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The Public Policy
The Need to Explain
If Republicans can’t expose Democrats’ lies, how are they to compete?
The most successful Republican presidential candidate of the past half century — Ronald Reagan, who was elected and reelected with landslide victories — bore little resemblance to the moderate candidates that Republican conventional wisdom depicts as the key to victory, even though most of these moderate candidates have in fact gone down to defeat.
One of the biggest differences between Reagan and these latter-day losers was that Reagan paid great attention to explaining his policies and values. He was called “the great communicator,” but much more than a gift for words was involved. The issues that defined Reagan’s vision were things he had thought about, written about and debated for years before he reached the White House.
Reagan was like a veteran quarterback who comes up to the line of scrimmage, takes a glance at how the other team is deployed against him, and knows automatically what he needs to do. There is not enough time to figure it out from scratch, while waiting for the ball to be snapped. You have to have figured out such things long before the game began, and now just need to execute.
Very few Republican candidates for any office today show any sign of such in-depth preparation on issues. Mitt Romney, for example, inadvertently showed his lack of preparation when he indicated that he was in favor of indexing the minimum wage rate, so that it would rise automatically with inflation.
That sounds fine. But the cold fact is that minimum wage laws create massive unemployment among black teenagers. Conversely, one of the lowest rates of unemployment among black teenagers occurred in the 1940s, when inflation virtually repealed the minimum wage law passed in 1938, since even unskilled labor was paid more in inflated dollars than the minimum wage law required.
Even during the recession year of 1949, black teenage unemployment was a fraction of what it would be in the most prosperous later years, after the minimum wage rate was raised repeatedly to keep pace with inflation. One of the few benefits of inflation is that it can in effect repeal minimum wage laws, which politicians can do directly only by risking their reelection.
Conservative opposition to minimum wage laws is just one of the ways that conservative principles often work out to benefit those with lower incomes, more so than liberal principles that sound so much better as political rhetoric.
It seems unlikely that Governor Romney had time to learn about such things during this year’s busy election campaign. He was like a rookie quarterback with just a few seconds to try to figure out the opposing team’s complex formations before the ball is snapped.
One of the secrets of Barack Obama’s success is his ability to say things that will sound both plausible and inspiring to uninformed people, even when they sound ridiculous to people who know the facts. Apparently he believes the former outnumber the latter, and the election results suggest that he may be right.
Since most of the media will never expose Obama’s fallacies and falsehoods, it is all the more important for Republicans to do so themselves. Nor is it necessary for every Republican candidate for every office to become an expert on every controversial issue.
Just as particular issues are farmed out to different committees in Congress, so Republicans can set up committees of outside experts to inform them on particular issues.
For example, a committee on income and poverty could be headed by an expert like Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation. This is a subject on which demonstrable falsehoods have become the norm, and one on which devastating refutations in plain English are readily available from a number of sources.
A committee on the counterproductive effects of liberal policies such as minimum wage laws on minorities could be headed by someone like economist Walter Williams. Here too, there are many writings in plain English that could expose the huge harm done to minorities by liberal policies that claim to be helping them.
It is not necessary to explode every single lie put out by liberal Democrats. All that is necessary is to thoroughly discredit a few of their key claims, exposing them as liars.
What is even more necessary is for Republicans themselves to understand the urgent need to do so, for their own sake and — more important — for the country’s sake.
COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM
About the Author
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His website is www.tsowell.com. To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 11.15.12 @ 6:11AM
Thanks for another great article.
Joellen| 11.15.12 @ 7:35AM
Yes, in fact Dr. Sowell and Jeffrey Lord's articles should and need to be sent to everyone who cant seem to grasp the difference between Republicans and Democrats and more importantly WHY there needs to be a difference between the two.
Alan Brooks | 11.15.12 @ 5:40PM
"One of the biggest differences between Reagan and these latter-day losers was that Reagan paid great attention to explaining his policies and values."
No, what Reagan did was hire the right people, because a POTUS is judged by his assistants. Weinberger and all the rest were better than the help Reagan's successors hired. I guess HW Bush was acceptable: perhaps he was tired after eight years of being veep and appointed the wrong people, such as Sununu. His son hired the porcine Karl Rove.
