Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal may be the U.S. Grant of Republican politics. We can’t spare him. He thinks.
Gov. Jindal delivered a great speech to the Republican Party’s winter meeting Thursday that bears reading in full. Jindal sets up our current politics as a war of two ways of thinking: the American Way and the Government Way. Down the American Way lies prosperity through individual liberty, entrepreneurship, and limited government. Down the Government Way lies more central control over more of our lives coming at Americans from Washington. Republicans should be the party of the American Way, while Democrats are already the party of the Government Way.
We as Republicans have to accept that government number crunching – even conservative number crunching – is not the answer to our nation’s problems.
We also must face one more cold hard fact – Washington is so dysfunctional that any budget proposal based on fiscal sanity will be deemed ‘not-serious’ by the media, it will fail in the Senate, and it won’t even make it to the President’s desk where it would be vetoed anyway.
In fact, any serious proposal to restrain government growth is immediately deemed ‘not-serious’ in Washington. The Balanced Budget is deemed ‘not-serious’ in Washington.
Term Limits are deemed ‘not-serious’ in Washington. Capping federal growth by tying it to private sector economic growth is deemed ‘not-serious’ in Washington.
The truth is nothing serious is deemed serious in Washington.
This is unarguably true. Reporters swoon over Obama the celebrity, tweet “wow” at banalities, and generally run away from serious journalism. Congress doesn’t even bother to read the laws it passes. The outgoing defense secretary drops a sweeping change on the military as his last act, without any public input or discussion at all. Washington has become the Camelot of Monty Python and the Holy Grail: A silly place. But also an amoral, often sinister place as well.
Jindal went on from there to blast Barack Obama’s unseriousness when dealing with our nation’s fiscal issues. Then Jindal essentially called for Republicans to give up on being government’s manager and focus our energy elsewhere.
Instead of worrying about managing government, it’s time for us to address how we can lead America… to a place where she can once again become the land of opportunity, where she can once again become a place of growth and opportunity.
We should put all of our eggs in that basket.
Yes, we certainly do need folks in Washington who will devote themselves to the task of stopping this President from taking America so far off the ledge that we cannot get back.
We must do all we can to stop what is rapidly becoming the bankrupting of our federal government.
But we as conservatives must dedicate our energies and our efforts to growing America, to growing the American economy, to showing the younger generations how America can win the future.
That path does not lie in government. If more government were the answer, our economy would be booming right now. That path has been tried.
That’s a good thought, but an increasingly difficult one to square with the facts. Even the best-managed states, with the freest markets and the healthiest economies, may find themselves robbed and bankrupted by statist policies coming at them from Washington. Texas, for instance, lost 3,900 jobs this week because EPA regulations aborted them. The EPA in the Obama era has become a serial killer of jobs. How does one fight Washington’s reach without being in Washington or keeping tabs on what Washington is doing? Back to Jindal–
The health of America is not about government at all. Balancing government’s books is a nice goal, but that is not our primary objective.
Our objective is to grow the private sector. We need to focus our efforts on ideas to grow the American economy, not the government economy.
If you take nothing else away from what I say today, please understand this – We must not become the party of austerity. We must become the party of growth. Of course we know that government is out of control. The public knows that too. And yet we just lost an election.
Again, we cannot afford to fight on our opponents’ terms. The Republican Party must become the party of growth, the party of a prosperous future that is based in our economic growth and opportunity that is based in every community in this great country and that is not based in Washington, DC.
We have fallen into a trap of believing that the world revolves around Washington, that the economy is based there. If we keep believing that, government will grow so big that it will take us all down with it.
Aren’t we already there?
I’m not chiding Jindal here. The fact is, he may be the best governor in the nation. He is certainly in the top five. In his young life he has already accomplished more than the vast majority of us will accomplish in a lifetime.
The problems he describes are vast, as he acknowledges. The solutions are not easy. The real problem we face is that the American people may not be up to the challenge this time.
Twice now, a majority have chosen to elect a man who is not qualified for the presidency and whose ideas are proven failures. He won on excellent communications and iconography, not on his accomplishments. He ran away from his record, only to double down on it as many predicted he would once he was safely re-elected. Obama has shown the nation that not only is he incapable of uniting the nation, he is incapable of stepping outside his rigid ideology to understand the economics of the real world. Or, he understands them perfectly well and is choosing sabotage over reform. But the majority re-elected him anyway. Facing serious systemic fiscal problems, the American people had a choice between a man with a proven record of fixing such massive problems and man with a record of giving speeches and playing insult comic. The majority chose the latter. The mainstream media have fused themselves to his government and provide no adversarial check on his power. The majority of Americans are fine with this dangerous mix of media and power, and continue eating and drinking on the deck of our sinking national ship.
If the Republicans do not tell the American people about the massive problems we face, how can the Republicans ever hope to enact any remedy for those problems?
Jindal answers that “we should let the other side try to sell Washington’s ability to help the economy, while we promote the entrepreneur, the risk-taker, the self-employed woman who is one sale away from hiring her first employee.
“Let the Democrats sell the stale power of more federal programs, while we promote the rejuvenating power of new businesses.”
Most Americans have no entrepreneurial spirit and have no idea how wealth is created. Our schools eschew basics for politically correct studies that prepare no one for the real world. The participation rate just in the labor market is at a historic low. Welfare has pushed into the middle class in record numbers. The Democrats have sold the stale power of more federal programs, but unfortunately millions of Americans bought into it. This has fundamentally changed the American political landscape.
I’m not denouncing Jindal or the American people here. I am denouncing the Obama government for inheriting a bad temporary economic situation and making it so much worse and more permanent that it may be impossible to fix without us enduring very serious pain. Someone has to sound the alarm.
Later in the speech, Jindal outlines seven things the GOP must do going forward. They are:
- Stop looking backward, and show what a freer American can become going forward.
- Compete for every single vote.
- Reject identity politics, and get voters to like you by showing that you like them.
- Stop being the stupid party, defined by the likes of Akin and Mourdoch.
- Stop insulting the intelligence of voters, and stop dumbing down our ideas into soundbites and taglines.
- Quit “big,” stop supporting big business, big banks, etc. and clearly stand as a populist party.
- Focus on real people outside of Washington, not the lobbyists and government inside Washington.
These points are fine, but some miss the mark in our unserious, TMZ, Kim Kardashian, Manti Te’o-obsessed age. The left takes advantage of identity politics to create tribes that are loyal to it and now vote purely based on gender and skin color. That’s simply a fact. It’s also a fact that most on the left care far less about the outcome of a policy than the party or intentions behind it. The fact that gun-control laws do not stop gun violence, for instance, makes no difference in their zeal to push more gun-control laws. The fact that that the Affordable Care Act is not really about health care and does not make it more affordable does not matter to them at all. They meant well, or they got more of the power they sought. Meanwhile the right divides itself and often one faction is trying to kick another out of the overall movement. The media will depict the GOP as the stupid party no matter what. If they did it to Ronald Reagan, and they did, they will do it to Bobby Jindal and every other Republican given less than half a chance. The task is to be ready for it and fight it effectively. As for point five, it’s simply a fact that it’s nearly impossible to get most people to care about serious issues. Ideas have to be distilled to soundbites so they have a chance of cutting through the noise and motivating a response. That’s not always “dumbing down;” often it’s sharpening up. A five-second quip or tweet that’s on target can cut through and win an argument when a more detailed answer can cause audiences to zone out. I’m saying that we need both, the details and the sharp summaries, to have any chance of getting through.
But Jindal is right in the main: The Republicans have to find ways to fight Washington while not becoming creatures of Washington. We need to become smarter in how we handle the hostile media. We need to encourage Americans to expect less from government and more from themselves.
The question is, are we too far gone for such a message to resonate?
– most Americans don’t even remember what happened to them five minutes ago.
True. You can see people starting to care less and less about gun control now yet last week people were literally fist fighting over it. Is that sad? I dunno.
At least, with guns, when people forget all about it, our side wins. But, with government economic interference, when people forget the left wins.
The people who believe in the ideals of the true Republicans must cease to be concerned with getting dirty. When you are dealing with a political ideology that acts like a Gutter Snipe you are going to have to get down in the gutter and destroy that ideology other wise it will continue to fester like like the cancer it is. The Democratic Party has became the party of the gutter snipe, and is a cancer that must be excised from the body politic of the United States before it completely destories this nation, and it is close to doing so at this time. The American People had best wake up and smell the festering cancer that resides amongst us, called the Democrat Party.
There isn’t a cure that doesn’t involve convincing women to not be dependent on government.
The battle is lost before it begins as the vast majority of women would rather commiserate in poverty and servitude as long as a certain minimum level of comfort is assured.
I think most women do not want to be on entitlements but are starving to death for affirmation, that they get themselves caught up in being taken advantage of! The home is broken, children are tossed here and there, sent to school and taught to be sexual at an young age and “BOOM” here comes unwed mothers with no social skills to raise the children and the boys are moving on to someone else! Nobody is held accountable for bad behavior including the politicians we elect!
“Are we too far gone for such a message to resonate?”
We have a stage four cancer in our communications channel. Our information stream has a sepsis of small c communism, (not European socialism, it’s dwarf twin sister)
Jindal (and Bryan here) gave us a whiff, a hint, a dust mite’s worth of this monumental problem of a diseased, infected, polluted, truth-raping, destruction of our ability to obtain vital facts and information in order to self-govern this land of ours.
Watering down this problem, diluting its perilous negative impact on us as a society is Problem One, from which all others shrink in importance.
