Posted on 08/30/2009 10:28:32 AM PDT by BigKahuna
It's obvious the Democrats have no clue about how to drive the car now that they've been given all the keys and told that there's nothing to it but to do it. Like most teenagers driving around with two or three friends, some booze and a text-capable cell phone or two, they're busily yakking with each other, sending out text messages and in danger of running head-on into the oncoming semi tractor barreling down the highway from the opposite direction.
This has been most glaringly demonstrated over the last 7 months in an out-of-control orgy of spending to no discernible purpose other than to "get theirs," much as the spend-like-a-drunken-sailor (which, being at one time an actual drunken sailor, I used to personify in my own past, quite honestly) Republicans did over the previous several years prior to being handed their hats and shown the tavern door by the barkeep, which in this case was the American electorate.
But you know what? Maybe the possibility of impending death (or at least the possibility of impending irrelevance, should they return to that profligate outlook in the future) has focused the collective Republican/conservative mind wonderfully. Or better yet, maybe the environment which Sun Tzu called the "death ground" (and upon which Republicans and conservatives currently trod) has reawakened them and finally made them return to their core principles of limited government, personal responsibility and reward based on merit and not … grievance politics.
… I'm also sure most folks, confronted first of all with raised taxes and drastic cuts to Medicare that are front-loaded and scheduled to occur first (the supposed "helpful" parts don't come 'round until 2013 or so), will be more than happy to contemplate such a fortuitous circumstance. If so, it's "bye-bye" Democrats … for at least a decade.
(Excerpt) Read more at entitlementsyndrome.com ...
Memo to all Congressional Republicans: Just say no. Stand up for yourself. Have the guts to say no to socialism. Have the guts to say no to communism. Have the guts to say you are pro life. Have the guts to say you are against euthanasia because life is such a precious commodity. Death with dignity. Absolutely. But let those decisions be made by the patient, his or her doctor and the patient’s own religious advisor or consultant - NOT THE GOVERNMENT.
A-men. “Do something!” has been the battle-cry of the statist political majority since at least 2001. And it has led to one big government disaster after another.
Awesome statement, big guy. Keep repeating it over and over until the Ree-pubs get the message. No compromises this time.
“No” is a complete sentence.
Pres Obama is plunging in the polls, and his health-care plans face an iffy future on Capitol Hill. His supporters blame right-wing muscle. “I think it is very hard because [Democrats] don’t have the message machine the Republicans do,” says Democratic message guru George Lakoff. Even at the GOP’s 2004 peak, rumors of its omnipotence were greatly exaggerated.
Now they are just plain loopy. Democrats hold daunting advantages that American parties have seldom enjoyed. Start with Congress. A few years back, House Democrats complained that the Republican majority was shutting them out of the legislative process.
Now Speaker Pelosi and company are pulling tricks that Tom DeLay never dreamed of. A Brookings study concludes: “The number and percentage of restrictive rules used by Democratic leaders to control debate and amending activity on the House floor exceeded the degree of control and departure from regular order exercised by their Republican predecessors.” The ruling party is even unfairly censoring Republicans’ official mailings to constituents.
Senate Democrats have 60 votes, enough to close debate if they all hang together. Such strength is extraordinary. Democrats last crossed that line in the 95th Congress (1977–1979), and Republicans have not done so in more than a hundred years. Democrats claim that their majority is less decisive than it seems because they are more fractious than Republicans. But they aren’t. What of all-powerful talk radio? Rush Limbaugh reaches up to 25 million Americans, many more than other syndicated hosts. That’s a big number, but it means that at least 80 percent of voters are not listeners.
More significant, polls show that most Americans have a low opinion of El Rushbo. So the “Limbaugh Did It” theory works only if he can mesmerize millions who dislike him and/or don’t even listen to him. Liberals and Democrats also dominate the hot medium of our time, the Internet. During the 2008 campaign, the Obama campaign mastered social networking and other online technologies.
By far the most popular political blog is The Huffington Post. Along with Talking Points Memo and others, HuffPo conducts a great deal of investigative journalism that advances liberal causes. As the Politico reported last year, the Right lags badly in this regard.
