here’s some feedback.
I am one of the fools who believe that “they” can be persuaded to see reason. Not all of them, of course. But enough of the electorate to win enough of future elections to prevent the left and their followers from destroying our country. But it will be a very difficult and complex challenge. Why?
Because of point 2. THEY control the media and academia almost entirely. We did not merely see bias or spin in the MSM, what we witnessed was a well coordinated media propaganda strategy that was enthusiastically executed by the mediacrats who make their living pretending to be “newspeople”. Remember who introduced the “War on Women” meme into the Republican primaries – Stephanopolous. Remember the constant lying about the true state of the economy, which we know would be trumpeted every single night of the week if a Rep was in the White House. I could go on and on, and you all know that. Which leads to point 3.
Who will get the blame when the bottom falls out of our economy? Well, who controls the media? To what extent are they honest unbiased observers and reporters? We all know the answer to that and who will get the blame no matter what happens. No, my friend, whatever the weaselcrats and their media servents are, they aren’t stupid people. We should never again underestimate their intelligence or their (to coin a phrase) “will to deceive”. Goebbels himself could have learned lessons from Obama, Axelrod, Clinton etc. not to mention ABC, NBC, CBS, NYT double etc.
In short, we have to get 50% or thereabouts of the media back. We have to boycott, protest, analyze, attack, reinvent, attack again, boycott some more and then go after them with lasers, firehoses, flamethrowers and chainsaws… in other words GET IN THEIR LYING MEDIA FACES. A large part of their confidence in their ultimate victory in the long run is based on them still controlling 90% of the media and 80% of academia, and they are right. If WE don’t FORCE significant changes in the media and attack them as a class, they will corrupt our nation to the point of decrepitude.
In short the masses, or the majority of our fellow citizens are not the problem; the media class is the destructive force that must be reckoned with and defeated. As to how? That’s another post. Alot of them.
This is overthinking the solution. All we need is the rhetorical rope and give Obama all he wants. If we believe 1, 2 and 3 above and if we believe we are on a path to disaster four years isn’t long enough to resist the tide and change it, too. Ride that tide. Let the other side sink or swim in their own juices and they’ll pull that rope we give Obama when its strung firmly around his political neck.
Right now people are giving up because the old way is too slow at this point.
Going brave and bold means letting the tree of despotism bear fruit.
“Never attribute to Malice…” in that formulation is Hanlon’s Razor, one of my favorite sayings. But is he really a CLOSET Marxist? Did he really make a secret of it?
Heinlein also said something similar…”You have attributed conditions to villiany that simply result from stupidity.”. Heinlein has a number of good ones, but here is a particular favorite…”Political tags – such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative and so forth – are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.”
David W. Nicholas — You and Klavan have said it all, EXCEPT how the denouement goes.
Smarty pants social engineers in demagoguic plutocracies (also known by a variety of modern leftist names) have historically *always* ended in badly shed blood. Given we’re past the ‘tipping point’, our future should be no different.
America, like Russia and France, has an extraordinarily violent history. The failure of the pseudo intellectuals’ impossible dreams may lead to an American Robespierre or Pol Pot. Like Pol, they may start with executing all the Harvard grads but themselves, their — what — Czars? A Terror Americain shall eventually ensue. Bet on it. And the Huns, Goths and Vandals that scavange our land will be Chinese and Latinos. Root for the Latinos.
I loved Tamurlane’s solution: when giving away the store only succeeded in multiplying the beggar population, he reversed course. He slaughtered all the beggars outright and went on to found the largest and most stable empire in the mideast and south Asia ever known. It cost about 5% of the world’s population in the 15th century. But that’s the logical conclusion to our American nihlists’ adolescent games.
For my money the “barbarians from the hills” that will sweep down and conquer are obvious: Flyover country. Ever since the nation was remade in the Civil War the South has been the “unAmerican.” I don’t mean not Amercian, I mean portrayed as the opposite of what good America (which since then has been portrayed as New England) is and should be: The savage barbarians who must be kept back and kept down, by the smart, tolerant, good Yankees. Don’t believe it? Look how anyone with a Southern accent is portrayed in film and TV. They even rewrote the history books so that our colonial origins were moved from Virginia to Plymoth Rock. In 1850 political control shifted from the agricultural South, who wanted low tarrifs and the corresponding small gov’t,to the industrializing North who wanted protectionist tarrifs, pork spending on infrasturcture to make their industry more profitable, and a Great Nation with a powerful gov’t to match. The South rebelled and more blood was spilled getting them back than all other wars we’ve had put together. Laugh at “The South Will Rise Again” hicks if you must, but ever since air conditioning power has been shifting back Southward. Obama’s victory has put Chicagoans at the helm again now, but the tide is irreversable. And now the population of the “hick barbarian provinces” that the Northeasterners must rule over has expanded from 1850 to include everything between CA and the MO, too (except possibly parts of CO). The ruling Capitol is decadent and crumbling. My only question is will they try to seccede, as they joked about, when “Jesusland” takes over ther reins or fight to keep their colonies under their thumb?
I am my brothers keeper right up and until I shoot him in the back to take his bread to feed MY family.
Rule #1 of the tribe,Nitzeche style.
Timur Liang was a Chinese moslem, who only did it to enhance his fame with allah.
Excellent post. I pray that you’re wrong, but know in my heart that you are almost surely correct.
Interesting viewpoint. I have something to ponder though. You seem to think that the media is a constant. It is not. It is a variable. New outlets, like PJMedia where you’re posting, did not exist in the past and old ones stop publishing. This may make things better, or this may make things worse, but what it is guaranteed to do is make things different. In difference, unforeseen changes, and events there lies opportunity.
The problem is that there is a tipping point, the clock is ticking, and there’s a point where, even assuming people do somehow manage to wise up, it’s simply too late.
We reached that point about two years ago.
Sorry, but even if we’d won last week, it’s probably already too late. We’ve already gone off the fiscal cliff. We’re surviving mainly because the Europeans are scaring the investors enough that they’ve stuck with T-bills, and even then it’s mostly the Fed buying them up. Eliminate the levels of obfuscation, and we’re financing our deficit by devaluing the currency. There will be a few years of increasingly panicked juggling acts, and certainly a lot of finger-pointing, but we’re off the cliff and it’s too late too back away. What happened last week was that the American people ratified the choice to jump.
Once you’re in that fiscal death spiral, you don’t get out. You might crash quickly or slowly, but there’s now a governing majority of people who’d rather see the system collapse than their particular piece of it be cut. Seriously, if you have kids to feed, would you accept being laid off for the sake of some abstract national good? That’s what happens when the budget is cut, or entitlements lowered, or when your bankrupt company stops getting bailouts. Lots of people might make that sacrifice, but none of them vote Democrat.
Look at history. It’s a question of making or taking. Taking is easier, always easier. In the early stages of a civilization, there isn’t much wealth around to take. Success means making it (or marching off and conquering it, but at least you’re taking from another civilization). Either way, you’re outward-focused. Later, in a wealthy, successful civilization, there’s plenty of wealth laying around. At that point, taking makes sense. Take control of your civilization, and you have all its wealth. The civilization turns inward, and gradually selects the most ruthless, unprincipled, and avaricious people to take charge and rule. They survive by taking from whomever has wealth, keeping as much as they can, and giving to their supporters whatever they must to stay in power.
Greece, Rome, China, Persia, Egypt, they all followed this pattern. We’ve always been on the same path. De Toqueville predicted it early on. We’ve hit the inflection point; the American equivalent of the Gracci brothers, perhaps? Either way, a financial collapse always comes with it demands that the politically powerful seize even more power. That’s happening now, also. Since that centralization is causing the crisis, the result is a vicious cycle.