You can’t convince a brainwashed cult by giving them facts that their handlers, masters, svengali’s and cult leaders tell them not to believe.
NO facts…not even the most obvious, not even the ones with incontrovertible, precise, mathematical precision can be proved without a scintilla of doubt…will be accepted by brain dead zombies who get their news from a propaganda source.
Bribed and brainwashed is no way for a thinking person to go through life. Lazy, shiftless, and corrupt may make a great leftist Democrat, but it makes for a crappy countryman.
You can’t get a bribed and brainwashed cultist to think…they ARE too far gone.
And…you can’t get a Republican to understand how important it is to FIRST recapture the communications channels, to fight for the information stream where all the lies, slanders, propaganda and brainwashing cult tricks are being performed on a daily basis.
You can’t get a Republican to sound the alarm, because he is afraid of the truth and where they have allowed treason and traitorism to flourish while feathering their own beds.
Jindal’s speech, while a nice one…is basically saying that all politics is local. He misses the point.
All slander and brainwashing is global. He’s still treating the symptoms, not the disease. But, I give him an A for effort. At least he’s trying to shake things up inside the Stooge Party.
So, CFB, what’s your solution?
Grantman, you ask CFB a very good and serious question. My opinion is that there is no solution other than to accept the inevitable coming fiscal and social collapse and prepare for it on an individual basis. That may involve your personal finances, job security, or a myriad of other things exclusive to you personally. It isn’t just that the Repubs are the stupid party. Sadly, 90% of your fellow Americans are either willfully ignorant or just plain ignorant and it is too late for that to change. Take care of yourself and those immediately around you as best you can and prepare to ride it out…if you live long enough.
Hi Grantman,
What to do? – the timeless question. The author of the post gave us a hint of what must be done:
“FIRST recapture the communications channels, to fight for the information stream where all the lies, slanders, propaganda and brainwashing cult tricks are being performed on a daily basis.”
As you indicated in your response, the author of the post did not lay out a specific plan of action. This is where we concerned citizens can use our creativity and imagination. I ask you: What are the main and most influential outlets for the slander and propaganda that afflicts us? We all know at least some of them and there is no need to list their names here. I might propose that they come under new ownership/management, one by one, and gradually converted from propaganda outlets into sources of objective truth and useful, timely information (packaged in palatable form, of course). This can be done by strategic acquisitions. Now we just need a funding source – any volunteers? (Mind you, I’m still working on accumulating my own personal fortune.)
I’d be happy to know if anyone has any other specific ideas.
Education system and the media must be targeted for Entryist tactics. You can also at the same time sidestep these institutions. For example School Choice, Privatization and Vouchers funded Statewide that Follow the Child. This requires bold action, Big Bold Legislation that will ruffle the feathers of the Leftists and have them hopping mad, but it must be done. Thus this requires REAL Conservatives and not wishy washy RINO carreerists be elected. The Tea Party vs the GOP Establishment. It requires more than just part timers confronting the Professional Left. It requires that we build a well funded spiderweb of organizations that will provide career paths for Professional Conservatives, that are rewarded for advancing Conservative causes, beliefs, and legislation. These provide places of refuge for those who get burned pushing controversial agendas in the institutions, so that those persons in positions to advance bold conservative policy have insurance that they will still have well paying jobs to provide for their families should they get stung.
This is what must happen. Else failure is assured.
Likewise Activist Conservative Lawfare must become as voiciferous and active and well funded as the Left and plethora of Environmental, Minority Identity Politics, Women’s, etc groups.
Furthermore foot soldiers for protest marches that apply pressure to businesses, governments and organizations must be organized and ready to go. We must meet them on the streets. (Tea Party)
Half measures, part timing it, and underfunded organizations arent going to counter the Leftist Kraken.
EV, you and Dwight lay out good points and I have no quarrel. However, I judge that what you suggest is only applicable after the ship sinks and that not enough time exists to educate the populace to the merits of your points before. Generally speaking, most Americans don’t have the slightest clue concerning the danger that exists and would think the actions that you two propose to be boring, irrelevant, unnecessary, unattainable, or even nuts. Our best course of action now must be to develop the infrastructure now for picking up the pieces after our current direction plays out. Meanwhile, it is survival time. It is impossible to get folks to appreciate your grand music when nobody has any interest in listening even if you own the stage…which you do not.
Republican dominated state legislatures should move to defund the Ethnic, Race, Women’s and Sexual Preference Studies Departments created in the 60s and 70s that are the backbone of the Minority Identity Politics Cultural Marxism assault on Western Civilization. We hold 30 States, that would be a crushing blow. We are paying these people good high paying wages and tenured job security to wage intellectual and legal war upon us. This has to stop.
Likewise as Kasich and Walker have done, move on the government funding of the Government Union-Democrat complex.
There is also Parallel Institutions such as Bill Whittle discusses here…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s02SypCcYIc
Yooper, I agree that we must be ready to step in and provide order and security if/when we collapse. But Im not ready to throw in the towel yet, we must fight.
Thank you EV. These are excellent ideas. It is refreshing to see some genuinely constructive proposals here.
To summarize, the combined proposals are as follows:
1. Strategic acquisitions (buy them up and make staffing & policy changes).
2. Sidestep mainstream media and education, e.g., School Choice.
3. Entryist tactics for mainstream media and educational institutions.
4. Build a network to support Professional Conservatives.
5. Pursue activist conservative litigation in the courts.
6. Organize timely and effective demonstrations (e.g., Tea Party).
To be fair, Yooper’s suggestion to individually prepare personal finances and affairs for difficult times is certainly prudent. That said, let us be careful not be seduced by despairists who say that all is lost!
Ive got more down below at post #8, Dwight.
Additionally, Churches are natural alternative power bases, but they must engage even more voiceferously and structurally. Christian churches were instrumental in offering networks and sanctuary against Communists in Eastern Europe for example. Also the Anglican Church down in Zimbabwe for example. It’s a natural power structure outside of Government. This is the ready made solution to offering security and order post collapse that Yooper is worried about.
PS Dwight, I highly recommend Ben Shapiro’s book
Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV
in which he analyzes and gives suggestions for influencing and changing the Television industry in particular and Hollywood more generally.
Parallel institutions are a good idea, but they are not necessarily free of government interference. You may pay your taxes, refrain from taking up arms, and generally withdraw your interest from the government; however, as Stalin said, the government is interested in you. Want to home-school your kids? Fine, you avoid much of the destructive influence of the unionized public schools, but at least in California, it is law that if you teach your kids at home, you must insure that they are informed of the history of “racism” in America. And if you think that that means only that they must know that once there was slavery and Jim Crow, think again. The nannies and hustlers will see to it that the catch-all amorphousness of that term will follow you into your living room.
This is an excellent article and I think Escape Velocity’s comments are right on the mark. As regards politics, The non-corrupt Republicans need to think a couple moves ahead. Welfare states and fiat money systems are collapsing. If one party escapes most of the blame for the coming financial/economic crises, that party will dominate for years. Times of crisis are times of change – the French Revolution opened the door for Napoleon Ponder that. The US is becoming like Russia or Argentina with a state-dominated media and all-pervasive corruption.
If politicians speak boldly about Obama bankrupting the nation and propose entitlement reform, they will be unpopular in the short tun with the 47%, but they’ll have credibility come the crisis. Above all the Republicans should be the populist anti-bankster party, but time-serving politicians won’t want to antagonize Wall Street and other corporate welfare rent-seekers.
The crisis in Europe is far from over, but things are getting dire. Spanish banks are laying off thousands and offering 40-50% pay cuts to others! http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/21/us-spain-banks-protests-idUSBRE90K0N920130121
If you think the US will escape these problems, peruse the OMB charts and read a little more. Japan and Europe may suffer first, but we are in deep trouble as well.
“Obama bankrupting the nation”
For crying out loud, take some time away from all the propaganda and do some factual research!
The nations debt has been accumulating for many decades going way back in time. The debt post WWII was generally acceptable and very sustainable and was being paid down. Then came the administrations of Reagan, Papa Bush and GW Bush. The Clinton era almost paid off the the WWII debt for for the accumulated interest. GW Bushes debt alone, ajusted for inflation at the moment and including interest, is $12 TRILLION DOLLARS!
Sorry, best chart I can find for you without a lot of work to reproduce for library data.
http://zfacts.com/p/1195.html
Excellent comment, CF!
The author writes “The real problem we face is that the American people may not be up to the challenge this time.” Worse yet the American people don’t even know that there is a challenge let alone ready to meet it.
“The question is, are we too far gone for such a message to resonate”, he askes. Answer…YES. I hate to be a party-pooper, but please excuse me as I head for the lifeboat.
Yes, a perceptive quip, I forget where I originated, perhaps Mark Steyn. “American can probably survive 4 more years of an Obama Administration, but it cannot survive an electorate that put him there.”
EV, Perhaps you were referring to this quote:
“The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him president.”
The foregoing is attributed to an article published in the Czech Republic, Prager Zeitung, 28 April 2010.
Wow.
“All slander and brainwashing is global.”
You have that one right!!!! Its awash in TV, print, radio and the internet. The democrats and all their factions and operatives consume every medium with their propaganda. The republicans and all their factions and operatives consume every medium with progaganda. Whomever chooses to follow these people are the true intellectual lazy and usless ones of society as well as, the complainers rather than the solvers. The only motives of the propagandists is that of mind control of others, not for the common good but rather their self serving special interests.
That said and aside, the greatest and most destructive propagandist are those in government afilliated and controlled by the CFR and their imperialist global nation building strategies soince post WWII.