What about money? According to stereotype, the well-heeled GOP can bury the Democrats in campaign cash. That image is obsolete: Any Republican financial advantage is long gone. In 2008, Barack Obama smashed all fundraising records and got most of his money from large donors.
He raised twice as much as McCain from physicians and other health professionals, and three times as much from the health-service and drug industries. And listening to his attacks on the insurance industry, you would never guess that it supplied him with almost as much money ($2.3 million) as it did McCain ($2.4 million).
No wonder Obama could co-opt business opposition to the health plan and strike a deal with Big Pharma: His corporate ties were a pre-existing condition.
The Democrats continue to hold the money edge. So far in the 2010 election cycle, Democratic national committees have raised $12 million more than their Republican counterparts. And as in the past, liberals have the upper hand at foundations and universities. Research from these institutions has been especially important during the health-care debate. A Yale professor, for instance, devised the “public option.”
With such a commanding position, President Obama and his party should be having an easy time. Indeed, they may still ram a bill through Congress. But the battle has been tougher than they expected. There are a couple of possible explanations. First, despite his talents as a candidate, President Obama is showing weakness and inexperience as a chief executive. Second, the health plan is so bad that even a mighty political operation has trouble pushing it across the finish line. Perhaps both explanations are true.
John J. Pitney Jr. is the Roy P. Crocker professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna College. With James W. Ceaser and Andrew E. Busch, he is co-author of Epic Journey: The 2008 Elections and American Politics.
I know! And to see old F***’s like Orin Hatch (who has been around HOW LONG?) talking about a ‘compromise bill’ makes me PUKE
How about NO BILL????
It is like an old joke about Republicans (The democrats wanted to outlaw the constitution- but the Republicans wanted to compromise and ‘phase it in’ over 5 years) COMING TRUE!!!
Giving your opponent what they want IS NOT COMPROMISE
The GOP lost its identity and majority when it became another statist party. Representatives forgot they were representing their constituents and began representing Washington, D.C. Just look at the Town Halls. How many of them are structured to gather input and feedback to better understand the desires of the voters of the respective districts and how many are platforms to inform the voters about decisions and policies already made?
Enough is enough. We don’t have any money left to spend. It is irresponsible to even think about creating another big government entitlement. The message is simple. There is no need to get bogged down trying to hash out a bill where we lose even when we get one or two things we want. It is the old two neighbors idea. One neighbor builds his fence two feet into the other neighbors property. If they negotiate and the offending neighbor agrees to move back his fence one foot then he still won. That is the tactic of the left. Make an outrageous push for something irrational and unwarranted and then offer to compromise so they end up satisfying their goal either way because then they always end up advancing their cause and we end up ceding ground. That is how we got into this mess we are in. There is nothing reasonable about compromising liberty.
Truer words have never been spoken.
Beats me. The Dims converted eight years of ‘No’ into cklear majorities in both houses of Congress and the White House.
However, I’d say “HELL NO!”
Compromise with tyranny is not a good thing is it?
A structure which allows government any intrustion into our medical situations sets up, in the future. a way for those pro-choice people to lose their precious “right” - I wonder if anybody has pointed this out to them. Maybe with a little emotional tai chi they could be brought around to oppose the government intrusion into our lives. After all, the premise seems to be that government or “others” should not have any entrance into personal or medical areas of life. They need to remember that it is possible “their side” won’t always be in charge of this big intrusive machine which is being currently constructed.
If they are conbsidering renaming Pbamacare for Kennedy I have a much more apropos alternative: Mengelecare.
Ouch. Truthful enough, but “ouch!” ;-)
Just as importantly, the corporations need to do this also. Obama wants to know how much company officers are being paid? NO. Obama wants to examine the records of insurance companies? NO. And so forth.
Don’t forget, he also wants to be able to shut down the Internet “in an emergency.” Can you spell “creeping fascism?”
We do need a short, sweet slogan for them such as, “Just Say NO!”, or “No More Tax and Waste”, or “We Are American Revolutionists, not European Socialists.”. But anyway a good slogan that slides from the lips easily, that will actually become a part of the vernacular.
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