The American Spectator

home
ADVERTISEMENT
Print Email
Text Size

Another Perspective

The GOP’s Empathy Challenge

By on 11.29.12 @ 6:08AM

Republicans are perceived as uncaring and aloof. That obviously has to change.

There has been a lot of discussion since Election Day about what went wrong for Republicans, and what they need to do to win again in the future. In my view, Republicans’ challenge is captured in one word: empathy, the act of understanding and being sensitive to the feelings and experiences of others.

While Republicans are not necessarily less empathetic than Democrats, they are perceived that way by voters. And in politics, perception is reality.

Mitt Romney brought many qualities to the campaign. He exuded competence and had a keen grasp of the issues and a plausible plan to fix the nation’s problems. He had a proven record of business accomplishment and had shown the ability to bring disparate political factions together. One quality that eluded him was empathy.

Polls throughout the campaign showed Romney behind President Obama by sizeable margins on empathy-related issues — on which candidate cared about average people; which would represent ordinary Americans; which was more likeable.

On Election Day, exit polls found more voters shared Romney’s values and felt he’d be a better steward of the economy. But Obama won the empathy vote going away.

Voters had a more favorable view of Obama, and he won by 10 points on the question, “Who is more in touch with people like you?”

And for voters whose top attribute in a candidate was that he “cares about people like me,” Obama won by a mind-blowing 63 points.

Of course, it wasn’t just Romney but the entire Republican Party that suffered from an empathy deficit. At pivotal moments throughout the campaign Republicans came across as uncaring and insensitive. Many of those moments came during the Republican primaries, just as voters were getting their first glimpses of the candidates.

On September 7, 2011, Republican debate audience members cheered when Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he had “never struggled” with the idea that one of his state’s record 234 executed death row inmates might have been innocent.

Five days later, A Republican audience cheered a debate moderator’s question about whether a hypothetical 30-year-old who suddenly needs urgent care should be allowed to die because he lacks insurance.

The perception of Republicans as heartless was reinforced when Republican Senate candidates Todd Akin and Richard Murdock made inept and uncompassionate remarks about rape and abortion.

It was further reinforced when a video went viral of Mitt Romney claiming that 47 percent of Americans see themselves as victims and don’t “take responsibility and care for their lives.”

More generally, this perception is reinforced whenever conservatives use “illegal” as a noun or use the word “alien” to talk about illegal immigrants, and whenever they advise, as Romney did during the primaries, that illegal immigrants “self deport.”

Democrats do not have a monopoly on empathy, of course. Obama often shows an appalling lack of compassion and understanding toward entire groups of people — for example, unborn babies and those who don’t want to be complicit in their demise.

Many conservatives also point out that government compassion cannot and should not displace personal compassion. It’s no wonder that numerous surveys have found conservatives are likelier than liberals to give their time and money to charity.

Page: 1 2  

About the Author

Daniel Allott is a writer in Washington, D.C.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (270) |

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 11.29.12 @ 6:20AM

Empathy occurs when you tell people the truth and what must be done. That's empathy.

Sympathy is when you understand their pain. It's a political ploy that harkens back to Rome. It works because the public is gullible.

Whether it's right or wrong, the sympathy tactic works with the weakest of minds.

Von Mises Jr| 11.29.12 @ 8:51AM

I have accepted the reality of this debacle of an election and felt vindicated yesterday when Rush started laying out the cold reality. He discussed this prior and this is what needs to be understood.

You and I, Bill, as well as many of our friends at this site understand what reality is going to look like very soon. But liberals and the drones our Public Schools produce have no idea. No one has missed a Social Security check yet. No one has been refused treatment and given a pill by the "Death Panel." Everyone that is hungry and in need got their EBT Card. All State Pensions and Federal Pensions have been paid on time. So for the average fool liberal, the world is their oyster.

But we watch Greek riots and understand it is because their government checks were cut by some 30%. Too bad, so sad. Argentina had a currency collapse, then a confiscation of retirement accounts and they still re-elected Kirchner. Now they have been downgraded and face default. Tough darts. This is freaking reality. But dumb asses like Perp don't do reality, unless perhaps it is Reality TV and they can make fools of themselves for all to see.

So empathizing with them or sympathizing for them is not my problem. Their problem is how they save their sorry asses when the crap hits the fan. Mine will be warm, comfortable and well fed.

loulou| 11.29.12 @ 12:47PM

Wait until the idiots look at the increased tax deductions out of their paychecks in January 2013.

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:37PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules.

RCV| 12.2.12 @ 7:59PM

Happily, they will blame Boehner and the GOP.

Darin| 11.29.12 @ 6:24AM

Who cares more about their children?
The person who gives their kids everything, lets them do what they want, and never holds them accountable?
Or the person who insists the kids earn their way, do chores, and take responsibility for their choices?
Option one is Democrats.
Option two is Republicans.
It really is this simple.

LONE STAR| 11.29.12 @ 8:06AM

Yes, it's so easy to be a liberal...You never have to say NO....Gay marriage? Great ! Abortion? That's Choice !..Millions of illegal aliens invading our country? Wonderful! Trillions in debt? No problem.

AKraver| 11.29.12 @ 8:37AM

no Sh1t Lone Star. well said

Maxwell| 11.29.12 @ 8:56AM

Lone Star, I have a neighbor just like that. Lets say they both work for Ivy League universities. One locally & one in New York. Your description is spot on.

Edward White| 11.29.12 @ 12:02PM

It's quite clear by reading the reactions to your persuasive argument for empathy, Mr. Alcott, that the extreme right-wing base of our beloved party will be the cause of our losing the next election.

The readership of AmSpec--not all, but most--are the kind of angry, lower-class rightwingers who will defeat us at the polls. You can't reason with them.

loulou| 11.29.12 @ 12:52PM

Why don't you switch to the Democrat party right now? We don't need or want RINOs. They NEVER produce as promised.

Quartermaster| 11.29.12 @ 1:21PM

Hadly. Mr. Alcott has simply bought into the moonbat matra of how uncaring conservatives are. The left is who doesn't care. The left wants those people dependent. Your "wing" of your "beloved party" is the wing that keeps losing, with Dubya being an exception in recent years, and he nearly lost to a moonbat in 2000.

People like you never understand what causes GOP losses. Moderates are one reason. Jeff Lord pinpoints another serious problem in today's edition. Go read and learn.

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:38PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules.

Maxwell| 11.29.12 @ 1:35PM

Mr. White, with all due respect, the last I remember the people that lean to the right are the ones that give the most to charities. I am sure if you Google the question you will be rewarded with a plethora of information to confirm my point. In addition to that search, I have heard this reported numerous times on CBS radio from New York, hardly a right wing town or radio station.

Second, as a programmer I do not view myself as lower class nor my Ivy League town a place where lower class people would domicile.

Jujitsu Oop| 11.29.12 @ 2:31PM

Thanks, Mr. Allott, for telling it like it is.

It's a new day, and the further-to-the-right Republicans are losers. L.O.S.E.R.S.

They are a tedious bunch of whiners who see complex social issues as either 100% right or 100% wrong, 100% good or 100% bad.

Incapable of nuanced thought, they screech that abortion is "murder," that being gay is "immoral," etc.

Young Republicans, like myself, are embarrased by their beligerant, irrational rhetoric.

loulou| 11.29.12 @ 2:37PM

Then switch to the Democrat party, whiner. Please.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 4:01PM

Hmm.

Well, I don't give Allott the credit you seem to ... but, from what you say, you sound like you're on the right track. Keep a-going! I think you may well find yourself in Progressive Land.

Cheers.

Occam's Tool| 11.29.12 @ 7:07PM

Keep taxes low.
Bash our enemies.
Keep spending low.
Stay out of people's private affairs as much as possible.
Resist the Temptation to Grandly Plan.

Screw Libtards like White, and Libertarian assholes like Quartermaster. Moderation in all things except protecting our lives from meddling idiots.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 9:35PM

I agree with the "Moderation in all things except protecting our lives from meddling idiots" part especially.

When I say I'm "socialist," Occam, don't mistake me for someone unacquainted with the Ninth Amendment and its thrust.

OK?

Cheers.

Surly Curmudgen| 11.29.12 @ 2:50PM

The right wing base of the party has been the only thing keeping you sell outs from giving the Democrats everything.
Now go stand in the corner.

Hey ... face to the corner!

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 3:15PM

Contest tomorrow.

RCV| 12.2.12 @ 8:01PM

We aren't "children" who need leaders to "tell us " what's in our best interests. We're self- governing human beings.

Joellen| 11.29.12 @ 6:26AM

Can we stop with the "Republicans are cold, uncaring, cant relate to the poor" mantra. Once again, we allow the liberals to control the narrative. Get a back bone and fight back with facts, figures and examples of just how "responsible" the republican party is as opposed to the irresponsible democrat party, who uses people to their advantage. Give them the example of the black population, who has been under control of the democrat party for the past 60 years (since Johnson's "the great society"). Ask them how well that's worked out for the black family in 2012! Due to work, cant go on, but you all get the gist of it - change the narrative back to the facts and not "FEELINGS".

Stephie| 11.29.12 @ 8:32AM

Why don't the Republicans just throw in the towel and become democrats. I'm so discouraged and watching the tragedy that is our government in Washington and their back and forth on what to do about the debt, the charade of going after obama over Benghazi, is cause for abject depression.
I will never believe that obama won this election fairly. Never.

AKraver| 11.29.12 @ 8:40AM

Naw, Stephie. Obama did win fairly. What's more is that he Deserved to win. Why? Because he's true to his own philosophy, however detrimental.

Repubs weren't true to their philosophy because there are too many closet-progressives in the party (like the author of this piece)

Warrior| 11.29.12 @ 12:06PM

Deserved to win? Obfuscation and triangulation to a dumbed down parasitical voting base. The GOP ran a candidate whose policies and views were only a light version of the Marxists and offered no clear difference. The media willingly failed to report news worthy items and did not hesitate to promote falsehood when it served their purpose. We have a base of voters who can't tell you the difference between the Pledge of Allegiance, Declaration of Independence and the Constitution?

Let's also put this on the table, there was a reason the Founders wanted only male land owners to vote. If we need any more proof, look a the demographics of the last election.

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:38PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules.

Occam's Tool| 11.29.12 @ 7:09PM

Only those who pay income tax shouldbe allowed to vote for those who affect income tax. Some drug addled scumbag in Los Angeles should not be adjusting my income tax.

LONE STAR| 11.29.12 @ 9:05PM

Well said...No representation without taxation.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 9:37PM

Utter nonsense.

RCV| 12.2.12 @ 8:04PM

Every adult citizen has an equal voice in governing this country, Occam, not just wealthy psychiatrists and lawyers like you and me.

loulou| 11.29.12 @ 12:51PM

" Obama did win fairly. "

Well, we don't really know that.
All I know is that a Soros owned company in Spain counted our votes. And residents of group homes and nursing home dementia patients voted with the help of the SEIU. And in some precincts there were more votes than residents.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 4:58PM

"The Earth is round ... Well, we don't really know that."

AKraver| 11.29.12 @ 5:17PM

Yes we DO know that.

What, do you somehow deny that 50% of this country aren't selfish lazy bastards?

His electorate had more to lose and a strong (albeit philosophically corrupt) leader. You never vote against Santa Claus

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 6:16PM

Hold on a second. Do I deny that 50% of this country AREN'T selfish, lazy bastards?

Double negative.

I do deny that anywhere near 50% of the people in this country are selfish, lazy bastards.

I do assert that anyone who thinks that anywhere near 50% of the people in this country are selfish, lazy bastards is an intellectually lazy and morally deficient ass.

RCV| 12.2.12 @ 8:07PM

This myth that there were precincts with more votes than registered voters is the lunatic right's new mantra. Tell us, lou lou, precisely which precincts those were so the fraud prosecutions can begin.

