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Can Republicans Govern? (Not Unless They Change the Narrative)
The Weekly Standard ^ | February 8, 2010 | Jeff Bergner

Posted on 02/06/2010 4:11:16 AM PST by Jim Noble

Recent electoral successes, including Scott Brown’s landmark victory in Massachusetts, have positioned Republicans once again for a role in governing, and far sooner than they might have supposed. But are they ready to govern? It all depends, for the problem with many Republicans (and I am a Republican) is that they, along with liberals, subscribe at a visceral level to The Narrative.

What is The Narrative? The Narrative is the official story about America. It is a story composed by the political left, which entered American public life with the progressive movement in the early 20th century and was elaborated in the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s and ’40s.

The story runs like this. America was founded on the ideal of equality, though that ideal at first was barely put into practice. The story of America is one of progress toward the fulfillment of the ideal of equality. The end of slavery and the achievement of women’s suffrage are landmarks in this story. All fair enough. So is—less plausibly—the federal income tax, originally established to fund the government but later used to redistribute wealth and tax advantages among Americans. Then came the many programs of direct payments to individuals...

Formulating a new American narrative and governing in accord with it is not a task for the faint-hearted. But the effort is worth it. Unlike the left’s initiatives, too many of which must be disguised and misrepresented at every turn, these initiatives can be crafted to win genuine popular support. These initiatives, moreover, are likely to achieve their stated purposes, unlike those of the left, and can be expanded and developed over time...

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


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: all; now; socialists; were
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Great, but long. I didn't find it with a search. Please comment.
1 posted on 02/06/2010 4:11:17 AM PST by Jim Noble
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To: Jim Noble

All they can do is try to block Obama until we can get rid of him. It is going to get ugly.


2 posted on 02/06/2010 4:20:33 AM PST by screaminsunshine
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To: Jim Noble
WE RETURN TO REGANISM OR WE FAIL... ALL THAT IS OLD IS NEW. LEARN IT, LIVE IT, LOVE IT!

LLS

3 posted on 02/06/2010 4:33:28 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (hussama will never be my president... NEVER!)
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To: Jim Noble
Also:

“All men are created EQUAL”

After you are born... it is up to you! Once again, commies and leftists distort the Declaration and the Constitution... they have to... liberalism itself is a lie... therefore for it to flourish they must lie or die. Rush is right... they have to hide who and what they are!

LLS

4 posted on 02/06/2010 4:35:58 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (hussama will never be my president... NEVER!)
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To: Jim Noble
People like House Minority Leader John Boehner just don't inspire much confidence in me.
I mean this is the same guy that insisted on squandering $1 million of money, that has been sent to them by hard working Republicans, on Dede Scozzafava, a hard line left wing radical, ACORN supporter and card check supporter, just because she “had promised to back Boehner for the Speaker's position”. Never mind that there was no way Boehner was going to become Speaker even if Scozzafava had been elected anyway, because Republicans simply didn't have the votes.
Right now, Rep Paul Ryan has come up with what to me, is the best plan to actually do anything about the crippling deficits that are killing this country, yet Boehner and his fellow “leaders” in the House, are doing their best to keep their distance from this plan. What the heck are these clowns going to do to reduce the massive deficits when they take over in November?
5 posted on 02/06/2010 4:37:57 AM PST by SmokingJoe
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To: Jim Noble
People like House Minority Leader John Boehner just don't inspire much confidence in me.
I mean this is the same guy that insisted on squandering $1 million of money, that has been sent to them by hard working Republicans, on Dede Scozzafava, a hard line left wing radical, ACORN supporter and card check supporter, just because she “had promised to back Boehner for the Speaker's position”. Never mind that there was no way Boehner was going to become Speaker even if Scozzafava had been elected anyway, because Republicans simply didn't have the votes.
Right now, Rep Paul Ryan has come up with what to me, is the best plan to actually do anything about the crippling deficits that are killing this country, yet Boehner and his fellow “leaders” in the House, are doing their best to keep their distance from this plan. What the heck are these clowns going to do to reduce the massive deficits when they take over in November?
6 posted on 02/06/2010 4:37:57 AM PST by SmokingJoe
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To: SmokingJoe

You’re right. The Repulicans should be careful about what they ask for. They might get it and then not know what on earth to do with it. Hanging all the trouble on the Dems is easy when they’re 100%. The dems will be sure to spread the blame around when Conservatives get the edge. They’d better have a real good game plan, not just ‘more of the same’.