So, no, I actually think we were irrevocably in deep trouble last year. I’ll keep voting, keep agitating for us to somehow regain our sanity, but my new priority is identifying where and how I should live to best protect my family. Systems in collapse are very ugly, especially if your life depends on them.
I think your are correct, however the United States has a unique character that may make a difference; the fact that it is a federation. The states are making noises about secession. Right now it’s mostly just grumbling without any serious thought behind it, but I believe that as the situation worsens and more and more people realize that the Federal government is no longer legitimate, that will change. I give it, at most, two years before the states call a second Constitutional Convention. Then it will really get interesting.
You default on your debts. Happens a lot . If you have a new currency that is plausible the transition need not be difficult or damaging to the economy . If the USA still has any gold reserves (which I doubt) it would be easy / Most peoples’ life saving are gone and so it the goverments ability to print money or borrow (at least for a while) so there are lots of unhappy and bitter campers and no safety net .
Your comment, asdf, is one of the most thoughtful and articulate summaries that I have seen among the many offered. Bravo.
Heinlein covered the map in his ‘Future History’ series, leaving blank
a patch because ‘The stories would necessarily have unhappy endings.’
We are heading into that blank patch; nobody knows what America will look
like after the world economy crashes and the global geopolitical gestalt
morphs into a new configuration. My guess is a conservative society, an
authoritarian government, and a franchise earned by long, hard effort
in the recovery, reform, and maintenance of civil life.
Oh, and one more thing; A US population about half of what it is now,
with the majority of the losses in the underclass, and a small but
significant minority in the current ruling class, in and out of office.
For a small peek at that future, see the sad aftermath of Frankenstorm.
There is a bit of truth here that few if any of us Conservatives have the courage to face: our “Come to Jesus” moment about the world occurred on a fine morning in September in 2001.
The last time this sort of thing happened the President of the time – who was nigh onto being as much of a Socialist as the current clown – had enough American sense left in him to collectively damn the folks who attacked us and launched us into being the most powerful and frightening nation on the planet even unto reigning nuclear fire on our already-falling enemy as an exclamation point.
The guy who was supposed to lead us out of darkness this time turned around, wrapped his arm around the Muslim Brotherhood and called them a religion of peace, sent our troops into a barbarian desert to chase monkeys, and then invited the prince of the country that murdered 3000 of our people to his ranch so they could hold hands and talk of relationships.
He then went on to attack a country only because they tried to whack his daddy, and urinated away trillions on his “compassionate conservatism” while laying the ground for wrecking the Right by betraying every principle and creating the petri dish to grow the next generation of enviro-racist parasites … which brings us to now.
Given that every leader we’ve put up since Bush has been one of his clones and the left has a majority and messiah who promises them stuff and revenge, just exactly how the heck do you think this will end?
G W Bush and national leaders all made pronouncements after 9-11 that our strength was unbroken and we, the USA, would rebuild better than ever. Unfortunately their words were the same as those of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, when they responded to the first attack of many that eventually resulted in their complete destruction. The parallels are chilling. It’s not a great read but I urge all the commenters here to read ‘The Harbinger’ by Jonathan Cahn.
There is no way to punch our way out of this paper bag of political and cultural troubles without a public recantation by Bush and the others involved. We are blessed in that the prayer and repentance we need has been carefully defined for our understanding, by G_d himself. Read Isaiah 9:10 and the commentaries on it for yourself.
We can do this. TEA Parties will take over from the establishment and communicate Republican values to the population.
I don’t think he is a closet anything. The past four years has proven that.
It’s not over by a long shot. But the US is like a drug addict or a drunk in its self-destructive behavior and like many an addict and drunk may have to hit rock bottom in order to recover. If so, sooner rather than later.
That is only half true. After hitting rock bottom the solution must be obvious or there will be no recovery. After seeing someone as blatantly unqualified as Obama win the most important office in the world twice I do not particularity confident. We can however rejoice that a country that betrayed all those who sacrificed for it will get its just rewards. Too bad the 48.1 % will be dragged down too.
BTW we can forget about trying to win over people with logic. Obama was never elected on any rational basis.
“the US is like a drug addict or a drunk in its self-destructive behavior and like many an addict and drunk may have to hit rock bottom in order to recover”
The US is like Lindsey Lohan…too many apologists, Star Struck Judges, leeches, enablers and assorted hangers-on who have a vested interest in keeping her coked up (spending/printing money) and partying (Obama phones, et al).
There is no “rock bottom” when you always have a posh place to sleep (perpetual rising debt ceiling) , a credit card (taxes), and a “manager” (Obama) who keeps telling you how your fans STILL just LOVE you, and you need to stay “out there” at the cool clubs to maintain that “connection” because your ALMOST THERE again, baby!
She will never “recover” with the current crop of “followers” constantly enabling her self-destructive behavior.
She will simply “wake up dead” one day, in an alley or on the crapper like Elvis, and everyone will ask how this could possible happen.
And as cockroaches scatter, a few select higher placed ones will gain fame, fortune, and face-time for themselves, telling (selling) the Sad Tragic Story they tried in heroic vain to prevent.
Okay, two things. I’ve always heard that conservatives outnumber the lefties 2 to 1, that we are indeed a center right nation. Remember the huge Tea Party crowds in DC before the 2010 shellacking? The Glenn Beck gathering at the reflecting pool?The huge numbers lined up at Chik-Fil-A? The huge crowds that R&R attracted when Obama was speaking to half-filled venues?
I do think that there was some kind of hidden fraud, perhaps a virus in voting machines in the swing states that turned Romney votes into Obama votes. If so, the voters who are expecting freebies from the giverment are not really half the population, but only about 25% to 30+%. They may fall victim to their own fraud, thinking they are just over half of the electorate, when we really do surround them numerically.
So take heart, and keep on doing what is right, if only to maintain your own integrity. Given enough time, the truth will out.
Then we need good old fashioned gear-and-lever voting machines. They can’t be tampered with without the opposing party finding out about it, can be tested freely, have no electronics to hack, and can’t be stuffed with “found” ballots. I saw my parents use them when I was a boy, but for some reason I do not understand, or perhaps simply bribery, we decided to replace them with electronic voting machines.
Paper ballots. Purple fingers.
Okay, two things. I’ve always heard that conservatives outnumber the lefties 2 to 1, that we are indeed a center right nation.
Many of the democrat voters I know self-ID as socially liberal and fiscally conservative. A great number of these voters went for Obama because they see him as more republican than democrat. Where it concerns polls yes they accurately reflect the notion of say 2:1 or better of conservative self-identification. The problem is that too many R’s — particularly social cons and tea partiers — read poll data like this and presume that “conservative” self-ID is the same as themselves, hence conclusions of the US as largely center-right. Given that seemingly *most* people self-ID as fiscal conservative then yes the US **IS** center right.
Yes, my religion forbids me to dispair, but I watched the Lives of Others if only to get a sense of how this ends up looking. In 1977 East Germany stoped publishing the numbers of suicides.
That is an ominous fact.
I did not want to live in a socialist state, but here we all are, my fellow country men said, “More please.”
This is the best Bag It speech I’ve heard from anybody….XD………
Klavan, this little ditty needs a massive re-write. What a mash up of torpid thoughts and ideas.
“To put it another way: every story is a tragedy, if you tell it to the end.”
You’ve told the punchline before the joke! Bad form.
Or maybe you’ve just discovered the meaninglessness of words in the situation we’re facing and cannot be reconciled with that, so you quote a pundit quoting a pundit (both who actually DO nothing).
Counseling the approach of idiots heureux: ‘be of good cheer and defiance’ seems to have gotten us exactly where we are.
Your goals cannot be achieved by typing. One must act.
Nevertheless, life goes on until it ends. And all stories mercilessly unwind until the Fat Lady sings, no matter what the Fat Man may say.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaamZLKRul0
He appears to write better than you do, though.
