The American Spectator

Thank you,
— Donna Madden

ONLY IN DREAMS
Re: W. James Antle III’s Dreaming of Repeal:

I can only say, in response to Mr. Antle’s holiday fantasy, that, as one born shortly after the war, I have never seen the Federal government do anything but grow. In terms of its overall size, percentage consumption of GDP, our national debt, the number of laws on the books, its level of intrusiveness into the lives of all Americans in matters great and small, and on and on ad nauseam, what was a tadpole in 1783 is now a Leviathan that could snack on whales. Even Mr. Reagan didn’t really roll things back; as I recall, anyway, he just slowed things down; and he was the best of us, the likes of whom we won’t see again for a century or two.

 All of which is to say that, while we can write amusing holiday pieces and such, and congratulate ourselves on our erudition and cleverness, unless someone, somewhere, comes up with an actual, workable strategy, which can be implemented — make that, actually gets implemented — and, in fact, successfully rolls back the size of the Federal government (it doesn’t matter how long it takes; a slow ratcheting process in the reverse direction would be perfectly fine; that’s the very successful method Liberals used throughout the twentieth century), then what is point of everything else? In the end, we will lose.
— D. Reich

The Republicans lost their grip on power because they were no longer fit to hold it.

The Republican Party, post-Reagan, has completely surrendered its ideals of limited government, balanced budgets and pro-American foreign policy. It has, to its lasting shame, gone Bush: A go-along-to-get-along, me-too, wishy, squishy, wet bag of good intentions and, beside the Iraq war, not much else. You can look through the GOP today and hardly find anybody who will FIGHT— who will not begin by ceding the debate to the other side, who is not afraid to call things by their right names and cut through the cant and whining and lies. Hell, they won’t even call foul against the low blows. Give them their due, the Democrats would be roaring with synthetic rage if one of theirs had been borked and slimed the way Sarah Palin was. The Republicans just looked on. Hardly even a tsk-tsk was heard.

Repeal the health care mess? What a laugh! What is left of the GOP is playing “mother may I” while the Dems

play for keeps. Republicans will be lucky if the Obama EPA doesn’t order the Party dissolved on some carbon pretext or other — if so, they won’t even have the guts to sue. Somebody might say something mean.
— Martin Owens
Sacramento, California

Antle is right the GOP must state clearly that it plans to repeal bad laws once the American voters have punished the profligate and terrorist-appeasing Democrats. Republican Congressional majorities and a future Republican President have to begin thinking outside the box to rebuild America after years of Democrat misrule in Congress (2007-2010/2012) and the Obama White House. Everything from Obamacare to the arrogant and out-of-control EPA need to feel the wrath of the American people through their elected Republican officials. What Reagan talked about, but never did must become reality and the Federal bureaucracy must be cut down to a workable size that is efficient and effective. A Federal government that works for the American people and not for itself or the Democrat party only.
— Michael Tomlinson

From the “the more things change, the more they stay the same” department, Mr. Antle, G.K. Chesterton said it best a long time ago: “The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives an Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected.”

As for repeal? Dream on!
— Mike Showalter
Austin, Texas

WITH RELATIVITY LIKE THIS
Re: RiShawn Biddle’s Bargaining for Reform?:

Let’s not forget, as you are discussing unions and education reform, the AFT’s most famous member, whom I doubt Randi Weingarten even knows was a member unless I reminded her of it, was Albert Einstein. He was a founding member of the AFT Princeton chapter, as he believed in professionals needing to organize to protect intellectual integrity. Although, he is viewed as a lightweight intellect in your assessment, since he was a socialist and didn’t embrace your Ayn Rand solipsism.

Turning schools into mini-corporations where the principals are dictators is every dictator’s dream. A democratic society that abolishes public schools and teachers’ rights to due process (called tenure), which every worker should have, is doomed to tyranny. How ironic it’s the path this “conservative” journal is advocating.
— John Elfrank-Dana
UFT Chapter Leader
Murry Bergtraum High School
New York, New York

CONFRONTING SKEPTICS
Re: Christopher Orlet’s The Gift Delusion: