A specter is haunting Washington’s incumbents, not Arlen Specter — the specter of defeat. All the Powers of Old Washington have entered into a holly alliance to exorcise this specter. Beltway and MSM, Harvard and Yale, the New York Times and the network news. Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as NASCAR loving, gun-toting or Bible-clinging by its opponents in power?
- Sen. Arlen Specter’s primary loss continues bad 2010 for President Obama, Democrats “If the election were held today we’d lose both,” a top Democratic strategist acknowledged. “Thank goodness it’s not being held today – but we still might lose the House.”
- Obama endorsements don’t seem to help Democrats “Sen. Arlen Specter became the fourth Democrat in seven months to lose a high-profile race despite the president’s active involvement, raising doubts about Obama’s ability to help fellow Democrats in this November’s elections.”
- Electorate Roars at Washington, Hands Setbacks to Establishment Candidates “One by one, the incumbents or establishment-backed candidates in Tuesday’s slate of high-stake contests fell or fell short.”
- And from the BBC: Is the Tea Party movement the new political force in the United States?: “People in the US have been voting in primary elections, to choose Democrat and Republican candidates to contest the November mid-terms. The results have added weight to the theory that the Tea Party movement is the new political force in the land.”
The most interesting question is how the Powers of Old Washington will react to the primary results. Will they double down? The San Francisco Chronicle says the five important lessons from Tuesday’s elections are: Organized labor is still organized. Pete Sessions is on a serious losing streak at the House GOP’s campaign committee. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is in a heap of trouble — at home and at work. Democrats still can successfully woo working-class whites in the industrial heartland. It just might be a good year to be a geek.
Despite everything, a lot of the powers that be are just going to up the ante. Promise more free stuff. Get on a higher horse. Renew their alliances with SEIU, rename ACORN, buy more ads in the newspapers, and maybe in some concession to modernity, even on the blogs. It just might be a good year to be a geek and an even better one to wear blinkers.
At any rate the oppositionists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can he attained only by letting them work and keep most of their paycheck. Let the ruling classes tremble at the mighty army who want to barbecue burgers on a weekend and play catch around the yard. The oppositionists have nothing to lose except a bunch of politicians who think they can borrow their way out of debt. They have only what they already own to win.
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This could turn out to be the Triumph of the Middle Class!
or not…
The Tea Party is not, in my estimation, the real power here. It is a symptom of a more powerful and far-reaching reality: that Americans who were not motivated to speak out or even vote just a year ago are now motivated to do both. Collectively they are dubbed the Tea Party because the MSM needs a handle — preferably a perjorative one — to tag them with. But voters who don’t like what is being done in Washington are almost as likely to be Independent or Democrat as they are Republican. What they all have in common is being fed up with the high-handed ways of Washington. One other thing they have in common is the internet, which gives them a means of communicating and sharing their gripes. It feels to me like a powerful counterbalance to the strength of the MSM, White House or Congress in influencing American opinion. The problem is, it is not organized and it does not have as good a focus as elected officials, who all share one common goal: re-election. And if this opposition sentiment does not crystallize around a small number of goals or individuals pretty soon it will surely be fragmented by traditional power brokers. Interesting times. F
As long as our betters keep doubling down on stupid, middle America will stay angry with them. What you said in an earlier thread about Darwinism triumphing over Marxism is happening in front of us. Alas, in slow motion–some are not connecting the dots (see PA 12).
they’ve been doing this schtick since 45, it’s all they know.Human beings are creatures of habit, it will take a lot more than primaries to shake them . More of the same is the most likely response. how the middle class(being a lot closer to the ground)reacts is the mystery.
I’m not a pedant, and I try very hard not to pay any attention to the little typo’s that pop up. But a “holly alliance to exorcise this specter” sounds like a post-modern description of “A Christmas Carol”.
The Holly must be allied with the Ivy, of course. League, that is.
The performing dogs on the national stage don’t know what else to do to regain an audience’s affection. They’re only trained to do balance-ball tricks, climb the ladders and jump through the hoops. If the show is failing to amuse, just do it faster and faster, over and over. The frenzy is self-mesmerizing. Ringmaster O’Hoover watches and misunderstands. Verily, it will soon be the Greatest Show on Earth.
There was a time when I wondered, “Why are these guys suddenly abandoning the slow march strategy that got them this far? What’s another 10 years of frog boiling given the century that’s gone before?”
But then I realized, their delusional view of reality means that they’re just that: delusional. They can’t be wrong in all their premises and policies while being more than occasionally, randomly right in their goals and strategies.
Oh,Bummer and his minions just don’t know how to get off the stupid train, even as they see most of the state attorney generals lining up to sue over Obamacare, the Union starting to fracture over illegal immigration, the money for political payoffs drying up, the unraveling of their boneheaded political coalitions, and the increasingly clear fact that they’re up against an ideology that they can’t possibly defeat: Americanism.
Here is from the opening of an excellent article by David Goldman (Spengler) over at First Things:
“America’s exceptional history as the only nation in the world with two centuries of political continuity stems from its people’s love for individual rights, which they hold to be inalienable because they are granted by a power that no human agency dare oppose.