Frosty| 11.15.12 @ 6:40PM
If "a POTUS is judged by his assistants" is true, how do you explain the results of the election with Joe Biden as VP, and the presence of Hilary Clinton, Eric Holder, Leon Panetta, "Big Sis", Sebelius, and on and on. BO should have been dq'd from the first election solely on the basis of coming to the decision that Joe Biden would be qualified to step in as President, if needed.
Alan Brooks | 11.15.12 @ 10:52PM
We will see; Clinton was impeached two years after being re-elected... who knows what will happen? The point is not Obama but rather why you were so sure Romney was going to be your 21st century Reagan-- that is question #1.
drudge ette obama| 11.15.12 @ 6:14AM
Perhaps I am a bit jaded, but who is out there, other than us, who'll listen?
Answer: no one. The progressives are brainwashing the little ones in school, so the upcoming generations are doomed. Existing "adults" are too shallow to give a hoot, and we keep beating the drum to no avail.
We have exhaustec ouselves speaking and writing in the years leading up to this election. We lost because of voter stupidity and Sesame Street disease.
I don't say give up, but I have no answer yet.
Russel| 11.15.12 @ 7:33AM
D'Ette said all that needs to be said . I'd assume that practically every able bodied citizen could / can get access to the internet and do any research necessary to make an informed decision on a candidate worhty of their vote . As Rush said , who can compete with Santa , or Hannity who used the " generous and spoiling vs. the one who makes you eat your vegs and do your homework " parent ? . Lacadasical and apathetic as well as " stupid " has led our country into this Twilight Zone . Next step , Rome all over .
CrackerHound| 11.16.12 @ 11:05AM
This is why this election was so devastating and why it is so demoralizing and leaves us lacking hope:
We had an opponent who was bad for the country in every way and the evidence of it was everywhere. The most far-left president to ever hold office. On the other hand we did everything we possibly could to get out the message and the vote. Romney was extremely careful (too careful perhaps) to not make any missteps....and Obama still won convincingly.
As you say Russel, we may never overcome our own amoral, apathetic and ignorant citizenry. Maybe it's not worth saving.
My views may change but right now, my spirits would be lifted if this divided nation would split (peacefully).
Von Mises Jr| 11.15.12 @ 8:50AM
I disagree with Dr. Sowell and share your jaded feelings.
Romney smoked Obama in the first debate ripping every one of his policies and arguments to smithereens. But in the end, less than 58M voted for Romney.
What more could he have said that would have driven more people to the polls? It sure wasn't a match for those that voted for Santa Claus.
JD| 11.15.12 @ 11:13AM
For starters, Romney never exposed the gaping holes in Obama's claim that Romney would cut tax revenues by $5 trillion. As stated in the very Tax Policy Center analysis that Obama cited, they estimated using no deduction caps whatsoever, despite Romney's claim to want to cap deductions, and they used static analysis - that is, they assumed that massive tax rate cuts wouldn't increase taxable revenue in this country by one red cent.
The reality is that Romney's plan almost certainly would have INCREASED federal revenue, but that increase would have paled in comparison to the increase in private sector wealth it would have created, which in turn would have decreased the number of people qualifying for social welfare and decreased federal spending.
Romney never made this case even as convincingly as I just did.
Appleby| 11.15.12 @ 7:20AM
The answer is coming in January when the country goes over the Fiscal Cliff and takes the free world with it. I was in New Zealand when they went broke. Lots of stuff is going overboard, and Obama Voters will not be spared. Occupiers are already seeing the fringe of the disaster as all the chain restaurants where they find their sometime employment are cutting their hours and sometimes their jobs entirely to avoid bankruptcy. When the balloon needs to rise, what gets thrown overboard? Ballast. News flash, Obamaphones and Occupiers: y'all are BALLAST.
Martin kzovich| 11.15.12 @ 7:22AM
Why did we lose the election? It was nothing to do with the explanation of the Repyubuks which amounts to pandering but we must look at the entire process from the choosing of the candidate to the campaign itself. What we needed was an articulate,leader who was not afraid to confront the media and the Communists on their lies and policies which were lies. We had mediocrity from the very start. Romneyy's campaign entailed hard work but was inefficient,naive, and cowardly.
