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Mark Steyn: The Edge of the Abyss
National Review Online ^ | NOVEMBER 9, 2012 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 11/09/2012 6:46:15 PM PST by neverdem

The default setting of American society is ever more liberal and statist.

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!...

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2012aftermath; marksteyn; steyn
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1 posted on 11/09/2012 6:46:19 PM PST by neverdem
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To: neverdem

2 posted on 11/09/2012 6:47:32 PM PST by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: JLS

Ping


3 posted on 11/09/2012 6:48:25 PM PST by neverdem ( Xin loi min oi)
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To: neverdem

FORWARD!!!!!!!! \s


4 posted on 11/09/2012 6:52:49 PM PST by Twinkie (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.)
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To: neverdem

Full consumer boycott this Christmas. Do something press-worthy right wingers. Punish the retailers that contribute to this. If you can’t control your spending why do you think the govt. should control theirs?

Cripple the IRS or USPS with extra paperwork. Both are easy targets.


5 posted on 11/09/2012 6:58:04 PM PST by wrencher
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To: neverdem
January 1, 2023, all private business shuts down, government scrambles to continue handouts to the sick, lame, lazy, blind cripple and crazy! Suddenly, Americans wake up to the fact, it is private business that creates wealth in America,, not the government and immediately begins the slow process of bringing sanity back to their government!

Shut down 01/01/2013 all gas stations, coal companies, power stations, restaurants, grocery stores, 7-11’s, liquor stores, tobacco companies, oil companies, stop all drilling, manufactoring companies, car companies, except for “government motors” it is no longer privately owned! It will take the government about six (6) seconds to send a mouth piece to the business owner asking what they want in return to get back to work for the government, this is when the American business owner tells Obamay to bend slightly at the knees about 30 degrees and kiss his ass goodbye!!!

End of communism in America over night!

6 posted on 11/09/2012 7:01:24 PM PST by paratrooper82 (We have been deserted by this WH and left to fend for ourselves in Afghanistan! Both hands tied!)
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To: Travis McGee

Just like the rats planned.

This is sickening.


7 posted on 11/09/2012 7:01:43 PM PST by Aria ( 2008 wasn't an election - it was a coup d'etat.)
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To: neverdem
Mark's last line...

"Alas, on Tuesday, the electorate opted to defer it for another four years. I doubt they’ll get that long."

The bottom has already dropped out, we don't have that long.

My bet, this guy gets shot in the head, and miraculously recovers and speaks in a different voice. All hell breaks loose within a few weeks.

8 posted on 11/09/2012 7:01:59 PM PST by Ron C.
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To: wrencher

Please read Post #6

Stay safe my fellow American!


9 posted on 11/09/2012 7:02:50 PM PST by paratrooper82 (We have been deserted by this WH and left to fend for ourselves in Afghanistan! Both hands tied!)
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To: neverdem

Well said, Mr. Steyn.


10 posted on 11/09/2012 7:08:56 PM PST by Ciexyz
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To: wrencher

“Full consumer boycott this Christmas. Do something press-worthy right wingers. Punish the retailers that contribute to this.”

YES. We were planning to buy a new car. Now After America we will keep the old one for four years. Seriously.

We are cutting down on eating out. We will not do a major home remodel project.

My wife and I live two miles form work. We are walking now to save gas.

Already have our Hawaii vacation paid for, but it will be the last one for a few years.

The money saved will help us weather the next four year storm.


11 posted on 11/09/2012 7:25:21 PM PST by garjog (Heroes Died. Obama Lied.)
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To: neverdem

that, outside the voting booth, the default setting of American society is ever more liberal and statist
-—–—————————–
Republicans have coasted on the fact the GOP voters are more conscientious voters than liberal voters. The Obama campaign has upended that model. They were right, measuring support among adults and RVs was a better predictor than LVs of the election outcome. If they can increase overall turnout, the GOP is more or less a permanent minority party.


12 posted on 11/09/2012 7:29:03 PM PST by garbanzo (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine)
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To: paratrooper82

If every business shut down the government would step in and take over and there’d be a line a mile long of people willing to work for them.


13 posted on 11/09/2012 7:31:02 PM PST by Terry Mross (Once again I wasted my vote. But I have learned my lesson.)
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To: neverdem

For crying out loud! The leaders of the Democrat party are grifters....con men......thieves. They get by OK now because our USAttorney General and lots of his staff are Democrat grifters. Ideally, the FBI would be investigating these thieves, but it ain’t gonna happen with Holder around. So, who does that leave? The House Republicans. Yeah, I know. To steal from Churchill

“Never have so many been so dependent on so few with so little hope they’ll do anything.”

Well, every once in awhile somebody steps up and actually fights. Maybe we’ll get lucky.
If not, well, all is not lost. We’re just dealing with grifters....con men.....thieves. Shut the bank vault, and they go away.

The Democrat voters, at least enough of them to guarantee us victory into the foreseeable future,are not grifters. They are scared and uninformed.
That’s why I have been writing all day.....

“Know your enemy and know yourself, and in one hundred battles, you will not be defeated.”

We still have most Republicans who can’t even figure out that the Democrat leaders are grifters. Why in the world would Harry Reid want to be a Senator for Mozambique? He’s no socialist. He’s just an ordinary, two bit grifter.


14 posted on 11/09/2012 7:32:09 PM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: Terry Mross

I would love to see federal troops taking over private business in this Country, they don’t have the man power to turn on the lights in NY!


15 posted on 11/09/2012 7:34:07 PM PST by paratrooper82 (We have been deserted by this WH and left to fend for ourselves in Afghanistan! Both hands tied!)
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To: neverdem

“Tuesday’s results demonstrate that, as a whole, the American electorate is trending very Euro-Canadian. True, you still have butch T-shirts — “Don’t Tread On Me,” “These Colors Don’t Run” . . . In my own state, where the Democrats ran the board on election night, 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. “

Oh, how I love Mark Steyn!


16 posted on 11/09/2012 7:36:13 PM PST by MarDav
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To: neverdem

Reality check people: America is Toast.

“If you add up the total debt — state, local, the works — every man, woman, and child in this country owes 200 grand (which is rather more than the average Greek does).”

“In the course of his first term, Obama increased the federal debt by just shy of $6 trillion and in return grew the economy by $905 billion. So, as Lance Roberts at Street Talk Live pointed out, in order to generate every dollar of economic growth the United States had to borrow about five dollars and 60 cents. There’s no one out there on the planet — whether it’s “the rich” or the Chinese — who can afford to carry on bankrolling that rate of return.”


17 posted on 11/09/2012 7:44:44 PM PST by garjog (Heroes Died. Obama Lied.)
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To: Terry Mross

Bet there’d be many on that line who haven’t the skills to do the work with any competency. Imagine the paper pushers at the Department of (fill-in-the-blank) trying to run an oil refinery.


18 posted on 11/09/2012 7:52:42 PM PST by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: Terry Mross

Addendum: Unless, of course, the people on that line are from the Far East.


19 posted on 11/09/2012 7:54:06 PM PST by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: garbanzo
...the GOP is more or less a permanent minority party.
I believe that's where they're the most comfortable.
20 posted on 11/09/2012 8:11:51 PM PST by Bratch
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