You lost. And big. Move on.

Surly Curmudgen| 11.29.12 @ 2:55PM

As Peter Schweizer reported in his piece "Don't listen to the liberals, Right-wingers really are nicer people, latest research shows," studies have borne out what I've always known: Liberals are cheap, ungenerous, uncharitable, unloving, self-centered, envious, greedy and covetous. They're less likely than conservatives to devote time to ailing or needy loved ones, and they even hug their children less. And this reflects one reason why they support big government: they assuage their consciences by outsourcing their charity. I'll add to this that they're lustful, prideful, wrathful, often slothful and, if Michael Moore is any indication, gluttonous as well. In a word, they are the Seven Deadly Sins incarnate.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 6:19PM

Cite one "study" that supports your claims, Surly.

Just one.

RCV| 12.2.12 @ 8:08PM

... And if Rush Limbaugh is any indication, the right is just as glutinous.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 4:03PM

"Can we stop with the 'Republicans are cold, uncaring, can't relate to the poor' mantra?"

Yes, we can stop with it -- the moment Republicans stop being cold, uncaring and unable to relate to the situation of the poor.

Joellen| 11.29.12 @ 5:49PM

Hey Ralphie, take some needed time and read Surley's response. You NEEDS to be educated.

Joellen| 11.29.12 @ 5:50PM

Sorry for misspelling your name Surly. GREAT RESPONSE THOUGH!

Joellen| 11.29.12 @ 5:53PM

By the way, Ralphie boy, the dems/liberals made the situation of the poor "WORSER"!

spike59| 11.29.12 @ 6:31AM

NO!!!!!!!!! the tactic of playing the empathy-filled Big Brother, only looking out for 'the best interests as we define it' of those whose futures have been damaged by idiotic policies, in order to win elections, needs to remain the province of the ProgDems; what is NEEDED is to continue telling the American people what my grandfather used to call 'home truths'; when the inevitable full harvest of rotten fruit, so carefully cultivated by the policies of Left, is spilled across the kitchen floor and the electorate recoils in horror at what has been harvested, those 'home truths' will be remembered, and we will either wake up or perish as a nation

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:39PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules.

Appleby| 11.29.12 @ 6:50AM

The problem is, as usual, definition of terms. My late uncle, who was a multimillionaire, suffered from Aspberger's Syndrome and my mother said it was amazing that nobody had tried to kill him over his long and successful lifetime. However, if he got to hear that there was a need, he was there to fill it. True, he hurled blessings at you like the bad guys hurl brickbats -- he helped me to a round-the-world cruise during my last year of University, telling me it was my last chance to get a husband, and when I got home I should get a job teaching and pay my parents back for what it took to raise me. Zero empathy, but so what? I got to go around the world! The problem with people out there in La La Land is that they only believe people have empathy for them when they scream, cry, and throw themselves about...the way they do on TeeVee. But to modify an old joke, the most important trait a politician can have is empathy, andwhen he can fake that, he's on his way.

Surly Curmudgen| 11.29.12 @ 3:02PM

It must be so relaxing to be a liberal. You never have to take ownership of the circumstances in your life, you're constantly a victim of other people, you can call anyone who disagrees with you sexist, homophobic, bigoted, etc and never have to argue with them, you uphold no moral standard so when you act immorally nobody can accuse you of being a hypocrite, you're only accountable to your own heart and feelings, and every destructive action that comes from "following your heart" is inherently moral and above reproach. Man, even if I was a liberal I would have massive respect for Conservatives for not taking the path of least resistance.

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:39PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules.

LONE STAR| 11.29.12 @ 7:04AM

It's not empathy to take money from taxpayers to buy votes of government dependents.

Stephie| 11.29.12 @ 8:35AM

It would take a Texan to spell it out as simply as this.
Thank you.

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 3:17PM

Contest tomorrow.

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:39PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules.

AKraver| 11.29.12 @ 8:41AM

And it's not empathy to enslave people in a cycle of dependency

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 9:40PM

True. It's not.

But neither is it empathy to enslave people in a system of perpetual obeisance.

C. Vernon Crisler | 11.29.12 @ 10:20AM

Pretty easy to be emphathetic with other people's money.

Martin kzovich| 11.29.12 @ 7:04AM

I n my view republicans seem to be incompetent bumblers when they roll over and let the communists step all over them. GWB personifies this problem and Republicans seem inept at propaganda campaigns as well. the question is is it incompetence or is it purposeful ? In any even what ever the reason it is curruption of one kind or another. the Party and its Washington Beltway types need to be replaced by at least politically smarter people.

Surly Curmudgen| 11.29.12 @ 3:10PM

Those GOPe running the party all display Fabian socialist thinking. When they see a Democrat who will bring this nation to their socialist utopia quicker than they can, their penchant for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory kicks in hard and they will do almost anything to give the election to the Democrat.

chuckbryant| 11.30.12 @ 4:22PM

First, you need to learn the definitions of the words you throw around. Let's start with "communist" .

GobBluthe| 11.29.12 @ 7:15AM

The author misses the point. Hispanics are socialist leaning. They come from statist countries that are historically run by a benefactor or strong man. They are comfortable with the Patron/Client relationship which is alien to Anglo Saxons. The CA GOP didn't due due to prop 182 ( passed by popular support btw). The CA GOP died be ause the conservative leaning voters have moved away and the illegals want benefits.

Pecos Pete| 11.29.12 @ 7:24AM

Oh, wow! Empathy? Republicans should emulate the democrats? Why not just disband the Republican Party and enroll all Republicans as democrats? At least that would provide for a new political party which would also fail because the democrat party will have empathy locked up. The free enterprise system is dead. The Constitution is failing. We are in an ever expanding spiral of moral degeneration that will culminate with a final gasp of horror ... empathy bankrupted the USA.

Stkman| 11.29.12 @ 11:10AM

Pete,
The Constitution has not failed. We as citizens have failed the Constitution. It is our duty as Citizens to protect and defend the Constitution and when our elected represetatives fail to do so we are required to remove them from office or dissolve the government. Well, we haven't done that have we? I think most of us are smart enough to know what it means to "dissolve" the government. The politicians have made it clear, they are not going to abide by the Constitution. It is up to us, the citizens to either remove them or make them obey the Constitution. They are not going to obey the Constitution, so what have they left us to do?
Got rope?

Pecos Pete| 11.29.12 @ 12:01PM

Stkman, your point is valid. We can't vote enough of them out. We can't vote for any Supreme Court Justices.

All we can do is survive and be around when all is in ruins about us.

Stkman| 11.29.12 @ 1:04PM

Pete,
I think you are missin g what I'm trying to get across. so I'll be bunt. We need a revolution. It is our right to have one. Just as it is the right of the current members of the three bodies of government to die if they get in the way when we finally decide to do it.

Surly Curmudgen| 11.29.12 @ 3:17PM

You done hit that nail squarely on the head!

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:40PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules.

Teflon93 | 11.29.12 @ 7:43AM

These Blue State pundits sure are big on men acting like women.

Save the empathy. America's going off the tracks because of the Nanny State; the people are going to need a party steeped in self-reliance and cold, hard logic soon enough.

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:40PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules.

pogybait| 11.29.12 @ 8:03AM

So Dan, let’s turn the Republican party over to a consortium or progressives that would obviously transform political terrorists, flatulent blowhards and bumbling idiots into beloved international statesmen….who would be loved by all as long as they show open disdain for America…..

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:41PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules.

AKraver| 11.29.12 @ 8:31AM

Where the Hell do they find such crap authors??

In the same basement where John Boehner pupated and emerged in all his Milktoast ingloriousness? in the same laboratory where are the RNC is furiously cloning Bob Dole for the next generation of politicians?

Mister Allott, if you're simply going to regurgitate the Karl Rove and Bill Kristol cable news talking points would you at least do it with a little rhetorical pizzazz? Bad jokes retold need a little color.

It doesn't require a herculean mental effort to understand that the reason Obama won IS because he deserved to. Republicans didn't offer a contrast. Republicans rolled over and showed their bellies. Republicans didn't play for keeps. Republicans weren't true to conservatism. They didn't deserve to win.

But you, imitating what you hear the consultants say, suggest we double down on that losing strategy: That Conservatives FURTHER emasculate our ideology, further subjugate ourselves to liberal premises, engage in more appeasement of the overconfident underachieving entitlement class.

The overarching issue is that a large portion of the American people have the wrong idea about government. But instead of seeking to correct and inspire and lead them, you and other politically-androgynous Conservatives seek to show them "Hey, we're just as cool as the Democrats"

Surly Curmudgen| 11.29.12 @ 3:20PM

Another nail hammered home!

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:41PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 9:48PM

"It doesn't require a herculean mental effort to understand that the reason Obama won IS because he deserved to. Republicans didn't offer a contrast. Republicans rolled over and showed their bellies. Republicans didn't play for keeps. Republicans weren't true to conservatism. They didn't deserve to win."

You were right about quite a bit of that -- but totally wrong about the reasons. Republicans were all too true to modern American conservatism -- i.e., defending the haves keeping what they have -- but they were all too false to general principles like "honesty is the best policy" and "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

It's really not rocket surgery.

Frank Drackman| 11.29.12 @ 8:34AM

"Uncaring and Aloof"???
well, excuse me, but thats my middle name.
Frank "Uncaring-and-Aloof" Drackman.
Seriously, I could care less(and I could care less that I'm supposed to say "Couldn't care less") if there's 2 million abortions a year or 20 million, Charles Manson was a cute baby at one point(so was Hitler, wierd) and if I could go back in a time machine, I'd be one of those dudes selling smallpox infested blankets to the Injuns.
Thats right, I-N-J-U-N-S, and if you don't like it, get off the Resevation, go on the Warpath, or smoke a Peace Pipe, Red Skin.
In fact, I want the Bush Error tax cuts to expire, just so I can go into my local Starbucks, use there free internet, and say "Wow, that 10% bracket went up to 15%?, thats a 50% increase HAHAHAHAHA you Suckers!!!!!!!!!!!!! "
In fact, if Ari Gold wasn't a fictional character, he'd be my candidate for 2016..

Frank "The world needs ditch diggers too" Drackman

AKraver| 11.29.12 @ 8:47AM

You are NOT a conservative. You're an ass. Real Empathy is manly. It takes strength to forgive. It takes character to do the right thing.

Real Empathy means getting people out of dependency. Real Empathy is telling Drackman that he's not a conservative. Real Emapthy teaching and inspiring people to be better than who they currently are.

Frank Drackman| 11.29.12 @ 10:58AM

"Do the right thing"?? Who are you really, Spike Lee.
Who, if his mother had done the right thang, would have ended up in a biohazard bag.
Legally I mean, not like that other POS Tupack..
And I've treated lots of Homos/Blacks/Chinks/Dot Heads, for Free, what have you ever done, besides leave Skidmarks on your Jockey's(Your a Brief's man, I just know things)

Frank "I caused your pain" Drackman

Surly Curmudgen| 11.29.12 @ 3:24PM

Frank, with absolutely no homosexual tendencies, I think I'm in love with you!

chuckbryant| 11.30.12 @ 4:25PM

Go get married in Washington State. Or DC.
The "real conservatives" won't care what you do with your pants down and your bedroom door closed.
Because personal liberty.

AKraver| 11.29.12 @ 8:47AM

oh crap, I fed a troll

Frank Drackman| 11.29.12 @ 10:55AM

and you didn't even give me a reach-a-round, I mean the satisfaction of "Replying" you just entered a new comment, Homo.
And did you ever notice you can't spell "Empathetic" without writing "Pathetic" which is what you are, Pathetic.
and a Homo

Frank "Spelling Counts" Drackman

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 5:05PM

Yup.

Happens.