As the captain used to say in Galaxy Quest, “Never give up, never surrender!”
Got an “Omega 13″ device handy?
“To put it another way: every story is a tragedy, if you tell it to the end.”
Who is to say where the story ends, really?
Yours is a very “Greek,” even Pagan (not meant all that pejoratively) sentiment. However, since Christ – whom you claim to follow, that world has been overturned and a different ending has been asserted.
You are, I believe, something of a converted Liberal? It is Liberals – faithless and faddish – who see life as Tragic, which is why they’re so cool with abortion and euthanasia. They believe it “compassionate.” These days, Compassion is bidding fair to kill more people than Hatred. And Hatred has the merit of being honest. You can, at times, even reason with it. But (human) compassion is so very, very sure of itself.
When one realizes (as do Conservatives – as opposed to Right Wingers), that life is a comedy, or more properly, a commedia, then one’s ‘skills will be complete.’
(Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of things that aren’t funny in the least, but overall …)
“Who is to say where the story ends, really?”
“Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends.” — Dr. Manhattan
What is clear, due to the insane economic and regulatory activities of our government, is that eventually there will be a massive breakdown of the economy and with it social order. To be followed with widespread civil unrest, destruction, and deaths. Think Watts or LA riots of the past but on a wider, more destructive scale. Expect efforts to lay the blame on conservatives as obstructing the utopian dream of Dear Leader. How soon? Who knows but most think within a decade if not within four years. If it’s every man and woman for themselves we will cease to exist as Americans. If we stick together and prepare to survive together against the coming tide, we have a chance. Besides as someone said, “eventually we are all dead men.” I for one would rather stand up and fight for what I believe in, reverence for God, Freedom, and Limited Government that protects freedom and does not shackle it. So the Dems have broken into the house and broken into the liquor cabinet. After their drunken revel, there will be a reckoning. We need to be ready to pick up the pieces. In the mean time we need to set aside our petty differences and efforts to blame each other for what happened on 6 Nov. We need to survive together and be ready to act when the cycle turns. I spent 36 years in the military and have seen some pretty terrible things. Believe me there are much worse things than our current political plight. Don’t make them happen here by giving up.
For some days now, I have been posting an answer to your argument:
you would be right if we were talking politics. But we are not.
It seems to me that up until today we have not understood the hate of the Obama administration against America.
The “mistakes” of the first term were not mistakes.
The plan to destroy America’s might led to colossal defeats in the past years and will lead to more defeats in the future four years: you can say what you want but alqaeda has conquered North Africa, our energy sector is half destroyed, the venture capitals are running away, the debt is destroying the dollar.
All this will get much worse and we will be able to do little or nothing against it.
It’s the war of the anti-colonialist subversives against America, and we are losing it.
I decline the invitation to cheer up.
I invite the Authors and the Readers of this noble forum to listen to the truth.
Thank you for the space to post this.
(Similar posts have been published but disappeared a few hours later…)
You are right. We all see it. So the Zombies have taken over. Eventually they’ll burn themselves out. Our job, your job is to now survive the impending collapse. Not for ourselves but for our future. And yes there will be a future. Just as during the societal collapse of the middle ages, there were pockets of humanity trying to survive and trying to preserve knowledge. Eventually there was a Renaissance. More of us will survive if we work together. In your despair don’t make it worse. When you die and face God do you want to tell him you gave up in the face of evil and madness? Or if you are an Atheist, do you want to be remembered as a man or as a one who gave up?
Thank you for the answer.
I do not despair: as you say, I think that the only way we can make America’s Freedom survive is if we diagnose exactly where we are now, and then we get ready to face the dark times that we will certainly meet.
Getting on with “politics as usual” can only cause us to be unprepared for the economic, social, and national security turmoil that the policies of this administration will increasingly ( and willingly) cause.
We should spend a lot of time discussing the implications of the debt, of the energy crisis, of the alqaeda victories etc. etc.
And we have to tell to the American People what to expect.
We must be the Churchill of 1936-1939: people will not like us NOW, but they will remember who told the truth.
Off topic: The third book from William Manchester and Paul Reid covering The Last Lion from 1940-1965 just came out. I bought the three book set (through Amazon/Glenn Reynolds site. It is an excellent Winston Churchill biography.
Since the Republic is not dead then what?
Here is the way to survive the coming festivities:
1. Learn to grow your own food. Get non-hybrid seed stock.
2. Keep at least a years supply of food on hand, preferably two. The Mormon’s have a point. Did you know it takes 100# of a starch to feed person for a year? 50# of rice + 50# of various dried legumes for variety makes sure you can exist. Supplement with supplements and the garden.
3. Learn to shoot = learn to hunt. A pellet air gun can kill small game – squirrels and small rabbits. Think squirrels are cute? Wait until the little rodents eat your house. That will change your mind.
4. Get a place ready out of the cities. You have maybe a year. The real zombies are the hungry coming out of the cities hungry and looking for food if it all goes pear shaped.
5. Invest in precious metals. No, not silver and gold. They come in fractional sizes = .223Rem, .45ACP, .308Win, etc. That .45 can get me all the other metals that are pretty I want if I want them bad enough.
6. Community, community, community. Find like minded people who share your core beliefs. They are what will save the Republic.
I just did a quick search in rural Texas and you can find land cheap.
From TheMightyMonarch:
I had to laugh at that one. If you claim to be a Christian unless you are Roman Catholic then you are a heretic! IOW, to us Catholics all of ya’ll Protestants of any variety are heretics! Now, before you get all ruffled that is being satirical.
This whole thing will totter along for a bit. The Republic is dead but the country is still here. Why poke your head up signing petitions that give the Fascists reason to re-educate you? Remember the old 60′s saw? “Think globally, act locally.” That is where we are now.
Knowing the state of the Republic leads us here. The GoP is and should be rightfully dying. They deserve to fade away.
Want to change DC? Support efforts like Leo Linbeck’s Campaign4PrimaryAccountability
Maybe infiltrate the Dems and do your best to destroy them from within. We are not fighting an honorable enemy.
You’re right, was gearing up for a rufflin’.
You have to admit though, compared to the differences between Catholic and Protestant, Mormonism is so far off the reservation that it has far more in common with Scientology than Christianity. I can tolerate partying to the saints far more than gods from other planets.
I meant praying, not partying. Gotta love auto-correct.
I’m sorry, I know people are serious about their religion, but wandering off onto doctrinal arguments while facing the collapse of the Republic is like debating whether your fellow concentration camp inmates look better in stripes or checks.
Sorry Rusty, that’s all that matters. Christianity teaches that kingdoms will rise and fall, including this one, but God’s kingdom doesn’t end. I’m certainly not rooting for the collapse of the republic (if you can even call it that anymore), but I don’t pin my hopes on a recovery.
If anything I see this country splitting up roughly along geopolitical lines. The West and East Coasts devolving into stagnant quasi-socialist states and the middle embracing values closer to pure Constitutionalism.
We have not lost. I refuse to give in. Yes, I understand the dollar is dirt, our energy sector is closing down, and we have fallen off the fiscal cliff. Civil unrest is coming. Take care of your own. Get out of debt. Lay up some supplies. But DO NOT GIVE UP! That is what they want. I refuse to give it to them. Shut up, quit whining, get busy. Call your representatives every day, if necessary. Every time an executive order is signed, call your congressman and tell them to get busy opposing it. They still work for us, and serve at our pleasure. Remind them. Hold their feet to the fire. If they do not cooperate, vote them out. Write letters to the newspaper-if they are of a liberal bent, call them out and MAKE them admit it. Do the same with broadcast news. Time to shed some light. If you want to give up, go ahead and join the opposition.
I’m a Christian. I’ve read the story and it ends very well for those of faith.