7 posted on 02/06/2010 4:45:01 AM PST by Huebolt (Democrat = (national socialist) = NAZI)
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To: Jim Noble

His outline of “the narrative” is well taken, but for me the questions are

1)- can the Republicans get out of the Democrat Lite ( we can get you nearly the same stuff, a little cheaper ) mode,

2)- and was Obama’s election really a triumph of the parasite class versus the productive, or was it an unhappy confluence that can’t be repeated- because if it is wave of the future, we’re doomed regardless.


8 posted on 02/06/2010 4:47:00 AM PST by backhoe (All Across America, the Lights are being relit again...)
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To: Jim Noble
Consider conservative voters: Why should they care about the 2010 elections? A Republican victory might slow the consolidation of government power, but does anyone think it would reverse it or chart a significantly different course? Is this even the goal?

Can anyone name me a serving Republican that actually advocates the reversal of the Socialist State (Besides Ron Paul)

I can not think of any.

9 posted on 02/06/2010 4:51:49 AM PST by Pontiac
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To: Jim Noble
The OP(formerly the GOP) changed the narrative many years ago with their big tent, all inclusive, reach out across the aisle, in the spirit of bipartisanship approach. During this time the OP has failed to see the forest for the trees since the Socialist RATs have not ceded one speck of their socialist ground.

The result is more socialist leaning elitists in the OP and an incremental merging with the RATs to form one big socialist Republicrat party. People have grown tired of the one party charade over the last year. They have formed their own movement that has garnered more support than either wing of the Republicrat party. This movement not only clearly shows the people don't believe the OP has not governed to their satisfaction but will not in the future.

The OP is desperate. They are now trying to hijack the tea party movement by speaking at tea party events. Tea party supporters should resist this and not allow themselves to be incorporated back into a party that has thumbed its nose at conservatives repeatedly.
10 posted on 02/06/2010 4:59:29 AM PST by Man50D (Fair Tax, you earn it, you keep it! www.FairTaxNation.com)
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To: Jim Noble

“Formulating a new American narrative and governing in accord with it is not a task for the faint-hearted.”

Republicans have no choice in the matter. If there is one thing that the last few years have shown it’s that the status quo of big government with all its unchecked, usurped power is unsustainable politically, economically and socially. We need a new order and every Republican will have to reach in and find the Jeffersonian within them so we can end up with a right fit instead of XXX-LG.


11 posted on 02/06/2010 5:01:56 AM PST by dajeeps
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To: Jim Noble

Pubs can never compete with the Nanny/LOVE Party they own that turf. They gotta go for the Results party. And yes it’s a lonely place. And they’ll wanna be seen with the Beautiful People. Just watch your back, Duke!


12 posted on 02/06/2010 5:02:19 AM PST by Calusa (The pump won't prime 'cause the vandals took the handle. Quoth Bob Dylan.)
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To: Jim Noble

Dear GOP:

Here’s the message which will clobber Dems:

“Limited Government, America First.”

It’s that simple.


13 posted on 02/06/2010 5:05:37 AM PST by Cringing Negativism Network (2012: Repeal it all... All of it!)
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To: Pontiac

And as many here will despise the comment,

Therein lies the rallying cry to Vote them All Out.


14 posted on 02/06/2010 5:06:31 AM PST by EBH (The warning bell of Freedom is ringing, can you not hear it?)
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To: backhoe
and was Obama’s election really a triumph of the parasite class versus the productive

Were getting squeezed just as hard by the banksters as the parasites.