Sjccoach| 11.29.12 @ 8:56AM

Two CINO columns in one day. This one and Mr. Hannaford's. Both columns say that when the Republicans become Democrats they will win as Republicans. American Spectator is becoming a huge joke.

Louis Jenkins| 11.29.12 @ 9:04AM

I think that the author has confused Aloof-Uncaring with plain hard facts. It's great if you're a touchie-feelie person, and yes, that's how Obama appears. Is he really? Or does he just act that way to get what he wants? When was the last time he actually told the truth or allowed his records to see the light of day? Here we're just too hung up on the facts-the facts mam. And in government, and in day to day life, the facts are what counts. You save the more tender moments for your family, not in balancing a budget (if it ever gets balanced), planning expenditures, determining who gets killed in a foreign war (or domestic), or if crimminals are punished to the full extent of the law (unlike Norway's sentencing of the assassin-20 years for killing 20+ kids). If a thief enters your house during the night are you going to touch and feel his pain, or are you going to blast away to the best of your ability? I will ensure my family's safety. So I guess I'm aloof and uncaring. Better that than dead.

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:42PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules.

Kwan| 11.29.12 @ 9:07AM

Let's stop trying to figure out how to win votes by becoming more like Democrats. If this keeps up some genius will soon be suggesting we should start taking advise from Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" if we ever want to win another Presidential election. Who cares how much some jerk like Obama empathizes with you if his leadership and policies produce failure and the continued decline of the country.

frino| 11.29.12 @ 9:48AM

take advice from the Holy Book bout poor folk and hating be a better way.

Frank Drackman| 11.29.12 @ 11:02AM

Pretty Christo-Centric of you Frido(Act Like a Man!!!!!)
Some of us don't worship your false Christian Hey-Zeuss, and I'm not just talkin bout the Towel/Dot/ Heads, I mean Me, Frank Drackman, Mr. Shylock-Hooknose-Heebie-Jeebie, Himself.
Seriously, if you wanta bring religion into this, stop screwing Showgirls, I'm pretty sure thats in the Good Book, right after not coveting your neighbors wife's ass...

Frank

Surly Curmudgen| 11.29.12 @ 3:30PM

When a leftest uses Alinsky tactics on you, get right up in their face and call them the liars they are, rip their throats out. Anything less and you lose.

frino| 11.29.12 @ 9:27AM

ya'll sure hate poor folk. some little young gal she work 2 job anda keep da baby so she get dis and dat from Uncle
some, some food help, her 2 job pay low not benfits, but she mange cause the guvmint pay fo doctor. yeah she screw up fo sure lay down wit some boy got no reponsbilty. And dang she still keep dat child and works hard. That gal, ya'll hate her. Dat why God hate you=Obma the Lords way make ya'll pay fo youse sins. Howaw ya'll like burning up hell on earth cause of hating poor folk ?

Grzmlyk| 11.29.12 @ 11:57AM

Damn stupid cat.

Get off the desk, Frino! Stop walking across the keyboard! Go out and catch a mouse!

frino| 11.29.12 @ 12:21PM

you da mouse-Obama, Holder.Big Sis,Hillree, dey da big cats got you hiding in a hole and all dat cheese ya'll got stored dey be takin dat- all cause you hate poor folk, women mean peoplelEver see a cat trap and taunt a mouse befo da kill-dat you now. need my help gotta stand as a united force.You'd rather be clawed to death than change some way in the way of pragnatic poltiks. Gonna get ugly-safd fo you-sad fo me-sad for our great land. Sad just real sad we dat knows better caint join up and DESTROY THESE MONSTER !!!!!

Grzmlyk| 11.29.12 @ 12:49PM

Frino, did you do a stinky on the counter???

Bad kitty. Bad, bad kitty. If only you had a human brain.

Dave Williams| 11.29.12 @ 9:27AM

Oh, to f*cking HELL with empathy!! I want a leader who will maintain infrastructure and a strong currency, and protect us from foreign threats, and THAT. IS. ALL!!!! Government has no business doing ANYTHING else... but try telling that to the Oprah-fied idiots running rampant in this once-great country by the millions. Sad.

Surly Curmudgen| 11.29.12 @ 3:32PM

And another nail goes down!

chuckbryant| 11.30.12 @ 4:30PM

It takes money to maintain infrastructure.

We could cut our military budget by 1/3 and still be bigger than the 2nd place runner up. How "protected" from foreign threats do you want to be?
Only North Korea spends a higher percentage of its GDP on "protection from foreign threats"

Dave Williams| 11.29.12 @ 9:27AM

Oh, to f*cking HELL with empathy!! I want a leader who will maintain infrastructure and a strong currency, and protect us from foreign threats, and THAT. IS. ALL!!!! Government has no business doing ANYTHING else... but try telling that to the Oprah-fied idiots running rampant in this once-great country by the millions. Sad.

AKraver| 11.29.12 @ 9:31AM

Poll: Is it easier to reform the Republican party (including booting CINOs/RINOs) or is it better to start a new conservative party

Stkman| 11.29.12 @ 9:57AM

my vote, new conservative party

Pecos Pete| 11.29.12 @ 10:26AM

New conservative party.

But, it won't do any good. We are already over the cliff. I'd suggest German history from 1919 through 1939 as a precursor for our next 20 years.

Frank Drackman| 11.29.12 @ 11:05AM

Umm, revived Nationalism, Compulsary Military Service, Immigration limited to those with vital National Defense skills, I LIKE IT
OK, except for that whole Horror-cost thang, but hey, if Anne Frank's dad wasn't a total dumb ass we'd never have got to read a 14 year old Girls Diary and pretend it's great "Literature"(It IS a reallay good 14 year old Girls Diary)...

Frank

frino| 11.29.12 @ 9:46AM

Just make up yo minds soon, so dat we FRINOS former republicans in name only can gets us a party that whup dcrats. We be needin a pragmatic dat can win, can get down wit all folks wants a better country.

spike59| 11.29.12 @ 9:54AM

shut up, Purp...

Frank Drackman| 11.29.12 @ 11:10AM

ahh Frino, good one, I haven't laughed so hard since visiting the "National Civil Rots Monument"(Or whatever it's called, you know, where Martin Lucifer got shot)

Frank "Who's laughing Now" Drackman

Stkman| 11.29.12 @ 9:56AM

Really its much more simple than many of us are willing to look at. When Republicans will make it clear that they will do what is right for the middle class and the country first, and drop their defense of of the uber rich then they will once again have a base to work with.
Isn't it time we were all honest about all this crap going on over the Bush tax cuts? Whats good for the rich is not necassarily whats good for the country. Whats good for the middle class is always good for the country.
All the Republicans have to do is support the middle class, ALWAYS, and start pointing out how if they get rid of all the fraudulent payments made to people who cheat the system that there would be plenty of money for those in need.
Next, get out of the abortion discussion. I'm against abortion, you're against abortion, I get that. But it's too damn decisive. I't between a woman and God. Leave it at that for now.

Stkman| 11.29.12 @ 9:56AM

Healthcare, damnit, it's simple. Reform it. Don't do it in a way that protects any business. Do it in a way that makes sure Americans are taken care of. Governments duty is not to corporations, it's duty is to the citizens. Corporations will figure a way to get in the game and profit from it, but insurance comapnies are owed nothing.
Lastly, either we make the Tea Party a legitimate political party or we purge all RINO's. Well, we aren't going to purge the RINO's, they are not only entrenched in the republican party, they are the majority of the Republican Party. We have reached the point of a third party, and it needs to be the Tea Party.

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:45PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules.

rlranger907| 11.29.12 @ 10:01AM

So, it sounds like rather than win elections and begin the hard work of rolling back the mistaken policies of the past several years, this group would rather gather at the corner saloon and slap each other on the back about what great hard-asses we are. It's not simply that we think we would rather be right than smart. It's that we'd rather sound tough than make a difference. Let's all be sure to lock the echo chamber on our way in.

Pecos Pete| 11.29.12 @ 10:30AM

Wrong. Most of the people in this comment section are realists. rlranger907, you can stand on the tracks and be run over by the train. I'd rather be in a position to rebuild from the ruins.

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:44PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules.

Derek Leaberry| 11.29.12 @ 10:04AM

I have no empathy for healthy people who won't work. I have no empathy for degenerates. I have no empathy for adults for leech off government. If that leaves me out of an electoral majority, so be it. Let the collapse being.

JD| 11.29.12 @ 12:00PM

I have sympathy, but not empathy, for such people. Empathy requires me to be in their shoes and to share their pain.

PolishKnight| 11.29.12 @ 10:05AM

This is NOT rocket science, people. To determine what is going on, simply examine the largest issues driving a candidates' win. It was NOT empathy. 75% of Obama voters were non-white and/or women and a similar percentage of Romney's voters were whites and/or men. Everything else was 25% breadcrumbs falling from the table.

As long as Obama has racist and sexist entitlements going, he's guaranteed those votes and this election makes that clear. It doesn't matter how bad the economy gets. And Obama has a distinct advantage: While they openly pander and embrace their political vote-buying agenda the Republicans don't say anything about it. Heck, they even try to poach some of those Hispanic voters (as we see elsewhere in AmSpec this morning) by trying to throw some of their own white male voters under the bus. Amazing! How do you get more people on a political bus when you're throwing some of them out and under it? Obama can poach votes from the white and male voters however since the right has almost blessed his tactics. Good going! Why not run under the banner: Dems are great and we want to be a LITTLE more like them! Want to vote for us now?

In the meantime, we could have exposed the lack of empathy of the left by asking Obama about the Wise Latina saying that a dyslexic firefighter shouldn't be promoted because of his race even as he is from a working class background. You gotta break a few eggs...

frino| 11.29.12 @ 11:09AM

'Not one of US". Poor Mit and all of US-they dun kicked us outa our country. Every last one of US shoulda grabbed any weapon at hand and went at THEM with a true rage. Sted we wuz lambs-less we be going all whoop ass one one another.

Trinacria| 11.29.12 @ 10:15AM

Are you f***ing kidding me? Empathy?
We truly are screwed.

Note to Mr Tyrrell:
Really? This is what passes for a thoughtful and well reasoned article on conservative thought? You really must stop trolling move on.org for "talent". What's next, a guest editorial from Bernadette Peters? Wow...

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:42PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules.

Stkman| 11.29.12 @ 10:19AM

I have never understood why Republicans can't just tell the truth. Why won't a republican repeat what LBJ said when he got his "Great Society" passed and quote him and let people know this is the Democratic philosophy when it comes to blacks. LBJ said, "We'll have them niggers voting democrat for the next fifty years". Say it. Say it everytime some black person whines. Have it posted on the walls of the local welfare office so blacks can have it pushed right in their faces what democrats did to them. Show themm the statistics of how much better blacks lived before the "Great Society" became law. And lastly, take the whole damn "Great Society" profram to the Supreme Court and have theole damn un-constitutional thing over turned. And send the voting rights act to be over turned too. Either all states have to abide by it or none do.

PolishKnight| 11.29.12 @ 10:24AM

I sat on a jury in Los Angeles with a mixed race jury (mostly non-white) and a working class Hispanic man was being charged with kidnapping, assault and child-endangerment because he had a dispute with the baby momma of his daughter on a day he was to take her to disneyland and she backed out at the last minute and he tried to take her and the baby momma and grandmother hit him and he hit back.

Add up those charges. He was facing a life sentence for wanting to take his daughter to Disneyland for a day.

And the "empathic" white women and non-white women on the jury were getting ready to throw him to the wolves. Since I was chosen to be an alternate and wanted to get thrown off, I told the judge what I thought of this BS case. She was NOT pleased. And the jurors heard my opinion. I hope it mattered. Non-white working class men have been buried alive by the feminist and so-called civil rights movement.

Stkman| 11.29.12 @ 10:37AM

The biggest discriminaotr is the Government. It should be illegal for them to ever ask your skin color or what ethniticity you are. Our Constitution is colorblind and has been since the 1860's.

