Mark Steyn: Reality doesn't need to win Electoral College

OC Register ^ | 09 November 2012 | Mark Steyn

[Lorianne]

American electorate opts to defer course correction for another four years – if they get that long.___ Amid the ruin and rubble of the grey morning after, it may seem in poor taste to do anything so vulgar as plug the new and stunningly topical paperback edition of my book, "After America" – or, as Dennis Miller retitled it on the radio the other day, "Wednesday." But the business of America is business, as Calvin Coolidge said long ago in an alternative universe, and I certainly could use a little. So I'm going to be vulgar and plug away. The central question of "Wednesday" – I mean, "After America" – is whether the Brokest Nation In History is capable of meaningful course correction. On Tuesday, the American people answered that question. The rest of the world will make its dispositions accordingly.

In the weeks ahead, Democrats and Republicans will reach a triumphant "bipartisan" deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" through some artful bookkeeping mechanism that postpones Taxmageddon for another year, or six months, or three, when they can reach yet another triumphant deal to postpone it yet again. Harry Reid has already announced that he wants to raise the debt ceiling – or, more accurately, lower the debt abyss – by $2.4 trillion before the end of the year, and no doubt we can look forward to a spectacular "bipartisan" agreement on that, too. It took the government of the United States two centuries to rack up its first trillion dollars in debt. Now Washington piles on another trillion every nine months. Forward!

[wintertime]

Mark Steyn and the rest of his fellow yappers are cowards. If they had reported on Obama’s questionable eligibility perhaps our nation wouldn't be in the mess it is in.

Mark Steyn’s **own** words about Article 2 Section 1 of the Constittuion:

““One reason why I don’t want to get into, don’t particularly — never got excited about the birther business – I don’t want this president discredited and kicked out on a technicality. This isn’t like when Snoop Dogg found himself up on that murder rap and got acquitted on a technicality. I don’t want this president to be convicted on technical grounds. I don’t want this presidency to end on the technicality of whether he was born in Hawaii, or whether he was born in Mombasa, or whether he was born on the planet Krypton. I want these ideas to die – the ideas to which he got elected, because these ideas are killing your country.””( Mark Steyn)

[wintertime]

Mark Steyn and the rest of his fellow yappers are cowards. If they had reported on Obama’s questionable eligibility perhaps our nation wouldn't be in the mess it is in.

Mark Steyn’s **own** words about Article 2 Section 1 of the Constittuion:

““One reason why I don’t want to get into, don’t particularly — never got excited about the birther business – I don’t want this president discredited and kicked out on a technicality. This isn’t like when Snoop Dogg found himself up on that murder rap and got acquitted on a technicality. I don’t want this president to be convicted on technical grounds. I don’t want this presidency to end on the technicality of whether he was born in Hawaii, or whether he was born in Mombasa, or whether he was born on the planet Krypton. I want these ideas to die – the ideas to which he got elected, because these ideas are killing your country.””( Mark Steyn)

Essentially, Mark Steyn thinks natural born citizenship is a “technicality”. After Benghazi I hope that thinking Americans understand that natural born citizenship is essential for our nation's Commander in Chief.

[Bullish]

This is almost too much to take.
Now we live day to day wondering when the speeding train will go off the collapsed bridge that lays right in front of us.

I sure hope the blacks and other minorities along with the liberals enjoy their very short time at the helm of the Titanic that once was the finest ship on the seas.

[stanne]

God bless himand protect him. He gets it.

[hopespringseternal]

I never thought the end would come this suddenly. We aren't just going off the cliff, we are going off the cliff at a thousand miles an hour. Obama is doubling down on stupid.

And I am not sure that the people who voted for him or failed to vote for Romney are going to ever get it.

[glorgau]

the "Live Free Or Die" license plates look very nice when you see them all lined up in the parking lot of the Social Security office.

The race is on. Charge as much out of the credit cards as possible before declaring bankruptcy and daring your creditors to come after you.

[Ditto]

I'm always struck, if one chances to be with a GOP insider when a new poll rolls off the wire, that their first reaction is to query whether it's of "likely" voters or merely "registered" voters. As the consultant class knows, registered voters skew more Democrat than likely voters, and polls of "all adults" skew more Democrat still. Hence the preoccupation with turnout models. In other words, if America had compulsory voting as Australia does, the Republicans would lose every time. In Oz, there's no turnout model, because everyone turns out. The turnout-model obsession is an implicit acknowledgment of an awkward truth – that, outside the voting booth, the default setting of American society is ever more liberal and statist.

Absolutely true, but it is true because the majority of Americans do not even know what the issues are. That majority votes for identity and affinity, and the Republicans have allowed their "Brand Identity' and Affinity to be defined by the Democrats. It's a simple as that.

People no longer vote on their own self interests, (contrary to Limbaugh's Santa Claus thesis). They vote on vaguely perceived impressions. There is no logic operating. It's an 'American Idol' contest to them.

I could introduce you to dozens of people who always vote Democrat, but who would agree with the Republican position on nearly every issue you could present to them (presented in totally non partisan terms.)

But those people don't vote on the issues. They vote for some name on the ballot based totally on perception and the Republicans can argue for ever on the merits of the issues, and they will not change their minds. If the Republicans want it, they think it must be bad for them.

That is the world we live in, and the only way out is for the Republicans not to change their beliefs, but to change the perception of the party with that majority of the low information electorate.

Its the American Idol and Dancing with the Stars world now. The Republican Party needs to find a way to deal with it, or we are done.

Low information voters rule the country, and the Democrats own them.

[Mrs. Don-o]

`

[Travis McGee]

[Pilsner]

Mark Steyn and the rest of his fellow yappers are cowards. If they had reported on Obama’s questionable eligibility perhaps our nation wouldn't be in the mess it is in.

That's it Birthers, if only everyone had listened to your drivel, all would be well. /sarcasm

While laboring over the next fake Kenyan birth certificates, and trying to work out why is was OK for Republicans to nominate men with one, or even no, parent who was a citizen (Vice President and President Chester Arthur, Vice President Nominee Frank Knox, two time Vice President Spiro Agnew) but it raises "questions" when the Democrats do so, ponder this news flash:

BO is a symptom, not the problem. The problem is that the American electorate is prepared to elect, and now re-elect, a man like BO. If we want to win the struggle for the future of the United States, we have to do the hard work of changing what American's find acceptable in a President. We aren't going to be saved by a "last five minutes of the movie" plot twist that magically makes everything all right.

[wintertime]

Mark's own words reveal his character. Getting irritated with me won't change Steyn’s character ( or that of the other weenie yappers.)

Mark Steyn’s **own** words about Article 2 Section 1 of the Constitution:

““One reason why I don’t want to get into, don’t particularly — never got excited about the birther business – I don’t want this president discredited and kicked out on a technicality. This isn’t like when Snoop Dogg found himself up on that murder rap and got acquitted on a technicality. I don’t want this president to be convicted on technical grounds. I don’t want this presidency to end on the technicality of whether he was born in Hawaii, or whether he was born in Mombasa, or whether he was born on the planet Krypton. I want these ideas to die – the ideas to which he got elected, because these ideas are killing your country.””( Mark Steyn)

Essentially, Mark Steyn thinks natural born citizenship is a “technicality”. After Benghazi I hope that thinking Americans understand that natural born citizenship is essential for our nation's Commander in Chief.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Bump.....

[TChad]

Low information voters rule the country, and the Democrats own them.

Good point in a great post.