Poor internal polling,refusing to confront Obama directly and personally. poor getting out the vote
organization and not effectively monitoring voter fraud are among only a few of the problems.
Its not about the Black,Hispanic,Women or Marsian vote its about an attitude and offers the question: How badly do we really want to win and do we have what it takes to taken our foes ?
chuck| 11.15.12 @ 7:56AM
Can anybody imagine Newt Gingrich acting as cowardly as Romney? Newt would have thoroughly trashed Candy Crowley if she tried that on him.
Romney lost the election the day he secured the GOP nomination. He was unable to articulate conservatism, because he was not conservative. He couldn't talk about how Obamacare would destroy business because of Romney care. In the end, he lost to the man that anyone could beat.
Who's the next loser in line from the GOP "leadership"? Donut-boy Christy? Another Bush?
This is the party of cry-me-a-river Boehner, and that freaking wimpy-assed McConnell. Good Lord, no wonder we lose.
SUBVET| 11.15.12 @ 11:22AM
+1
Jack of Spades| 11.15.12 @ 8:04AM
With all respect to Dr. Sowell, the problem with the GOP is that it WON'T expose Dem lies, or engage the Dems ideologically at all.
Have the public schools become centers of indoctrination rather than education? Then what was the GOP saying, to say nothing of doing, during the last six decades after "Why Johnny Can't Read?" Do the Democrats commit voter fraud? Then why doesn't the GOP make an issue of it? Is Obama a leftist ideologue in a party dominated by the same sort? Then why doesn't the GOP say so instead of just dismissing him as "in over his head?"
We can argue the merits of a candidate or party as we like, but in the end we can't make a case for either that they can't or won't make for themselves.
TeaParty Patriot| 11.15.12 @ 8:25AM
There was rampant voter fraud in this past election and the RINOs refuse to prosecute this fraud. they knew it was coming when the 'rats fought voter ID and voter registration list purging even though a majority of democrats felt that voter ID was necessary and fair. Even now that "romney the RINO" has lost the election they refuse to confront the voter fraud, so it will be de ja vou at the next election like it was in the last two elections. I wrote my congressmen and asked them what THEY specifically were going to do about the blatant fraud. I have not yet received an answer. It is still not too late to protest the counts and reject the delegates from those districts with blatant fraud like 110% of the registered voters voting. If neither candidate accumulated enough delegates then we would have to have a do over election.
RCV| 11.15.12 @ 12:30PM
Please, give us the details on the latest internet "fact" -- which districts had "110% of the registered voters voting"? Specifics, please, so we can prosecute the guilty parties.
TeaParty Patriot| 11.15.12 @ 8:07AM
While it is true that Repubs fail to put their position over to the voting public i do not think it is the Repubs fault entirely. The press readily echos what the 'rats say and we have been taught from early childhood that what is printed is true, otherwise the writer/publisher would be subject to liable/slander laws. But that same press is reluctant to print the oppositions point of view because it is contrary to thier agenda. A case in point is the man caused global warming scam that is being perptrated and savaged by algore for personal profit. Too often those liabled or slandered shrug it off as if it does not matter when in fact if they made an issue of the liable/slander in court it would be remembered. A press that is very reluctant to publicize conservative causes might be more amiable to printing the oppositions case if it were presented in court.
One of the secrets of Barack Obama's success is his ability to say things that will sound both plausible and inspiring to uninformed people, even when they sound ridiculous to people who know the facts. Apparently he believes the former outnumber the latter, and the election results suggest that he may be right.
Remember a lie, if repeated often enough becomes fact in the minds of the gullible. and this is what the 'rats depend upon.
Albertus Magnus| 11.15.12 @ 9:28AM
If the American electorate is ever to be educated on REAL economics and the falsehoods that are Obama's promises, it will require MONEY! Lots of money! Money to BUY TV time to push an endless series of short TV ads that clearly and succinctly explain the "what and why" of basic economics and the "who" of how prosperity is being confiscated and destroyed by government. Public schools will continue to teach the myths of Marxism, TV News will continue to propagandize for Marxist politicians. We must BUY TV time to put our message, the TRUTH, out there. This is a TALL order and frankly one I do not think the American People are up to filling.
pogybait| 11.15.12 @ 9:36AM
I agree, but the entire party must also challenge their agendas and fallacies as you cannot have an honest exchange of ideas with people who hide their intentions and above all are dishonest. How inspiring has the Republican party been over the last few years with it's endless silence.