Americans selected themselves out from among the nations of the world to enter into the political covenant that is the American constitutional state. It succeeded because it is “a country with the soul of a church,” as G.K. Chesterton observed. Individualism founded on God-given rights has triumphed over the alternative—the collectivist premise for the state in its various manifestations: Rousseau’s “will of the people,” for example, or Marx’s proletarian dictatorship, or the blood-and-soil nationalism that led Europe and Japan into the world wars of the twentieth century. The only form of collectivism still embraced by a large part of the world’s population is integralist Islam . . . ”
The left snuck into power while we were watching American Idol and shopping for motorcycles. They haven’t the foggiest what they’re up against but will make a huge mess proving that to everyone. The rest of the sheeple in D.C. will run toward the strong horse — as Murtha’s (Democrat) replacement apparently did — as soon as they see which way the wind has started to blow.
THE CHANGING OF THE TIDE
The Tea Party claimed another significant victory in Tuesday’s primaries when Rand Paul won the Republican nomination for Senate in Kentucky, defeating party regulars. The Tea Party movement is flexing its muscles. Long time Utah Republican moderate Senator Robert Bennett was defeated in his primary bid to be renominated as the Republican candidate for Senate by more conservative candidates backed by the Utah Tea Party. It takes a long time for the tide to turn in politics, a long time for voters to shift their ground, but it looks like it is finally happening. A growing number of Americans are dissatisfied with the socialist direction the country has taken over the past sixty years, and recent events have brought the realization that the good times are not forever, and that we cannot continue to assuage every real or imagined grievance, cannot continue to amass unsustainable debt. The socialist tide started flowing in with FDR, and is now at high water and about to turn around and flow back out. And the tide changer is the Tea Party.
A rising tide doth lift all boats
It also lifts both sheep and goats
So hang on for the bumpy ride
The building’s there, let’s get inside
For power is as power does
Where is was is it now is was
We’ll throw the buggers on their ear
Thank God it’s an election year
A liberal Dem or Rhino man
We’ll kick them right out on their can
The Ship of State’s about to tack
The Tide will take our country back
#2 F
I think you are right. The tea party phenomenon is merely a symptom of the underlying disease much like a fever is the body’s response to an infection. The fever appears to be the problem, but its really the infection that causes it. But this is totally alien to the mindset of the political class and their lackeys. The idea that people can organize without having a hierarchical centrally controlled organization is beyond their experience and comprehension. In their narrow little world things just don’t work that way.
Its especially revolting to the knuckle-dragging progressives who want to set the clock back to 1917 and still bitterly cling to their Che Guevara T-Shirts.
Just as the ECB used their entire arsenal (a more polite way of saying
it) and some against the markets last weekend, the Libs have almost
done the same with their constituents. No Federal Income taxes for the
lowest half of those with jobs: check. Health care for all; check.
Hands off of your entitlements; check.
About the only thing left as an offering to the masses is forgiveness
for Illegal Immigrants. But not everyone in the Lib camp is for this,
as their own selfish interests aren’t necessarily served.
So everything else is punative. Soak the rich. Hammer Big Oil. While
that can get some people excited, it doesn’t really do anything
for the camp of folks simply seeking “More for Me”. It’s not
as if they really care how any of this is getting paid for anyway.
So maybe enough people see that they are nearing the end of the buffet
line and that’s all there is.
Obama just gave a speech saying that the US is not defined by its borders. So, he’s going to open up the border and give instant citizenship to about 50 million illegals!
That’s your ante!
And its permanent, with Whites getting the “Machete” treatment (the Robert Rodriguez movie about what amounts to an anti-White race war by narco-trafficantes) nationwide. No more Whitopia for you!
That is Obama’s trump. You cannot beat it. It is unstoppable. Unless you up the ante even more. Agree with both Sen Bennett and Kagan that the Constitution is an outmoded, archaic document from an antiquated, agrarian society and that it means whatever a judge says it means. Simply extend that to say that the Constitution means whatever State legislatures say it means, and Congress says it means.
Obama has already crossed the Rubicon. The legions march upon Rome. So? Countermarch. If citizens can be made like instant soup (just add water!) they can be unmade and deported too!
Nice echo of the Communist Manifesto, W. In this case it is turned on its head: The hated bourgeoisie have put THEIR collective foot emphatically down and stated that they are not going to pay for this ongoing social experimentation any more.
After all my years in the political wilderness, I admit to ongoing schadenfreude, and I truly appreciate the fine irony you dish it up with.
Re. #8. Walt: “The socialist tide started flowing in with FDR, and is now at high water and about to turn around and flow back out. ”
It might, but (unfortunately) not too far. Electorate is in a symbiosis with many components of socialist thinking and actions: social security, medicare, medicaid, fanny+freddy, etc. Even IF the back flow will wash out last decade collectivist schemes, it will still leave intact the entire structure that grew over previous century. And it will continue to grow again after some retrenchment. So there is no real way back, sorry.
Obama sez we are all citizens of the world.
No doubt that’s how he sees himself … and why it doesn’t matter where he was born, or if.
maineman @ 7: great post, you even make Spengler seem coherent.
Let’s hope it’s up to purging the malignancies from the body politic.
I am far from pleased with yesterday’s election results. It’s interesting and probably a good thing that Rand Paul won his primary, but I would gladly take a RINO in that race (not saying that Grayson is a RINO, don’t really know) in exchange for defeating the Democrat in Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District.
