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Why So Serious? Is Conservative Despair Justified?
PJ Media ^ | 1/8/2013 | Andrew Klavan

Posted on 01/08/2013 8:16:06 AM PST by Lakeshark

So last week, in what was perhaps a moment of madness, I posted a request on my Facebook page: Tell me your political predictions for the year. Among the more restrained answers: “Hyperinflation,” “Civil War,” “financial collapse,” “terribly awful things.”

Optimist though I am, I can’t help feeling there’s something to this downhearted consensus. After living through the most peaceful and prosperous half century that any nation has ever experienced in the history of humankind, it seems impossible to believe we would re-elect a mediocre reactionary out to “fundamentally transform” our success into failure. But we did, and that’s — well, let’s call it “less than cheering.”

On the other hand…

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


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2012; fear; hardtimes
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To: Lakeshark

Fracking, and the entire energy boom, is one reason why I thought Newt was instructive during the primary season. He was far far ahead of the rest of the field on how important energy was.

The irony will be if Obama and democrats benefit electorally for a technology they hate.

Having said that, energy is not an issue, it is not even THE issue...ENERGY IS EVERY SINGLE ISSUE.


41 posted on 01/08/2013 10:19:45 AM PST by C. Edmund Wright
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To: Owl558

You make a great point, and it is the thing that tends to depress me, even when I conjure up reasons to almost be optimistic....


42 posted on 01/08/2013 10:19:59 AM PST by C. Edmund Wright
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To: Lakeshark
Most presidencies unravel in the last years. It's hard to think Obama would be an exception.

After the midterm elections, the 2016 campaign starts and the focus and attention is off Obama (which would really upset him, I'm sure).

So is Obama going to cancel the elections and declare himself President-For-Life?

Somebody or other says that about every president, but it never happens.

Ex-Presidents get what they want without the headaches of actually running anything.

43 posted on 01/08/2013 10:24:23 AM PST by x
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To: Sherman Logan
Actually, it will be a huge boon, likely producing a huge boom. Heck, you can get a job in the Dakotas as a greeter for over 15$ an hour right now, it's beyond insane there.

It will help drive world energy prices down, it will begin to neuter the middle east as energy king, disenfranchise the new muslim brotherhood nations, and begin to transform our economy into gas driven rather than oil driven. It's carbon neutral to boot, so the greens are (for the moment) neutralized! That's a huge change, one that will bring new industry, the car companies are all racing to develop this new resource under the radar, competing with each other to the first and best. They are shipping this overseas as well, by tankers.

Trust me, I understand that if anyone could f this up, it's our current administration, but this is for real, and it's not going away.

44 posted on 01/08/2013 10:31:27 AM PST by Lakeshark (!)
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To: Arlis
The problem is not that there are not millions who do, in fact, understand what has been happening; nor, even the greater numbers, brainwashed as you suggest. The problem is that so few are willing to actually articulate reality--too few, willing to brave the "politically correct" slanders, heaped on anyone who articulates the obvious fallacies on which the Left depends.

As long as we allow "Conservative" pretenders to promote absurdities, as the "No Child Left Behind" Federal intrusion into education; or support the Federal intrusion into the physician/patient relationship; or the idiocy of an immigration policy, based upon the implied premise that the peoples of the earth are interchangeable, we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot, and frustrate the possibility of a broader public awakening.

No one reading this ever sat in a class-room with his or her equal on either side--unless it was your identical twin or triplet. The reality is, and everyone really knows this sub-consciously, that we are all different; that Collectivist/Egalitarianism Sabotages Human Potential. We need to give far more utterance to the reality for which the Left has absolutely no answer but to smear & villify. (It has always been their Achiles' Heel; which is why they go beserk when anyone discusses it,)

William Flax

45 posted on 01/08/2013 10:32:50 AM PST by Ohioan
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To: Lakeshark
The greatest benefit will not be from US oil shale, but from that found all over the world.

If each continent were energy self-sufficient, the price of energy is likely to stabilize, although probably not go down a great deal, since the new methods inherently have a higher cost of production.

What it will do is neuter the Arabs. Their power came from their potential ability to shut the oil off, not so much because of the high prices.

It's carbon neutral to boot, so the greens are (for the moment) neutralized!

Nope, it isn't. Nat gas is lower carbon not carbon neutral. It releases roughly 50% the carbon of oil or coal, as I understand it, for an equivalent amount of energy.

46 posted on 01/08/2013 10:36:20 AM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: C. Edmund Wright
Newt gets it, Palin gets it, a few others get it; the issue is not going away, the horse is out of the barn, it's the underpinning of a new boom that we don't see yet.

I do fear that Bambi will get credit for this, being as our messaging is so bad (as conservatives) and the media is going to say it was Bambi's wonderful policies.

On the other hand, it's a great opportunity, Bambi and the dems are actually a lot more stupid than we give them credit for, so anything can happen, yes?

47 posted on 01/08/2013 10:37:30 AM PST by Lakeshark (!)
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To: Lakeshark

I similarly heard about fracking last winter. A guy I know blamed the earthquakes in Oklahoma on fracking. LOL. Could you imagine if it caused earthquakes. That would be awesome. That 5.6 we had was really cool.


48 posted on 01/08/2013 10:40:33 AM PST by demshateGod (The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.)
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To: Sherman Logan
The benefit will go everywhere they decide not to ban fracking (I believe one or two of the stupid countries in Europe have banned it). The benefit will be here first, and it is huge.