PolishKnight| 11.15.12 @ 9:48AM
I don't buy into opposition of minimum wage laws for this reason: The minimum wage is so low that it's irrelevant. Most low wage jobs are higher than the minimum wage and low wages are only possible via illegal immigration where the taxpayer foots the bill for healthcare and education for the undocumented immigrants' children.
Who Knows?| 11.15.12 @ 10:34AM
Peyton Manning for president!
He can take ANY snap, and beat whatever defense he faces.
howard lohmuller| 11.15.12 @ 10:55AM
One of the greatest failures in Romney's campaign was the failure to explain the business cycle as being part of regular ups and downs in Capitalism. When Democrats blamed Bush policies for the financial crisis, Republicans should have explained that every 4 years, sometimes 8 years, the business cycle produces great optimism, or a bubble, usually in sync with Presidential terms. Fed Chairman Greenspan referred to it as "irrational exuberance." Then the bubble bursts and business slows down. Every thirty to fifty years, one of these downs is more serious and turns into a financial panic. Firms become afraid to deal with each other. During the past 50 years, the Fed has learned to enhance liquidity to keep the economy from falling into greater depression.
Examples of financial panics were the 1830's and 40's when Andrew Jackson terminated the U.S. National Bank, 1897 exuberance of the gay 90's ended, 1929 stock market crash and great depression, 1987 stock market crash, and 2007-08 stock market crash and housing bust. In these last two, the Fed forced liquidity back into the banks and other large businesses and rescued the financial system
The problem is that far too many voters blame Bush policies, not recognizing Capitalist characteristics, and turned to Obama to replace the Capitalist system with a socialist system. Socialism has not worked wherever it has been tried.
JD| 11.15.12 @ 11:17AM
"Business cycle" is an excuse for not knowing the deeper details. The reality is it's easy to explain how Democrats are lying when they blame Bush for the recession.
Take your pick:
1. There was no deregulation.
2. The housing bubble was clearly inflated by federal policies during the 1990s.
3. Glass-Steagall wouldn't have made a difference and has never existed in Europe.
4. Bush's tax cuts increased federal revenue vs prior projections and slashed unemployment from 6.1% to 4.4%.
5. War spending was a fraction of what Democrats continue to claim it is, and 9/11 terrorists entered the country under Clinton.
6. The explosion in federal spending consists mostly of entitlements.
7. Unions and corporate pension costs caused the auto sector collapse and a lot of our offshoring.
Albertus Magnus| 11.15.12 @ 1:08PM
Correct. THIS is the message that needs to be put out there. If there were any Republican Party "leaders" who really wanted to win and to bring back prosperity and reduce government, then Party "leaders" could put together a continuing TV ad campaign with these points and others. It is not hard to do (not a month goes by without radio propaganda snippets produced by the teachers' union). The talent is available to produce segments that will educate and entertain. But Republican "leadership" wants no part of this.
Trinacria| 11.15.12 @ 11:27AM
With due respect to Dr. Sowell, I find myself in agreement with those above who note that communicating one's foundational principles is effective only to the extent that the recipients of the message have the capacity to understand it. Regrettably, we've long since passed the point where that was true. Our task now must be to manage the decline and salvage that which is salvageable (in other words, start building the moats...).
Who Knows?| 11.15.12 @ 11:56AM
We who are about to die, salute you.
And, we are ALL “about to die”---we simply don’t know when.
Nobody knows---
“Those who propose ultimate beliefs as means for attaining or assigning the Truth are merely trying to make the Truth seem to be compatible with the ego and with the world as it seems to the conventional view. And those who claim utter belief in the Condition of Transcendental Being without yet Realizing It are merely glorifying the face (or lie) of Narcissus in the pond. The Way of the Realization of the Transcendental Condition cannot be based upon propositions of belief, but only and directly upon the understanding and transcendence of the conventionally presumed self, mind, body, world and God. All other approaches are merely consolations for the ego in the un-Enlightened stages of life.”
Da Free John, “Nirvanasara”, 1982, page 203
Yes—there are infinite ways for the lies of Narcissus to appear.