Here’s my “Activist Memo” on the topic:
In March of this year, I made the point that defeating Democrats is the only game in town. One point that was emphasized is that this has nothing to do with your attitude towards Republicans. The only way the Obama/Pelosi agenda can be stopped, and ultimately reversed, is by defeating Democrats.
Unfortunately, the voters in the special Congressional election in Pennsylvania’s 12th District did NOT get the message. Yesterday, Democrat Mark Critz defeated Republican Tim Burns 53%-45%. Tim Burns had support from the Tea Party movement, but this could not overcome some built-in Dem advantages in the district and an effective campaign by Critz.
A little background:
1. Democrat John Murtha (recently deceased) had held this seat since 1974. He was known mainly for corruption, but was popular for bringing home the pork. In 2008, he won re-election with 58% of the vote.
2. The district is heavily unionized. Registered Dems outnumber registered Repubs 2:1. However, in 2008, while Murtha was winning with 58%, McCain edged out Obama in this district 50%-49%; so it should be a competitive district for Republicans.
3. Critz, the victorious Dem, ran as an unabashed Conservative. Most noteworthy, he strongly opposed ObamaCare and the Cap & Trade energy bill. BTW – this is another indication that our side continues to win the policy debate. Apparently a Dem can only succeed in a competitive district by taking conservative/libertarian positions on the issues. Unfortunately, winning the policy debate is not sufficient; we must actually defeat the Dem candidates.
Looking ahead to November, we cannot allow Democrats to get away with this ploy of running supposed “conservatives” in districts where Obama/Pelosi are unpopular. In fact, it is exactly these “conservative” Dems who give Obama/Pelosi the power to advance their Statist (Leftist) agenda. If all the Dems who voted for ObamaCare had actually campaigned as Statists (Leftists), the Dems never would have gained the majority in Congress. The deciding votes for measures like ObamaCare are provided by Dems who run as “conservatives”, but then vote the other way when it really counts.
Here are a two points that we should be making to undecided voters.
1. You can’t trust “conservative” Dems to actually vote that way in Congress, especially on the most important issues! Witness Bart Stupak’s (and others) betrayal of their constituents on ObamaCare.
2. Even if the “conservative” Dem remains true to his campaign promises and votes against the Statist (Leftist) agenda, his very presence enables the threats & bribes by Obama/Pelosi that get this noxious legislation passed. If Dems did not have the majority in Congress, Nancy Pelosi would not be Speaker and she would not have the power to threaten/bribe the necessary votes for measures like ObamaCare.
Looking forward to November, it’s up to all of us to make sure the undecided voters understand that there is only one hope for this country – defeating Democrats.
grrr wrote: So there is no real way back, sorry.
Sure there is – when other people’s money runs out.
We have a choice: the electorate will either realize that the Era of
Handouts is over – for everybody – and accept that lower taxes are
not enough, the spending spree must stop, or else we’ll end up like
the Greeks who are kicking and screaming, but will still have to
face painful and inconvienent facts eventually.
What Jimbo said. DO. NOT. VOTE. DEMOCRAT. PERIOD.
I’m preaching to the choir here, but this is no time for “independents” to be independent, for instance. jimbo is correct that blue dog Democrats are of no value to a public clamoring for a reversal of liberal recklesness. Unfortunately for this crucial midterm election, many people vote according to a “cafeteria” ideology, whereby a moderate Democrat who says some of the right things will satisfy the needs of voters who are irrationally afraid of Republicans because of what they’ve heard or read from the wrong sources, or from inculcated habit — or from observing some Republican stupidities.
I still thing Republicans haven’t weaned themselves from a penchant for self-sabotage, and I don’t think they have an instinct for the jugular. The only hope is that enough momentum is still left by early Novemember from voter anger, and the Democrats make more boneheaded legislative moves over the summer and early fall.
Re #13
To paraphrase The Iron Lady; “They are running out of other people’s money.”
This year, Social Security went into the red and isn’t coming back out. The bill for ObamaCare hasn’t even arrived yet. And the public sector pension bombs are just beginning to go off. California is insolvent. The New Jersey voters said no to the teacher’s unions.
A little retrenchment won’t patch it over, the bills of all the welfare/patronage programs are coming due, creating a perfect storm of debt. Socialism is reaching it’s exhaustion point.
Did the Tea Party pick Rand Paul to be its new poster boy on purpose? If not, are they going play the connection down?
Really?
Frikkin’ brilliant
Don Rodrigo @17
In January 1977, the day Jimmie Peanut amnestied all the deserters and draft resistors, I swore an oath that I would chew off my own right hand before I let it ever cast a Democrat vote. That oath is still binding.
It’s important not to make too much out of the score in the second inning. We are undergoing a fundamental transformation, and it clearly won’t be the one Obumbles and his handlers had in mind.
This is a battle for our soul, and I expect the good guys to win, eventually. First we need to recapture a belief in ourselves and in that to which we owe our success. That seems already to be underway. Next, we need to steel ourselves for the coming night. Then, we need to pray to stay alive long enough to see the harvest.
I see no way to finesse this thing with a couple of elections, because it’s really our fault to begin with. A soft landing would just mean a license to return to business as usual, and that’s what caused this tower of destruction in the first place.