Sorry, poor choice of words, not carbon neutral, but approaches it better than any other source of viable energy. My understanding is less than 50% carbon emissions of the cleanest oil burning technologies. I don't believe the carbon garbage in the slightest, but it takes away much of the watermelon argument against it as an energy source.

49 posted on 01/08/2013 10:43:55 AM PST by Lakeshark (!)
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To: demshateGod
A guy I know blamed the earthquakes in Oklahoma on fracking. LOL

Sort of like Guam tipping over.....

:-)

50 posted on 01/08/2013 10:48:46 AM PST by Lakeshark (!)
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To: Lakeshark

I agree benefit will hit here first, primarily because the processes were invented here. But shale oil and gas are found all over the world, and a world where access to energy is widespread can only in my opinion be likely to be a more prosperous and peaceful one.


51 posted on 01/08/2013 10:51:45 AM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: Sherman Logan
But shale oil and gas are found all over the world, and a world where access to energy is widespread can only in my opinion be likely to be a more prosperous and peaceful one.

Yet, some nations will refuse to develop their shale gas resources and remain energy poor and poverty-stricken out of a misguided concern for the environmental impact.

Like New York State...

52 posted on 01/08/2013 11:05:08 AM PST by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: IGNORANCE ON PARADE)
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To: Lakeshark

*bump for later*


53 posted on 01/08/2013 11:09:10 AM PST by Yardstick
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To: oh8eleven

“Then how did we end up with legal abortion, runaway welfare, taxes up the whazoo, illegals by the tens of millions, 70% illegitimate birthrate, outrageous gun control, school systems that brainwash, same sex marriage ...”

Dear Disgruntled Grunt:

We ended up with abortion, crappy schools, sky-high taxes and no property rights because so-called conservatives are too damn busy remodeling kitchens, going fishing and chasing dollars. They had no time to attend local village council meetings to stop ordinances that infringed on their property rights. Spending two hours a month attending county board meetings was too strenuous, so property taxes went up and up and up. They couldn’t attend school board meetings to keep communists out of the classroom because there was always another fish to catch.

I spent nearly two decades in local government, and asking a conservative to show up at a village meeting to oppose a sidewalk tax was like asking a vampire to attend a sunrise worship service.

Americans were warned that they needed to be involved and watch their elected officials or bad things would happen. They didn’t do their duty, and now bad things are happening everywhere - gun laws, high taxes, bad judges, crappy schools and rapidly dwindling freedom.

Is it too late? I don’t think so. But conservatives better start organizing locally real soon. The clock is ticking. A good start would be electing a constitutional county sheriff who believes in the 2nd amendment. That office will bring peace to local communities, allow for the investigation and arrest of local liberal politicians, stand as a legally armed bulwark against federal thugs and act as a rallying point to muster 2,000 heavily armed auxiliary deputies for use in “emergencies.”

Other than that, how was the local peach moby brew in your town this fall?


54 posted on 01/08/2013 11:23:11 AM PST by sergeantdave (The FBI has declared war on the Marine Corps)
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To: Ohioan

So true.

Can count on one hand those able and willing to articulate with clarity what the real issues and consequences are.

But even then, the low-information, media-dependent, dumbed-down masses will conclude by their emotions that the one articulating the truth is simply dead wrong.

Logic and thinking are lost American traits.......


55 posted on 01/08/2013 11:23:37 AM PST by Arlis (.)
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To: Psalm 144

“We need a second party.”

...or integrity within the republican party. They ALL claim to be conservative, but most are just filthy liars who just want our $$. There are exceptions worthy of individual support, however, but they seem an ever-dwindling number.

The irony is that our economics WORK and the ball-less wonders on our “side” conceed the point up front. Even when republicans have power, government still grows.

“There are still people in my party who believe in consensus politics. I regard them as Quislings, as traitors... I mean it.”
—Margaret Thatcher


56 posted on 01/08/2013 11:29:54 AM PST by Owl558 ("Those who remember George Satayana are doomed to repeat him")
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To: sergeantdave
I'm oh8eleven, not oh3eleven ... 03s earned 99.98% of all the glory - the hard way.
No SITREP on fall brew - gave it all up in '94.
57 posted on 01/08/2013 11:36:22 AM PST by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: C. Edmund Wright

“...it is the thing that tends to depress me, even when I conjure up reasons to almost be optimistic....”

I’m optimistic because we’re right, for all the reasons President Reagan gave, and our forefathers before us - Jefferson and Locke and Smith and Adams and so many others.


58 posted on 01/08/2013 11:42:44 AM PST by Owl558 ("Those who remember George Satayana are doomed to repeat him")
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To: Lakeshark

Yes, Palin does get it on energy - which is perhaps one reason she finally gravitated towards Newt in the primary process.


59 posted on 01/08/2013 11:48:00 AM PST by C. Edmund Wright
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To: Biggirl

“The sad reality is that we are a very badly divided country.”

I think that just about sums it up. And it makes me sad.

I’d like unity. We don’t have it.

So, I am having to adjust my attitude, and it’s hard. I am looking for local gains and strategic wins. I work and pray for them.

But big juggernaut successes do not seem to be in the picture at this time, and that is just. . . sad is the best word I can use. So many people in this nation voted for Obama. For bad reasons. I don’t feel a kinship or unity with them any more.


60 posted on 01/08/2013 12:00:53 PM PST by Persevero (Homeschooling for Excellence since 1992)
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