Posted on 07/29/2010 3:22:14 AM PDT by Scanian
Conservatives who read the polls are already anticipating Republican gains in this November's Congressional elections, hoping for an anti-Obama tidal wave. They should temper their enthusiasm. Statistically, the opposition party almost always gains seats in midterm elections. But let us for the sake of the argument suppose that a repeat of the 1994 midterm elections is in the offing and that Republicans exceed their wildest expectations, and gain control of both houses.
What will change?
Will ObamaCare be repealed? Almost assuredly not. There is virtually zero chance that the Republicans will control both houses by the two-thirds majority necessary to override Obama's certain veto of any repeal effort.
Will illegal aliens be deported and the Mexican border sealed? No. Sen. McCain (whose signature legislation sought to make First Amendment freedoms illegal during election campaigns) will join forces with Obama and Sen. Graham to grant amnesty to the 12-15 million illegal aliens already here, during a time of 10% unemployment.
Will the budget be balanced? Not a chance. If the current $-1.5 trillion deficit were shrunk to only the half-trillion of the Bush years it would be a monumental accomplishment.
Will the pointless war in Afghanistan, in which the U.S. endeavors to prop up a government just as corrupt as Ngo Dinh Diem's in Vietnam, be ended? No. It will continue to drag on and cost American lives.
It is time for conservatives to ask some hard questions. What, exactly, is it that they hope to "conserve"? And how will they do it?
We know what the endgame is for the political Left. It is national socialism with as many citizens dependent on the government as possible, and international socialism with foreign policy and economic policy controlled by UN and EU-style bureaucrats. This would put the Right out of business for good. What, then, is the endgame for the political Right? How does it plan -- (does it even have a plan?) -- to put the Left out of business for good?
For decades, right-wing voices were nearly unheard in our national discourse. Today, the right-wing critique is ubiquitous. FOX News is almost 14 years old, and it has healthier ratings than "mainstream" broadcast news. AM radio stations broadcast wall-to-wall right-wing talk to tens of millions, while the New York Times and CNN teeter on the verge of insolvency. Every verbal gaffe or moronic statement made by Obama and his fellow Leftists is instantly relayed to millions on the Internet. No one seeking an alternative to Leftist thinking can credibly say that they cannot find one.
But what has the conservative critique of the Left achieved? Nothing. In 1951, the late William F. Buckley single-handedly founded the modern conservative movement when he wrote God and Man at Yale -- a critique of the atheist and socialist sympathies of the Yale faculty that he had experienced firsthand as an undergraduate. Today, Yale hosts an annual "Sex Week" in which porn stars, strippers, and fetishists give presentations.
In his 1960 book Conscience of a Conservative, Sen. Barry Goldwater decried the increase in Federal spending from $60 billion to $80 billion. Goldwater lost to Lyndon Johnson by a nearly 2-1 margin in the 1964 election. Today, Federal spending is approaching $4 trillion and the deficit is $-1.5 trillion per annum.
It has been thirty-seven years since Roe v. Wade was decided, and thirty years since Ronald Reagan was elected promising to appoint "strict constructionists" to the Supreme Court. But it was Reagan's affirmative-action "first female" appointee Sandra O'Connor who voted to uphold Roe in 1992.
Indeed, the sainted Gipper, icon of the conservative movement, was a former Democratic union man who signed an abortion into law as governor of California six years prior to Roe, never had a balanced budget in his eight years as president, and signed an illegal alien amnesty in 1986. Thirty years after Reagan's administration contemplated eliminating the Department of Education, it is more bloated than ever, using taxpayer dollars to subsidize the teaching of political correctness and hatred of America.
What would a truly conservative America look like? It is unrealistic to argue, as some conservatives and Tea Partiers do, for a return to Jeffersonian libertarianism, no matter how desirable that may be. If conservatives were able to scale the power of today's Federal leviathan back to "merely" post-New Deal levels, it would be an enormous achievement.
Let us suppose for a moment that the conservative goal was merely the preservation of the cultural values and international status of the America of the Eisenhower-Kennedy era (arguably the apogee of American power and influence). What then would be on the conservative agenda?