#11 whiskey and #20 rurik
You ain’t seen nothing yet. The plan is to grant Amnesty before the elections, or, as an alternative, make it illegal to challenge the status of anyone who claims to be eligible to vote. The political class finds their current electorate to be revolting (in both senses of the term) and therefore should be replaced or at least heavily diluted.
You ain’t seen nothing yet.
RE: Tcobb (22): You ain’t seen nothing yet
Old fighter pilot radio call: Green ‘em up. Fight’s On!
This longtime (l)ibertarian sees some hope here.
The first is the demise of the Libertarian Party – an oxymoron if there ever was one.
The second is this:
The ideal of limited government, free trade, and individual liberty to the extent possible, is now a reality to which both parties are scrambling to adapt. They are confused; should I vote pro gay marriage and against the government take over of medicine? How does this play in my district? What about tax increase for the schools? We need those don’t we?
Good enough for me.
Libertarians are at the front here. Most do not care if someone had a gay date for the prom that year, do not care if you prefer pot or beer, do not care about your religion, where you came from, or lack thereof. Maybe some do but I only know a few. Some folks just have issues.
When work is not available we citizen tax payers get…irritated.
So what do I want?
Government must protect us against outside threats violent or economic. Best military and security we can afford. Ours is awesome in capability and performance and has been failed by lack of coherent direction from elected leaders too often. I think Afghanistan is a disaster
Infrastructure; roads, marine, rails, education, disaster management, whatever is the best investment to get the product moving. To me these are legitimate government functions. They need to know that the budget is limited, just like where we work every day. .
Spin
TCobb, It’s called “Universal Voter Registration” as described by John Fund in http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/what_the_dems_know_universal_v.html
Whether Buraq will try to ram Amnesty with instant citizenship or this Universal Voter Registration crap through is a good question. If he does, all hell is going to break loose. Both are profoundly unconstitutional and amount to a effective annulment of our American democratic process.
If they even try this it’s time to take to the streets and stop everything!
The National Socialists are cornered. Look out. Their agenda is toast, Obama’s stash will run out of money. So expect desperate measures from these thugs. This election or the next they will engineer a national emergency to cancel elections. Combine that with a global economic collapse and we could have a civil war.
Well, the Tea Party didn’t fare so well in my area (8th District in Pennsylvania). The Republican Party endorsed candidates won across the board. An ex-Congressman, Mike Fitzpatrick, won easily against three opponents. He was in Congress a few years ago when it was Republican-controlled and the Republicans pissed everyone off with their profligate spending. He also voted against drilling in ANWR, as I recall. For the Republican state committee, the party-endorsed candidates beat a slate of candidates that was endorsed by the local Tea Party organization. I don’t believe that anybody I voted for won.
#25 Unsk
Perhaps–what I fear most is that something like “Universal Voter Registration” will be slipped through in some 10,000 page law that is ostensibly about something totally unrelated to it. And then there is other edge of the knife where it will be decreed by some sort of federal regulation that is wholly outside of the legislative process.
As a whole Congress acts like a bad whore, ever willing to steal from your wallet while you’re sleeping. The executive agencies who make and enforce their regulations are like bad and cruel pimps. And we are their unwilling whores.
Its time to cast away the filth, but do not expect them to go gracefully into the dustbin of history. The tornado approaches. Who remains alive in the aftermath remains to be seen.
If you folks are going to have a civil war, please remember that the same people whose actions may precipitate it, will have had their administrative and logistic arrangements in place for some time. Follow the money.
First major blood, and lots of it, will go to them. Then their friends will show up in force, and it will get really nasty.
Remember, Murphy was an optimist.
Jimbo @ #15: you left out some of the background. In 2008, Bill Russell ran without much party support against Murtha and did pretty well. This year, most of us tea party types were expecting him to be the logical choice to oppose the democrat in the special election after Murtha’s death. The party screwed Russell over and picked Tim Burns instead. I think this action took the wind out of the sails of many tea partiers. While we voted for Burns in the special election, many voted for Russell in the primary. Russell garnered over 40% of the primary vote against Burns. By throwing an honorable man like Russell under the bus, the Repubs shot themselves in the foot. They lost a lot of volunteers, I think. Fewer people manning the phone banks, going door to door, and less enthusiasm for the selected candidate. How much this led to Burn’s defeat, I am not sure. But it certainly didn’t help.
Obama is a rock star, of that there is no doubt. When he comes people will come out to see him. However, it is quite clear people come out for Barak and Barak only. Many of those people we see walking around with the Barak t-shirts, with the bumper stickers, and other Barak gear will not vote unless Barak is on the ballot.
A lot of pundits keep noting how how his endorsement of particular candidates does not seem to translate into much tangible benefit. I don’t see why it is so hard to fathom. Just because a band opens up for Mega-Superstar does not mean the opening band will sell albums. In 2012, Obama’s endorsement will matter, but not in this cycle.
The tea party movement is successful because it is the big tent. The big boulder bounding down the mountain straight at us, is not gay-marriage, but it is fiscal in nature.
My FB captures this quite well. The amount of sniping going on between nodes of my FB network has dropped considerably. I don’t see the in-fighting between social conservatives and strictly fiscal conservatives, they have seemed to call a truce on those fronts and are worried about jumping out of the way of that fiscal boulder.
Amateurs are in charge.