PolishKnight| 11.29.12 @ 10:50AM

One of the hilarious arguments of the left is that a "colorblind" argument is naive and therefore, racist. And like many great lies, there's an element of truth in it. If racism is involved in a crime, for example, it's necessary to note the facts for statistical and investigative purposes. Of course, the left is very careful to reveal only statistics that reveal racism against non-whites while ignoring the 5:1 and even 10:1 non-white on white violent crime ratio.

That said, however, discriminating in favor of non-whites or against whites (which is the same thing logically) requires as much discrimination as the original racism. It's at best reverse racist discrimination except that even that moral claim is undermined by non-whites and whites who immigrated to the nation and had nothing to do with these issues. Why should a wealthy Nigerian oil heir moving here deserve preferential treatment ahead of some poor Albanian immigrant who are applying for the same med school position?

And of course, women are a whole special deal since sexism was not oppression at all but rather a set of roles and customs that often favored women. How many blacks want to say they're "old fashioned" about slavery? Yet, women say this all the time on an almost daily basis when they want doors held open or men buying stuff for them. Where did those traditionalist perks come from?

Mick Lee| 11.29.12 @ 11:22AM

Gee, folks, can we remind ourselves once again that in terms of the popular vote Romney and Obama weren’t really that far apart? The way some of us talk you’d think we also lost the House and were down to ten Republicans in the Senate. Calm down. The picture will be clearer in six months or so.
In my admittedly humble, recent and limited experience, among those who voted for Obama here in Indiana who were not “true believers”, the perception was that the economy has fared badly under Obama; but it was the Romney’s of America that caused the problem. The Romneys of American escaped the disaster of their own making with their mansions, golden handshakes, and money in the bank while Joe Lunch Pail and Mary Secretary who had no hand in the matter were left holding the bag. The fact that many if not most of the “Masters of the Universe” whose activities precipitated the recession were Democrats who heavily give to Democrat campaigns barely registers. A Republican “Romney-type” with any other name and personal appeal would have faced the same mountain of resentment.

PolishKnight| 11.29.12 @ 1:43PM

Mick Lee, the fact of the matter is that the majority of Obama supporters voted for race and gender preferences. So looking at the marxist propaganda or blaming GW accounts for maybe a quarter of the overall vote. Instead of trying to play games to deal with the 25% margin to maybe squeak by a victory by 5% in the next election, why not go after the 75% issue?

When writing computer code, I use analysis tools to evaluate where 95% of holdups occur typically in 1% of code. By fixing that 1% of code, I increase the speed of the application 20 times or more. Or I work on the remaining 99% of code for a 5% increase.

The latter is what the Republicans are doing right now. How about losing another election?

Mick Lee| 11.29.12 @ 11:25AM

Yes, Republicans have a way of shoving a size sixteen steel toed boot in their mouths—thus grabbing defeat after choosing carpet samples and measuring the windows in the White House for the new drapes. And when it comes to a fight, if the contest were blackjack, Republicans will often choose to stand with a pair of fives. But the Conservative problem is goes deeper and it is not just perception as such.

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:46PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules.

Mick Lee| 11.29.12 @ 11:27AM

Mr. Sowell pointed out long ago that Liberals and the like-minded think that because they hold certain opinions it means they are good persons. In other words, to them, their political opinions are tied up with their own sense of self-worth and even righteousness in standing before the throne of God. They are so certain of this that they don’t mind telling you so. At the same time, they don’t mind telling you that people who hold contrary opinions are to some degree mortally defective if not diabolically sinister.
Conservatives, on the other hand, tend to separate political opinions from ones goodness as a person. One may hold Conservative or Liberal positions and one may be a good person; but one also can hold Conservative or Liberal positions and be an absolutely rotten egg. Politics and personal moral character are not related.

JD| 11.29.12 @ 11:58AM

No, they are definitely related. The relationship is simply not what the Left thinks it is. Certain politics inevitably require one to lie when reality isn't what ideology requires it to be, and lying is a morality flaw.

The Left frequently acts as though there are no such things as unintended consequences. For that reason, they believe that they, who have good intentions, never do harm. They must also then believe that all harm that is done is done by those with bad intentions. That is why they spend considerable effort disparaging the intentions of the Right.

Mick Lee| 11.29.12 @ 2:42PM

I will be the first to say that one of the advantages and moral hazzards of being a Liberal is never having to say you're sorry. It matters not how much misery, suffering and death that follows in their wake; the "bad" simply doesn't count. It doesn't count to them and as far as they are concerned it shouldn't count to you because...hey!...they "intend" therefore "it does".
The difference between you and me, JD, perhaps revolves around the question: are they lying as such when they tell a falsehood they believe to be true? In older times, stating a falsehood one beleived to be true was still regarded as lying. There is actually quite a bit to be said for this point of view and perhaps this is part of what you mean. However that may be, I do not believe a political belief requires one to lie. One may commit an immoral act to advantance a belief; but even a wrongful or evil belief does not cause a person to follow through. Many Liberals lie deliberatedly no question about it. Many other Liberals will not lie no matter how much it pains them. Most Liberals tell falsehoods because they are self-deluded--blinded by ideology. In other words, they will state such and such because it MUST be true. They will attack such and such because it CAN'T POSSIBLY be true.

Frankly, I'd rather have an honest liar than a deluded one. An honest liar may be a snake but at least he'll admit it after a few drinks.

JD| 11.29.12 @ 2:55PM

A lie is definitionally to say something that you know to be untrue. To say something that you believe to be true is not a lie.

When people say Bush "lied" to get us into Iraq, they are wrong (and probably lying). There is no evidence that Bush knowingly relayed false evidence of WMDs. There is so little reason to believe otherwise that even Democrats in government, despite their hatred for Bush, never brought any such allegations.

What false evidence existed came from Italian intelligence.

However, many Leftists, when making political arguments, do tell lies. They say things that they cannot possibly believe, having been previously confronted with unmistakable evidence that they are not true.

Of particular relevance to this article are their frequent claims that we on the Right believe or think things that we do not believe or think, in spite of our insistence otherwise. It takes a particular audacity to insist that you know another person's mind better than he does.

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:47PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules.

Mick Lee| 11.29.12 @ 11:27AM

With the Liberal’s obsession with fashioning society according to “social justice” (whatever that happens to look like in any particular year), his confidence in his moral standing flows in his support toward those ends. For Conservatives, to the extent they ever use the term “social justice”, what they regard as justice is prevention and prosecution of crimes of all kinds and the rule of law. Conservatives recognize that in any society there are just individuals who cannot cope with the challenges of life—thus charity, both public and private, is needed. But that is what it is: charity. For Jews and Christians, charity for the poor, sick, widows, and orphans is not a personal option but it is what the Lord would have us do. But it is still charity. For Conservatives, whatever society and structure of public policy one may find himself in, it is one’s personal acts of charity that counts and reveal what kind of people we are.
Empathy? Sure. But until we directly attack Liberal self-righteousness and perceptions out in the open and for what they are, until we point out what real charity and a giving heart is, Liberals will continue to set the ground rules where even St. Francis can be portrayed as a coldblooded miser.

Simon Templar| 11.29.12 @ 11:28AM

It is not an empathy problem it is a state controlled media problem and a communication problem. It is a leadership problem whereby we have leaders who are incompetent, lacking backbone, and colluding.
They have activist ideological politicians and we have compromising, fear oriented, lazy corrupt politicians.

This is why Democrats Socialist can abandon without EMPATHY, 4 Americans, and get away with it, slander with hateful outrageous campaign rhetoric, name call, make fun of those guns and bible idiots, say and do whatever they please including taking God out of their platform, insult half the population and not be accused of lacking empathy.
On all on top of this, Republicans passed the civil rights bills, expanded health care spending, started the EPA, have promoted the political careers of minorities, and signed onto hundreds of bills attempting to help millions of Americans with everything from housing to student loan programs, tax breaks, etc. and their not empathetic.

The levels of stupidity and the lack of perspective and ability to think logically on our side at times is really to much to stomach at times.
Hire a marketing agency for the GOP, if that is the only thing you can do! Most people have at least the brains to do that!

Surly Curmudgen| 11.29.12 @ 4:57PM

A well to do conservative or a bunch of us peons have to band together and buy a media conglomerate and start putting the progressive lies to the public as lies. Don't be politically correct and call them out for what they are, liars, thieves and descendants of Loki.

Simon Templar| 11.29.12 @ 6:02PM

Yes, and no joke. They have done it over and over the last century, it time for us to wake up, start using our economic power both as investors an consumers as well as those who are paying the nations bills.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 10:02PM

"It is not an empathy problem it is a state controlled media problem and a communication problem. It is a leadership problem whereby we have leaders who are incompetent, lacking backbone, and colluding."

That's the nasty, stupid, arrogant shit that will keep your ilk on losing.

Keep it up!

Please!

Petronius| 11.29.12 @ 11:30AM

GOP, Gutless Old Prats. They deserve to lose because they're all jackoffs like Gingrich, who ran as a conservative and admitted to the Wall St. Journal he pulled our chains and sold us out. Now there are too few of us to stop the onslaught of parasitic losers and supplicants who believe the government is a substitute for mommy because their loser teachers drilled it into them for 16 years and more in their oversubsidized but totally worthless school system which is really a support organization for themselves. And we pay for all of it. Again: what happens when there's nothing left to take? Government does not and cannot create wealth or establish value. But those bottom feeders don't care a wit.

frino| 11.29.12 @ 11:53AM

Ya'll so trapped in right wing jail. Ya'll think being free in yo minds, not be thinking so narrow is going commie, add that to pert Ralphie Reed and walking on eggs sos ya don't get his cute bitty nose outa joint and guess what you DOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMED. So dats why we FRINOS gonna do what weezzz got to do.

Grzmlyk| 11.29.12 @ 12:06PM

Sit, Frino, Sit!

If you don't behave, I'm going to put you outside.

CJW| 11.29.12 @ 12:59PM

Mr G
Hope you got frino neutered.

Let him play, frino , he be a impruvement on purpie/ralphie.

This is contagious.

Is it true that frino was class valedictorian of his public hs?

spike59| 11.29.12 @ 1:09PM

i'm wondering if frino is really just another purpie account

Butch| 11.29.12 @ 3:04PM

It's Brooks, trying to do Frank Drackman. Notice how he is always speaking to "ya'll" and what you do wrong?

Grzmlyk| 11.29.12 @ 1:10PM

Frino was actually spayed, which is why I can't figure out why she's still spraying.

It's certainly easy not to read her cat litter scratchings.

Google Ralph Novy - he uses his real name on this site. I'm looking forward to his next trolling appearance - although maybe frino IS Ralphie Boy - the "genius" may have figured out that his legacy of stupidity, hate and prurience is just one google search away.

Let's just say that he's a model Democrat.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 2:37PM

Yup. I use my real name. I'm not afraid to stand up and say what I have to say and be identified as having said it. And I don't post under other names -- ever.

CJW| 11.29.12 @ 2:52PM

Ralph's memorable comment"

"Ralph Novy| 11.28.12 @ 1:26AM

Got news for you, pal: McCain did NOT serve his country "bravely" in the military.

Check out his record. Couple of crashed planes. Plenty of slack cut for him because he was an admiral's son.

Moreover ... check into how me managed to survive -- so well -- the North Vietnamese prison camp he was in. Ask some hard questions about how many broadcasts he made for North Vietnamese radio and what special considerations he got in return."

So you must belive McCain spent five years at the Hanoi Hilton playing golf, taking excursions to Hawaii, Spain, Manhattan, Martha's Vineyard like your hero Obama, and McCain must have injured his shoulders playing golf?
Bet you prefer the real war heroes like Bubba, Algore, and Jean Kerry?

