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Political Hay
Time for Some Ju-Jitsu
A way out for Republicans tired of being bullied by Obama and goons.
(Page 2 of 2)
People who started small and worked their way up have been the backbone of American prosperity and what made this country great. John Boehner is right to go weepy-eyed about life in his father’s tavern. But that kind of Horatio Alger story has been replace by the saga of the Oppressed Minority versus The Establishment, which of course is all those Horatio Algers grown up. Mitt Romney was actually heckled when he visited the White House the other week. With the economy poised for another miserable four years, Republicans are on the verge of becoming the Sinister But Powerful Minority that bedevils every country led by a Great Leader.
So here’s where the ju-jitsu comes in. Use Obama’s strength against him. As the President and Congress approach the Fiscal Cliff, Republicans should back off and say, “Alright, you’re the President. You won the election. Go ahead and do whatever you want. Raise taxes, draw up more plans for big government, print more money, forget the deficit.”
Rand Paul has suggested such an approach and I agree with him completely.
Sure the economy will go into another four-year tailspin. Sure we’ll come to regard 7.5 percent unemployment as an improvement. But whatever happens, Obama will have to take the blame. Republicans may think that they’re rescuing small businesses and protecting job creators by standing tall on taxes but they are only putting their heads in the noose. Whatever compromise they are able to wring out of the President will become the basis for blaming Republicans for the failures of the next four years.
The President has survived his first four years by blaming everything on George Bush. Now he is planning to blame the next four years on Congressional Republicans. The time has come to use his own heft against him. Let Obama go flying off the Fiscal Cliff all by himself. He will crash-land and when he does, Republicans will be left standing on the high ground.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (51) | Leave a comment
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 12.10.12 @ 6:20AM
It seems pretty obvious doesn't it?
Darin| 12.10.12 @ 6:36AM
The risk of this approach is that it won't matter how badly the economy or country is damaged. Blame can and will be put on Republicans, in this case because they didn't resist the destructive efforts of the Democrats. And, of course, it can only be fixed by the Democrats.
Republicans are in a lose/lose situation. They will be damned if they resist, and damned if they don't. Sadly, completely destroying the country may be the only alternative. Too many people fail to understand how fragile freedom really is.
C. Vernon Crisler | 12.10.12 @ 10:55AM
Right, Tucker and Rand Paul's approach is naïve. It assumes the existence of a media interested in truth. That is just not the case anymore. When the economy collapses again, the media will blame Republicans no matter what they did in Congress. Russians had to go through 70 years of socialist utopia before they wised up. Americans may have to go through their own socialist utopia before they finally get it through their heads that socialism doesn't work. In that time they will also come to see the media as just another Pravda, full of lies and distortions in the interests of leftism. That may take several years.
Santiago| 12.10.12 @ 12:29PM
Republicans should just hold a big, live press conference on Christmas Eve and announce that they are going to give the Statists everything and anything that they want. Then what will the media blame Republicans for? For doing what they (the media) wanted them to do?
Truth has a way of coming to light eventually. It does not matter if the media tries to hide the truth, you can't hide that fact that a person is hungry by trying to convince him that he is not. Reality has a way of imposing itself on people, no matter their opinion of it. People are going to have to feel the pain if there is to be anything learned.
Occam's Tool| 12.10.12 @ 5:10PM
Vern: you insult Pravda. They currently view Americans as Communists for re-electing Obama:
http://english.pravda.ru/opini.....mistake-0/
This is Friggin' tragic. I think the Republicans should pass a bill in the House extending the Payroll tax at 4% and the Bush tax rates in toto. Then let Obama eat it.
Occam's Tool| 12.10.12 @ 5:11PM
That should be: "Vern, you FALSELY insult Pravda."
Understand, Vern, I am in complete agreement with your position. I am disgusted that Pravda is more in favor of economic freedom than an US President.
