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The road ahead — 14 Comments

  1. The solution to the problem of the GOP would be to support more conservatives, and work for that. I am quite puzzled as to why so many on the right appear to give up so easily and quickly. And if you say to me: what do you mean quickly?–I’ll point out that the left has been working for at least 150 years in order to reach the point it’s reached now . . . [Neoneocon]

    I offer a series of tweets from Dread Pirate Cates on March 3 of this year that reflect the same vision (link below, emphasis mine):

    Dread Pirate Cates @drawandstrike

    People who pretend no progress at all has been made in ’10, ’12, ’14 are just venting, I get that
    But the fact is if we throw enough of these bums out in ’16 & ’18 we can seize control of party

    people are acting like the job was over after we handed the GOP control of Congress this January.

    If fighting to save your country was an easy fight, it’d have been over long ago.

    We started at the bottom in ’10. ’12 got us about 1/3rd of the way there. ’14 has us just over 1/2 way to the top.

    Believe me, McConnel & Boehner have noticed we’re making progress. They know in ’16 and certainly by ’18 we will have reached the top.

    They can’t stop us. You know what only thing is that can stop us? Ourselves. If we get discouraged & just give up on the gains we’ve made.

    GOP Establishment behind that curtain like the Wizard of Oz are frantically trying to convince us at this stage we’ll NEVER get rid of them.

    And the last thing I want to hear now that we’re almost to the top is “Gee, this is too hard. Shouldn’t this fight be over yet? I QUIT!”

    The closer we get to our goal, the more they’ll scream you’re wasting your time.

    WHY ARE YOU LISTENING TO THEM? Why have you forgotten how far we’ve come, how much ground we’ve gained since ’10?

    It’s #WAR. And you fight a #WAR to win it. The goal since ’10 was always to take this party over from bottom to top.

    It’s a numbers game. We’ve thrown out plenty of turncoats the past 3 election cycles. So we have to throw out more? Fine!

    You can keep fighting to save your country or you can sit on your fat ass at home & pout while watching others burn it down.

    Great news – we’re about 1/2 way to our goal!

    The link:
    https://storify.com/drawandstrike/we-re-almost-there-in-taking-over-the-gop-from-bot?awesm=sfy.co_g0NH8&utm_medium=sfy.co-twitter&utm_content=storify-pingback&utm_campaign=&utm_source=t.co

    A final thought: Ilegitimi Non Carborundum (Don’t let the bastards wear you down)!

  2. If you ever want to get a “liberal”* angry–and who doesn’t–quote from Doestoevski’s “Grand Inquisitor” and pointedly ask him/her if it sounds familiar. I did this on a blog when Obama was first running for president, and the “liberal” outrage was hilarious. Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt, as they say.

    *and by “liberal” I mean of course “tax-happy, coercion-addicted, power-tripping State-fellator”

  3. I think one thing conservatives need to remember is that we are a bottom up society. That means we should pay attention to local politics and common sense solutions to local problems. This type of thinking can then work its way up to state level, and you may find the policies of a Scott Walker attracting attention on a national level. You can’t really fight our battles at the touchy-feely level of national politics. There are just too many ideological hurdles to overcome. Instead, it’s better to point to the next state or county where conservative policies are shown to work and cost less. It’s harder to ignore property tax differences than to win a debate over federalism. Maryland didn’t elect a Rep governor because the beltway folks have started reading Hayek. The did it because taxes kept going up and businesses kept leaving for VA or WV.

  4. Sometimes I am greatly disappointed by the gop, but the solution to turning back the tide is as expat notes, to succeed at the local and state level in order to have the possibility of puttting dc back in the box of the 9th and 10th. Just remember its for our grandchildren.

  5. “There is no such thing as a lost cause because there is no such thing as a Gained Cause. We fight for lost causes because we know that our defeat and dismay may be the preface to our successors’ victory, though that victory itself will be temporary; we fight rather to keep something alive than in the expectation that anything will triumph.”
    – T S Eliot

    “We fight rather to keep something alive”. Well no, we really don’t, not when we tussle in political skirmishes in the midst of a religious war — recall first, God is dead. The Inquisitor’s very appearance makes this abundantly clear.

    As Western civilization, based on and nurtured by Christianity, attained ever-greater heights, greater freedoms, greater tolerance for the ‘other’, around it not much of the hardness of life had been ameliorated, let alone done away with. In the midst of malarias, choleras, droughts, plagues, wars, barbaric invasions, the plinth upon which that civilization had been set became stronger, remained strong. Internecine religious/political wars (Christian/Protestant) had not crumbled it, nor cracked it. It was not until the Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, the age of anything can be rationalized, even mass murder, that the plinth had been weakened, then cracked, and is now crumbling.

    The Inquisitor asks:
    “Thou didst promise them the bread of Heaven, but, I repeat again, can it compare with earthly bread in the eyes of the weak, ever sinful and ignoble race of man?”
    Until we can answer — yes! it more than compares, it is the greater nourishment; and the ever sinful and ignoble race of man has been redeemed — if we will have it.