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 3:15PM

There ARE real "war heroes," CJW -- like Arthur MacArthur, Alvin York, Audie Murphy and, yes, John Kerry. They put their lives DIRECTLY on the line to save others. McCain was a cocky, reckless flyboy who I don't think ever dreamt he'd be shot down. I don't think he braved one-tenth as much danger as those other men. Moreover, once he was captured, I still stand by my assertions that he received special treatment because he was an admiral's son. I've heard the allegations about him making broadcasts for the North Vietnamese for years; perhaps there's no truth to that, but I think questions should be asked. That's only fair, don't you think, given how McCain is still demanding answers to what Susan Rice may have said or done?

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 3:18PM

On reflection, I probably shouldn't have put John Kerry in the same category as those other chaps -- winners of the CMH. But I'd still say Kerry put his life on the line more directly and often than McCain.

CJW| 11.29.12 @ 3:34PM

On reflection, to defame McCain like you attempted, and to elevate Susan Rice to some equivalency of service to our country as McCain is simply moronic.

The Hanoi commies offered to release McCain because his father was an admiral but McCain refused.
My apologies to purpie for thinking you used his name.

Occam's Tool| 11.29.12 @ 7:21PM

Ralph: over 50% of this country are selfish, lazy bastards. I have clinically dealt with Death Row inmates, old folks in nursing homes, inner city drug users, suburban housewives, the immediate relatives of the quite famous, minorities of all types, Caucasians in California, Texas, Alabama, Minnesota, Kentucky, and New Mexico; Hispanics in those places, Blacks in those places, Native Americans in multiple settings, Maoris and Pakeha in New Zealand (which is a sicker place than the USA, by the way).

I have lived in many places in the USA. Over 50% of people are lazy selfish bastards in this country; far more of that type Democrats and Liberals than Republican and Conservative.

By the way, McCain was tortured for 5 years by the Vietnamese and REFUSED to go home earlier than his men because he was an admiral's son.

I don't care for John, but he was brave and he suffered.

Occam's Tool| 11.29.12 @ 7:22PM

Now, as to studies for Ralph, here's one to start:

"Psychol Sci. 2008 Jun;19(6):565-72.
Why are conservatives happier than liberals?
Napier JL, Jost JT.
SourceDepartment of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003-6634, USA. jnapier@nyu.edu

Abstract
In this research, we drew on system-justification theory and the notion that conservative ideology serves a palliative function to explain why conservatives are happier than liberals. Specifically, in three studies using nationally representative data from the United States and nine additional countries, we found that right-wing (vs. left-wing) orientation is indeed associated with greater subjective well-being and that the relation between political orientation and subjective well-being is mediated by the rationalization of inequality. In our third study, we found that increasing economic inequality (as measured by the Gini index) from 1974 to 2004 has exacerbated the happiness gap between liberals and conservatives, apparently because conservatives (more than liberals) possess an ideological buffer against the negative hedonic effects of economic inequality."


Never argue against a Genius with his own reference library, Ralph.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 10:08PM

Wow, Occam. I'd especially like to meet those "Caucasians in California" you feel so superior to.

And New Zealand is a "sicker" place than the US? By what criteria, perchance?

Face it, boy. Your "keep it simple" philosophy isn't working because it fails to take into account numerous variations from the general rules.

Realizing that sort of thing is what "wisdom" has long been about.

You haven't got it yet. Don't pretend you have it, prematurely, or you may never get it.

Surly Curmudgen| 11.29.12 @ 5:06PM

John Kerry is a treasonous sack of whale scat. Those who think highly of him are complicit in his treason.

Simon Templar| 11.29.12 @ 6:11PM

Idiot, have you ever noticed how the guy can not move his arms normally and seems physically stiff and awkward? Well that because he received special treatment of torture from his captors because he daily told them to go fuck themselves, moron. This is well documented. I think questions should be asked about your assertions, your IQ, and your arrogance. Sorry, but it was your ilk that flew to Vietnam while he was being tortured and kissed their ass, sat on tanks, and committed treason.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 6:24PM

None of that is "well documented" except by McCain himself, pal. Oh -- and a few of his fellow captives who, of course, had no ulterior motives for supporting his story.

Simon Templar| 11.30.12 @ 10:59PM

Ralph Novy,
I think you must have missed your evening medication. I suggest you ask Nurse Ratchett for the dose you forgot to take. That is really all I can say. Any sane person, and in this case, I would even include many liberals, would have not written what you wrote. Despite their propensity to lie, stretch the truth, and misdirect, most liberals would not push it that far. Something is seriously wrong with you. Get some help.

Grzmlyk| 11.29.12 @ 3:15PM

That'll be a relief to Representative Nerison. Isn't it about time for you to be sending another threatening letter to him? Tick tock, Ralphie boy.

Let me ask you something: On not one, but two Web sites, you admit that you aren't very bright in your own profiles. We know you can't even practice law anymore (not that you ever really did), and that you have decidedly unsavory, uh, appetites. You are on the government dole along with your mommy now that you've retired to the, uh, "country."

I guess the gay bar scene gets a little old once you hit 58 or so, eh?

Given the fact that you are an admitted loser - and you can't even identify a correct picture of your idol in the photo you use as your internet calling card (and if it weren't for hitting the usual liberal propaganda circle-jerk sites all day every day, you'd have no life at all), why should anybody on this site take anything you say seriously? Your trite, off-the-shelf regurgitation of talking points isn't even worth a cursory glance.

I'll say this for you: a lifelong parasite who went to a middling univesity and has left not one single footprint in your pathetic career except to write abusive emails to people you hate, living on the government dole - you are most certainly a poster boy for the Democrat party.

A useless, parasitic piece of crap.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 3:20PM

Nice try, Grzmlyk.

But you don't get my goat. Get your own.

LOL

Grzmlyk| 11.29.12 @ 3:42PM

Truth stands on its own.

"LOL."

Grzmlyk| 11.29.12 @ 3:44PM

BTW, answer the question: Since you're an admitted pervert, moron and parasite, why should anyone take anything you say seriously?

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 3:49PM

Not a reason in the world, Grzmlyk.

Now go take a nap.

frino| 11.29.12 @ 5:09PM

you don't knows shit bout McCain. deny man facts story of his own life. if he kilt you and I was on jury I go not gilty.

Simon Templar| 11.30.12 @ 11:13PM

Judging from the photograph he uses on his facebook and calling himself a dilettante, you nailed this weirdo.

Who Knows?| 11.29.12 @ 12:04PM

Empathy is the not-so-secret weapon of Dems, that’s for sure.

It is probably true that Republicans need to find ways to at least COMPETE with Dems when it comes to this whole feeling dimension.

Yes, Dems tend to feel more than think, and it’s the opposite for Reps. And, any educated person realizes that true empathy is providing a hand up, not a hand out---but, sometimes there are times when desperate people need help.

I watch dvd movies provided by the local library, and a few days ago an amazing flick plopped into my reality.

It’s name was “Betrayal”, a 2007 documentary of a Laotian family of a man who worked for the USA military when Nixon bombed the Ho Chi Minh Trail. What a human story of survival and struggle!

They did end up in the USA, but even here it was tough to adapt and survive for the 8 kids and mother.

I recommend it---yes, the GOP does need to at least get into the empathy game, in words if not deeds.

PolishKnight| 11.29.12 @ 3:03PM

Actually... based upon how Republicans vote and their elites engage in strategy, I would say the left is more "thinking" than feeling in that regard. Let's review:

As I will say here for years until the next election for the Republicans to lose, 75% or more of the left's electorate votes for very pragmatic reasons: Race and gender entitlements , welfare benefits, government union jobs. They don't care about ideology whatsoever. The country can go to hell in a handbasket but as long as the entitlements are there, they don't care.

The remaining 25% or so, and that's a generous figure, are either ideological leftists who are in the "party" for feeling and belonging to European Marxism and don't think about how that conflicts with a third-world immigration agenda. But beyond that driving them, their political agenda is also remarkably pragmatic: They lie through their teeth, ignore uncomfortable truths and play dirty and for keeps to win their points.

The conservatives on the other hand are a combination of "nice guys" who are "principled" and sing cumbayah hoping that the Holy Constitution will protect them or religious right zealots arguing whether abortion should ALWAYS be illegal or should rape victims be exempt without considering that neither position is winning them elections. So the left is right (pardon the pun): The right are a bunch of reactionary religious wackos but without the responsiveness that "reactionary" implies.

Who Knows?| 11.29.12 @ 5:50PM

What feels? The body, via the nervous system

What thinks? The brain.

My point is that leftists are into FEELING GOOD, that is titillating the body, more than they are into thinking.

Yes, they do use their brains to vote Democrat, but it’s for the reason to get goodies, to FEEL GOOD, by and large.

If they really used their brains, they’d realize they are legal robbers, since there is no free lunch, and ,,,

Oh well, I feel good about thinking about this.

JD| 11.29.12 @ 12:05PM

Empathy is not the same as sympathy. Sympathy is just concern for someone's struggles. Empathy is concern borne out of shared experience.

Neither sympathy nor empathy is required to treat a person justly. As in all things, Leftists act as though it's the thought, and only the thought, that counts. They do not entertain the possibility of unintended consequences; intentions always play out in reality in their minds. That is why they consider it so important to malign conservative intentions.

The perceived ill will of the right is but one of many Leftist lies that heavily influence elections. It has been truly impressive how many who voted for Obama have cited things that are not true as their reasons. Very few can state a support for Obama that consists exclusively of honest belief in his true ideas, or honest disagreement with true conservative ideas.

Grzmlyk| 11.29.12 @ 12:06PM

This has to be the stupidest article I've seen on this site.

Once again, the advice we're getting from our own side is to emulate Democrats.

Earth to author: Democrats will ALWAYS outpromise Repubs when it comes to handing out government goodies. Government goodies = compassion in the mind of the idiot American electorate. Compassion = empathy. Ergo, Democrats will ALWAYS be more empathatic than Republicans in voters' tiny little minds.

The key is not to play into the paradigm that politicians have to "care" about the plight of each and every one of his or her constituents. The key would be to re-educate the moronic American voter that empathy is NOT the most important trait in a leader. How about a sound understanding of the world around him, solid values and a knowledge of economics that goes beyond the third grade?

Of course this won't happen, so once again we have a pundit telling us the key for Republicans to get elected is to become Democrats. Genius.

The truth, of course, is that "empathy" is merely the nap upon the velvet glove of compassion that hides the iron fist of naked, avaricious, decidedly un-compassionate POWER. That is what the Democrat party is about, and that is ALL they are about. I mean Obama couldn't care less about anybody but Obama.

This is one of the many reasons America is doomed - and deserves everything it's about to get.

Warrior| 11.29.12 @ 12:16PM

You nailed it again. Let's empathize with the lowest common denominator. Don't empathize with the business owner (who didn't build it) that risked capital, worked 20 hours a day 7 days a week and navigated through all the regulatory minefields. Provided his/her family with health insurance and college funds. They are evil. However you must understand the difficulties of sitting home pregnant at 19 years old and already has had 4 abortions to go along with 5 kids from 4 different fathers watching cable tv on a flat panel high definition set and surfing the interent on their laptop during commercials. Have sympathy because for many, the schools provide thier kids their one meal of the day. We live in the bizarro world.

Grzmlyk| 11.29.12 @ 1:05PM

We do live in bizarro world - so now the advice we're getting from our own smart set is to further infantilize the American voter. My god, how can your average victim of white male culture even get out of bed in the morning without the president of the U.S. filling him full of dollar bills and self-esteem? WTF? We are LOST.

Don't empathize with the people who make this country work - they're not crying for mommy. Empathize with the losers, the fools, the people with grudges who allow envy to run their lives.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 3:48PM

"Don't empathize with the people who make this country work - they're not crying for mommy."

No, they're crying for money.