What puzzles me is that for over 100 years the Republicans were the party of Rotary Club amateurs and Democrats were the party of the professional machine. That had nothing to do directly with ideology about marginal tax rates. It had much to do with the ability of the machine to harness the immigrants who thought that they benefited from the programs that higher taxes paid for. Now the party of the Clintons and the Daleys and the Kennedys can’t hit the floor with a fork. The determined incompetence of the Republicans, who believe in their bones that politics is not a real job but rather like the English view of the Church something the fool in the family goes into, may still save the Democrats. Today the POTUS stood with the President of a foreign country to condemn the popular government of Arizona for passing a law that most Democrats approve of. If Hizzoner Richard J. Daley had heard anyone propose something that stupid he would have bounced them out so hard they would have landed in Canada.
#32. Lifeofthemind
It is not that amateurs are in charge. Even an amateur, given experience, can become a pro.
The problem is that idiots with delusions of grandeur are in charge. And that kind of stupidity seems to be incurable.
Politicians in DC are beyond the immediate control of a state’s electorate and all are subject to temptations of avarice and power that await. The Republican primaries in Utah and Kentucky point the way back to the future. Not so long ago a state’s political apparatus determined the fate of DC politicians. Over the last 50 years that has changed with Congress-critters’ ability to finance themselves with lots of money from outside the states they purport to represent. That advantage can be negated by an engaged and active local electorate and that’s the lesson Utah and Kentucky teach. Take over the a state’s nominating process and the monetary advantage an incumbent or establishment candidate holds matters less, and apparently much less.
We may rest assured that The Usurper and his mob will not surrender power or go away quietly. I expect they will create a “Reichstag incident” of some sort in order to cancel or postpone the election. If the election is held, they will certainly truy to pack the voter rolls, via both amnesty and ACORN tactics. If need be, they will “win” Franken-style. But even if they do not win, they will not surrender power.
Let us take an example from Lenin; The Usurper may not be literate enough to have studied him, but certainly Ayers, Podesta, Emanuel, Stern, and others have.
After the October Coup, Lenin fulfilled a pledge and called for elections for a Constituent Assembly to replace the Duma of the Provisional Government, certain that the Bolsheviks would win overwhelmingly, and any other minor parties would quickly accede. To his surprise, the SRs won a majority. Thus, in January 1918, Lenin permitted the Constituent assembly to meet … for one day … under the muzzles of the unfriendly Red Guards. At the end of the day, his Red Guards closed down and disbanded the Constituent Assembly. When the civil servants tried a strike by staying home from their offices and refusing to and over their desk and office keys, Lenin had them arrested or took their families hostage for cooperation. This was the start of their civil war and is very much what I expect here, with the SEIU and Black Oanthers standing in for the Red Guards. I expect something very similar, maybe with a touch of Spain 1936 mixed in. Once things start I expect few prisoners will be taken. And I think some of you are correct in predicting intervention by foreign “volunteers”, particularly from Venezuela and Mexico. Mexico will play a roll similar to that played by the Japanese in Russia’s Far Eastern provinces. UN troops will probably function much as The British. French, Greek, and American intervention forces, srticking to coastal encaves and having minor impact. Some of them my prove politically unreliable. There will always be the uncertainty about America’s nuclear missiles located in the deep interior heartland. There will also be quwestions about American Air and nval capabilities to interdict foreign interveton forces.
I had one more thought on the closed Means & Ends Thread.
It came from the lecture given at westpoint linked to by
86. john lynch
http://www.theamericanscholar.org/solitude-and-leadership/
The lecturer mentions that leadership requires one to be alone at times. But he doesn’t talk about how one uses that time alone but by reflection. Reflection presumably is the process by which one weighs an measures a whole jumble of impressions.
But then he goes on to talk about how the really hard decisions require not physical courage of which the cadets had much in abundance — but rather moral courage. Which which is something much different and more difficult–and which they were not being trained for.
Where were they to get the moral courage? His prescription was solitude. Presumably cadets were supposed to draw moral courage from themselves.
You don’t get moral courage from yourself. This is not where moral courage comes from. Unlike physical courage, moral courage comes from God. You get that moral courage by building God into your life by doing things like praying to God in solitude.
Do you suppose we would reject all the “refugees” from Mexico? It would be our “humanitarian” obligation wouldn’t it?
In fact our former UN ambassador may well have been discussing this with Calderon and Obama yesterday. Bill Richardson may be the player to watch.
At least in literature, Huck Finn seems to have gotten moral courage from himself.
Gary Ogletree,
“Obama’s stash will run out of money. ” It’s even worse than that. Meredith Whitney yesterday on CNBC predicted that within the next 12 to 24 months state governments will cut between 1 to 2 million guvmint jobs. That compares with the official count of 8 million jobs lost since December 07.
Nearly every state is running deficits; many of which are huge. The CINN’s ( Cali, Ill, NY and NJ) are really big and 49 out of the 50 states constitutionally can’t run a deficit. The Dems won’t be able to spin this grim news this November. As Sarah says and will repeat endlessly this fall ” how’s that recovery workin’ out for ya”.
That Arlen Sphincter went down is good news but with an element of pathos. He is an old washed up hack who was always far more important in his own eyes than in reality. See you around, Spanky.
The political class in this country is so wretched and stupid that contempt isn’t a strong enough emotion to feel toward them. A pox on all their houses.