Next comes the destructive propaganda from all the intellectual elite of the endless numbers of special interest think tanks.
However, contrary to what you say, there are numerous resources to the historical and current truths and facts in any given area of our government. Today, these resources and data are so easy to access and I’m in no way talking about intellectual philosophers, authors of books, Youtube or the endless numbers of online whacko sites.
Of course, one has to be careful to whom you share this factual data, as it is frowned upon and oft times met with vile condemnation and rejection by the special interest propagandists.
BRAVO!!!
Cfbleachers, with your usual perspicacious comments you’ve started quite a good rational discussion from the look of the replies.
Right on!
But I’ve still gone Galt. The way back, you see, will take more than even one lifetime.
All of the ideas presented here are indeed good ideas, but will not succeed when only 10% of the nation is actually conservative and patriotic Americans. The last election is a case in point. Every single candidate that was even slightly right of center was crushed by not just the media, but also by the so-called Republicans and so-called conservatives. I watched countless interviews on T.V. where Republicans would refuse to vote for the truly “conservative” candidates because they were “scary” or too “radical” for them. It is too late for this country as most people believe the propaganda fed to them that truly conservative ideas are racists, hateful, mean-spirited, etc., etc. Even so-called “Republicans” believe this lie and are embarrassed by true conservatives within their own party.
In addition to not being the stupid party, the GOP needs to stop being the compromise party, the “he hits me because he loves me” party, the “bend over here it comes again” party.
Good one!
oh, you were serious? The party of no needs to stop compromising? When did you guys ever compromise? Obama handed you your own health plan from the 90s and yet not one republican voted for it. You’ve paralyzed the senate for 4 years now with rampant abuse of the filibuster. The house concerns itself with paranoid fantasies and passing ever insanely right wing bills they know will die in the senate, despite having been massively rebuked by the country in the 2012 elections. Leading party members *routinely* send out blatantly racist messages about Obama or picturing him as an african witch doctor.
So…yeah. You might want to try actually compromising before you declare it is time to stop.
Compromise on what?
When did any of the democrats “compromise” on anything?
What part(s) of “Obama care” did Democrats compromise on? (Hint: None)
How much “Compromising” did Obama do for the fiscal cliff deal? (Hint: None)
Where are the spending cuts that Obama promised? (Hint: Not going to happen)
And add to these items the stone walling and lies for Benghazi, Fast and furious – etc.
The list of atrocities for this administration and the senate is endless ….
We should be placing them all in jail, seizing all their worldly assets and apply those assets toward the debt.
Republicans have compromised too much.
Well here is just one area which the majority in the country wanted – a public option.
Keep pretending you don’t understand the difference between fed and state and keep telling yourself it’s the same plan. Minnesota is a country. Bet you didn’t know that.
The Rpublicans had every opportunity to wipe the floor with Hilary Clinton during the congessional investigations int the Benghazi fiasco. Instead she turned the tables on everyone using theater of crying and pretending anger. The media all praised her testimony as being presidential. In contrast the Republicans were ridiculed and all their criticism was characterized as unjustified. This has been another example of the pathetic efforts of the Republicans to present their case.
“The Rpublicans had every opportunity to wipe the floor with Hilary Clinton during the congessional investigations int the Benghazi fiasco.”
The individual senators were too busy giving speeches and grandstanding before the cameras. The way to “wipe the floor” is to ask a direct, simple question and demand an answer. Examples: Madame Secretary at what time did you first learn about the attack on the consulate in Benghazi? Exactly where were you when you first learned of the attack and who, if anyone, was present at that time? Madame Secretary your first public statement on the incident in Benghazi affirmed that the attack was a spontaneous riot caused by a video on youtube, why did you make that statement? If the republican senators wanted to “wipe the floor” they needed to treat Madame Secretary as an accused felon on the witness stand and ask questions in the manner of a DA.
Also, they needed to work together. As I understand it, each Q&A together could only last 5 minutes. Then, the floor went to a questioner on the other side of the aisle for his/her 5 mins. A coordinated Republican effort would have picked up on questions which SoS previously dodged. I don’t recall this happening. WASTED OPPORTUNITY ON THREE FRONTS: 1)let the MSM trumpet SoS’s competence, AND, 2)made the Republicans look incompetent AND 3) last but not least: wasted a good opportunity to find out what actually happened. ARGGGGGGH.
Rand Paul alone destroyed Hillary Clinton. What you saw was the media’s attempt to tell your lyin’ eyes what you really saw. Measuring how well the Republicans did or did not do thru the filter of the media is a fool’s game.
Look, folks, the GOP is absolutely aware of what was and is happening because they have historians in their ranks and the playbook being run here is straight out of the Left’s victory over freedom and democracy in Europe.
For example, it has been a truism in international politics for decades that once 49% of the population are receiving back more from fedgov than they give, meaningful tax reform ever again becomes impossible. This is a 20th century French cliche!
Are you seriously telling me that the GOP was not aware of this demographics ploy? That nobody at the RNC was told how what was happening here happened Over There? Okay, then they did know, but they systematically did nothing to inform their voters or to stop the gradual closing of the numbers gap the Democrats were actively promoting.
I haven’t read a posting or comment threat since the First Administration that evidences the slightest idea of how to stop the destruction of this country when in fact both parties are actively complicit in its demise.
So Democrats drink human blood, and Republicans wipe their lips. Or didn’t you notice how things went at the Bengazi Hearing?
I’ve always believed in the old saying that when you’re in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.
The GOP has been remarkably successful at chasing away or scaring away tens of millions of voters: Single women. Hispanics. Gays and lesbians. Many in the GOP base act like there’s something wrong with these folks, something which makes them not quite good enough to be part of the GOP’s base.
And so, Step One is to stop that.
Anyone who believes in the basic GOP message of a vibrant private sector not excessively constrained by government, should be welcome. Including the following examples:
A single woman who runs her own successful business and who had an abortion which she paid for herself.
A gay man who runs his own successful business together with his life partner.
A Hispanic who was born in America of illegal alien parents, who graduated from college and is now getting a job with a high-tech company.
If the GOP base continues to act like these three people are immoral or threatening, the GOP is doomed.
If the GOP base’s priority is saving the U.S. economy, then there is a way for it to succeed. By welcoming as many new voters as it can, even if those voters’ lifestyles don’t conform to the married white Christian model.
But if the GOP base’s priority is to spread the Christian gospel, then it’s doomed.
Sorry sinz,
Western Civilization is doomed if homosexuality and single mothers become the norm. And the economy isnt going to save it. Sure prosperity will help extend the decline, smoothing over balkanized group conflicts for a while. But the low fertility rates and lessor life outcomes of single parent children will eventually take it’s toll. Hedonism likewise will advance societal decline.
Believe it or not, Conservatives actually care about more than money. They arent all worshipers of the Almighty Dollar, greedy Hedonists….as the Left paints us.
“If the GOP base’s priority is saving the U.S. economy…”
You know sinz, ten of the seventeen presidents of the 20th century were republicans. That would indicate that the GOP had more national support than did the democrats for most of the 20th century but could never leverage that same support to gain the congress during the same time(s). Do you happen to know what ‘block’ of states were responsible for carrying democrats into congressional power decade after decade during the 20th century? Yep, those same states that today cheerish the color red – South and Plains states. Why? They represented the nations most economically poor states during the 20s and many, the most devistated states at the collaspe of wall street, the ensuing dust bowl, the long depression and WWII. Cumulatively, they became the support mechanism of the social reformation for such things as social security, medicare, federal land banks, federal farm supports, federal energy development support and health care insurance, etc. The GOP which was mostly representative of the more industrialized states, allied with the poor democrat strongholds of the South and the Plains States during these times of difficulty in an effort to bring them up economically and provide security for them in their aging years.
Had they not allied, they would have been marginalized and isolated. Sound familiar? Anyway, heres how it eventually played out. Those states benefited greatly from the federal assistance in agri and energy and eventually pulled themselves up economically and with security in old age. Then came the real beneficiaries of all that federal assistance — a new generation which some refer to as the baby boomer generation and their production of the X-generation. Generations with vile contempt for their parents and grandparents political affiliations and economic strife and a government who lifted them up so their next generations could enjoy a much more economically luxurious life and security. Both the democrats and the GOP did what they thought was best for a lot of citizens and the nation as a whole, by using the powers of government to economically raise up a lot of states and poor people in very dire straights for a very long time as the rest of the nation was industrializing. To this day, the newer generations now having changed their political party preference have their hands out to the government seeking more and more subsidy for their energy industries, their agri industries, education etc., at the same time condemning the source of their handouts.
Now today, We hear about the GOP meeting to redefine themselves and their image. Whoopy! Not a single second wasted on providing any real solutions to the nations real problems! Where is their solutions for slashing departments, agencies and corporations out of government to downsize it and reduce spending? Where are their solutions for ending or reducing social security, medicare and medicaid? Where are their solutions for ending government subsidies to private sector energy, agri, financials, education and business? Where are their solutions for paying down the debt? Where are their solutions for reviatalizing core economies? Where are their solutions for a severely devalued USD? Where are their solutions for balanced global trade? Where are their solutions for closing the borders? Where are their solutions for rational immigration reform and dealing with the 11MM illegals? Where are their solutions for the widening wealth despairity gap and increased poverty? Personally, I suspect their hypocrisy is getting in the way.
A party with NO ‘rational’ soultions to anything is a party not credible!
Sorry Zeke, what lifted up Americans after WW2 wasnt the government, but the near monopoly on industrial production, as all others were decimated during the war.