Grzmlyk| 11.29.12 @ 3:58PM

Witty! You certainly live down to your own billing.

Yeah - imagine how selfish it is to want to keep what you earn. And how much virtue accrues to you for insisting others give what they earn to you.

Then again, somebody's gotta pay for your internet access, right Ralphie? It sure as hell ain't gonna be you. You did enough just by being born. The rest of us will take care of you. And even pay for those young, young, young gentlemen callers you have to beg to stop by.

Fear not, professional parasite: Your butt-boy Obama's just going to print more money, and then you and your mommy can continue to leech off of the producers.

Gosh, economics is simple when you're a democrat.

BTW, I don't want your goat. I know where it's been.

frino| 11.29.12 @ 5:11PM

money bama wastin on shit.

Surly Curmudgen| 11.29.12 @ 5:23PM

Cheer up Ralph, it's been reported that your messiah really likes middle aged white men on their knees at the toe of his shoes, with their mouths open. Keep up the idiotic postings and he might make an opening for you.

Grzmlyk| 11.29.12 @ 1:05PM

(cont'd)

Who would have thought that Romney losing the election would have been the high point of conservative discourse? Since then I've read nothing but idiocy from supposedly intelligent thought-leaders as to how to get out of this.

The truth is that there IS no getting out of this. We have to let the whole rotten edifice crumble to the ground.

This column illustrates another symptom of the rot that has infected the right: Too many of conservatives, and businesses like the Fortune 50 company I work for, have become happy enablers of liberalism, cannibalizing their own philosophy - and then wondering why they keep losing. My company plays "go along to get along" all the live long day. They swallow political correctness and are happy to spout ultimately self-abnegating propaganda.

They're hoping that they'll be one of the ones left standing after Obama nationalizes business, industry and banking. Let's hope they're not shocked when Obama marks them for extinction.

PolishKnight| 11.29.12 @ 3:13PM

What's funny is that the question: Reaching out to their own white and male voters, is never asked.

Imagine if white male voters in OH, PA, Florida and Virginia turned out in the same numbers and percentages as the blacks do for the Democrats.

Imagine if when asked about "equal pay for women" Romney had looked Candy Crowley straight in the eye and said that women already have "equal pay" if they want to work 60 hours a week and financially support a husband to stay at home and look after the children but most don't want that and thanks to the Democrats, now most of them can't have their traditional expectations met either and are now stuck with a Sophie's choice of neither. That women have to accept that they can't have it both ways and make as much or more than a man and still marry up.

Can you IMAGINE the reaction of the auditorium? Sure, Romney might have still lost but at least this time he'd have a legacy. It's one thing to play it safe and lose (as he largely did) but more FUN to play it risky.

Grzmlyk| 11.29.12 @ 3:41PM

That is a worthy fantasy - I've thought of some of fantasy responses I wish he'd uttered during his feckless campaign (check out Bill Whittle's putative responses to the Benghazi situation at David Horowitz's Benefit dinner (http://conservativevideos.com/2012/11/bill-whittle-explains-what-it-is-to-be-a-conservative-and-why-romney-lost/) - if only we had Republicans with cajones anymore).

Caution is Romney's middle name, and that's why he appealed to the establishment panjandrums who had to vet him for the nomination - they knew he'd bend toward the middle like the putty he is.

One of the not-so-unspoken goals of the Democrat party is to utterly marginalize white males who haven't been castrated by the progressive feminists (who themselves are merely typical socialists wearing the mask of feminists).

White heterosexual males are responsible for all of the turmoil in the world, don't you know; as soon as the libs can liquidate us, they believe there will be nothing standing between them and Utopia.

And, given the demographics of this country, and the propaganda of our educational institutions that pounds individualism and common sense out of our children and replaces it with white guilt, liberal bigotry, envy, hatred and greed, I do believe they won't have to buy too much Zyklon B finish the job.

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:48PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules.

Surly Curmudgen| 11.29.12 @ 5:35PM

Grzmlyk, if those big companies don't pander to the Democrats they find themselves under attack by the IRS, EPA, LRB, and a large number of other government acronyms all run by progressives. It becomes a matter of survival. Recall Microsoft, they for years did not make political contributions at all, then they got sued by the government from several directions. Microsoft started making donations to the Democrats and a major miracle took place, the suits fizzled out.

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:48PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules.

Drunken Sailor| 11.29.12 @ 12:13PM

Empathy my ass. It's time for tough love. Sometimes you just have to let the people you care about learn their lesson the hard way. Sure it hurts you and them but it is a lesson they will never forget.

Let the system crash and when the shit hits the fan and the "Gimmie's" no longer get handouts just wait. When they start looking around bewildered, smack them upside the head and ask them, "Now are you ready to pull your head out of your ass and listen"?

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:49PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules, ya Drunk.

loulou| 11.29.12 @ 12:53PM

I had a friend tell me that she liked Obama because--"his heart is in the right place."

spike59| 11.29.12 @ 1:08PM

unfortnuately for your friend, her brain is in the 'wrong place'...6 iches up her arse

TLP| 11.29.12 @ 5:49PM

Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".

Read the New Rules.

dominic1955| 11.29.12 @ 1:43PM

What is really sad is that our culture and society have sunk to such a point to which this pansy nonsense of "perceived empathy" matters and affects how people vote. I suppose it is no suprise that emotional BS matters so much when most of the automatons that subsist in this country couldn't reason their way out of a wet paper sack. What a completely wretched society of coddled whiners!

We care about people's precious witto feewings way too much, we are soft and you all know what happens to societies that go soft.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 2:28PM

"We care about people's precious witto feewings way too much...."

Bingo!

That's the attitude that so many Republicans exude -- and why Romney lost. It's not a matter of perception; it's a matter of how folks like you actually feel and what you actually say and do.

Butch| 11.29.12 @ 4:33PM

Check. Google Walter Williams "Could they be elected today?" Madison wrote disapprovingly of spending public funds for purpose of benevolence: The "I cannot lay my finger on the article" quote. Franklin Pierce and Grover Cleveland actually vetoed expenditures for benevolence--one for mentally-ill people, the other for drought relief--for the same reason.

E B | 11.29.12 @ 1:54PM

But really this boils down to the fact that the GOP needs to control its own messaging, rather than allow the liberal media to control it. We start with our friends and neighbors, pointing out that the GOP isn't what the media says because if it were, it wouldn't be a threat to the Democrats! Not that the Dems are the same as the media says either. Tell people to read both sides for balanced coverage, because how can you make an informed opinion if you consider only one point of view?
www.conservativemormonmom.blogspot.com

Mike in N.C.| 11.29.12 @ 2:00PM

All one has to do is read comments posted at TAS to understand that there is little empathy among the readers of this blog. What is common are resentful comments about "takers," about the social safety net, about those who pay no federal income tax, about an insufficently "conservative" GOP, i.e. insufficiently niggardly. All the resentment is backed by exquisite moral outrage. And, this represents the thinking of much of the GOP's base. Good luck with the empathy quest.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 2:24PM

Hear, hear, Mike.

frino| 11.29.12 @ 5:14PM

union boys like
ralph got no empathy for had working folk in private secta.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 5:38PM

?

Warrior| 11.29.12 @ 2:59PM

Take your lilly white ass into the South Bronx and tell them you have provided their social safety net and how much empathy you have for their plight. It's a win-win. You learn a valuable lesson and we taxpayers have one less Social Security check that will have to be paid.

Mike in N.C.| 11.29.12 @ 3:07PM

Warrior,

1. Notice your assumption which may or may not be true. I call this to your attention because it is an example of many assumptions you hold that are based on no direct information.
2. You are aware, aren't you, that you provided an excellent example of the moral outrage to which I am referring?

Warrior| 11.29.12 @ 3:11PM

Another example of obfuscation. You must have the IQ of a grapefruit.

Mike in N.C.| 11.29.12 @ 3:24PM

Of you view what I wrote as "obfuscation" either you don't know the meaning of the word or you are the one with the IQ of a grapefruit.

Warrior. The moniker of a poser, I assume.

Warrior| 11.29.12 @ 4:47PM

You might get taken more seriously if you learned sentence structure and punctuation.

JD| 11.29.12 @ 3:13PM

Says the person who assumed in a post below that all conservatives are rich and buy lots of Starbucks.

I wonder how Republicans ever win elections if we're only the top 1%?

Mike in N.C.| 11.29.12 @ 3:57PM

They win with an army of useful fools.

JD| 11.29.12 @ 5:11PM

Somebody sure does.

spike59| 11.30.12 @ 6:07AM

"They win with an army of useful fools"
-------------------------------------------
a more concise description of the 2008 and 2012 Presidential elections than anything i have ever read-kudos!

JD| 11.29.12 @ 3:14PM

Disdain for harmful policies, harmful behaviors, and the people who advocate them does a far greater service to the masses than you whose policies are harmful.

Grzmlyk| 11.29.12 @ 4:33PM

Yeah, gee, imagine resenting having your pocket picked to support a metastasizing army of government workers making twice what we make, able to retire on near-full pensions at 55 and who don't add one bit of value to anything on this planet?

Imagine resenting people who think they should be paid for their envy.

Imagine being appalled at the hypocrisy of the Dems' sorry record of actual giving out of their own pockets; those of you not on the dole get mighty tight with the wallets when it's YOUR money you have to give out.

Imagine middle class people expressing moral outrage for being mugged every day of their lives by people who wouldn't spend a dime of their own money to help their fellow man, but claim moral superiority because they pay lip service to "empathy" and see not real people anywhere, but romanticized abstractions of helpless victimhood everywhere.

Imagine being dismayed that narcissism and pathology are the two guiding lights of liberalism.

Imgaine being nonplussed that the first rule of liberalism is to lie; the second rule is to steal; the third is to cheat; the fourth is to preen. And, always, the prime directive is to grind people you don't like under your bootheel and entice the unwitting to do your heavy lifting for you.

Imagine that.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 5:14PM

Of course you have to say "imagine that," Grzmlyk, because no-one can observe it, document it, or measure it. Because it doesn't exist -- outside the imaginations of such as you.

So I suppose I should compliment you on your honesty here, admitting that your political "vision" is merely a matter of imagination.

Surly Curmudgen| 11.29.12 @ 5:43PM

And the one who does all three the best, Obama, gets to be president.

Occam's Tool| 11.29.12 @ 7:29PM

Mike, Ralph: EVERYDAY I wake up and do more for desperately poor minorities in truly horrific circumstances than you have done in your lives.

I am realistic about what can be done and pragmatic in the way to do it. You ever go out in minus 26 degree weather in a snowstorm to take care of Native American Psychotic opioid addicts? Hmm?

TLP, wise man that he is, with the Gravitas of years and knowledge, is a hell of a lot closer to the right approach than you two idiots are. (TLP, this is not meant as a disagreement---I was just trying to figure out the best way to phrase this statement given your general views as I have never read an EXACT quote from you on this precise issue.)

I usually find that ignorance and mush headedness is the predominant quality of Liberal bleeding hearts, whereas reality based thinking and actual deeds are the usual qualities of Conservative Curmudgeons such as myself.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 8:44PM

Are you at Pine Ridge, Occam?

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 8:45PM

And ... before I pass any premature judgment ... how long have you been a BIA agent?

spike59| 11.30.12 @ 6:05AM

"And ... before I pass any premature judgment..."
-----------------------------------------
ralphie, there you go again, trying to pretend you have any right, intellectual ability, or authority to pass judgment on anyone or anything...you tiny little idjit

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 2:21PM

1. "While Republicans are not necessarily less empathetic than Democrats, they are perceived that way by voters. And in politics, perception is reality." Yes, Republicans ARE "necessarily" less empathetic than Democrats -- not by logic but by history, especially the history of the past 30 years. Policy after policy, action after action that unfairly favor the privileged at the direct, further expense of those with less. Moreover, there IS a difference between perception and reality, even in the political universe. The fact that Allott doesn't see any such difference speaks volumes.