It is easy to see the agenda of Obama and his terrorist, communist, SEIU, and soros osi friends.
However, who knew so many dims in the house and senate would attack America.
I see a lot of defeatism on this comment thread, along with all the “Obama will cancel elections” stuff. I’m glad you all weren’t around in the first months of 1942, or we’d all be speaking Japanese now. This Country has gone through a lot of bad situations, and we’ve got some rough times ahead. So be it. It is what we deserve, because we’ve forgotten who we are. I think we’ll remember, but it’ll take some cold hard facts to jog the memory.
The problem as I see it is simple: the TP movement, and citizens who are upset at the current conditions, have a false hope. I believe that, when it comes down to it, most of them want someone in power to restore things to the way they used to be. Meaning they could, for the most part, count on their jobs, plan for their retirement, and live the orderly “good life” we used to have. Just make the problems go away.
That’s not going to happen, whomever is in charge. We’re facing a very large drop in our standard of living, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. People haven’t faced that fact, but eventually they’ll be forced to.
There’s no easy way out of this. All of the bailouts, etc., are just attempts to buy time, but there’s a limited amount that can be done with that time, and all I see are attempts to paper over the situation in the vain hope that somehow everything will get better. The politicos have the same disease as the general public, in that they can’t really believe that the crisis will occur. The crisis could care less what people believe.
We’ve been hearing for years that there would be a day of reckoning in the future if we didn’t get our house in order, and the future is getting much closer. That’s cause for alarm, but the real question is what comes after, and on that point I’m cautiously optimistic.
No matter who you send to Congress, or how much they believe in limited Gov’t and no bailouts, they’re going to have a problem. Let’s say California goes belly up, which is pretty likely. No matter your philosophy, could many of you vote to let that happen, even if you thought that the event would trigger a global depression of untold magnitude? Or would you bail them out in an attempt to keep the boat floating a while longer? It’s easy to abandon Cali in a comments section, but a lot harder to do if your vote actually counted for something.
I see a glimmer of hope in the actions of a few States. What with the recent AZ law, and talk of State AGs banding together to challenge some aspects of Health Care “reform”, I can envision a way out. Maybe there’s a reason why Arizona’s most important city is called Phoenix. That’s what we’ll have to do – rebuild out of the ashes. But I have confidence that it’ll be done. I think that who you elect to your Statehouse may eventually have more significance that who you elect to “represent” you in the US Congress.
The only significant political force that can challenge the Federal Government are the individual State Governments. That’s where the focus needs to be. Vote GOP in November and in 2012, but don’t expect much to change. Change your State Governments instead.
Was it here I recently heard the story repeated of the 19th century Englishman who, visiting America, stopped at a well-tended estate and asked the roughly dressed man outside the house, “I say, man, where is your master?”
The response? “Mister, that sumbitch ain’t been born.”
Whiskey #11: Obama just gave a speech saying that the US is not defined by its borders. So, he’s going to open up the border and give instant citizenship to about 50 million illegals!
We have to get this next election right; it’s our last chance – America’s last chance (in my lifetime anyway). Consent of the governed is utterly impossible without national sovereignty, so if they do try to confer voting rights on a swarm of illegals, that will have to be IT. Whatever must be done to stop that will have to be done.
I too am hoping that the States will do it. Follow Arizona’s defiant lead, be it immigration or Obamacare or cap and tax or curtailment of political speech or what have you.
49erDweet, #6, It’s been The Greatest Show on Earth for some time, now: The Goon Show on the Potomac.
43: That was one of Whittle’s essays. Sorry, I don’t remember which one.
(And I love that quote too!)
44: This November is our last chance short of bloodshed. But we have to keep hammering until the Democrat party is a bad memory–we’ll never be able to trust that our government is run by adults and leave them alone. I would be laughing myself sick if the only Dems in Congress were from a dozen immovable districts, where they sent their village idiots (Pelosi, Franks, McKinney) to show that they are incurably stupid.
Sinistra delenda est!
Jimbo@15,
Rush said that in PA District #12, there are 100,000 union workers, reg’d Democrat. Ds outnumber Rs by 2 to 1. Check out the conservative positions of the winner.
38. bob
…….
you made the correct caveat. that’s literature. not life.
The question is did twain have moral courage.
Answer: he had enough moral courage to write books at home.
I’ve known union workers, worked in non-union job in a union shop, and have known people from union families. If they are politically aware they are usually culturally conservative and economically ignorant and fall sway to populist economic talk and nostrums. You will have a conversation with them and half-way through it, you are convinced they are hardcore Republican voters, but then they will drop some tired and worn caricature of Republicans & conservatives on you.
Those types are fairly rare. Usually, I find they just want to race to the timeclock and get into the woods, on the lake, or into the taverns. They just take their voting instructions from their leadership and vote accordingly.
I was at a locally HQed international manufacturer that is unionized. I worked in their MIS department as a contractor. One day they announced they were moving small engine assembly across the Pacific Ocean. I went to the cafeteria and on the bulletin board was the local fish-wrap with the announcement, scrawled across the story was “Thank You President Bush”. Of course, it was Clinton who let China onto the MFN list, but that does not fit the union narrative. I pulled the pin holding the paper on the board and let it flutter to the ground, some fellow behind me who appeared to be a non-union fellow then picked up the paper.