A monopoly which has steadily eroded, but in which we still have massive pensions and benefits designed upon…which is crippling our competetiveness and future.
We’ve killed off 50 million unborn Americans, our fertility rate is borderline. These are the Americans that would have paid the Social Security benefits and Medicaid for the Boomers who Hedonistically enjoyed themselves instead of procreating. They arent there.
Your error is in assigning wealth creation to Government programs. Government doesnt create wealth.
Having been around during the WWII era as a youngin, I have no idea what your personal point of reference is or, what you’re talking about!
That is painfully clear. Read a book, for God’s sake!
You make no sense in that you made statements that were simply not true and you obviously have no personal point of reference other than somebodys perspective in a book.
During WWII most of the nations industrial bases were largely, to use your term, “monopolized” by the government producing goods and services for the war. After the war, there was a private sector industrial boom for which carried forth for several decades. It was early on, during these times, that the government and private sector developed the ‘partnership’ concept that continues today. The DOD creates and sustains private sector employment for R&D, goods and services. NASA a joint government and private sector venture again, created and sustained jobs for its R&D, goods and services, in which thousands of innovations released to the private sector enterprise created even more jobs producing new products. Likewise, the national labs, managed by major research certified universities, create jobs and again produce a lot of high tech innovations that make their way to the private sector creating more jobs and products. The federal government itself with all its deparments, agencies and corporations, creates a ton of jobs.
ALL of these partnerships and direct employment circumstances correlates directly, in a very positive way, too the national economy when something doesn’t come along and throw a monkey wrench in the system. The two most major monkey wrenches which have become reality over the past 50 and 20 years respectively, are indefensible but must be dealt with in a rational manner — labor unions demands and awards forcing non competitiveness AND off shore industrial investments to be globally competitive.
If we don’t do something realistic to regain and reestablish robust industrial bases, the nation is sunk and all the other debates issues are — irrelevant!
So keep on reading your books!
Dont worry Zeke. I will continue the long tradition of literacy and acquiring knowledge via reading books written by experts in their fields. May I suggest you take the first step in that direction by confirming the fact that US industrial output in the years following WW2 constituted about 80% of worldwide industrial production.
Escape velosity
You make no sense and drift off into comments that don’t correlate to anything being spoken about. Thankfully, you didn’t attempt to justify your “monopoly’ comment as I suspect you know well what a fool you’d make of yourself. What percentage the old industrial based economy was during any particular time frame was never even on the table. What was you point and correlated to what, in my discussions?
But alas! All is not dim for you! You sound like you have the perfect book knowledge to be the perfect politician to fix nothing. Run for something and get elected so we can follow all your brillance.
“monopoly on industrial production, as all others were decimated during the war.”
‘Many Americans feared that the end of World War II and the subsequent drop in military spending might bring back the hard times of the Great Depression. But instead, pent-up consumer demand fueled exceptionally strong economic growth in the post war period. The automobile industry successfully converted back to producing cars, and new industries such as aviation and electronics grew by leaps and bounds. A housing boom, stimulated in part by easily affordable mortgages for returning members of the military, added to the expansion. The nation’s gross national product rose from about $200,000 million in 1940 to $300,000 million in 1950 and to more than $500,000 million in 1960. At the same time, the jump in postwar births, known as the “baby boom,” increased the number of consumers. More and more Americans joined the middle class.’
Look into the post war export boom, as well Zeke. Good to see you working on accumulating knowledge.
@ Escape Velosity
LOL! Been decades ahead of you E.V.! See those numbers I sumbitted? Those GDP numbers? Now, do you really want me to break them down into export v. domestic comsumption for all to see? If so, put yer dancin shoes on!
Zeke, domestic consumer production and consumption was huge without a doubt (the government has little to do with this), but the huge net positive trade balance was the real kicker…which slowly dwindled to negative, and left us with debt fueled consumption…and the end of that road is near…the real estate bubble being one aspect of it.
McKinely/T. Roosevelt (R)- 2 terms
Taft (R)- 1 term
Wilson (D)- 2 terms
Harding/Coolidge (R)- 2 terms
Hoover (R)- 1 term
F. Roosevelt/Truman (D)- 5 terms
Eisenhower (R)- 2 terms
Kennedy/Johnson (D)- 2 terms
Nixon/Ford (R)- 2 terms
Carter (D)- 1 term
Reagan (R)- 2 terms
Bush Sr. (R)- 1 term
Clinton (D)- 2 terms
Total 20th century: 13 Republican terms, 12 Democrat terms
Thanks! Should have looked it up! I wasn’t counting ‘terms’ in office, only republicans in the office of president 20th century.
sinz:”A single woman who runs her own successful business and who had an abortion which she paid for herself.”
I could care less if she had the abortion if she paid for it herself; it is using taxpayer money to fund the abortion that really gets me mad.
“A gay man who runs his own successful business together with his life partner.”
I could give a damn who a gay shacks up with as long as: a. what ever diseases he contracts he pays for his own medicine and b. he does not try to get me to affirm or validate his deviant lifestyle.
“A Hispanic who was born in America of illegal alien parents, who graduated from college and is now getting a job with a high-tech company.”
The exception and not the rule but I’ll play. Okay so at what point will you feel that we have enough anchor-born babies living in America;at what point will there be too many anchor-born babies for America to take care of since MOST anchor babies are born to a welfare-receiving parent; when will you stop the illegal entry of these people into America; when will you ask them to become American citizens and give up their mexican citizenship; when will you ask them to stop sending American dollars back to mexico and other SA nations; so on and so forth.
“If the GOP base continues to act like these three people are immoral or threatening, the GOP is doomed.”
No the GOP is not doomed, America is doomed you moron.
“If the GOP base’s priority is saving the U.S. economy, then there is a way for it to succeed. By welcoming as many new voters as it can, even if those voters’ lifestyles don’t conform to the married white Christian model.”
Is there a better lifestyle out there then the one you denigrate? Who built America? Who defended the world from the WON’s predessors–Hitler, Stalin. Mao, etc??
“But if the GOP base’s priority is to spread the Christian gospel, then it’s doomed.”
Let’s see the Christian gospel worked for the nation from its foundation until 1973 and then look at what happened to America. We elected an anti-American marxist.
Republicans are mean and capitalism is evil.
Sinz54… I see you’re keeping your progressive, socialist, communist talking points handy for your silly posts. Enough with these ridiculous ramblings about how conservatives hate this or that… blah, blah, blah. Every time a minority joins the Republican party you morons on the left crucify them! Traitor… Uncle Tom…. Oreo… etc., etc. is all we hear from the left. You all claim that we want to exclude such people from the Republican Party, but you all do your best to run them out of the GOP.
Jindal is absolutely wrong, Conservatives must concentrate on controlling the Federal Government, not sit by and let the Centralized Power Statists take control of it. Furthermore, conservatives must push into the bureacracies and march through the institutions, not as a part time gig, but with resolve and purpose to bend those institutions to their will and create a new culture within them…via hiring conservatives and changing policy of those institutions. We must take back the institutions and make it profitable to follow conservative ideals within them, for individuals professional and economic well being, whether they are true conservative believers or not.
Jindal’s proposals seem to be the old Evangelical Christian abstaining from politics/government which became the zeitgeist in the early 20th century and produced woeful results as they let the Left run wild….and is why they came back to play after Roe v. Wade.
Furthermore the Republicans ARE gaining with their Freedom and Prosperity agenda in the States. Look at Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
We finally got past the foolishness of haphazard nominations to the Supreme Court and now have a decently conservative court to work with (albeit it would be nice to have one more true conservative instead of Kennedy). But we need to enact large scale important legislation when we do control Congress to roll back the tide. If this means that the Democrats will reverse them when they control Congress then so be it. We will have a back and forth tug of war with them, inherently unstable policy, which Conservatives dont like, but there it is. This slow march farther and farther Left is the alternative.
Let me give an example. The reupping of section 5 of the Voting Rights Act by a Republican Monopoly Congress and Presidency several years ago, was shear lunacy.
I think the States are going to have to confront the Feds ultimately, with nullification.
Barack has been the master of class, race, gender, and ethnic war. The GOP needs to beat him at his own game. They need to make themselves the party of the worker who just wants to stop losing ground.
Hammer home how national debt doesn’t affect the next generation; it affects this one right now. Show how money printing is an invisible tax on wages and robbing of savings. Explain how government “spending” isn’t really spending that can stimulate an economy because the government doesn’t spend. It can’t spend because it has nothing of its own; it can only redistribute.
For younger voters who are not marrying and building a family, ask them how they intended to survive old age with no family and a busted government.
Show how big government reduces global competitiveness which reduces domestic demand for labor with a subsequent reduction in standard of living. If simply passing minimum wage increases were the answer, then why not make it $1,000 per hour?
In what would be a great impossibility to somebody in the 1950s, the GOP is now the party of labor if it will stop being stupid about it and own it. Paint the Democrats as the party of the moocher-bureaucrat industrial complex out to schmooze the unsuspecting workers out of their hard-earned money with bogus claims of “fairness”.
The GOP needs to build the media savvy to drive these points home. Granted, some points can’t easily be put into a soundbite, and that makes it challenge. Work on it.