    The next election will mean diddly-squat to this nation and those of us who will not be consoled by it. The next filled church will be more than consolation — it will mean war — at last.

  6. Paul Ryan has given us an excellent examplle of bottom up.

    http://dailysignal.com/2015/03/23/new-documentary-shows-how-community-leaders-are-reducing-poverty/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailydigest&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRoisqzNZKXonjHpfsX56e0pX6W0lMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4HS8tkI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFQrLBMa1ozrgOWxU%3D

    This link is huge. If it doesn’t work, check out OpportunityLives.com

    Somehow I don’t think the people in this documentary will be impressed that Hillary was dead broke when Bill left office. And I don’t think they will care about seeing Race Together on a Starbuck’s cup.

  7. “In order for the GOP to effectively counter the Democratic wing of the larger Left, the Right must effectively counter the Left across the broader spectrum of the social cultural/political arena” Eric

    How exactly is the Right going to “effectively counter the Left across the broader spectrum of the social cultural/political arena” when the Left controls academia, the schools and the mass media?

    The Left has engaged in a multi-generational process of indoctrination into its memes and narrative and 24/7 engages in obfuscation, lies and accusations of those on the Right to keep the LIVs in the dark. The result of that is its useful idiot ‘true believers’ and LIVs.

    Information is processed through the filters of our beliefs and attitudes. As we here know, its a rare person who ever allows fact, logic and reason to question those beliefs. So too with the LIVs, we all have much experience with just how resistant LIVs are to anything that disputes their comfortable assumptions and certainties.

    neo rightly points out that, “the left has been working for at least 150 years in order to reach the point it’s reached now, maybe even more. And working very very hard, too.” Plus the left has a strangle-hold on the organs of informational dissemination, which means that making real progress in “effectively counter[ing] the Left across the broader spectrum of the social cultural/political arena” is a multi-generational process.

    However, neo among others, has also rightly pointed out how close the Left is to reaching a tipping point where it cannot be constitutionally defeated at the polls. The demographic trends are grim and unyeilding.

    Throw in a little cheating in carefully selected districts in swing states and arguably, we have already passed that point.

    Which leaves a very harsh dose of reality as the only remedy left, which is what is going to happen.

    The Left with its control of the schools and mass media, its belief that the ideological ends justify any means necessary, its broad based campaign of attacking American societal consensus in every area and avenue and its activist liberal judiciary has and will eviscerate any effective countering of the Left “across the broader spectrum of the social cultural/political arena”.

    Couple that with a public that increasingly demands equality of outcome and you arrive at Ludwig von Mises’ insight; “Political ideas that have dominated the public mind for decades cannot be refuted through rational arguments. They must run their course in life and cannot collapse otherwise than in great catastrophe…”

  8. I don’t think the hold the Left has on most garden-variety Democrats is really that strong. It relies too much on lies and distortions and slander of the opposition. It’s a house of cards.

    In other words, they can be gotten round. Simple points: such as, “Gun control freaks are like someone who says, after every DWI crash, ‘Let’s confiscate everyone else’s river’s license!'”

    We need to hammer holes in the edifice of lies. One whacking great hole at a time.

  9. The ratchet only moves left. The hope for smaller, more accountable government is as much of a pipe dream as peace in the middle east. It’s fine to dream but I’d still recommend stocking up on canned goods and ammo. Peace be upon you.

  10. KLSmith,
    I’m not sure that we can’t turn things back. the Paul Ryan work, Steve Forbes’ new push for a flat tax (recent speech at American Heritage), and articles like this

    http://dailysignal.com/2015/03/23/new-documentary-shows-how-community-leaders-are-reducing-poverty/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailydigest&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRoisqzNZKXonjHpfsX56e0pX6W0lMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4HS8tkI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFQrLBMa1ozrgOWxU%3D

    in which the fact that no one is talking about the problems of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown before age 18 are discussed, may start some people thinking about whether the left has only superficially tried to advance blacks. I think Forbes made a good talk about people wanting more simplicity and visible equal treatment of tax laws. There is something very down to earth about the way these concerns are shown that can perhaps counter the prevailing stereotype that conservatives don’t care about people. All seem to be talking about empowering people rather than creating grand government schemes.

    I do think Cherry could have gone a step or two further by talking about the role young women play in setting standards for young men and finding ways to bind them to the family.

  11. Ann,
    I should stop pasting articles from e-mails, which is why they have all that extra garbage. It doesn’t appear till after I’ve clicked to insert it so it’s hard to tell whether you need a tiny Url.

  12. I think the weight of reality, whether fast or slow, will increasingly help us out. We don’t necessarily need to convince people to switch their ideas. (Though if you are good at that, keep going.) We need to keep presenting that there is an intellectually credible place to jump when they become disillusioned.

    In fact, I think “disillusionment” is the theme to present to the young. A lot of them are already halfway there after voting for Obama coolness (“Look! A president who takes selfies! OMG!”) and finding that their own lives are actually a little worse. Come to think of it, if this were a Republican president the media would already be doing interviews and talking on the Sunday morning shows about why the young are disillusioned (hoping it will self-fulfill).

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