I told a statewide GOP campaign they needed to throw a Ted Nugent concert if they wanted any hope at really reaching the union vote, but they did not want to spend the ching.
Marcus, you are correct about those attitudes. One of the hardest lies for Republicans to shake has been “Democrats are for the little guy, Republicans for the rich.” This tar was brushed on decades ago and still hasn’t washed off. Republican ineptness explains much of it, MSM perfidy the rest. The end result is millions of votes in the D column by people who simply have no idea they are voting to elect their slave masters.
dtmack@42,
Nice sentiments. Bailout California with what, newly minted coupons? For what? So they can continue their thievery on a national level?
Me, I’d need to see some real reform – like jailing lots of legislaters – before I could muster up any compassion, monetary or otherwise. See RICO, Gitmo and waterboarding. Otherwise, why bother? It’s not like a global crash is avoidable, with or without CA.
delayna@46,
I’m afraid November ignites the bloodshed. SEIU-backed nurses are going on strike statewide? Between now and Nov, we can expect much more legislative takeover antics, and if the Dems retain any vote after 2010, expect more funding of union/ACORN/OFA/Aztlan activity from the accumulated war chests – unspent stimulus funds.
Expect concerted obstruction, sickouts, slowdowns, protest marches and intimidation by police, fire, garbage and toll collectors, DMV, USPS, DHS, DEA, ICE, EPA, transport unions (air, sea & ground) and teacher unions, et al. See Greece. Lawsuits challenging any real “fix” launched from every direction by taxpayer-funded gov’t lawyers at every level. See AZ.
Can’t see this transition being peaceful, no matter which side wins. I wish I could.
51 geoffgo:
I try to be optimistic, but it’s hard to argue that the Insane Clown Posse will let go of power peacefully. Then I point out to myself that most of the people with guns and badges are on our side rather than theirs, but that’s a pretty weak reed.
However, strikes by the (10%? 20%?) private employees who are unionized aren’t likely to inspire a lot of sympathy among the rest who are just hopeful that they still have a job after next payday. Sympathy for striking government workers? Don’t make me laugh. Most folks — I HOPE — will see purple-shirted thugs and think “target rich environment” rather than “oh, how sad, they only got a 3% raise last year!”
(PS, a hopeful point for you to ponder: not all gov’t. workers belong to the union, or are sympathetic to the SEIU thugs. I don’t have any numbers for you, of course–most of the gov’t employees I know who AREN’T 0-bots keep it to themselves.)
One of my Ph.D. students is a Mexican national as is his wife. His wife’s father is part of the political class in the PRI party. My student is now a professor in a top university in Mexico.
He told me two days ago that the drug gang (singular not plural by design) has infiltrated the Mexican army and the government in Mexico City.
The automatic weapons used by the gangs there are imported from Brazil and Asia and few. The ATF lies about the guns in order to beef up their budget. So Calderon lied today to our so called Congress to the applause of the Dems (aka Socialists).
Yeah, let’s rev up the sympathy for the government workers! Here is the list of top salaries in my school district. These are principals, asst principals, department chairs, and so forth. I’m gonna shed a big fat tear if they have to go without a pay raise. And the work load! Average class size of 19. How do they manage to deal with it? For context, my property tax is over $13,000 a year.
$279,119
$201,175
$198,406
$165,938
$164,938
$154,005
$149,304
$147,803
$143,803
$143,803
$140,312
$140,312
$140,312
$136,106
$135,310
$133,214
$133,214
$130,214
$130,214
$127,312
$125,639
$123,455
$120,493
$120,493
$118,848
$118,212
$118,212
$114,666
$111,823
$111,823
51. geoffgo
To answer your question, yes, they’ll use newly minted coupons. Just like they’re doing now.
My point is that, given a choice between voting down a bailout and watching the world economy come to a grinding halt, or kicking the can further down the road using borrowed money, they’ll kick the can.
Do you think Merkel wanted to bail out Greece? No one is going to want to be the one to precipitate the crisis, so, they’ll vote against a bailout as long as they know they’re going to lose. But if their vote is deciding, I think they’ll vote for the bailout, even if it’s against everything they believe in.
If Cali goes under (how I’m not sure-it’s written on a piece of paper somewhere that the State can’t go bankrupt)the effects will not stop at the Nevada border, or the US border.
I’m not claiming that it’s the correct thing to do, but we’re in a death spiral here, and they’ll try to avoid the ground as long as they can. Ultimately there’s not much that can stop it, it’s just how long does it take to get there.
W: “the oppositionists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can he attained only by letting them work and keep most of their paycheck. Let the ruling classes tremble at the mighty army who want to barbecue burgers on a weekend and play catch around the yard. The oppositionists have nothing to lose except a bunch of politicians who think they can borrow their way out of debt. They have only what they already own to win.”
Marx: “The proletariat (non-disabled poor) will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie (middle class), to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the state (un-Declarational/un-Constitutional Federal Government)… Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property. You must, therefore, confess that by “individual” you mean no other person than the bourgeois, than the middle-class owner of property. This person must, indeed, be swept out of the way, and made impossible… We have seen above that the first step in the revolution by the (non) working class is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class to win the battle of democracy… The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”
http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html
Marx intentionally said it backward – the Proletariat Class is the non-laboring class. It is true that they have nothing to lose; and they have, under Democracy perverted into collectivist Communism, a laboring Middle Class world to win.