I can picture those experts at keeping spinning plates on rods, using all their appendages, even the mouth---and, they always come crashing down, after a while.
Obama’s fall should be a marvel for the ages!
Petronius| 11.15.12 @ 12:06PM
Republicans are clueless. They do not and will never understand the key do getting the votes they need to win is EMOTION! The rational adult who votes Republican is now in thrall to all the overgrown brain dead brats who believe the world is a sand box because they have never been forced to compete heads up with anyone and view such an imposition as heinous. Telling these slugs they are obliged to establish and maintain themselves in society as individuals is a non starter. Obamaphone+welfare+public school indoctrination+subsidizing character deficiencies=serfdom, dependency, depression, and desolation for everybody; unless you are in government.
Mike in N.C.| 11.15.12 @ 12:09PM
"If Republicans can't expose Democrats' lies, how are they to compete?" Try cleaning up your own house first. And, Sowell is supposed to be an innalechual.
JD| 11.15.12 @ 2:28PM
Self-delusion requires one to believe that not only that a lie is the truth, but that the truth is a lie.
RJ| 11.15.12 @ 5:29PM
Reagan was unique. For years as a GE spokesman, he had talked with small groups of citizens. He learned what was on their minds and how to communicate with them. Also, "Reagan in his own Hand" shows the thought that he personally put in each of his over 600 radio addresses on various public issues. Yes, he knew where he stood and how to communicate it before the campaign started. A sharp contrast to Romney and most other candidates.
Romney never really gave us an alternative vision to Obama. In the last two debates, he seemed to agree more than disagree with Obama. Going forward, conservatives need to work on changing the culture before the election cycle starts. That is where elections are won. It will be hard. The "news" media, the entertainment industry, unionized teachers and government bureaucracy are against us and many Americans are now too dependent on government to value it over personal freedom.
Frosty| 11.15.12 @ 7:41PM
"If Republicans can't expose Democrats' lies, how are they to compete?" That needs to be followed by two more questions:
1. If the mainstream media is not attacked, discredited and dismantled, is it even possible to expose Democrats' lies? Answer: No
2. If the Democrats' lies are exposed, will it mean enough to people who are recipients of government money to make them vote against their financial self-interest? Again, the answer is No.
So the real questions is: Where does that leave us? And the answer to that question is the only thing I have thought about since Nov 6th. Reading like-minded conservatives write about the same things to the same people that generally agree with them has been become a chore. I think we were all lulled into believing that in some meaningful way, we were winning people over to our viewpoint, as long as the argument was laid out in a logical, coherent manner. Apparently, that was not the case.
It always seems that winning minds and elections with intellectual arguments and appealing to the common sense of the voter was the calm, conservative, and correct way to go about things. The "progressive" way was base, emotional, shrill, intellectually dishonest and bad for our country. And yet they continue to win and change the country in their image.
(more to follow)
JD| 11.16.12 @ 4:32PM
We do not need anyone to vote against their own interests. Democrats' policies create a lot of the need for social welfare by harming the economy. Were it not for Democrats, even many who take handouts would be better off.
Frosty| 11.15.12 @ 7:54PM
continued...
Our country came into existence based on some great intellectual thought as well as appeals to the people through persuasive writings (Thomas Paine's Common Sense, for example). However, we would have never come into being without coupling this with men of action. That list is long and glorious.
It is time for every conservative and any other person who love's their country, to take an honest look at what he or she can do to take action.
First, it is my belief that we each need to do as much as we can to starve our state and federal governments of as many dollars as we can, so that they can no longer bribe the citizenry into voting a self-interest that is not aligned with what is best for our nation.
Second, we need to participate in/support those who are willing to do whatever can legally be done to absolutely destroy the main stream media. Withhold money, mock, expose, humiliate, harass and generally make the life of every dishonest person in the msm as miserable as possible until they quit , are out of business, or change their ways.
(continued....)
Frosty| 11.15.12 @ 7:58PM
continued....
Last, we need to get aggressive in the remaking of the educational system at every level. Stop supporting public education, do whatever it takes to move your children to private school, and if you are unable to do so, question and complain at every turn when you see public educators teaching lies to and indoctrinating our children. It is not enough anymore to just let it slide with an "Oh well, we only have two more years left here, and we'll be gone."
No more "Forward"....it is time to "Stand Up and Push Back!"
(You may now run outside, kicking and screaming)
WaffenSS| 11.16.12 @ 12:28AM
Reagan had the honor of upstaging Pres. Ullysses Grant as having the most corrupt administration as judged by how many were imprisoned for felonous behaviour.
merlin| 11.16.12 @ 5:13AM
WaffenSS
If the media went after Obama as it did Reagan, how many in his administration would resign, be fired or facing charges?
Ralph Novy| 11.16.12 @ 12:51AM
The need to explain oneself is on YOU, Mr. Sowell, not Mr. Obama.
"Obama's fallacies and falsehoods"?
Which fallacies, perchance, would Obama lay claim to? And "falsehoods"? Shit. If you mean to say "lie," say "lie." Why are you so cowardly?
Go lick Allen West's ass, Uncle Tom Sowell.
Your ilk is disgusting. Selfish a-holes.
Sheesh.
merlin| 11.16.12 @ 5:14AM
Ralphy, please go away.
RCV| 11.16.12 @ 1:55PM
Dr. Sowell was once a fresh, original thinker. In his old age, unfortunately, he's become an ossified relic, recycling the same tired rant over and over again. Sad to see. Time for retirement.
ReaganConservative| 11.16.12 @ 3:23AM
The problem with your Op-Ed insight Dr Sowell, is that you refer to "Republicans" as one entity, one party of solidified opposition, as the one's needing to this.. When Conservatives are ones who are doing it, except for the GOP Progressive RINO Establishment Republicans like Romney, Boehner, Cantor, McConnell, Rove, the Bush's, Christie, Scarborough, etc, who fight Conservatives, aka the Reagan Conservative Coalition Tea Party people, every step of the way, as they- the Rockefellers, Nixons, Fords, now the Bush's, Roves, Christie's, etc, did for years to Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater, and now do to Reagan Tea Party Conservatives, instead of the liberal anti-American Democrats/Obamacrats, fore which they would rather collude, cooperate, capitulate to, as evidenced everyday of the year, for years.
This is why they-RINO's, first must all be replaced in their leadership positions of power, with real Reagan Tea Party Conservatives, period.
Benson II| 11.17.12 @ 10:50AM
We had a Reagan conservative who was and inspiring communicator who also had years to practice and apply his ideas and philosophy in speeches and debates.
Whether Gingrich could have won or not we
can't know but what I'm sure of is we would not have uninformed voters who didn't know what Obama had done, what he was doing (lying) and what he intended to do. I'm also sure the liberal media would have been left licking their wounds after every encounter and conservative ideas would no longer be a mystery to Americans of all persuasions.
truthseeker| 11.17.12 @ 11:41PM
I truly do not believe that I have ever felt more hopeless about the fate of America than I do at this moment. Everyone is blaming Romney for a myriad of reasons, yet the hard, ugly truth lies with the American people. They are the ones that voted in a socialist, America hater who is intent on destroying us. Obama had a dismal record to run on and yet, still won. Anyone with a keyboard could have done their homework and researched what Obama was all about, but they refused to do so and were brainwashed by the media. I would say God help us, but I believe even He has given up on us now.
Ralph Novy| 11.21.12 @ 12:42AM
"The most successful Republican presidential candidate of the past half century -- Ronald Reagan, who was elected and reelected with landslide victories -- bore little resemblance to the moderate candidates that Republican conventional wisdom depicts as the key to victory, even though most of these moderate candidates have in fact gone down to defeat."
Wow. Now that's "historical revisionism" on steroids, son.
Whom are you trying to fool, son?
Tain't me nor nobody with a wiff of sense like me.
So whom?
Stay yourself, son. Methinks you know whom you're REALLY trying to convince ... yeah ... yourself.
So get 'er done, son. And then move on. You know, honesty is so much easier than being a Republican nowadays. Speak your mind and and think about what you want and -- voila -- you're a democrat, not a goddamned corporate lick-ass Republican.
Sorry, Neerison in Wisconsin. You're kind of a throw-back decent Republican that hasn't been really seen since Lee Dreyfuss.
And sorry for all the misspellings. Too damned lazy to do a bunch of spell-checks this late at night.