-A civil-rights movement based on individual equality, not group entitlements and reverse discrimination against whites and Asians;
-Mandatory military training and conscription;
-A muscular foreign policy in which America stood up to its enemies as JFK did during the Cuban missile crisis, rather than the Obama foreign policy posture of a beaten dog piddling in submission;
-Balanced or low-deficit budgets, with social spending limited to pre-Great Society "safety-net" minimums;
-A non-P.C. acknowledgement that enemies (then communists, now Muslim fanatics) sought to use America's freedoms as a tool to destroy it from within;
-The unapologetic deportation of illegals, e.g., Eisenhower's "Operation Wetback" in 1954;
-The maintenance of American industrial and technological superiority;
-Social issues such as abortion and homosexuality left up to state legislatures as the Founders intended, rather than declared "constitutional rights" by activist judges;
-The public acknowledgement of a nonsectarian "civic religion" based on the Judeo-Christian tradition;
-Unions investigated by the Federal government for corruption and racketeering, and a non-unionized public sector.
Conservatives must be under no illusions that the Left would regard such an agenda as "fascist" and react violently if such an agenda ever came close to being implemented.
It must be remembered that the Left of the Sixties routinely characterized Lyndon Johnson -- father of Great Society socialism and affirmative action -- as "fascist," and that violence has always been a central part of the Left's strategy. Armed black students seized Cornell University in 1969. JFK was shot by a communist. RFK was shot by a Palestinian. Pentagon bomber Bill Ayers is now a tenured professor and confidante of the President of the United States. From the riots in Watts to the anti-globalization protesters in Seattle to the anti-Bush and anti-Iraq war marchers, the Left has always "taken it to the streets." The Right could not succeed in implementing the conservative agenda outlined above without a willingness to utilize the power of the state to suppress the violence that the Left would surely perpetrate if a Rightist victory were imminent.
The Republicans may gain seats in November, but it is hardly certain that they will implement a conservative agenda. Will the American Right choose to accept subjugation under the rule of the Left, and perform the same function that the British Conservative Party has performed for decades -- namely, provide rhetorical opposition but never really change anything? Or will the Right actually seek to reverse the hegemony of the Left, and restore American culture to its post-WWII greatness, mindful that the costs of doing so would be high?
I thought the plan was for the Republicans to get enough to stop new bad legislation from being passed. Obama isn’t going to sign Republican policy initiatives. The Republicans can pass laws that the people like, and Obama can veto them, and in 2012 they can point to what the people can expect if they elect the Republican.
I’d avoid a repeat of the budget issue between the 94 and 96 elections, the shutting down of the government and whatnot.
> The Republicans may gain seats in November, but it is
> hardly certain that they will implement a conservative
> agenda.
I submit that it’s virtually certain that they WILL NOT implement a conservative agenda.
The RINOs will see to it.
The Republicans had the Presidency and BOTH houses for 6 years and, other than the Bush Tax Cuts, did nothing to advance the conservative agenda while cooperating with the demoncRATs to advance the commie agenda.
Oh, they let the “Assault Weapons Ban” sunset, no thanks to Bush who said he would have signed it, or McCain, who supported reviving it.
more bad news...Zogby polling shows Mitt Romney up against Obama, and behind by 3 points. The Dems can’t wait to name the Republican candidate. CBS, NBC, etc. news in MA. blaring this at 5 AM. The excuse is that Mitt was the MA. gov. before lamebrain Deval Patrick, Obama’s BFF, who, by the way is leading Republican Charlie Baker by 3 points in the polls.
My longstanding view is that States (like AZ) should effectively secede: ignore the federal government and just govern your area as you see fit. What are they going to do? Invade? Let them.
Don’t be too quick to pull that trigger this time. The mood of the country is totally upside-down right now and it will be getting worse.
I’m not so sure we want majorities in both houses yet. Just enough to stop Barry in his tracks.
“I’d avoid a repeat of the budget issue between the 94 and 96 elections, the shutting down of the government and whatnot.”
I wouldn’t. Playing chicken with the liberals is a winning strategy. They will not shut down the government. they are terrified that we may discover that we can actually live without it.
And to kick Pelosi and Reid out of leadership. It looks like Reid will be re-elected, unfortunately.
de Plan—
1. Turn over the House and Senate in November
2. Uncover, expose and impeach
3. Then undo what the Left has done.
Dear Leader cannot veto what doesn't come to his desk.
Sadly I think the guy is on to something. The Republicans never repeal anything that needs repealing. The Democrats pass their agenda when they get into power. Who gets their way? The left....
The author has expressed, in the MOST thorough and succinct way, just how precarious and urgent the situation is for American Conservatism.
However, he does not describe the ‘condition’ Liberals will find America in, if/when they succeed with their agenda.
He says:
“Will the American Right choose to accept subjugation under the rule of the Left, and perform the same function that the British Conservative Party has performed for decades — namely, provide rhetorical opposition but never really change anything?”