Dtmack, I don’t like pessimism either.
As far as the elections:
• It’s probably too late for Whiskey’s amnesty for illegals into citizenship thing to work for the Dems this election cycle. 2012 yep, 2010 not so much.
• The Universal Voter Registration con could work for the left. The blowback would be horrendous, though, and the Supremes could nix it in time if Anthony Kennedy wakes up on the right side of the bed that morning. It also could backfire and send the Dems into effective political exile, so they may not try it.
• I’m not so sure the results Tuesday were so clearcut against them as to send the Dems running for obvious fraudulent tricks to win the election; I agree with TCobb, it’s the hidden behind the scenes moves ya gotta worry about.
• There is some good news. Many of us had worried that Buraq would try to buy this election with stimulus cash, but it now seems that money is all gone. And many of his tricks, like Cash for Clunkers, the first time home buyer thing, and the Bank’s trillion dollar mortgage payoff have all played out .
The good news for Republican hopes, but bad news for the country is that the economy could really tank between now and November. There was a huge run on German Banks yesterday, and there is a huge run on English banks today. The Euro is toast and the bad effects will be felt by November. Merkel banned some naked short selling yesterday, and some analysts fear a loss of liquidity in the markets. The ban is probably a good thing, but without an orderly planned transition, ( which the Obama Administration couldn’t pull off even if they wanted too), it could be a rough ride with many people being thrown out outta the bus.
Add the multiplier effect of the States guvmint job loss and Bernacke’s ” Extend and Pretend” is essentially being called.
BTW, theoretically speaking, if America would start drilling massively for oil, cut entitlement spending, get rid of SEIU and the other guvmint unions, stop the EPA and the Endangered Species Act, along with all the other needles guvmint regs, and implement meaningful tax cuts, the economy would likely spring back to life and we perhaps would not need over time to accept a permanent loss in our standard of living. Our government debt ratio is about where it was at the end of WWII. With a good free market based plan inspiring real hope for the future, the economy will grow. But all that will have to wait until we get rid of Buraq and the Dems.
#42 dtmack
I see a lot of defeatism on this comment thread, along with all the “Obama will cancel elections” stuff.
I may be just me, but I think the “defeatism” is a rational acceptance that indications are that the American constitutional and electoral norms may no longer apply. That game may be either over for the duration, or rigged. I do not, and I believe most others here, do not believe that means giving up. This election, if it happens will be fought by our side as hard as possible. But there is acceptance of the blatantly obvious fact that it may well be cancelled or stolen. There is acceptance that TWANLOC may do this, or that if we win that the new Congress may not permitted to be seated.
At that point, other options will be evaluated and chosen. For most, those options will not include submission.
Everyone, and I literally mean everyone, will have to make irrevocable choices; because as has been said before, we have used up all of our design margins.
If there is defeatism, I suspect it is of the sort that is concerned with taking as many sideboys along as possible to salute as you are piped aboard Charon’s Ferry.
You do what you can, with what you have, wherever you are; and hope, nay believe, that your effort will help in the end. If that is all we have left, along with each other, it may yet be enough.
Subotai Bahadur
Rickl @ 27 mentions the Tea Party loss in PA-8, but most commentators here seemed to have missed the Dem win in PA-12 which really has the GOP rattled. How the hell did they manage a win in a district McCain won? A seat that used to belong to the corrupticrat Murtha? This is strange news.
Pigs they be a flying! Zerohedge is reporting that Buraq is sending a carrier group to the Persian Gulf. Maybe Buraq wasn’t too happy with Tuesday’s results and decided he needed to appear to actually defend American interests for once. And then again it’s probably just another Buraq headfake.
$200 Billion in “Stimulus” spending, this year, will buy a lots of votes… at least that’s the plan.
The Stalinist origins of the Tea Party!
http://www.alternet.org/news/146504
About that link in #62: Don’t bother with it. It takes the commie-coddling of Armand Hammer and Occidental Petroleum (not to mention some Rockefeller shenanigans)
and says that this is the source of the Koch family wealth.
In truth, the Kochs have always been pretty stalwart free-market advocates. Sometimes astutely, sometimes not——they are normal human beings—–. But statists they ain’t.
The piece is the same type of garbage that occasionally pops up alleging that the Bush family fortune came from Herr Schickelgruber.
The author is obviously too dense to realize that the BC
consists of folks who can tell disinformation when they see it.
Here’s some true information on the Marxist origins of the anti-Tea Party.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8630135369495797236&hl=en#
I agree with the suggestion that the electorate has lost confidence in the elites of both parties. Both parties have failed. Who will trust the Republicans to redress matters, if as recently as 2006 they had majorities in both houses, and merely managed to add 4 trillion dollars of debt to the deficit during Bush minor’s term, and for good measure enmeshed the country in an endless war? Who will trust the Democrats to do anything but what they seems always to do, and which Obama is doing in high and handsome fashion, which is to raise taxes and add to the deficit?
One response is to vote for the outsiders against the insiders. Good luck to that: there is an awfully large mountain to shovel. Another is pure selfish cynicism, to vote for Democrats who promise jobs. It seemed to have worked for Roosevelt: he was elected four times…