I’m torn between a Galtism in me that blows up the copper mine and says “take it brother, it’s yours”, or the inner German who just keeps working and being productive despite having half of what I’ve earned taken by the government. It’s time to reflect and learn. It’s also a time to say “I told you so” with every microgram of bad news that comes down the pike.
Funny thing. Over the years I have drifted from Christianity. During the last 4 years and the last election election , I find myself drifting back . Praying more. Supporting and taking comfort in the company and advice of like minded patriots. I am totally going Galt. It is the path that makes the most sense. I don’t want the final showdown to be drug out. I want it NOW. I want the GOP to let all of his agenda passed with out argument. They will most likely be purged from congress the next election cycle otherwise. I am pruning every liberal from my life be it family, friends , service people. Then I am packing up and moving to a red state. I will never pay taxes in a blues state again. Scaling down life on a personal level. “Things” and debt just hold you down and limit your movement and options. Watching the “victims” on the East coast freeze and stand in food and gas lines if very satisfying. Watching workers in coal country in Ohio and Pennsylvania lose their jobs is satisfying. Signing the online petition for the secession of Louisiana is satisfying. Is this Christian? Maybe not but who cares
No, it’s not a Christian attitude. Going Galt, and preparing yourself to be as self sufficient as possible is admirable, but as a Christian you are to do all things to the glory of God. This certainly does not include wishing ill on others. Remember that they are sinners, just like you and I, and we would be equally condemned if not for God’s grace alone, through faith alone. Those people, as well as our exceedingly sinful leaders, need prayers. Especially our leaders, as all authority comes from God.
I used to rail against corrupt leaders like our President. But that is not our proper, Biblical response to authority. For good or bad, Obama is the person that God has allowed to take leadership. All I can do is appeal the best way I can, try to elect local leaders that can use their authority to defy immoral laws, and most importantly, pray for our President, because I suspect he is a Godless man. No different than me at one time.
I have a quibble. Yes, we should pray for our godless president just as we would pray for any other heathen, for God would love to have them all come to faith. But at the same time I also pray for Obama’s failure — fallen down in the gutter and can’t get back up kind of failure. For the sake of the country, and for his own sake. He is deeply in need of a “Nebuchadnezzar moment” (cf. Daniel chapter 4). And it is entirely proper for christians to rail against corrupt authorities if the Spirit so moves us, even as we pray for their souls. That is the prophetic role (cf. John the Baptist speaking out against Herod). Just be aware that it may have its costs.
Good for you for signing the petition. All those that believe in liberty should be doing the same.
This is what I wish I could get through to my conservative, Christian family who despairs because we re-elected the godless Marxist instead of the Mormon heretic. So focused on this life and not the next. So many Christians think we can bring about God’s Kingdom through the political process. “If only we could get Roe v. Wade overturned…that would stop abortions!” We’ve deluded ourselves.
I’ve also read through the story, including Revelation. If one doesn’t understand anything else from that book, you will at least understand this: God is sovereign and will bring His kingdom about, regardless of who is granted earthly authority.
“It ain’t over till you’re dead. Until then, there’s more punishment in store. Stand it like a man.”
One of Batchelor’s favorite sayings. We need to grieve for a while first, then get about the business of fighting back.
Great advice from Deadwood, but don’t forget even a TV show as great as it was in seasons 1 and 2 turned to complete crap in season 3. So, there are less pleasant parallels there. I’ll fight back because I’m generally a stubborn SOB by nature, but please no false hopes about success at the end as long as conservatives have been asleep/flaccid over cultural issues. We had enough false hope and delusions in the election just past to do us for decades to come.
A wise man (my ex-Marine, Iwo vet, Father)told me that men don’t whine, complain or mope… I think Klavan, in his own inimitable way, is saying the same thing- quit being a freakin’ baby!! Get up, dust off and get to work. Of course the reckoning is coming… we’re all going to suffer… So what? Gonna sit in the corner and suck your thumb? Good God, no wonder we’re in such bad shape! I would suggest your efforts should concentrate on making sure your family is prepared. I have two sons, two daughters n law, four grandaughters and and a wonderful wife of 35 years by my side- I got their backs. Will do everything I can to ensure they come out “on the other side” OK. I bust my a$$ to make sure my community is a good place to live (40 yrs as volunteer FF & state FF instructor). I argue fiercely with my numerous liberal (& conservative) friends but never get personal… I make sure the local supervisors, city manager, etc. receive my input. And I spend every single day making sure my business survives. In other words- I’m smilin’, fightin’ and fearin’ nuthing… What are you doing?? You can’t affect what you can’t control so do what you can… Excuse me now, I’ve got s***t to do…..
And where the hell exactly do you read anything in my post that sounds remotely like “Gonna sit in the corner and suck your thumb? Good God, no wonder we’re in such bad shape!” you jackass? Or did you even bother reading what I said? Go lecture someone who is willing to listen to your obnoxious self-promotion.
Itis not over yet,but the end is in sight.Once there is no more money this will be the end.Then thisis when the going gets tough and the toughs get going!
The classic Conservative side has one thing going for it that is both invaluable for the future and likely to become even more unique and precious. We know the past. We understand the consequences of a state directed dirigiste centrally planned economy in the past. A big part of our Angst is due to the Prescience with which we appreciate likely consequences. Which means we can prepare to some extent and make sure our own kids and grandchildren develop the very necessary traits that we know are being targeted by K-12 education and higher ed. Globally. Public and Private.
http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/creating-new-minds-different-values-equity-in-credentials-can-this-really-lead-us-to-prosperity/ is a post I wrote after listening to former NYC School Chancellor Joel Klein speaking to a Chamber of Commerce group. With AT&T as the business partner and as a wholly owned sub of Murdoch’s Newscorp, this vision has the political and economic power to gain implementation. Especially with a propensity to hire former district school superintendents who can then target their former subordinates for lucrative contracts. With taxpayer money.
We may not be able to stop it but we can see it coming. We recognize reality with a fairly accurate worldview and thus see what it is likely to come. There is personal power in this ability to anticipate.
Which is why it has been so targeted in this current generation.
Knowledge really is power. Which is why it is about to be at a premium. So prepare your loved ones accordingly. And then get ready to explain what works and why.
Britain was saved from an early socialist demise by a woman raised in a blue collar setting who had rock solid conservative virtues including courage and honesty. This woman pulled the empire from the brink, where union socialist policies had put it, and gave Britain several decades of prosperity. And she was a brilliant ally of Ronald Reagan in his battle to carry the conservative flag across the US and the globe.
I think another woman will do this again. And it won’t be Elizabeth Warren, though she may end up screaming like a banshee at the results.
Margaret Thatcher was a good leader, but if you do not factor the North Sea oil into Britain’s “decades of prosperity” you are not telling the whole story. Those fields are in decline and Britain with them.
Your comment does not say anything about the truth of my comment. Margaret Thatcher was a tireless defender/promoter of free markets and private property and Western civilization. Her predecessors had implemented vast social programs and government control of industries. She undid that. The oil you talk about would have been socialized if not for her. Now, the pendulum has swung, with her conservative followers being moderate,clike our Dole, McCain, Romney, SE succeeded. They failed. So did John Major and David Cameron.
You betcha!
Amen, Mr. Klavan.
We Conservatives ain’t dead yet. Let’s start paying back some pain.
I’m a L.I.B. advocate.
Let. It. Burn.
In the face of all logic, a majority of US voters just chose the path to economic suicide. I say give them what they want.
Maybe when the whole economy collapses under the weight of taxes, entitlements, and regulations, people will see the error or their ways. Maybe they won’t.
Regardless, I will have the joy of watching Obama voters lose their jobs, their houses, and most importantly their dreams of endless Free Stuff. I will be in the hole with them, but at least I will have the satisfaction of knowing I did not choose it.
Let. It. Burn.