I case you haven’t been watching Washington over the last 20 years, both parties are infected with progressives. They wallow in money and programs. They take money to fund their elections and enact into law whatever programs the biggest funders want. Only one side pretends its conservative. Oh really, then why do we have the EPA, OSHA, NCLB, prescription drugs, TSA, and Homeland Security, and the Patriot Act, all curtesy of Republican presidents? Conservative, surmvative. Facts belie their words. And Boehner can continue to mumble he’s only 1/2 of 1/3 of the government while O’Dismal spends away the present and the future. Wanna bet we get a big ole fat VAT tax to pay for it all?
Jindal is right. It will come down to some kind of secession though he is definitely not thinking in those terms but if you were to create the support system to allow people to succeed the opposition will force the issue. They need your taxes. They will take taxes and define means for taking them. At some point you may need a clean break. We don’t say King and Country in America but we could have to this day. You can not take back the blue states or Washington with an election. You can do so by making being a liberal a miserable experience but from what I’ve seen they are fatter and happier and libertarians are leaner, meaner and sadder.
Of course the blow out can still come but something tells me those who are rich now will be better able to ride it out than those who saw it coming but were too small to make a difference.
Americans who worry about their own financial futures think having no debt is good. But wait until inflation hits as it undoubtedly will, pace Ben Bernanke. They will find the purchasing power of their hard-earned retirement money melting away while their indebted neighbors are floated off the rocks.
He talks about side shows but the GOP is already so beat up by political correctness it refuses to discuss what it actually thinks.
This is taboo:
A national dialogue about capping our population
A national dialogue about ending illegal immigration and kicking the ones here out
Calling out the Congressional Black and Hispanic Caucuses as racist and asking them to disband, or sanction a White Congressional Caucus
Among dozens of other topics, the GOP can’t do that cuz they’ll even more toast than they are right now.
Clifford Simak once wrote a short story called Desertion. In it, men transform themselves to beat a hostile planetary environment, then they disappear into that environment. Bye-bye.
The opposite is happening to the hoardes migrating to America en masse: they are not transforming themselves, disappearing into the American mainstream. They are bringing their values and their ancient feuds here, and justifying it by tossing around words like “racist” and “profiling” like sowing wheat. It has succeeded. America is running from the Third World and the PC mantras that invoke fake guilt we ourselves taught them. It’s a con the perpetrators don’t even believe themselves – but it works.
One sector of America, the successful one, is transforming into failure. Another, an ethnic Tower of Babel, is supplanting it, has it on the run, though it has no ethical, moral, or legal right to do so. The Dems turned the last Presidential election into a mini race war, decades before I thought it would happen.
Political correctness is a suicide cult that has us running and bounding over the fields, our skirts held high, in fear. If not one person in the GOP has either the guts or the brains to call out MSNBC and Obama’s 2007 Hampton U speech as racial hate speech, just go to sleep.
You can’t conquer Mars by becoming a Martian; just ask Ray Bradbury.
“Among dozens of other topics, the GOP can’t do that cuz they’ll even more toast than they are right now.”
You’re absolutely correct. So long as the party is split and a large part of their public discourse in their media outlets and on the internet, is radicalized beyond that of rational thinking, the GOP will never be able to unify and develop a rational platform of critical resolve for the nations problems, much less increase their party acceptance across all party and socioeconomic boundries. They’ve allowed a segement of the party to place the party as a whole into a catch-22 position and remain on the opposite side of the nations majority on nearly every issue.
They’ve allowed a segement of the party to place the party as a whole into a catch-22 position and remain on the opposite side of the nations majority on nearly every issue.
Perhaps, doing like the New York Times / Washington Post opinion editors say they should, purging the teabaggers would solve all their problems?
I don’t know Norman. If you have gangrene infection in a toe, do you leave it be to spread to the entire foot or sacrifice the toe? Rightly or wrongly, the small 20% of the GOP known as the Tea party, has created for themselves a huge liabilty to the Party at large. They were able, by self infliction, to take a firestorm of acceptance all the way down to a public perception and acceptance level slightly above that of congress.
From a pure managerial point of view, if you have small minority of a companys management that is affecting the overall companies productivity and mission, what should a board of directors do with them?
On the other hand, it has become apparent, that they (the tea party) are in complete disagreement with their host party, the GOP, on every issue and furthermore, contrary to the majority of the nation on those issues. It would then seem logical, for them to depart and form their own official registered party from which to build and try to gain a more broad membership to run for offices. We already have three parties from which gain government seats and another such party would have equal rights from which to run. Actually, Sanders runs and wins on the Socialist party ticket so that makes four parties currently. If you have a plan and can articulate it to gain enough votes to win then hoooray! If not, then thats how our political system works.
To keep a major party divided and decimated when in total disagreement with each other, it simply makes no sense nor will that party win.
The problem isn’t that the Tea Party (both fiscal cons and social cons) “are in complete disagreement with their host party”, it’s that the “host party”, the inside-the-beltway “Establishment GOP” is in complete agreement with the Democrats (the supposed opposition), hence the “RINO” epithet. If “Republican unity” is so important that the conservative base must be jettisoned, then the GOP as it currently exists is not worth saving. By all appearances, the Party of Reagan exists now only as a vehicle for careerist bureaucrats to enrich themselves. It certainly cannot mount even the slightest effective opposition to the Statist Democrats, primarily because they both have the same goal: enlarging federal government power at the expense of the States and the individual citizen.
The Canadian Progressive Conservative Party broke apart for the same reasons, and it took 20 years for a genuine opposition to the socialist Liberal Party to regain power. With Obama and the Democrats (and their obsequious GOP allies) barreling full speed towards economic disaster, I very much doubt an American “Conservative Party” would be out of power that long.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. Thanks all for the thought-provoking interplay. However I have a question about the Tea Party. They espouse less government, illegal alien reform, 2nd amendment rights, less taxes, less elitism, all beliefs I would think anyone would desire. Basically more individual freedom, which I firmly believe. I can live *my* life better than anyone else. What is the problem with these ideas?
Just curious on your take. Thanks again.
@ Spiny Norman
“I very much doubt an American “Conservative Party” would be out of power that long.”
There ya go! Sounds like they (the Tea Party) should take that bit of wisdom and be off to file their papers for their own party.
Just try to remember that the ‘size” of the tea party social conservatives is only 20% of ‘conservatives’ of the GOP at best and DO NOT represent the entire ‘conservative base’ that is bantered about so often. I’ve been a republican conservative since 1954 and in no way relate to the tea party social conservatives. Us old conservatives have always been about amending the commerce clause, the 10 amendment, safe locking social security and fed excise taxes, maintaining and updating nation infrastructures, maintainin core industrial economies, promoting national right to work legislation, and barring special interst groups (corruption) from special access to the government and limiting their campaign contributions to that of any individual, etc.
I would not prefer a 3rd Party, rather, a Republican Party that actually believes in conservative principles and fiscal sanity, not one whose elected members compete to see who can kiss more Democrat ass so the liberal Beltway Media won’t say bad things about them – the same Media that demonized the Tea Party and praised Occupy Wall Street.
The problem, Zeke, is that you really aren’t a conservative, you’re a Republican – as in “GOP uber alles”, “my Party, right or wrong”, Establishment Republican. The kind that keeps nominating “moderates” who try to pander to the “undecideds”, yet still get their asses whipped by liberal Democrats. Millions of conservatives stayed home on election day in 2008 and 2012 because they simply couldn’t abandon their conservative principles and pull the lever for the “Democrat Lite” just because he was “not Obama”. Go ahead, purge the actual, genuine conservatives from the GOP and welcome President Hillary in 2016. If you and the rest of the “Party first, conservatism second” types are the “voice of the GOP”, then the Republican Party is as dead as the Whigs, and George W. Bush truly will be the last Republican president.
Another tolerant liberal utilizing an insensitive, sexual slur to describe conservatives… oh, I forgot, they are allowed to do that… we must behave.
Clean out the old guards and start over again. Boehner is a disgrace, yet the Stupids put him back in charge. So it will take a few more cycles, or a few decades to get rid of the Stupids. The prospect is not good.
Obama’s enemies are not the terrorists, they are the Republicans. The Republican old guards’ enemies are the conservatives. They would rather get rid of the conservatives with Obama’s help than to stand up to Obama.
I consider myself a conservative. At the same time, my stance on various social issues ranges along a continuum between the two extremes. In general, I support the notion that people should be able to make decisions about their own personal lives. I believe there are a lot of people like me, who don’t really fit with either party. It would be nice to find a fiscally conservative, socially open-minded party in the middle.
If govenor Jindal believes the Federal Government will just leave us alone while we forge our own at the local levels he is deluding himself. As I write this, the EPA, while ignoring Congress, is cooking up new ways to impede if not shutdown our only viable growth sector (outside government) – energy. And if you think you are snug as a bug in ditchweed Iowa, the EPA, USDA, and an whole host of other federal agencies can’t wait to mandate more regulations concerning private land use, farming practices, transportation, education, residential power usage, water usage, etc…
In a more perfect world Jindal makes sense. Butour Progressives have a ravenous appetite for regulating the “Little People.” They is no hiding; one cannot remove oneself to one’s local ghetto. It didn’t work for the Jews of Eastern Europe, and it won’t work for us.
Bingo!
I completely agree with your assessment, however, theres one critical component missing. There is not a single piece of legislation, regulation or policy that is not drivien by a ‘private sector’ special interest group — not one!
I don’t have a clue how americans ever came to the conclusion that the government just sits up on the hill ‘independently’ spitting out legislation regulations and policies — they don’t! Not even DOD, foreign relations or matters of economics! Its ALL controlled by private sector special interst gorups and the private sector intellectual elites of the endless think tanks.