Appleby| 12.10.12 @ 6:38AM
That's what I said four years ago. Stand back and let it crash. Look after your family and friends; gather in your churches and synagogues to pray, stock up on food, ammo and guns, and bunker down. When the kids have looted the candy store and burned it to the ground, let them come into the office, fast food joint, Wal-Mart etc. one morning and find the door padlocked and the lights out. Let them march, bloviate, riot, loot, burn and destroy, AND LET THEM STAND THE CONSEQUENCES. You cannot cure stupid, but in some cases you can wake them up to the consequences of their actions.
Santiago| 12.10.12 @ 12:31PM
Agreed. Even better, escape from the US for awhile (or at least have an escape plan) and come back for the reconstruction. If there is no reconstruction, contribute to your new community/country.
Zeppo| 12.10.12 @ 2:32PM
Fine, but unless Republicans (and conservatives, for that matter) can articulate a competing vision of what we should do, just standing back and saying "you're going to fail and we will be there to say I told you so" isn't going to win a lot of hearts and minds. For an increasing swath of the population, there is simply no imaginable alternative to the status quo. You can blame it on the people if you like, but leaders need to lead. Take ObamaCare (please): no one likes it, but instead of tinny and insincere claims that they would "repeal" it, imagine if Republicans had had the courage and wit to explain why it is a bad solution and what their answer looks like.
RABart| 12.10.12 @ 6:39AM
What Mr. Tucker proposes seems to be the most prudent approach to the upcoming fiscal disaster. However, do the republicans, Boehner and his ilk, really want to reduce the size of government and return to some sort of sanity. I think not. It seems that the American's apathy comes with a huge price tag.
Von Mises Jr| 12.10.12 @ 7:08AM
I think that we should stop treating Obama like he is the Nietzsche "Superman" and admit to ourselves why he won: greedy bastards voted out of revenge to take other people' money for them or their egos. So it is time to call a spade a spade. Fifty plus percent voted for higher taxes and it shall be for all whom pay taxes.
The top 2% not paying enough taxes is the least good way to deal with our fiscal cliff. First, about half the people are getting some kind of redistribution of wealth from DC. It may be only social Security and Medicare, but they are broke. So man up. Kids are paying for their parents indirectly in a socialist scheme instead of simply taking care of their own parents. Second are half the people paying no Federal Income tax? So they don't care how high taxes are since they don't contribute. Third is that people are stupid. Perp and little alan remind us of that every day.
So it is time to tell the masses of ignoramuses that voted for Obama: you own it. If the citizens vote conservatives back to power in the future, we will cut spending and reform entitlements. If not, suck it up.
No matter what Bo(eh)ner offers, Obama will reject it anyway. But giving Obama unfettered power is a mistake.
Jacob McCandles| 12.10.12 @ 9:32AM
I agree with the author, let's settle this once and for all. Boehner should hold a press conference and announce that the president will have the keys to the car. He doesn't agree with any of it, but he will stand out of the way, respecting the majority of citizens and their wisdom. Hopefully we will still be a nation in for years. The Tea Party should become the voice of the founders- hammering home their message while Rome burns. Why not, we are going down either way. Let's clean house and suffer what we must to get the country back.
Von Mises Jr| 12.10.12 @ 10:26AM
Wrong, Jacob. If a bully in the school yard says he is going to fondle your little sister, you don't say well fine, all the girls at school will see what a jerk he is. You tell him, touch her and I will plant this rock in your forehead.
We don't need to run away and hide. Obama and the socialist have a dilemma. The dupes that voted for him that did not expect to pay more taxes are now going to find out that they were played. And if we don't cut the spending, we are going over the cliff regardless of higher taxes on SMB. So simply pass the Bush tax cut extension and go on vacation for four weeks.
The markets and bond vigilantes would rather middle income earners pay much more in taxes so that they get repaid in the short-term. We are not selling long-term bonds abroad, and it seems we are selling less and less except to Ben "The Bank" Bernanke. So when markets crash or inflation rages, the Republicans can say that they gave Obama what he said he wanted and it didn't work. Now the people can demand he cuts spending or the valley at the bottom of the cliff is going to hurt when the sudden acceleration ends.