2. "Mitt Romney brought many qualities to the campaign. He exuded competence and had a keen grasp of the issues and a plausible plan to fix the nation's problems. He had a proven record of business accomplishment and had shown the ability to bring disparate political factions together. One quality that eluded him was empathy." The only statement vaguely true there is the last one.

3. The tone and tenor of the vast majority of comments here on this piece is a remarkable testament to conservatives' lack of empathy -- and, in fact, of any understanding of what empathy is. They think it's some bad form of "sympathy" or something -- as if they understood "sympathy." Trying to explain empathetic social/political policies to these folks is truly like trying to explain kindness to a psychopath.

Bottom line: The Republicans' problem is not one of perception; it is one of social-policy substance.

Mike in N.C.| 11.29.12 @ 2:41PM

The amount of tax revenue paid by TAS posters (yes, I am making a huge assumption here) that goes to social welfare spending is probably less than their Starbuck's, or similar, expenditure. But, "the common welfare" is a meaningless phrase in the Preamble to the Constitution for many of the posters at TAS, unlike "provide for the common defense" about which they are totally uncritical.

JD| 11.29.12 @ 2:57PM

Now THIS is an example of a blatant liar. This person has know evidence whatsoever that what he says is true, yet he says it with great confidence.

Mike in N.C.| 11.29.12 @ 3:09PM

Are you kidding me? Hell, all anyone has to do is read the comments posted here. Are you really that disconnected from reality?

JD| 11.29.12 @ 3:25PM

Wow. Doubling-down on the lie. Even YOU had the sense to write " (yes, I am making a huge assumption here) " in your post, yet you can't handle the claim that your "huge assumption" is not true.

I've never spent a penny at a Starbucks in my life, by the way.

And as another explained, "common welfare" isn't in the Constitution at all, and even "general welfare" is grossly distorted and taken out of context by you people.

I have already explained that our disdain for dangerous, evil policies is not only NOT an "uncaring" sentiment, but actually a caring one.

Mike in N.C.| 11.29.12 @ 3:31PM

I should have been explicit. When I wrote about the assumuption, the one I had in mind is that TAS posters are all paying federal income tax which I doubt is true.

Drunken Sailor| 11.29.12 @ 4:34PM

That's ok, we assume you are receiving more in tax refunds than you put in. That's why you love redistribution.

JD| 11.29.12 @ 5:09PM

A person does not need to receive more than he pays to love redistribution. Even one who nets a slight loss in his interactions with government still benefits vs those who net larger losses. Also, altruistic Leftists believe in redistribution even if they don't receive it.

spike59| 11.30.12 @ 6:03AM

DS, you're undoubtedly right about Mike on the Dole; and we all know that when you rob Peter to pay Paul, you get no objections from Paul

Grzmlyk| 11.29.12 @ 4:35PM

Mike I agree with you: Your facts may be wrong, but, in your mind, your narrative is right.

And that's all that matters.

So why did your marching orders from the Daily Kos come in so late today?

Butch| 11.29.12 @ 3:22PM

The preamble says "PROMOTE the general welfare and PROVIDE for the common defense. The verb choices are no accidents; words used to mean something in those days.

Mike in N.C.| 11.29.12 @ 3:28PM

Relax. You will notice that I did not confuse the two words. And, what does "promote" mean to you? The word isn't a synonym for the phrase "doing nothing."

JD| 11.29.12 @ 3:31PM

The General Welfare clause is by far the most unfortunate in any constitution.

Of course, the fool here cites its presence in the preamble, without noticing that the preamble does not in itself grant any powers at all, but rather states, by way of introduction, for what purposes the powers to be defined will exist. One would think the preambles brevity would preclude such misunderstandings...

Still, despite how clearly it ought to be understood from context that the General Welfare clause does not override the entire rest of the Constitution, the Left has discovered that through its ownership of the dictionary, which it seized in the 1930s, it can do absolutely anything it wants. All Leftists need to do is think that what they want is a good idea, and they can justify it under the General Welfare clause. It's foolproof, unless of course one clings to the antiquated idea that words have meanings.

Mike in N.C.| 11.29.12 @ 4:02PM

So, what was the intent of the framers? Just BSing in the Preamble?

Sorry, not all of the document supports your prejudices.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 4:26PM

"[T]he Left has discovered that through its ownership of the dictionary, which it seized in the 1930s, it can do absolutely anything it wants."

Beauty.

You should write that one on the ceiling over your cot.

Surly Curmudgen| 11.29.12 @ 5:50PM

Blast it Ralph, now I have to take back the nasty things I said about you.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 6:27PM

Hmm.

OK, Surly.

I think.

LOL

Cheers.

Butch| 11.29.12 @ 4:44PM

Well, to both JD and Mike (positively and negatively, respectively), Madison DID speak to it. To paraphrase, he stated that the founders intended that the "general welfare" clause should be constrained by the expressly enumerated powers in the body of the Constitution, especially the ninth and tenth amendments. Put simply, the government could promote the general welfare only within the constraints enumerated. Not much wiggle room there.

JD| 11.29.12 @ 5:07PM

As I said, only by ignoring context does the Left distort the General Welfare clause. I still consider the clause itself unfortunate, because ignorance of context is a likely, if not inevitable, event.

As for Mike and Ralph, Mike ignored my clear explanation, and Ralph dismisses with mockery what he cannot counter with logic. The simple truth is that redefining a great many words, at its convenience, has been the mechanism of a great many Leftist "advances".

Occam's Tool| 11.29.12 @ 7:38PM

Yes, and although you have not read Jack in Wi. commentary extolling Islamists, JD, and therefore condemn me wrongly on that, you are nonetheless correct here.

Please see my other commentary here. I, for example, believe in involuntary drug treatment for addicts; I believe in workfare; and I belive that all government assistance for people capable of work should come with the need to work for benefits attached.

This makes me heartless according to Liberal pundits, most of whom have never done any clinical work with addiction in their lives, live in places with no minority population, and generally are in places where experts like me must clean up messes they have created through their ignorance.

The stupidity of the ACLU and the enormous human suffering it causes I must deal with daily. Next up, legalizing Marijuana---that is going to be of great benefit to the impoverished Native American families on the Rez (Sarc full bore on) that I work with clinically. But White Rich Liberals ignore that problem, although I'M THE RACIST, since I'm Conservative.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 8:25PM

What does "Sarc full bore on" mean?

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 5:31PM

Oh, I'm afraid there's an awful lot of "wiggle room" with respect to the Ninth and Tenth amendments -- especially the Ninth.

Virtually all federal courts -- including the Supreme Court -- avoid addressing those amendments' constraints like the plague.

Years ago, in a "Constitutional Law" class, I voiced a Ninth-Amendment based argument against a particular decision. The professor dismissively said "The Ninth Amendment? Are you serious?" And that was the end of it.

spike59| 11.30.12 @ 6:01AM

"Years ago, in a "Constitutional Law" class, I voiced a Ninth-Amendment based argument against a particular decision. The professor dismissively said "The Ninth Amendment? Are you serious?" And that was the end of it."
----------------------------------------------------
ralphie, ralphie, ralphie...so much to address:

#1-there are no "Constitutional law" classes in pre-school

#2-you can't cite the 9th Amendment as a defense against bing put in the corner for looking at another kid's 'pee-pee'

#3-that wasn't a 'Professor'...that was a teddy bear with one eye missing and its ear torn off
---------

JD| 11.29.12 @ 3:07PM

You lie very boldly, Ralph Novy.

A fundamental definition of conservative policy is that it favors no one over anyone else. The only government policies which grant preference are yours. The increasingly miserable plight of many Americans is a consequence of your policies, which drive business out of the country and make a mockery of the free market by introducing complexity that only the brightest can navigate.

Out of your incredible hubris, you define "empathy", "sympathy" and all other forms of moral goodness as, quite simply, "being liberal", so that not being liberal makes one definitionally evil. Out of inability to argue facts and issues, you seek to redefine words so that basic definitions preclude debate.

In every way, America has been moving only leftward for generations. The tax code is larger, more complex, more "progressive", more redistributive, and does more social engineering. Each of these characteristics only ever increases. Government only ever grows. Regulations only ever increase in number. The areas of life which government manages only ever grow.

The only way in which you have ever been able to make any claim that anyone but you is getting his way is by redefining "our way" as "rich people getting richer at everyone else's expense." Again, you are brazen liars.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 3:29PM

"A fundamental definition of conservative policy is that it favors no one over anyone else. "

You actually had the chutzpah to begin a post about bold lying with a bold lie like that?

LMAO.

Try to find ONE "conservative thinker" anywhere at any time that said anything like that.

I'll think you'll discover that such thinkers invariably talk about how society and government should favor those who are more "meritorious" by one criterion (innovation, entrepreneurship, job creation, etc.) or another.

In short, conservatism has NEVER been about the kind of egalitarianism you suggest.

JD| 11.29.12 @ 3:52PM

I am one conservative thinker. Also, every other conservative thinker.

The boldness of your lie is that you come here, to a gathering of conservatives, and tell us that we believe something very different from what we actually believe, and have the audacity to be offended when we object.

Your party's principle election strategy for a long time has been to misdefine your opponents. You consider this far more important than defining yourselves, as evidenced by the relative effort put into each. You have worked so hard to misdefine us that you believe your lies and accuse us of lying when we dare to speak for ourselves. A prime example was the media's response to Romney's first presidential debate, where he was accused of flip-flopping not because he changed HIS positions, but because the positions he stated for himself were not the positions Obama's campaign had imposed on him.

You KNOW that many of us do not want government to have an economic role AT ALL. How then can you accuse us of wanting government to grant economic preference? You distort our claim that absent preferential policies, merit will decide outcomes. You turn it into "government should tilt things in favor of people." You can't possibly believe you're being honest when you do so.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 5:16PM

Nice start: "I am one conservative thinker. Also, every other conservative thinker."

JD| 11.29.12 @ 11:02PM

You wrote, "Try to find ONE "conservative thinker" anywhere at any time that said anything like that."

My meaning was that I am one such thinker, and also, every other conservative thinker is such a thinker.

JD| 11.29.12 @ 3:53PM

It is patently absurd for you to come here and try to tell US what conservatism is. We are conservatives. You are not.

That you don't see your actions as a problem speaks to your hubris. You believe that your mind controls our thoughts!

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 4:14PM

"You believe that your mind controls our thoughts!"

Double LMAO.

I WISH it were true that I could control your thoughts.

As to "You KNOW that many of us do not want government to have an economic role AT ALL," not even Ron Paul has gone THAT far. That's not "conservative" at all; that's advocating economic anarchy.

Grzmlyk| 11.29.12 @ 4:37PM

"Double LMAO?"

How about "ROTFLMAO?" Come on, Ralphie, ratchet up the wit.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 5:18PM

If "ROTFLMAO" conveys more meaning to you, Grzmlyk, fine and dandy.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 8:36PM

C'mon, Grzmlyk. I'm your huckleberry.

JD| 11.29.12 @ 5:02PM

"Economic anarchy". What a clever scare tactic. I suppose you're similarly distraught over idea of internet "anarchy", right? That's why we need government to take over the internet?

Of course not. "Anarchy" is a lack of government. The role of government is to protect rights. To not have a "government" managing the economy is not "anarchy" any more than it is anarchy to not have government manage your social life.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 8:35PM

So you're saying government should not protect property rights, JD?

You do know that's "economic," right?

JD| 11.29.12 @ 11:07PM

How does a government directed by conservatives protect property rights in a way that treats people preferentially?

Remember, this started with your absurd claim that conservatives, not liberals, desire a government that treats people preferentially. My counter is that according to conservatives, government exists only to protect rights, not to manage the economy at all.