Indeed, Minimum Wage and the Davis Bacon Act were supported by Unions and Racists who wanted to keep unskilled labor and Negroes down and out, and themselves gorging. Big business supported Social Security and Medicaid to transfer their pension and health care benefit packages to the government and from themselves.
Isn’t it obvious by now? The problem isn’t with America. It’s with Americans. We’re not the same people who created this nation. We not the same ones who defended it. We’re the spoiled children of those Americans. If there’s any “fixing” to be done, we the people will have to fix ourselves. Of course, most don’t think they need any “fixing” and there’s no way you can prove it to them. We’ll just have to wait until they hit bottom. It’s a long way down and it’s going to hurt. It’s going to hurt really bad.
“It’s going to hurt really bad.”
Especially, the generations who have had no stake in the blood sweat and tears that built the nation up to it greatest pinnacle from its founding. The ones who were simply the beneficiaries and never invested anything back.
They didn’t build it.
“are we too far gone for such a message to resonate?”
This is a question that can’t be answered before the fight. Nobody really knows what those on the left really think or how many can be persuaded. Making assumptions on the basis of the MSM or the election is a mug’s game. Obama did actually lose votes, remember. Any group has three parts. Those who will not change their minds, those that will easily change their minds and those in the middle – usually the largest segment. Focus the messages of opportunity and growth on those. Yes, too many are dependent. Chances are large numbers hate it. Forget about doom and gloom. Talk to the better angels of people’s natures.
How many votes would Obama have received if he were not black? Was it really his policies (such as people ever understod them) that got him elected? Next one will be people voting for Hillary because she is a woman. I am not racist (check); I am not sexist (check.)
John Boehner and David Drier conspired to prevent an amendment from being voted on that would block one dollar or one federal employee from being used to implement ObamaCare just a couple months after it was passed. Boehner and Drier did this at a time when they had a majority on the House Rules Cmte and regained a majority in the House. The GOP isn’t just “The Stupid Party” it is run by cowards at best or traitors at worst.
If the GOP was just stupid you would see some improvement as facts and past experience spread within the party. That is exactly what you don’t see. As facts increase, as the same old tricks by the Dems keep being used, the GOP fails in the same way over and over and over. A party that won’t defend itself deserves no loyalty. Take over the GOP and never let the losers running it into the ground back at the helm. The alternative to a prolonged political fight now is an actual physical fight. Any excuse for inaction or delay is a vote for future violence or slavery. We cannot remain half socialist and half liberty-loving. We will become all one or the other and so far the fans of liberty are largely passive and isolated. They didn’t do this to us, we retreated from the fight.
The advice of “shade the truth” until elected will not work. Conservatives must tell the hard truth – and what will happen if not enacted – and hope the public will understand. I fear that we must start planning for what we will do when all falls down.
Republicans are mean and capitalism is evil. It will take a long time to wipe out these deeply-held opinions.
While it’s difficult not to despair over the incompetence and malevolence of the people who – through a corrupt media, the know-nothing (and couldn’t care less) voters and a calculated and raw power grab – control our country, I refuse to give in to it. Lurking around some future corner is this reality: STUFF HAPPENS. We have no idea what it may be, but it will be some out-of-the-blue event that will change the Zeitgeist. I recall how terrified the left was after the first 9/11 attack – not of radical Islam, but of the gravitas it conferred upon the Bush administration and how, in their own narcissistic projections, they envisioned a permanent Republican political take-over. To defeat it before it could happen they began relentlessly attacking Bush non-stop and on all levels for 8 years. This concentration of negative energy didn’t keep Bush from re-election, but it did create an uneasiness in the voters about Republicans and paved the way for Obama – helped of course by the housing crisis, another left-caused disaster. My point is that something unexpected will happen and we should band together to be ready to take full advantage of it when it does.
So he goes on about how they have to focus on the fiscal elements, and then when it comes to things that they shouldn’t change, the first two things he lists are pure social issues.
And that’s how he expects to stop being the stupid party.
Uh huh.
Are all media advisers immune from speaking the truth? Are there any conservative advisers? It has to be frustrating to know that well placed untruths can win elections. Fox news doesn’t help conservatives. Who do the Republicans turn to ?
So… I mention Akin and Mourdock and the spittle flies at PJM; I get called every vile name in the book. Jindal says something about them, tacitly acknowledging that they helped torpedo the Romney campaign, and he’s a wise man. Go figure. But Jindal is still wrong. It’s not Akin and Mourdock at all, but the insistence by the social cons that unwinnable culture warrior crap is part of the GOP platform in the first place.
This analyst refers to Jindal’s missive as a bandaid, not a solution. He’s right.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/25/opinion/avlon-bobby-jindal/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
It’s too bad that the PJM site represents the diminishing nutbar contingent and not the republican voters at large.
I cannot comment on Aikens, but Mourdock’s campaign was in trouble way before his ill-advised comments during his final debtate with Joe Donnelly. I live in Indiana and watched Mourdock flounder the entire summer of 2012. And his troubles had nothing to do with abortion.
Mourdock decided to pull a Nixon and swing to the middle after thumping Lugar in the primairies. Joe Donnelly (Democrat) was a weak candidate politically in one of our nation’s most conservative states. This election was Mourdock’s to lose. However, Donnelly has always been a shrewd politician. Donnelly ran as a pro-gun, Pro Life, fiscal conservative. And for 5 months, Mourdock let him get away with it. Mourdock rarely went out and canvassed voters in swing districts. He relied on vague, vanilla, uninspiring ads that never took the fight to Donnell’s voting record. By late October they were neck and neck (some polls actually had Mourdock losing). And this was well before his abortion remark. Mourdock, over-all, ran a very conventional campaign and lost an election. The voters in Indiana, on the other-hand, gave Mitt Romney a 15 point margin of victory. Mitt wasn’t hurt at all.
You seem to miss the point. Akin and Mourdock were enough to make a change to the national numbers. Women who would have otherwise voted Romney were turned just slightly enough to change the outcome. I and others also use “Akin and Mourdock” as an example; they were certainly not the only factor. Also at play were the gay marriage and immigration issues. GOP failure here lost just enough percentage points that when you add in the “Akin and Mourdock” effect, Romney lost.
In a close election “Akin and Mourdock” affecting a mere 3% of the vote results in a huge change in outcome. Nobody but nobody is suggesting that “Akin and Mourdock” were solely responsible.
I believe it is to late for the Republican party for those of us that actually believe the constitution should be followed. So far they have shown that they can not lead but only follow a despot…and very poorly at that.
These comments are a microcosm of the national disunity. We need to face a simple fact. Political parties are like sports teams — they want to win to get the spoils of victory — it’s a money and power game. Understandably, the great fear among those who value individual liberty, regardless of which party is driving the train, is the ever-growing and encroaching influence of the Fed. The Fed is the elephant in the room. We can argue issues til doomsday with no resolutions. The Fed should be enjoined from meddling in 80% of its current jurisdictions — period. The gnashing of teeth over all personal social issues should be off the table. Were this possible, then which political party is in power becomes much less of an issue. The GOP? Somebody said it was hijacked by the Tea Party. How silly. Nobody knows what the Tea Party is and whom it really represents. If a national figure of high reputation would draft a platform and begin registration of members for a Third Party state by state — the massive turnout would rock the political landscape. Meanwhile, read The Constitution. It’s all there.
Dick — The GOP? Somebody said it was hijacked by the Tea Party. How silly. Nobody knows what the Tea Party is and whom it really represents.
Nobody is suggesting tea party operatives took over key GOP positions. Generally the term hijack where it concerns the tea party or any other subgroup would refer to the derailing of the GOP message. The media is all too happy to cozy up to the far right fringe and portray them as typical repubicans.
Essentially the far right fringe has a message that what the social-cons claim god wants must be codified in law (e.g. the anti gay marriage nonsense) whereas the remainder of the fringe is making absurd claims e.g. global warming is a scientific hoax.
We’ll go with this latter example for a moment:
The problem that arises of course is that while global warming is real, it’s not anywhere near what the alarmists are claiming. There’s nothing to worry about. Moderate republicans who acknowledge this reality would be easily able to summon up the necessary scientific expertise to crush carbon tax attempts and windmill subsidies. Moderate republicans would be easily able to use this reality to get nuclear power back on track, get pipelines approved and get natural gas in play. And why? Because these are the correct and proper things to do.
However this will not happen. By the time Obama leaves office, gasoline will easily be $5 a gallon, carbon taxes will be levied, existing plans for nuke power plants will be delayed infinitely, and almost all americans will be paying an extra $20 a month in electrical bills to subsidise windmill follies.
We in the GOP know precisely how to handle the energy situation, how to use this to better the lives of all americans, and how to turn this into US jobs. But it’s never going to happen. And why? Because the sane and rational republicans who can do these things weren’t elected. And why were they not elected? Because social-cons were loud enough to enforce the use of gays and abortion as a litmus test for party and ideological purity. Which failed. And because tea partiers were busy making republicans look like anti-scientific morons by eating the media bandwidth with idiot claims of AGW being a hoax, and besides, going after big bird was more important anyway.
What the social cons represent is STATISM, and the tea party is essentially a far right fringe group enabling them. And yeah this was the perception by the voting public. Look at the voting record.
Too late Bobby…
The GOP Establishment has been Stupid for too long and has effectively killed the Republican Party. It just hasn’t been pronounced yet…
Witness the group of announced losers they put together as candidates in the last 2 presidential elections. Look at the gutless wonders they have “leading” the Party in both Houses of Congress. If that’s the best they can come up with out of 300 million Americans, they don’t ever have to worry about retaking the White House and they are only 1 election cycle away from the Democrats controlling all if Congress again.