I tooamin the L.I.B camp. rather than fight and suffer a life of a thousand cuts, I prefer to step aside, let the libs finish destroying everything as fast as possible, so the rest of us can rebuild unfettered.
I agree. Let it burn. You cannot convince the kids to vote against Santa Claus. You cannot convince a drug addict to go cold turkey. This is what the people wanted, let them get the government they deserve. The gravy train will go off the cliff, so be it. From what I see, the republicans can only slow down that gravy train, getting called racist, greedy and mean in the process, but they will never be able to stop it. So let it go off the cliff, and when it crashes we can pick up the pieces and set it in a new direction. Until then, trying to stop it is like banging your head on the wall.
Great post, Andrew
No, actually it is over and it’s not whining if you’ve been preparing for it.
We wouldn’t have all these problems if Al Swearingen was president.
…but I’ll settle for Sarah Palin.
My countrymen wish for an unsustainable spending rate by the State.
My countrymen vote for someone who wants to see their electricity rates necessarily skyrocket. Who also wants to bankrupt cheap coal power and put horrific regulations on fracking and, indeed, stop all natural resource extraction completely.
Our economy runs on such resources.
There is supposedly wisdom in crowds.
About half the electorate didn’t show up to vote.
Those that did voted for a minority position of keep doing the insane.
What comes next is the time of the Gods of the Copybook Headings.
They are good Gods, equal to all based on what they have done and what they do. I am saddened that my fellow countrymen have decided to call upon the ultimate arbiters of their folly. And yet I welcome them, as well, as the only corrective is to feel what one makes by mistakes: by voting for insanity and by not voting at all.
The results will be deserved.
I do hope to survive with a smiling face and open hand at the other end to welcome the survivors out and point out there is a large job ahead of us all. Such is life and you do not gain by ignoring it nor by denying it.
1 + 1 = 2
Not 16 trillion.
Financially, we are doomed. By 2016, we WILL be bust as long as we continue on this spending spree we are on right now. And I don’t think the Republicans are in any mood to “compromise” in the House. No, we are pretty much facing a lame duck for the next four years unless the midterm elections changes things in 2014, which I doubt. If anything, the Republicans may pick up some seats, giving Obama an even harder time. So this is pretty much what it’s going to be like for the next four years as we sail off of the fiscal cliff and endure sequestration.
And, honestly, a collapsed economy may be the only thing that shakes this nation back to its senses. Maybe we really NEED this. Given the last election, it’s what the country deserves, too. They voted for Obama, now they can live with his economic agenda. We could very well be Greece by 2016, and right now our only hope is the House of Representatives which can at least slow Obama down, if not stop him. But the price for that will be an impass in Congress and either economic stagnation or economic collapse, take your pick.
What we will need in 2016 is Margaret Thatcher. We need someone like that now more than ever. We don’t need a hispanic candidate, we don’t need a black candidate, we don’t need a single female candidate, we need A CONSERVATIVE candidate LIKE Margaret Thatcher. She gave the conservatives in England real hope and real economic success while making everyone have some faith in capitalism again. We need a Margaret Thatcher now more than ever, especially when we hit rock bottom in 2016. I hope we find our version of Thatcher, and soon. Maybe it will be Paul Ryan, or maybe even Sarah Palin. Maybe. But what I know is we had better find that person real fast because we’re literally out of time. And the economic horror that’s going to face us during the next four years will show just how bad things can be in this once great country of ours.
i keep hearing how this group or that went for the marxist and gave him the election. i told everyone who would listen that the u.s. was practicing voter fraud by manipulating the voting machinery in honduras. and by golly, i was right, again. its easy to be right when you have watched commies for most of one’s life.
rush was right too. every group voting for the fraud in chief wants handouts. free stuff. other people’s stuff. well, i’m not going to give them any more of mine. from here on out i’m a hunkerin’ down dawg. i have a new plan. i’m quitting my job (retiring) and just working for myself and mine until this madness is over. i’ll move my retirement away from the gov as much as possible, and i’ll only draw enough 401k money as income to stay below the minimum tax. barter is thy new name. plant me a garden. stock up on essentials and live off the land, as in growing stuff. let’s see them grab my stuff now.
The problem is a citizenry who would elect an Obama over a Romney. Plain and Simple.
No, the problem is a citizenry who applauded the Keynesian crap that Washington has been spreading for the last 50 years. We are just now facing the inevitable pain when a credit fueled expansion approaches singularity. Idiots called Greenspan “maestro” and marveled at financial wizardry that allowed this expansion to dwarf all others in history, but it’s not different this time.
What is different this time (for the US anyway), is the demographics.
Andrew Klavan – thank you! loved this post!
Malice and stupidity are not mutually exclusive and in the case of Obama and his groupies they go hand in hand.
A home with little or no debt. A well maintained car. Maybe two. An internet connection. Good books, especially those that detail the heroic personal lives of the founders, and an inexpensive hobby. Some volunteer work for those in true need. Possibly a garden or at least thrifty purchases of wholesome food. Get comfortable with the use of a firearm (a day at the range is really fun and not costly!) and keep it handy. Spend time out-of-doors. No, this isn’t survivalist stuff. Just a good way to live in the current environment and maintain your sanity. Stay away from things that depress you….like babbling liberals and most of TV. Maintain your mental and spiritual strength for real personal problems…and smile. Oh, and don’t die of dehydration during a real emergency because you forgot that there is 40 gallons of water in your water heater. And don’t suffer from unfounded optimism. Be a realist. Face it. Bad things are being planned by the “Harvard hacks” and you are in their crosshairs.
I dunno, It’s not despair, actually. It’s this overwhelming sense of inevitability.
I feel like someone standing on the shore right after a major earthquake has occurred offshore. I can see the tsunami approaching. Thirty, forty, fifty feet high–it doesn’t matter. There is no high ground, nowhere to run, no way to stop the wall of water from engulfing all.
I’ve been a political junkie a long time. I put out of my mind the fact that Kerry and Gore came within a whisker of the presidency. I was certain that Romney was going to win big because there was no way that people would vote to give the man another term–not after all the failed policies, usurpation of power, lies, and corruption.
I now realize this isn’t the America I grew up in. I was naive to think that a majority of voters would recognize the mortal danger of another Obama term.
Now, I have to end by saying my prediction was unbelievably accurate: I missed it on the popular vote but I was dead on for electoral votes: I predicted 331 to 207; it turned out to be 332 to 206. The caveat is that I had Romney getting the 331.
I predicted Romney taking 53% of the popular vote. Oddly my Argentine wife called the election right. Apparently she was able to make her prediction based on the successful methodology of Juan Peron.
“I feel like someone standing on the shore right after a major earthquake has occurred offshore. I can see the tsunami approaching. Thirty, forty, fifty feet high–it doesn’t matter. There is no high ground, nowhere to run, no way to stop the wall of water from engulfing all.”
Haven’t you seen the tsunami footage from the recent disaster in Japan? The reason they’re called “tidal waves” in English is because when one hits it’s like the tide rapidly goes way out and then starts coming in quickly and just keeps on rising and rising. There’s no giant wall of water or giant breaking wave crest like in those Hollywood BS films.
From a story on the Japanese disaster:
“Video footage of the tsunami that hit Japan this month makes it clear: This was no ordinary wave. And now there are initial estimates for just how high it reached — nearly 80 feet in at least one place.”
The way I’ve read stories like this is that the approaching wave reaches such heights, not that the water keeps coming in until it is so many feet high inland.
“There is no high ground, nowhere to run, no way to stop the wall of water from engulfing all.”
Pilot your boat (you do have a lifeboat?) into deep waters and the tsunami is as nothing.
In the interest of giving some back, sign the secession petitions. You have to start somewhere.