So now you claim that government cannot protect rights without also managing the economy, and further imply that conservative means of protecting rights do not treat people fairly.

Both are wrong.

I believe that the crux of your fallacy is a continued redefinition of what a "right" is. You must include some government meddling in your "protection of rights" that is nothing of the sort. Or maybe you just haven't thought it out.

JD| 11.29.12 @ 3:07PM

The unmistakable truth is that what we see today is YOURS. Misery is a consequence of your terribly deluded "empathy." If we lack that, it is a credit to us.

We care about people, but we combine our caring with a wisdom which you both ignore and fear, such that you will not dare to debate it with us. That wisdom requires us to deplore your agenda and the traits that lead people to support it. We deplore such things BECAUSE we care about people, for the things we deplore hurt people very badly. Our disdain for people who think like you is a form of caring for the poor that has far more value than your harmful sentiments.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 8:41PM

"We care about people, but ...."

Yeah.

And it's what follows the "but" that counts.

And what Republicans/conservatives have done after that "but" has been pretty damned damning.

Hope you have to stand before your god, at some sort of final judgment, stammering "but, but , but....."

Jeez Louise.

JD| 11.29.12 @ 11:08PM

As I said, you ignore and fear our beliefs, such that you dare not debate them with us. Your response didn't dare step into the part of my post that contained my beliefs for precisely that reason.

spike59| 11.30.12 @ 5:56AM

'Hope you have to stand before your god, at some sort of final judgment, stammering "but, but , but....."
-----------------------------------------
actually, when there IS a final judgment, most conservatives, who give far more of their financial resources and their time and talents to help others than ProgLibs ever have or ever will, will likely not fare nearly so badly on THAT score as those on hte Left; but i pity the ProgLibs who will be trying to explain how they left it up to the government to do what HE told them clearly was THEIR responsibility...and then when they try to lamely offer up, "well, we TRIED to make 'the eeeeeeevilll rich' pay more", i' guessing the whole 'thou shalt not steal' thing will come up, and there will likely be a 'collective' round of "humminahumminahummina"...but it won't last long; i'm pretty sure that abortion support may also be on the agenda IF politics is involved

Drunken Sailor| 11.29.12 @ 3:14PM

The point all you trolls miss is that being emphatic doesn't solve a damn thing. Empathy leads to emotional thinking. While it may make the other person feel good to think you know their pain, it does not mean you know how to solve it.

Conservatives feel their pain because most of us have been there. But instead of blowing warm blue fuzzies up their ass we are telling them how to fix their problem so they never have to feel that way again. Sometimes tough love is the ONLY answer.

I know that you bleeding heart trolls do not understand this so fire away. Just remember to practice empathy and spare my feelings.

JD| 11.29.12 @ 3:15PM

It is NOT "the thought that counts".

A person who suffers couldn't care less whether the one causing his suffering means well or not. The Left doesn't just seem to think thoughts count; they seem to think thoughts are ALL that counts.

Drunken Sailor| 11.29.12 @ 4:18PM

Preaching to the choir, brother.

frino| 11.29.12 @ 5:18PM

Solinda was being caring ? you crazy boy. pissing away money poor folk don't want dat. you know shit bout poor.

Warrior| 11.29.12 @ 3:08PM

OK genius. First and foremost, you must be boderline retarded, illiterate or both. There is no such phrase "common welfare" in the Constitution.

As it relates to "general welfare", tell us the enumerated power given the federal government in the Consitution that allows for Medicare, Section 8, EPA, education or any social safety net program.

Your ignorance doesn't seem to know any bounds.

Tafuna| 11.29.12 @ 3:27PM

I do not understand how anyone with an IQ beyond single digits can believe that a wealthy Chicago politician who got rich through graft really cares about them. While there were all sorts of stories out there of all the people Romney privately helped, has anyone ever heard of Obama ever helping anyone out of his own funds?
Our problem isn't that our side lacks empathy but the MSM constantly stereotypes conservatives as rich and unfeeling. Jesus Himself could run on the Republican ticket and the media would portray him as heartless and uncaring. Only until we can finally convince a majority of Americans to quit believing the garbage the major media puts out and regard everything they see and hear through it with deep sketicism will we finally start to win again. Worrying about our candidates supposed lack of empathy is a waste of time.

JD| 11.29.12 @ 3:37PM

Never say that you do not understand a Leftist. If you do not understand them, then you may be wrong about them. Let the Leftist say that he doesn't understand you; that is his admission of ignorance. It is the explanation of why he is wrong and you are right.

I understand Leftists. I understand why they think what they think, and why they are wrong. You must understand as well.

It is simple enough. They believe what Democrats and much media have told them repeatedly: that social welfare is good for them. They do not understand that they suffer more than they benefit from social welfare, because their need for social welfare is caused by the cost of social welfare.

Having accepted the premise that social welfare is good for them, they proceed to believe that the degree of a candidates support for social welfare is the degree of his concern for them. That is why they like Obama better than Romney.

To break their illusion, do not simply claim that Romney cares, or that Obama doesn't care. They will never believe you. Attack the source of the problem - the belief that social welfare is good for them. Destroy that, and the rest falls into place.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 4:18PM

"They do not understand that they suffer more than they benefit from social welfare, because their need for social welfare is caused by the cost of social welfare."

Right. The poor are only poor because government has robbed them of their money to pay for "social programs" to help them.

Uh-huh. And that surely explains the plight of the poor throughout the ages in hundreds of civilizations. It's been because they were all "socialist"!

Drunken Sailor| 11.29.12 @ 4:37PM

So your saying with all your spending in the war on poverty your about to declare victory?

News flash citizen of Utopia, there will always be poor for one reason or another.

JD| 11.29.12 @ 5:05PM

I did not say that social welfare is the only cause of poverty. It is, however, a cause of poverty, and usually a cause of poverty of an economic cost larger than the payout of social welfare.

You simply do not begin to grasp how much economic harm your party's policies do. Even most conservatives don't.

Simon Templar| 11.29.12 @ 5:54PM

The concept is called, the "Culture of Poverty" and describes the reality that social welfare over generations leads to a culture of poverty in which it makes it more difficult to escape it in future generations. Conservatives, social workers, and some sociologist have been talking about it for 35 years.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 7:02PM

Yeah, Simon, familiar with it.

And yeah, there's SOMETHING to it -- if you just give out to people barely what they need to survive and don't augment that with additional educational and vocational incentives and opportunities.

But what about the "Culture of Privilege" that the current GOP seeks to protect? How less unproductive and parasitic?

If anything, it seems to me that these privileged folks have been given enough for long enough to prove they aren't worthy of having so much for so long. High time they gave back.

Occam's Tool| 11.29.12 @ 7:40PM

Yes, Ralph, a "wealth tax" may be an excellent idea. But elevating the "income tax" is not.

Ralph Novy| 11.29.12 @ 8:17PM

Huh?

The distinction?

RCV| 12.2.12 @ 8:23PM

A wealth tax taxes based on net worth of assets rather than current income.

JD| 11.29.12 @ 11:10PM

The GOP seeks to destroy the Culture of Privilege, which is created and preserved through Leftist efforts to concentrate power in the name of false benevolence. Your foolish belief that we, not you, are its protectors is what leads you do double down on the policies that reinforce it.

spike59| 11.30.12 @ 5:46AM

'give out'...thanks, ralphie, you've unwittingly demonstrated the basis of all Progressive 'thought'...it's based on someone being 'given', rather than 'earning'...

can you PLEASE explain how someone wanting to keep what THEY EARNED is 'unrpductive and parasitic?'

'high time they gave back'....the only way for those EEEEEEEEVILLLLLL 'privileged folks' to give BACK is to return what they have earned to those who handed them their earnings...and, by the way, what in the name of all that's holy gives a Marxist turd like yourself the right to decide if someone else is 'worthy' of keeping what they earned?

frino| 11.29.12 @ 5:23PM

I think somehow ya'll made money on solinda, fiska and all that other shit. poor gonna figure assholes like you sooner or later. speclee if consertibs show em some love-Bobby Jindal-he's da man, unnastands this shit.

Chef Schnauzer| 11.29.12 @ 5:06PM

The nation is going to have to 'hit bottom', stop luxuriating in phony and disgusting self induced angst. People underachieve, people starve, people suffer, people die. If you can't achieve, if you can't feed yourself, if you have no relationship with God to relieve suffering - then you might die. Soon. Bad choices generally have bad consequences, accept that reality like a man. Life can suck.

Chef Schnauzer| 11.29.12 @ 5:11PM

Bathhouse Barry O'Bama and the other communists are going to run out of other people's money soon - where is the Kumbyah going to find another pocket to pick for their endless wealth transfer? Smart people have provided for the bumps in the road.

Frosty| 11.29.12 @ 7:34PM

Ooouuuchhh!! Reading that was worse than a 5-minute ice-cream headache. Which is only exceeded by Barack's 1.4 million dollar ice-cream cone adventure.

So sick of conventional wisdom such as the old "perception is reality" BS. No, perception is what you get when you spend more than you have yet you continue to get government benefits because Uncle Sam continues to borrow money or print money. Reality is when the physical and psychological pain arrives because the check's are no longer in the mail. I pray that I live long enough to see reality plop itself down on the front porches of the 47%.

Russel| 11.29.12 @ 8:36PM

Some twit twisting Ebonics as some sort of wit . Another who defames servicemen , and a third who just has too much time in his hand . I have to work tomarrow , so all I want to know is : when does Tim start whatever it is ? .

More Articles by Daniel Allott

More Articles From Another Perspective

The Book We Still Can’t Spare

May 21, 2013 | Lars Walker

Stifle This, Mr. President

May 16, 2013 | Ray V. Hartwell, III

The Scheme to Make America Fat

May 10, 2013 | Marta H. Mossburg

The Plantation President

May 7, 2013 | Jeffrey Lord

In Defense of Mark Sanford

May 2, 2013 | Reid Smith

http://spectator.org/archives/2012/11/29/the-gops-empathy-challenge

ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Headlines

From the Obama Ministry of Truth

Ben Stein|44 comments

Despite the WaPost, Benghazi Is a Major Scandal

Quin Hillyer|41 comments

IRS Union Chief Stonewalls

Jeffrey Lord|55 comments

McCain-Feingold Gave Us the IRS Scandal

Ross Kaminsky|97 comments

Anyone Still Believe Me?

Aaron Goldstein|29 comments

The Book We Still Can’t Spare

Lars Walker|44 comments

Delivering Serbs to the Wolves

Doug Bandow|17 comments

Wincing at Cumberbatch

James Bowman|9 comments

The Spectacle Blog

More on Lerner Pleading the Fifth

Kaylin Bugos | 4:27PM

Did Virginia Republicans Just Elect Terry McAuliffe?

Ross Kaminsky | 3:41PM

Lois Lerner Will Take the Fifth

Ross Kaminsky | 3:27PM

Cook Insists: No Income Shifting, Tax Avoidance

Luca Gattoni-Celli | 3:01PM

Democrats Outraged Over IRS, But Not the Right Aspect of It

Kaylin Bugos | 2:10PM

What Happens If the Uninsured Can’t Register Under Obamacare?

Patrick Ryan | 1:22PM

Whitehouse Berates Republicans for Causing Tornadoes

Claire Healey | 1:11PM

UPDATED: Former IRS Chief Refuses to Apologize

Kaylin Bugos | 12:45PM

SPONSORED LINKS

FLASHBACK TO: 1995

Clip of the Day

ADVERTISEMENT

Home |About |Contributors |Advertise |Donate |Privacy Policy |Contact

The American Spectator Foundation is the 501(c)(3) organization responsible for publishing The American Spectator magazine and training aspiring journalists who espouse traditional American values. Your contributions are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. Each donor receives a year-end summary of their giving for tax purposes.

Copyright 2013, The American Spectator. All rights reserved.