The sad part is, they only have themselves to thank. The Democrat’s didn’t beat them, they beat themselves…
It’s time to stop worrying about trying to save the GOP and focus the money and energy on a new party, free of all the GOP entanglements and provide conservative America an alternative to the same old, same old.
Give them a new party that actually LISTENS to Conservative America.
random: you make valid points but disagree with your “tea party is essentially a far right fringe group.” You’re now aping the media mantra and GOP RINOS who hang onto to control of the party like grim death. The Tea Party is primarily about fiscal responsibility. And, with all due respect, this (“We in the GOP know precisely how to handle the energy situation, how to use this to better the lives of all Americans, and how to turn this into US jobs. But it’s never going to happen. And why? Because the sane and rational republicans who can do these things weren’t elected.”) is bullshit superiority. What did the “sane” GOP do with energy, regulatory excess, immigration reform, entitlements, runaway spending, etc., when it owned the presidency? Your “sane”comment gives insight into why there’s such a great divide — because you think a TP devotee is insane and irrational. The people whom you view as “extremists” have been pushing the energy agenda forever. Because someone believes in God and says so doesn’t make them morons or extremists anymore than being an atheist makes anyone an intellectual giant. As I said in my original statement, the social issues need to be off the Fed table in the first place — the people you call extremists don’t want the Fed shoving lifestyles and behaviors down their throats — while requiring them to pay for it. That’s tyranny. Respectfully. D
the people you call extremists don’t want the Fed shoving lifestyles and behaviors down their throats — while requiring them to pay for it.
Let’s see, that’s code for abortion and gays. Well, guess what. Few people are happy to have to pay for a lot of stuff that’s paid for by taxpayers, e.g. government funded studies to prove that republicans are stupid or that cow farts are causing haitian floods, ugly monstrosities adorning courthouse lawns, and so on. The notion of getting to pick and choose what to pay for is simply stupid; sorry, there’s just no other way to term this.
And by picking *only* the offending subjects — mere coincidence of course — that magically seem to be those that also dovetail with what fundamentalist christians excuse by claiming this is the word of their deity… why, no, there’s nothing about this topic that’s the least bit extreme, is there?
So how are they a fringe group? Simple.
Fringe groups don’t go after big idea topics with a wide spectrum of examples of claimed tyranny so as to defend the interests of the citizenry at large. Rather, they glom onto that which they claim as personally offensive and then claim that their rights to worship freely are compromised. They do this because they perceive this as a grey area. They excuse hateful and spiteful behaviours as protected by their religious belief. The claim is e.g. that god hates queers therefore if you let them marry each other then this is an affront to god, to marriage, to them. Somehow, they reckon their beliefs allow them to control whether or not the gays down the road can get married, and if the state allows it, somehow their religious beliefs are infringed upon. Similarly when the state decides that abortions belong to the general area of women’s health and allows for health funding subsidy to the poor that — using the definition of abortion being a health issue — somehow this too is offensive.
Really?
Do the fringe types ever look at the amount of actual fed funding that goes into women’s health? Are they against all fed health funding to the poor? How much of a percentage of the national budget is used on women’s health for the poor?
If the group were not a fringe, they would be going after the big ticket stuff, the stuff that soaks up the big taxpayer bucks, the waste, the corruption. But they don’t do this. They target poor women and gays. Nothing the least bit fringish about that, is there? In a pig’s eye.
Sorry bud, but your entire outlook has been bought and paid for by social con culture warriors. Best of luck with that.
Toomey… thank you for that great reply to RandomEngineer. I wanted to dispute his “TP people are fringe, wacko, Bible-thumping, morons”, tirade but I just don’t have the energy to debate these RINO’s anymore.
There is something inherently untrustworthy about a politician, who in the wake of election losses, turns and criticizes his own party’s “stupidity.”
The problem with republicans is they are outright gutless cowards. While complaining about the media, indicating continuing fear of what they might say, they do nothing to fight: move against media licenses, initiate hostile takeovers, run ads calling them liars, be more combative.
Re: destruction to the economy, e.g., 3900 jobs lost in Texas because of EPA incompetence and criminality. Run ads all over the country, particularly in congressional districts of those responsible.
Finally, governors of the various states can repudiate unconstitutional laws of the federal government and publicly refuse to comply. Stop pussyfooting around. Be strong. Fight!
Let me return to the thread to repeat what I wrote yesterday. You have no party if your party is the GOP. They are to American politics what the Washington Generals are to basketball– the nonexistent made-up team whose eternal and only purpose is to lose to the Harlem Globe-Trotters.
GOP controls the the money to pay for these programs and bills. Stonewall it and show that the GOP has guts to fight. They have been soundly defeated on every turn of the cards for the past going on 5 years now. Totally jumped on the band wagon for the traitor Kerry. It was pathetic to see McCain and them crying during the sessions. GOP is supposed to be the party that stands for morals and GOD in this country. Start acting like it, even if that does not work because evil is too intrenched in the end time events scheme then at least we go down fighting. Right now all the GOP is doing is going along like a led animal to slaughter.
#1 The republicans must start acting like men and stop being political correct. #2, republicans can not compromise with the communist democrats. Like the communist in Russia, they mite back down once in a while , but they keep on pushing their agenda. I have been saying these things for 45 years. Antonio Gransci , a Italian Communist wrote in his essay in 1921, “Attack on the Family” we can destroyed America the same way we took over Russia. In America we must take over the courts and remove the father from the home, this way women will turn to government to be heir papa. The Civil Rights Bill of 1964 gave all women minority status, and congress started passing laws to empower women. They passed over 400 laws 1964 thru 2011 , 0 laws for men. Then the president created affirmative action and quotas. The workforce in 1970 was 70 million people mostly men and some women. Mothers started staying in the workforce after having a baby,in 1972, the workforce went from 70 million to 135 million people , the increase was manly women. How there was no one raising children, and morals went straight o hell. Women also started for socialist in the democratic party , and the increase in the size of government, now Americas workforce totals 140 million people , 77 million work for government , and only 63 million work in the private sector.
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LIBERALS ARE KILLING AMERICA ONE MARRIAGE AT A TIME
Written on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 by David L. Goetsch
Screen shot 2013-01-23 at 8.35.22 AM
Liberals have spent the last 50 years doing their best to rip up traditional American values and replace them with a form of secular humanism in which society not only tolerates the intolerable, but encourages it. To succeed in this nefarious endeavor, it has been necessary for liberals to undermine the institution of marriage, since this is the institution most responsible for maintaining, supporting, and encouraging traditional values in America.
Thanks to sustained attacks on marriage by liberals in Washington and Hollywood—coupled with government policies that encourage and even reward single parenting and cohabitation—the current marriage rate is one of the lowest in our nation’s history: approximately 44 marriages per thousand unmarried women. Correspondingly, the divorce rate has almost doubled since 1960. Approximately 40 to 50 percent of marriages in America can be expected to end in divorce. The number of cohabiting couples has also increased rapidly, so rapidly in fact that single-parent families—supported by government handouts—are fast becoming the norm in our country.
This is bad news for America, but good news for liberals. It is no exaggeration to say that liberals are killing America one marriage at a time, and they are doing so purposefully with cold-hearted ruthlessness. Liberals know that the irresponsible, self-centered, narcissistic lifestyles they favor cannot be sustained when the core of society consists of intact families that are based on marriages between men and women who make lifelong commitments to each other and their children. Liberals favor broken families because they are easier to keep on the plantation of entitlement and dependence, the domain of the left where the government serves as de facto husband for single mothers and de facto father for their children.
The benefits of marriage for adults, children, and society are well known and copiously documented. According to the Family Research Council, marriage increases the likelihood that Children will:
1) Become happy, healthy, and morally upright citizens;
2) Receive the love, attention, direction, correction and example of a male and female role model during the most critical years of their development,
3) Be safe from neglect and abuse;
4) Enjoy better emotional and physical health than those raised in broken families;
5) Fare better economically; and
6) Enjoy higher academic achievement in school. As for the adults in a marriage, they tend to live longer, healthier lives, and enjoy higher levels of income than single adults. These benefits of marriage to children and adults in turn lead to a better quality of life in local communities and a stronger society overall.
With the benefits of marriage comprehensively documented, one would think liberals would be supportive of the institution, but, of course, they are not—and far from it. Why? As was stated earlier in this column, marriage as an institution tends to challenge the worldviews, inhibit the lifestyles, and undermine the political agendas of liberals. Responsibility and service to something larger than self are indigenous requirements of a successful marriage. To liberals—who value self above all and for whom responsibility is anathema—traditional marriage represents a threat.
So committed are liberals to their irresponsible, secular-humanist lifestyle, and destructive political agenda that they are willing to ignore the results of that lifestyle and agenda. The results of the liberal lifestyle and political agenda can be seen in what happens to the children of broken families and, in turn, to society. Children raised by single mothers commit 72 percent of juvenile murders, have 70 percent of all teenage births, commit 60 percent of rapes, commit 70 percent of suicides, and make up 70 percent of high school dropouts. On the other hand, nothing stabilizes society and enhances the overall quality of life more than marriage.
These facts are well-documented and well-known to liberals. Yet, for the sake of maintaining their destructive lifestyle and the political power to promulgate policies that encourage that lifestyle—policies supportive of such things as abortion and welfare—liberals are willing to ignore and even deny these facts. Instead, when tragedies occur that are the logical result of their misguided policies, liberals are quick to refocus the dialogue by throwing up a rhetorical smokescreen (e.g. their pathetic, illogical arguments on gun control). As Americans we are reaping the bitter fruit of cultural trees planted by liberals over 50 years ago.