Well, it depends on what you mean by “we’re through.” Sure breathing is great, and recognizing that, if one were given a choice of death or living in a shanty slum above Bogota you’d take the shanty. Would that be good? Probably not. Given the chance to reflect on your former life in America, you might say, “I’m through,” relatively speaking and then carry on and make the best of it.
The question then becomes whether I should have to make the best of it because Latin America is a failure and Western liberalism has connived to enable the wholesale transference of failed people from failed nations into America.
Is America through? Not today. America is a powerful entity. It’ll totter along for decades relatively all right. We’re talking about a slippery, where change isn’t really evident other than in at least a decade long packages. Much more in some cases.
But like a strong and vital company inherited by children with no real interest or real knowledge of what made it work, America will fail. Osmosis will not breed success. Success breeds success. Failure breeds failure.
We’ll be okay for now. In 100 years, our ancestors will have spitting-on-our-graves contests among the disaster that is America. That is, if they understand the context that even enables them to understand how low they’ve fallen. Perhaps riding donkeys will provide such context, or reading about the first shanty in America since the Old West.
Questions:
Rommny drew some 3 million fewer votes than McCain did in 08.
This end result stands in complete contrast to the reports that I had seen on election day, on twitter, of very heavy turn out in Republican precincts and comments from long-time election officials that they had never seen lines like this before.
I am trying to find a rational explanation for this apparently irreconcilable
contradiction.
So I would like someone who really knows the ins and outs of voting machine and ballot
boxes to elaborate:
Was there an appreciable reduction of polling places in Republican precincts? (Florida,
Ohio, Pensyulvania,North Carolina come to mind)
How impossible is it to alter the tally of an electronic voting machine? (And then do it in all swing states, io not in the entire country)
What safequards are incorporated into these macines to prevent it ?
Another angle: Obama, ever since coming into office, has, from the outset, acted like someone totally sure of his reelection, his non-stopelectioneering right from the start notwithstanding)
Case in point: Homeland’s acquistion of over a billion rounds of ammunition, hollow point ammunition, at that. Homeland has started to implement Obama’s plan for an armed civilian force. (you may recall Obama bragging about such a force, when he first became a candiate) They tried to keep it quiet, but were not overly concerned when it leaked out. This begs the questions: Why did they do that only two or three or so months before the election? Why not do that right after the election? Unless, of course, they were virually assured of winning.
Some one who really knows, please tell me my suspicions are unfounded, and elaborate on
why this is so???
I’m a fiscally conservative, socially-moderate, Independent voter. I am tired of supporting the Republican Party in National elections because I’m just throwing away my vote at this point. This election was a lay-up against a weak incumbent. It’s not gonna get much easier than this. Here’s my take on why Republicans are toast nationally, at least in the near-term, and what they need to do to become relevant again.
Democrats are more united – PERIOD. They’re a more homogenous Party, with less factions to satisfy. Their message is simple – pick those most dependent on govt, offer them “free stuff”, and identify those who are trying to take away that “free stuff”. They’re hell bent on creating a social democracy in the name of “fairness”. They don’t really have to have a “plan”, they just have to convince voters to hate yours. And they reside in urban areas, making it easier for command and control through unions and the Welfare State. It’s virtually impossible to divide them. Is there a “wedge issue” you can use against Democrats – HELL NO THERE ISN’T!
The Republican Party is actually more diverse, more a “big tent”. Their are so-cons and neo-cons, Tea Partiers and Paul-bots, rich white guys and retirees. That means two things – first, there are too many causes, too many people to satisfy and too many unite. The lack of unity makes it easy for Progressives to drive a wedge between Republicans and divide them. You can’t win National elections when you’re so hopelessly divided.
Second, because Republicans aren’t united, the message the party puts-out gets watered down. This doesn’t attract new voters. Proof – when you allow someone like Mike Bloomberg to call himself a Republican, YOU’VE DESTROYED YOUR BRAND! People like him should NEVER, EVER be allowed to call themselves Republicans. It blurs the line between parties, dilutes your message and doesn’t offer voters a clear choice, even within your own party.
Romney wasn’t perfect, but he was good enough to win against this lousy incumbent. But he was hamstrung by a Party that’s searching for a clear, concise message to provide THEIR OWN VOTERS and refuses to unite behind it. If you can’t get your own party ALL moving in the same direction, you’re destined to lost National elections. The Democaratic base all moves in the same direction; Republcians don’t.
Oh I plan to laugh. Don’t worry your pretty little head about that.
WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO: Peacefully grant the State of Louisiana to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government. As the founding fathers of the United States of America made clear in the Declaration of Independence in 1776:
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and institute new Government…” Created: Nov 07, 2012
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/peacefully-grant-state-louisiana-withdraw-united-states-america-and-create-its-own-new-government/1wrvtngl
I signed the Texas petition this a.m., there were 5,500 signed. Tonight there are 11,075 in the Texas petition alone.
Take it easy, bro. There is an accusation that starts with a capital T and ends with a rope. Nothing you do on the internet is untraceable.
There was a reason that Franklin said “We must all hang together…” King George had no internet tapping, or drones, or anywhere near the number of informers. You’d do well to see what folks living behind the Iron Curtain did to resist. And didn’t do.
State Secession Petitions: Ticked-Off Americans Want Out
http://reason.com/blog/2012/11/12/state-secession-petitions-give-us-libert
Don’t you just LOVE Washington-speak? Fiscal cliff; note stupids in Washington its a debt cliff from which we will never climb out of. I’m in the let it burn camp. Babbling, blustering fool of John Boehner should just walk away from negotiations and let all the tax increases and spending cuts go in. Why should the “rich” be penalized, everyone should “enjoy” the next four years of Barackville. Love to see the look on the faces of the Liberals in Virginia, Connecticut and other defense states when their program get cut. Join the club of fools–you voted for it.
On a positive note if the economy is going to collapse it is better that an idiot like Obama be seen as the one responsible. The media is not going to able to hide massive unemployment although they will try. BTW at Small Dead Animals a commenter to the article on Tarawa reports 26,000 layoffs since the election.
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/021907.html#comments
L.I.B.
Forget it. Unregulated capitalism will be claimed as the culprit which leads to the economic collapse. And only more government can be the solution. That’s where it always leads. And who will lead us out of the mess? Barack Obama and his clones, of course! That’s been the plan all along.
I am waiting for a respected entity, a broadcaster for instance, someone with broad reach, to suggest in the strongest possible terms to the taxpayers:
“Quit paying them.”
Santelli lit a fire. It can happen again.
I was depressed for two days; not because Obama won, but because of the stupidity or cupidity of the electorate. Now I am pissed off. This is not over; not by a long shot.
I took the 7th to vent some anger but jumped back into fight on the eighth. My anger is directed towards the mindless lemmings that voted the divider in chief back in a position of destructive power for another four years.
I took the 7th off to vent some anger but jumped back into fight on the eighth. My anger is directed towards the mindless lemmings that voted the divider in chief back in a position of destructive power for another four years. I’m inclined to agree; let the fools have what they want. When the economy goes belly up, just make sure you can keep yourself and your family safe. Let the fools turn on each other and cull the herd.
Alas, when the food and edible refuse vanishes from the blue side of the kitchen, the cockroaches just move to the red side, and resume eating everything.
Republicans should learn, once again, that RINOS can not get elected when facing the real thing on the other side. As long as the Republican Party keeps running candidates that much of the Party’s base “hates” they’ll lose. I held my nose and voted for a man I didn’t like, didn’t trust, didn’t want, only because Obama is worse. A “Republican” from Massachusetts is a DEMOCRAT. Keep running those people and the Republican Party will shrink as folks like me decide to not even vote.
“He’s the best we’ve got” ain’t gonna work again. I have had it with a party that can’t run winners. I’ll join the millions who voted in 1012 but not in 2016.
