[JohnHuang2]

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

Quote of the Day by goodnesswins

[bybybill]

We would probably been better off if we had lost big time. The Rats are so smart and GWB and the Rs are so stupid, oh woe is me.

[I still care]

He is absolutely right. I have been detecting more than a bit of smugness on the part of many pubbies. Lord knows, it's fun to gloat a little, but socialism is a snake that doesn't die.

And the upcoming American electorate is undereducated in the basics of economics and our heritage - walking through a public school the other day I thought I was in Europe.

[sourcery]

I've bookmarked this, so I can easily trot it out in a few years, when these predictions come to pass.

[Always Right]

The payroll taxes the Democrats are talking about are two – Social Security taxes and Medicare taxes.

Too bad for the Dims that Americans already know the Social Security and Medicare are in serious financial trouble. It will be quite easy to protray the Dims as jeopardizing the future of Social Security. The program is already scheduled to go in the red in 2012, the Dims plan will speed that up. Oh yeah, THERE is a winning issue for them.....

[buffyt]

I HATE Neal Boortz. I used to read him all the time and I used to give copies of his book for graduates to all graduates as gifts. Kept a stack of them on hand. I once emailed him and he didn't agree with me, so instead of saying so, he just wrote back to me and said BULLSH*T. I did not think that was a proper way for a man to talk to a LADY whom he doesn't even know. I TOTALLY lost ALL respect for him then and there and put him in same category with other horrible people, like Clinton and Hillary. He IS a horrible person!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Claire Voyant]

Premiums.....I LOVE that word....the Dems. now want their constiuents to pay NOTHING for their OWN Social Security and Medicare!! Talk about FREE-LOADERS!!!

[fporretto]

Arrogance is always unwise. Boortz is exactly right.

The critical consideration isn't particular issues. Nor is it the newly revealed willingness of the electorate to "trust" the GOP with federal power. It's something simpler and more ominous, with very long term implications.

The Democrats are the masters of a political tactic against which even unshakeable facts and evidence will always fight an uphill struggle. That tactic is special-interest coalition building.

To build coalitions of special interests, one looks for groups that vote as a bloc around single issues, and promises them what they want. Look at the Democratic base. Its members don't agree on anything! It fragments into special interests as soon as you focus on it. Their common thread is that they all believe that Democratic officeholders will support their special interests. And how diverse those interests are:

• Abortion on demand.
• Preferential treatment for minorities.
• Radical environmentalists.
• Welfarism.
• Union power.
• Industrial protectionism.
• Disarmament of the citizenry.
• Government control of education.
• Unlimited government power over child welfare issues and family decisions.

I could go on, of course, but there's no real need. Noteworthily, the Democrats managed to tick off a critical special interest group -- firearms enthusiasts -- in 2000 and thus made George Bush President of the United States. It was their one really important error.

The central question for conservatives is how to counter this tactic. Conservatives can't use the tactic; it involves promising to pay Peter out of Paul's pocket, which is antithetical to the principles of individual liberty and limited government. But it is axiomatic that the Left will continue to use the tactic. As Boortz notes above, 97% of all federal revenue is generated by the upper 50% of the economy. Peter is indeed paying Paul for the privilege of remaining out of jail.

There remains much work to be done. Let the new GOP majorities in Congress set to their tasks, and let us set to ours -- finding a true counter-agent to the politics of plunder that the Democrats and the special interests to which they pander have wielded so sucessfully for so long.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
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