Though I hope that Liberals fail, I am certain that any permanent success the Liberals could achieve with their agenda will GUARANTEE social discord and instability for this country and into perpetuity.
If you ONLY look at the all but irreversible damage which has been done so far, you can see that the current administration never for one moment intended to lead ALL of America …. and this is obvious no matter what your politics. “O’s” plans, rhetoric, policies, etc. have forced gapping chasms between the basic and naturally occurring stratum of this society. He created THE most unwholesome and counterproductive political/social environment I have EVER experienced in my life.
Maybe the British Conservatives conveniently rolled over but I don’t think their American counterparts will be so willing or ready to do the same.
Time will tell. Conservatives need to consolidate their strengths and quit squabbling over ‘style’. The message is what matters and it must be clear, coherent and consistent…never mind who the messenger is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If the messenger is a hunch back, dwarf with one brown eye and one blue eye and who is practicing an ‘alternate’ lifestyle … f&^%$)g run with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “O” is living breathing proof that it’s about the horse… NOT the jockey!
Conservative principles have always been a hard sell to the increasingly dumbed down, entitlement-conditioned American voter. But to go the route of presenting a watered-down conservative message, as General Powell urged, is to abandon all we have striven for. If the voters reject our message they will deserve the inevitable bondage they invite. Of course all right-thinking (no pun intended) people will share their shackles.
If we can't repeal it, can we amend it to death?
I really, really, really hope the “end-game” is not a repeat of the 1994 through 2006 disappointment. The GOP came in with good intentions, then the MSM and Dems went to work undermining pretty much every plank of the Contract to the point where pretty much nothing got passed. Then the GOP did a 180 degree turn and started spending and passing out pork to their constituents like there was no tomorrow. 2001 through 2006—with Lyndon Baines Bush proposing 10%+ per year social spending increases and vast expansions of entitlements and the “Republican” Congress passing them—were very depressing and hugely damaging to the GOP. If that happens again they are done.
IMHO, the war isn’t in Washington. It’s just a battle.
I would liken it to the revolutionary war or the civil wars in some ways - Washinton is the naval battle. We need to neuter Washington from increasing its meddling the same way we had to stop Britain from bringing in more troops via sea, or Europe from resupplying the Confederacy.
But, in the meantime, the larger war is at the state, local and home level. If we can change the culture back (and I’m speaking of the culture of entitlement, centralized planning, and “trust” in Washington as a first solution for every problem) while we keep DC at bay, then as the Founders envisioned, the fed will be largely impotent. We need the states to reassert their authority and responsibility backed by their consituents and the citizens to become citizens instead of subjects/victims/sponges.
Personally, I doubt it’s possible anymore. My best hope, sadly, is that we can change the character of one or two states or regions that will, through threat of or actual secession, so stymie the fed that the rest of the country will benefit. The winning card in our hand is that freedom brings prosperity. Just look at what’s happening in Texas with just the slightest edge over other states in taxation and business freedom compared to states like California.
In the interim, I think there is a strategy that might temper the onslaught of socialism.
The original idea of united independent states was that each would be a laboratory - trying new policies on smaller levels to see what works. We ought to use that as a primary focus - “OK, maybe x policy will work, let’s set up legislation to simulate what you want in whichever states want to give it a go. Prove it will work”. I don’t see how “intellectuals” can argue with that, and it opens the door for us to do the same with our policies.
We could frame the argument for anything - socialized vs privatized medicine, open vs closed borders, chard check vs right to work, even income vs consumption tax vs both and I think it would be a difficult argument to oppose - might even be embraced by some of the misguided true believers on the other side.
We have tax brackets for individuals. Granted it’s a PITA, but why can’t we have “freedom brackets” or “policy brackets” for states?
How about this - cut Fed spending by 25% a year until it drops to %10 GDP.
Unfortunately we know what the current Republican party stands for and it's not good. Republicans just opposing democrats works good in 2010 an off year election. But they will not get away with it in 2012 (2012 is the year Obama is counting on pro-amnesty hispanics uniting with blacks to get him re-elected.) In 2012 Republicans will be forced to take positions on actual actions. And what will it take to sour Hispanics on Obama in 2012? Unemployment? And what if RINOs once again try to work with Dems on amnesty?
If a Republican makes it to the WH someday, they will be under the same pressures GWB was to pass big progressive reforms to get re-elected. And we will be again told we have to go along to ‘defeat the enemy’
The Republicans may gain seats in November, but it is hardly certain that they will implement a conservative agenda.
I have absolutely no doubt that Republicans will pick up many seats in November. But, what, if anything, are we winning?
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