This is very far from over. First, a couple of thought questions:
1) How much did their newfangled hi-tech get-out-the-vote machine matter in this election? It sounds like it mattered a lot. Say it increased their turnout by 2 percent. Now how much did the failure of our ORCA matter in this election? Even if it mattered 1/2 a percent, right there we have a 2.5 percent difference in voting totals just due to process differences. The final tallies were what, 2.8 percent Obama over Romney? Process matters.
Let me give another analogy. The financial industry was completely roiled by the high-frequency-traders. They had the advanced technology and swept up all the money. But you know what? *EVERYONE* has high-frequency-trading nowadays. It’s defensive and far less profitable now. In otherwords, we can get better at this stuff.
2) They ran a get-out-the-base campaign based on class and racial and gender warfare. It’s very depressing that they won on that, of course. But we’re not Argentina. For one thing, coalitions can be split. Does anyone *really* think that Asian Americans are going to be loving more quotas in universities and job-killing taxes to increase handouts?
3) Longer term– what if we had more charter schools and taught John Locke to immigrants? What if we translated Prager University videos into Spanish? Remember Spengler — we’re the ones having the kids.
4) Where was the conservative movement in the early 1950′s, before William Buckley founded National Review? What were the conservatives thinking in Mid-November, 1964?
KEEP HOPE ALIVE! (sic)
Seems like what you’re interested in is more like online education. The self driven and ambitious can amass an amazing amount of learning for free. Most of the courses are up with the thought of helping the 3rd world people who can’t afford any schooling.
But there is no reason in the world folks in the new 3rd world country of the US can’t join them.
Here’s an online course that might prove useful:
http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=Spanish%20Programmatic
It is the program that was used to train Foreign Service diplomats in the 1960s and 1970s and it’s free. I was looking Rosetta Stone on Amazon last night but the comments about Rosetta Stone’s atrocious product support and obnoxious licensing made me think that there might be better options. If you want to spend $500 on an interactive computer course that reviewers seem to like better than Rosetta Stone there is Fluenz.
http://store.fluenz.com/spanish/?gclid=CL-bu_i0ybMCFQKRPAodG14A1Q
You can also look at the studyspanish.com website. They have a free offering as well as a set of DVDs that they sell.
If, like me, you have decided that America as you knew it is dead and that last Tuesday was just the notification, fluency in Spanish might give you other options on where to live, since there is no reason any more to restrict yourself to the US if there is a more attractive option elsewhere. If you agree with Mr.Klavan, good luck to you and you will probably have to gain some fluency in Spanish if you are going to persuade a majority of the country to vote with you.
“They” cannot be persuaded, since the only motivation is the ability to loot without fear of retribution.
The only response now is to “go Galt”. Minimize your tax exposure. Reduce or limit the economic contributions you make. Take on no new projects or overtime. If you employ people cut your headcount (of Democrats if at all possible) and let them know it is because you cannot afford the costs of Obamacare. You can even turn some of their tropes against them. Installing rain barrels and growing a “victory garden” can be passed off as being responsible to the environment or being a “locovour” while depriving the State of sales tax revenue and husbanding your resources.
If there is nothing to loot, then the looters will no longer have the ability to buy off voters. The Progressive project is almost ready to collapse due to the fiscal, moral and legal bankruptcy of their program, so don’t give any more of your lifeblood to support it.
Oh, the fight isn’t over. Just the peaceful part.
The only rights you have are those you are willing to kill for. Tyrants are not stopped by words.
Two words: We’re f****d.
Dear Conservatives Bedwetters:
We thought that 4 years would be enough Obama economic failures to prove to voters that big government tax, borrow and spend doesnt work. We were out-sold by charlatans that preached that Obama needed more time.
Well, he’s got more time now. And now the stock market sold off, realizing that Obama’s win only means more tough economic sledding. I am also reading of how growth estimates for next quarter are a miniscule 1.5%. The Obama economic malaise and depression continues and his political victory now will only make his policy failures more evident.
So don’t act like this is the end. Claims that Obama won from only the ‘moocher’ vote are clearly false; that’s a part of his coalition but the greater part was ordinary folks who do work but got sold a bill of goods about who cares for them more; or bought some lie about ‘war on women’ or other slander. Slander and Pander Show.
The pain of loss you feel now, and the economic pain we all will feel in the next few years will be a hard lesson, but the lesson will deepen the learning. We dont yet know if America is ‘too far gone’ or what we can salvage, but I suggest you urge your 30 Republican Governors, your Republican Speaker and his House majority, and all the other Republicans in office to Hold The Line, and to continue to stand for smaller government, fiscal responsibility, economic freedom, and the Constitution … BECAUSE THEIR SERVICES WILL BE NEEDED IN THE NEAR-TERM FUTURE AND WE WILL NEED AMERICA TO STILL BE ONE PIECE WHEN THEY ARE AGAIN CALLED TO LEAD.
I got one of those Woe! Woe! emails from a co-worker, who had forwarded a message from another Render of Garments. At that point I snapped and responded:
“To hell with that. If this was combat, and he didn’t want to fight anymore, I’d tell him to get the f**k out of my trench, bring me some more ammo and then git. I’m continuing the battle until I’m dead or I win.”
Despair is natural, but fruitless.
Conservatives, INDIVIDUAL Conservatives, need a plan, and they need to execute it.
I suggest as follows:
(1) Revisit your finances, and cut-out anything that isn’t necessary, INCLUDING all charity. This has several simultaneous effects: you’ll be better able to weather the coming storm, consumer demand will fall, and NGOs will finally wake-up to the fact that conservatives WERE their best friends (too bad the average Jewish voter hasn’t figured this out yet).
(2) We are printing money like drunken sailors. Buy hard assets that won’t depreciate from lack of demand; gold, platinum.
(3) Arm yourselves with Lemon & Butter. Just kidding, apologies to Woody Allen. I mean something nice & tasty like 9mm Parabellum, 40 S&W, 12 gauge magnum, like that. Buy 10X what you think you’ll ever need, and PRACTICE.
(4) Work your tail off. Get in early, leave late, don’t party. Things are gonna get serious.
(5)Wait. Either folks are gonna get it, or they won’t. You can’t change it. Last time (the 1930s) it took 16 years and a World War to get back to reality (and Ike). There’s no reason to think this time will be quicker.
I am a just dummy and certainly not a published author with special insight, but it occurs to me that there is no persuading people who vote to re-elect the president for no other reason than that he is the same color as they are. Likewise, there is no persuading people who would vote for a failure president just because they hate those who would vote against him. Is there anyone I am missing in this description of the Obama electorate? Anyway, if you genius, tough-guy non-whiners have something to counter those trends, let me know. Until you get back to me, I will be stockpiling materiel.
Hell yes, stop whining. “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?” Hell, no! It is not over. We need to regroup and stop sending re-treads to DC. I like Mitt Romney, he is a seriously decent human being. He is not my 4th choice,nor my 5th. Maybe, just maybe, instead of focusing on sending an “electable” person to be our only choice, we should, maybe, just maybe, send a candidate who represents the conservative base. No handlers, no make-up girls, no marketing reps. Hell, yes, Mr. Klavan, no more whining.
Canada, and the province of Saskatchewan, are slowly clawing their way back from socialist and liberal hell.
It can be done.
One mistake made by American conservatives is not fully supporting the most conservative candidate that is viable.
Politics is the art of the possible.
Wanna be a purist and run a hard core conservative or libertarian campaign?
Have fun, but how much are you going to accomplish if you never get elected?
Wanna sit on your hands instead of voting for Romney because he doesn’t exactly match your view of an ideal conservative?
Enjoy your time with Obama.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Brad Wall of Saskatchewan won power by campaigning just slightly to the right of the liberal and socialist parties.
It was unsettling for many conservatives here, and I still gnash my teeth sometimes, but it works.
They were up against arguably an even more biased and dishonest press than Romney was.