Read more: http://patriotupdate.com/articles/liberals-are-killing-america-one-marriage-at-a-time/#ixzz2J6wdrwfn
Yep, this was stupid!
Published on Aug 15, 2012 Reality Check takes a look at Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan’s spending record during his seven terms in office.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=74b_1345089585&comments=1
The solution is simple, freeze federal spending at current levels until the debt is paid.
random: you seem to be hung up gay rights, abortion issues; you take my remarks as code words when they are nothing of the kind; but doing that evidently feeds your discontent. You evidently don’t read well, or if you do, don’t accept straightforward pragmatic positions. Let me see if I can make this clear for the second time — I’m against the Fed infringing on the rights and freedoms of any individual and I’m against the Fed kow-towing to all special interests — including biz, wall street, farmers — and, yes, those you call “the fringe” — and all the rest. I entered this debate to comment on a meddling and runaway Fed. The Fed has grown astronomically in the past 10 years — double the rate of the private sector. Or does that stat offend a sane Republican? By the way, who bought and paid for your rancor – “bud.” Who’s the statist? I’ll sign off now. You’re welcome to the last word about ingeniously decoding my comments. have a good day.
A public option? Only for the willfully stupid. Government needs to GET OUT of everything, not into it.
Some excellent comments here that I have enjoyed reading and alot of different viewpoints.
We are in a battle here in America and most of us think it is republican vs democrats. If you watched Hannitys show last night, you would most likely see the picture I saw. It is not about republicans vs democrats, it is about good vs evil. From my perspective, republicans and democrats in Washington are nothing less than bed partners – both working together to fatten their own pockets along with their families and friends. Outside the beltway, the American people are being used as mandatory donators for their cause. Greed and corruption has taken over once sound minds and has also created a “fear factor.” Money is power and power controls, unfortunatly. It is an addiction which manifests as greed, delivering corruption.
I tend to think more like Sarah Palin. Being both a mother and a grandma, you cannot raise children sending mixed signals and expect good results. I cannot teach my children good values while at the same time; preaching that they should be “tolerant” of bad values in others. It is “tolerance” for all that is wrong which is destroying this country. The conservative platform has been removed in favor of “tolerance.” Why? Because we surrendered?
If you think marriage is between a man and a woman (example,) then why would you throw those values away because of political correctness? You can’t fight evil by accepting it. You cannot know in your heart things are wrong yet accept them as being good because someone told you “you must.” That is defeat.
Some of the comments here suggested single women and the breakdown of family has contributed to this situation and I agree. But let’s not forget men have changed also. Your role as a man has been stolen from you by the feminists. That is also defeat. Take your role back, few things in life are ever permanent.
The only thing that will ever restore America’s greatness is strength, determination and fearlessness. Conservatives, both male and female need to strengthen our values, be willing to fight corruption, unite, be vocal and meet the liberals and evil head on.
I guess what I am trying to say is, let’s not give up, “let’s roll.” Evil does not scare me but submitting to it does. Perhaps a new party is the answer. One that will ignite the passion to diminish and expose the dangerous people we keep electing.
If you think marriage is between a man and a woman (example,) then why would you throw those values away because of political correctness?
It’s fascinating that you would parade your ignorance and bigoted intolerance and claim that these are virtues. These are your values? They’re disgusting. I have always thought gays should be able to marry and raised my kids accordingly; their values are to be aware of and tolerant of others. And you speak of good and evil. Well then… guess who’s being evil here? Not me. You.
You find my values “disgusting?” Obviously you have no “tolerance” for my opinions nor values so practice what you preach.
You need to reread what you wrote. No less than comical to say the least.
I seriously do not care how you raised your children if in fact you have any – and I personally do not care if you think gays should have the right to marry, I don’t.
Deal with it.
You go girl!
God bless you…
“Our schools eschew basics for politically correct studies that prepare no one for the real world.”
It is interesting how many of our teachers complain about standardized tests and decry rote learning. They say they want to teach students to think for themselves rather than just memorizing facts. If the state of our political discourse is taken as one example of the population’s ability to think for itself, one might conclude that our education system has not been successful at inculcating independence of mind. At the same time, most 4th graders cannot tell you what 8×7 is.
Governor, it goes far beyond ‘stupid’ comments you look at. It’s really the entire policy platform of the right that’s stupid. Any policy, identified in the nominating convention, you can name alienates far more voters than it can attract, and that’s stupid. 71%, 60%, 90% are some of the margins favoring Democratic Party policies against the stupid ones adopted and run on by right wing candidates. Anti-government removal of elected officials, anti-freedom vaginal probes in VA medical personnel don’t need, suppressing voters identified as minorities, rejecting nationally needed Obamacare, rejecting jobs creating legislation to keep a budget balanced–all are guaranteed to keep republicans as a minority party. To compensate, the right wing is now rigging the Electoral College to REVERSE statewide popular voting from Democratic to Republican electors–clearly unethical, immoral and anti-democratic. Until the party of Eisenhower, Reagan and Bush1 returns, republicans must increasingly rely on trickery, propaganda, benign messaging, and dirty tricks like swiftboating–aside from tons of money–to swing national and statewide elections their way. If so, that’s pretty darn stupid.
“Facing serious systemic fiscal problems, the American people had a choice between a man with a proven record of fixing such massive problems and man with a record of giving speeches and playing insult comic.”
This is the endemic Republican problem: Republicans have not and seemingly cannot grasp the fact that Romney is “not” the man with a proven track record for fixing problems. Romney has a proven track record as a Socialist and affirms himself a Globalist – exactly what Jindal is against, and the major reason our country has a problem. Until Republicans work for State’s Rights, which gives them control on local and state levels, they remain the “stupid party” because they cannot solve a single issue. Republicans need to cut out all of the head butting. State’s Rights puts control of the purse strings and the Social Issues back into the hands of the citizens. Whining about Obama when Bush #43 was 3 times worse, and whining about every issue any Republican can think up does not solve problems. Republicans need to take their power back by voting for a candidate who is a strong supporter of State’s Rights, or we will never get what we want. Moral issues will forever remain unsolved, and our country will completely degrade and bankrupt.
I think Mr. Preston demonstrates one of the things wrong with the GOP. He admits that he agrees with Gov. Jindal but chooses the negative focus of where he disagrees rather than the positive focus on where he agrees. Preston’s concluding remark is defeatist. If that’s where he wishes to stop then he shouldn’t have bothered.
It’s good that Obama is removing military leaders who will refuse to fire on Americans! Because we will need them on our side when the national and state’s governments keep crossing over our line on the 2nd Amendment.
The ‘shot’ that was heard around the world may again be heard! The shots fired at Bunker Hill and the Alamo still ring true in our hearts. We did the job on D-Day, we came through at the Bulge, Iwo Jima was hell..we froze to death in Korea and did our duty in Vietnam and we carry on in Afghanstan. Do not doubt us .The real back-bone of American Freedom has been awaken!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
Concentrating on the private sector and getting their house in order at the State level, our GOP governors can do. They also need to start refusing to take on Federal mandates that are morally wrong and/or economically not feasible with a sound ratinale for why that is not in the interests of the people. That messge will resonate with people because they can relate it to their pocket book and day to day life.
You have a great point but….
So long as the 2010 tea party State successes continue to receive and ask for federal monies of any kind, they only point to their glaring hypocrisy! Afterall, its their mantra that federal government be reduced in size and authority and for certain, government subsidies be eliminated — well, except for the ones ‘they’ want, I suppose.
“So long as the 2010 tea party State successes continue to receive and ask for federal monies of any kind, they only point to their glaring hypocrisy!”
Not when they’re still paying federal taxes.
What you’ll really squeal about is when we tell Cali and Illinois to take their deadbeat pensions and stuff it.
@ Spiny Norman
“I would not prefer a 3rd Party…”
Norman, the question you must ask yourself is, why you don’t prefer a third party (actually would be a fourth party) for yourself and those who represent what you believe. The independent party holds political seats. Heck, even the socialist party ran a candidate on the independent ticket and he’s been in congress for a good while. There must be a ‘fear’ of something, not to form another party!
If the tea party were truly government and fiscal conservatives they would have mainatained my support — but, they not!
@ EscapeVelocity
“… but the huge net positive trade balance was the real kicker.”
Aaawwwww! I see you put on at least one dancing shoe. Now lets see if we can get you to put on the other dancing shoe and watch you dance more.
Immediately after WWII until 1976 the trade balance to GDP was slightly less than +1%. Pre-war and during the war, domestic consumption to GDP was signficantly higher than post war. From 1945 until about 1999 the consumption to GDP has bounced around from 86% to 91% three times as the import/export trade balance deficits increased. The numbers from the late 80s to present are flawed in that the system formulas do not account for foreign made products that are included in what is termed domestic production thus, indicating upwards to as high as 95% domestic consuption to GDP.
Now, do you want to dance to some slow music or fast music Mr. Think You Know It All?
While the EPA can be a PI* the root problem with coal fired power plants is that they can no longer compete with NG. I’m a retired engineer that worked in the industry for years. Several old coal plants have been allowed to switch to peak power providers with a special dispensation from the state to charge higher rates for that power.
As to Jindal. I have to laugh at his sudden concern for ‘stupid’ as he is one of the major vendors of that commodity. (I grew up in Louisiana– Baton Rouge for half my life) and have family still living there)