15 posted on 02/06/2010 5:06:58 AM PST by 03A3
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To: backhoe
and was Obama’s election really a triumph of the parasite class versus the productive, or was it an unhappy confluence that can’t be repeated

It was both.

Obama was unique (I mean, his ability to become the President). The particular factors that existed in November 2008 won't be repeated.

His election was the result of the collapse of the Republican Party and the rise of the parasite class.

Both of these things need to be reversed. I am making the assumption that Obama is too weak and conflicted to try to be Chavez - in that case, it's war, and war doesn't require political calculations.

The Republican Party has become accomodationist to the rise of the parasite class. The parasites are not yet a majority, but they are sufficiently numerous that Republican politicians see an advantage in competing to service them.

This is what has to stop. If the Republican Party is not committed to the destruction of the parasite class, then the parasite class will destroy America.

I am indifferent to the fate of the GOP (I believe it is already dead). But I am not indifferent to the fate of America.

16 posted on 02/06/2010 5:10:05 AM PST by Jim Noble (Hu's the communist?)
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To: EBH
And I am one of them.

It took a century to get to this point. We are not going to back out of it in a single election.

What is need to is to start changing the Narrative as the author suggest. The Republicans need to have the guts to speak out against the ever expanding Big Government and offer real alternatives to the over weaning, all doing social welfare system.

The public needs to be educated that the only way the government can make us all equal is to make us all equally miserable.

If you actually convinced the rest of the conservatives to “Vote Tem All Out” all you would succeed in doing is expanding the Democrat majority.

17 posted on 02/06/2010 5:26:43 AM PST by Pontiac
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To: Jim Noble
There is great support for the original American Narrative in the population. It can succeed. The only reason the “Progressive” narrative has been so successful is that they have controlled the media for 60 years!

Now that they are losing control of the media to the New Media, the historical narrative that is not based on the lies of the left, is arising from being obscured by the long told evasions and contradictions of the progressives.

18 posted on 02/06/2010 5:41:48 AM PST by marktwain
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To: LibLieSlayer
“'All men are created EQUAL'. After you are born... it is up to you! ..."

That's not what they meant by "born equal". See below:

Declaration of Independence:

Abraham Lincoln invoked its authority in the supreme crisis of the union, .... The Mason draft said, for example, "all men are born equally free and independent." Jefferson wrote instead "that all men are created equal & independent"

(July 4, 1776) .. Several colonies instructed their delegates to the Continental Congress to vote for independence. On June 7, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia offered a resolution for independence. The congress appointed Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to draft a declaration. Jefferson was persuaded to write the draft, which was presented with few changes on June 28. It began with a declaration of individual rights and then listed the acts of tyranny by George III that formed the justification for seeking independence. ...it was approved on July 4 as "The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America." It was signed by Congress president John Hancock, printed, and read aloud to a crowd assembled outside, then engrossed (written in script) on parchment and signed by the 56 delegates.

19 posted on 02/06/2010 6:02:02 AM PST by Matchett-PI (Sowell's book, Intellectuals and Society, eviscerates the fantasies that uphold leftist thought)
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To: Jim Noble
Here's a narrative for ya:

The American government is like Toyota. While it once was known for quality and held up as a model organization around the world, now it's known for having an excelerator that sticks and brakes that don't work. Just like Toyota, we need to fix these problems.

We can start by RECALLING the politicians that excelerate government debt and government expansion at every turn--these are the liberal democrats. We can also RECALL the politicians who refuse to put the brakes on this runaway debt and expansion--these are the Republicans who have forgotten why they were sent to Washington.

We need to replace them with politicians who will restore America's quality of government, by reining in debt, reversing government expansion. We need politicians who will take their foot off the excelerator, apply the brakes, and return our nation to sensible, sustainable government.

America still has the fundamentals of good government--individual liberty, representative government, constitutional limits on power--we're still a great organization. But like Toyota, it's all for nothing if a faulty excelerator and faulty brakes send us off a cliff.

20 posted on 02/06/2010 6:09:52 AM PST by Huck (Q: How can you tell a party is in the majority? A: They're complaining about the fillibuster.)
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