Once they were elected they ran to the right of where they campaigned, but not far enough right that they couldn’t get re-elected, as they both were.
Are they governing as far to the right as I would like?
Not even close, but if they did they wouldn’t get elected.
But both are slowly easing the country and province to the right.
The left have a huge advantage over us, they are sheep and are happy having someone else tell them what to think, conservative all think they should be the individual running the show and don’t cooperate anywhere near as well as the left does.
Our individuality is both a strength and a weakness.
Right on. My angle is – and I’ve not heard this from the pundits – that the Republicans will look back on this election and be glad they didn’t win it. Obama will flounder in his second term, he might even snap, and he could possibly end up as the Democrat version of Nixon.
As for the hard-to-educate electorate, well, let’s face it; democracy is rule by fool because the masses are a$$es. They only learn lessons the hard way. Total financial collapse and utter ruination ought to do the trick. Sadly, some of Obama’s core constituency wouldn’t even physically survive such a thing, but the prepared will.
We few, we happy few, we small-l libertarians, know that all unsustainable leftist policies will ultimately fail. So why despair? Besides, despair is a sin.
Thanks for the reminder; I’m going to go back and re-read Henry V.
The mistake that many people make, from every side of the spectrum, is to believe that anything is pre-ordained. That if A happens, then B must necessarily follow. That’s fantasy. It’s mysticism. It’s irrational.
Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. NOBODY.
Anybody that says they do know is either lying or … how do I say stupid in a nice way?
What we do know is that we have a uniquely designed government that keeps power divided to avoid unmitigated disasters. What we can only hope is that this continues to work as it has in the past.
I don’t think the despairing who say they’re giving up are giving up their principles and I doubt they have no fight left in them. I’ll wager you a soda they more likely sensed a futility in the Republican party approach what with the tensions between the various fraction within it.
Show them a strategy that cleaves from that and they’ll hop back on.
We can’t get far with a free market ideology underwritten by criny capitalist who abandon the philosophy the second their economic sector is threatened by free market competition. We can’t get far with a small government stand that protects the military-industrial complex like its Solomon’s Temple. We can’t get far with reforming SSC and Medicare/Medicaid while bailing out the financial districts and leaving the wreckers go unpunished. Plus, look how long it took is to pick Romney. What was the objective of 2/3rds of the primary voters till the end? Anybody but. He is a great guy and would have made a good president. Yet it seems, in retrospect, that the primary voters had a certain prescience about his candidacy. There are many more tensions in Republican talks vs walks and the ones on the verge of quitting see it as an unworkable institution.
It is plainly not our principles they’re quitting on.
Whatever we think today, so soon after this major loss, will likely shift over time. That said, I do believe that there are changes occuring in America that do not bode well at all regarding the direction the country is going. I also have profound concerns about plans to slash our military beyond recognition. There are, indeed, events that occur that are game changers. Whether the results of this election will prove thus I cannot say. But a nuclear Iran will be one thing (among others, likely) that will change the world forever. And not in a good way. Not sure how to reconcile this looming reality for aren’t we all trying to postpone the day when the dirt gets thrown on top of us?
So Iran gets the big-boy party favors. Who do they blow up? Israel? Probably not, since they will retaliate with annihilation.
No, it’ll be DC and NY and LA…
Ya know… I think I’m coming to understand how Southerners felt 150 years ago. The south was angry at the north for taking away the ability to engage in business, and in using their greater voter population to force laws down the south’s throat. I’m disgusted by slavery, but remember the Emancipation Proclomation only freed slaves in the south. Not the north.
Also, remember that Obammy wants to be just like Lincoln. Certainly including all the extensions of executive power, but possibly also presiding over the breakup and crackdown of a civil war.
In the Dred Scott decision, the southern dominated Supreme Court attempted to force the North to adopt slavery.
You seem to be unacquainted with history, or are aware of only the CSA apologist’s version.
I am conservative and a small business owner. I am really more upset with establishment republicans than the democrats. You expect the democrats to be marxist, to hate america, to be lawless and corrupt. But when the republicans redistrict Allen West out of a safe seat intead of getting rid of a democrat,when they pile on Akin and refuse him funds, etc. Then they want me to hold my nose and vote for a moderate because he would be better than the marxist democrat. Well until they show me that they are willing to back a conservative over a democrat, I’m not doing it again. We tried moderates last two elections and that didnt work. I fear the republican party is doomed if we go down that road again.
We Baby Boomers haven’t the years to dream of future utopias.
Instead, it has been our misfortune to observe our wonderful, beloved United States degraded by those who are more concerned with their petty — and usually squalid — affairs than with the general welfare of their fellow Americans.
A sobering video of a computer programmer testifying about his design to rig elections:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbf3iaEbAuY&feature=player_embedded
Fail Burton:
“In 100 years, our ancestors will have spitting-on-our-graves contests among the disaster that is America.”
You mean our descendants?
It’s time to take care of ourselves and our families. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Let the Obamabots reap what they’ve sown.
BTW. Does anyone really trust the vote count anymore? How do you maintain chain of custody of an electronic ballot?
Okay, here’s what I’m tired of – using “Firefly” quotes in support of conservo-libertarian arguments. Why? After all, they’ve got attitude, defiance, self-reliance, don’t they? Yes, they do. They’re also from Joss Whedon, a poser, a fake and a fraud if ever there was one. Whedon is an armchair libertarian: he kinda likes the idea of sounding tough and independent, but when it comes down to it, he looooooves him some nanny state like a junkie loves his H. His libertarianism is for show, and ends at the keyboard. When it comes to real life freedom and responsibility, he gets the willies. He’s made it abundantly clear that he never really meant that freedom should be granted to the dirty hoi polloi – that was just a marketing ploy for the rubes. Who bought it.
It’s an embarrassment to be using anything that this transparent little quisling came up with in the climate-controlled comfort of his statist cocoon. Stop quoting him. Otherwise you might as well be printing bon mots from George Soros in support of personal liberty and free enterprise.
I like using his words against him, myself.
Yep. Never say die. Never give up. Never surrender.
Hey, this guy is still alive. Maybe we can have him run for office.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroo_Onoda
Wisdom from Animal House: Over? It’s not over until we say it’s over!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7vtWB4owdE
Well, Arch, with all due respect to that great cinematic achievement, I’m saying it’s over for me. Here’s why…
•Unprecedented deficit spending…a trillion dollars every year of his presidency
•$6 Trillion added to the national debt, a 60% increase in only 4 years
•Over 23 million people out of work, stopped looking for work, or underemployed
•An unemployment rate the same that it was when he entered office; a number that doesn’t even include those who are underemployed or who have stopped looking
•Pathetical economic growth
•A record 47 million people on food stamps, an increase of SIXTEEN MILLION in just four years
•Gasoline prices DOUBLE what they were four years ago
•Food prices skyrocketing
•A Federal Reserve that just keeps printing money, dramatically reducing the value of the dollar
•A historic first downgrading of America’s credit rating
•15 million people living in poverty
•Race relations have been set back 40 years
•Healthcare costs are spiraling higher thanks to ObamaCare
•Businesses are reluctant to invest in growth due to massive new regulations and the threat of dramatically increased taxes
•Consumers who are afraid to spend money out of fear of losing their job, the threat of increased taxes, the reality of increased healthcare costs due to ObamaCare, and a myriad of other fears
•His EPA is an out-of-control train wreck that is systematically shutting down the coal industry, reducing oil exploration and attempting to shut down natural gas exploration
•An Attorney General who arrogantly thumbs his nose at the Rule of Law
•A foreign policy in total collapse based mostly on the childish notion that if he apologizes to the rest of the world for “America’s arrogance”, the rest of the world will love us
And America’s voters STILL reelected this man for a second term. As a friend of mine would say, “There is no f*cking hope.” After last Tuesday, I have to agree with him.