Jacob McCandles| 12.10.12 @ 10:45AM
This will not end well. If the republicans have a hand in it, I am convinced they will take the blame thanks to the media. Look for Hilliary to start distancing from BHO after her gig is up. The democrats have to own every ounce of this thing or we won't get enough back in '14 and '16. My instinct is to fight also, and maybe it's for the better, I don't know. It's a hail mary. Read Ann Coulter's latest...very disturbing trends.
pogybait| 12.10.12 @ 12:33PM
How about playing the cards to force the costs of Democrats denial of spending cuts, drive home the point endlessly that deficit spending is a tax increase....you want it pay for it....how big a tax structure do you want?
Anthony| 12.10.12 @ 2:07PM
Tisk, tisk, Von. Apparently you're not quite up to speed on the doings over at the parallel universe known as leftism.
According to the Morning Joe, we have been treating Obozo like a "second class citizen", not Superman, hence, he should not compromise on the "fiscal cliff" because we white folks have been diss'n the man.
So according the the mentally diseased left, since Obozo is a victim of white racism, he gets a pass to destroy America as payback.
You wonder why we need a revolution folks?
Glen H| 12.10.12 @ 7:46AM
I believe you meant Rand Paul, not Ron Paul.
William Tucker| 12.10.12 @ 10:06AM
The reader is correct. It was Rand Paul, not Ron. Probably better since he carries more weight.
Occam's Tool| 12.10.12 @ 5:12PM
By the way, Bill: GREAT PHOTO! And column.
Dodd2| 12.10.12 @ 7:57AM
"Blacks only constitute 13 percent of the electorate but voting as a bloc they have tremendous leverage."
That's true but not for reasons that Mr. Tucker might imagine.
The black vote in and of itself is almost as inconsequential as blacks are in, say, any technological aspect of society.
The real leverage that blacks have is not their vote It's that a great segment of the white middle class is overly sympathetic to their plight as if it was still 1955.
And this, by the way, is why the Democrats and liberal media use any pretext to charge conservatives & Republicans with racism. It's to reinforce that illusion and thereby keep black and the whites, who are in their enthrall, safely in the Democratic column.
It's all smoke and mirrors, but it has worked like magic up to now.
cuban pete| 12.10.12 @ 8:47AM
"the white middle class is overly sympathetic...as if it was still 1955." Exactly correct.
I know any number of white, suburban liberals who live in all white suburbs,send their kids to all white or 95% white schools, socialize only with white people,etc. but they voted for OBS to validate their open mindedness.
When asked why they did not take the opportunity to live in more "diverse" areas they will tell you that is irrelevent or mumble something.
These people do not vote with their a**.
cuban pete| 12.10.12 @ 8:48AM
Sorry early morning I meant BHO.
Goldwater Girl| 12.10.12 @ 10:15AM
it's okay, we thought OBS meant Obama Bull Shit
cuban pete| 12.10.12 @ 10:46AM
Thanks,GG.
Freudian slip.
Pecos Pete| 12.10.12 @ 2:31PM
Oh my. Coffee all over my keyboard. I'll be using OBS forever more. GG, good job!
Occam's Tool| 12.10.12 @ 5:13PM
"Organic Brain Syndrome?" Spot on, Pete. From all the choomin' he did, OBS and BO are closely intertwined.
Hardcard| 12.10.12 @ 8:18AM
Ju-jitsu my azz we need Louisville Slugger.
rjh| 12.10.12 @ 8:51AM
Only one problem, obama owns the media. The media will see to it that the ignorant, the stupid, and the America haters among us (otherwise known as obama voters) will never blame obama.
merlin| 12.10.12 @ 8:59AM
I agree with William Tucker and most of the comments, with one addition. The Republicans agree to allow anything semi-reasonable to pass with a "present vote" as long as it has a suitable sunset clause in it. Example: allow the tax increases to happen but if revenues are not increased by the projected amount in four years, they revert to Bush's rates.
Anti-Statist| 12.10.12 @ 10:20AM
Good suggestion.
Anthony| 12.10.12 @ 8:59AM
Screw the Ju-Jitsu, how about an old fashioned ass kicking of both the left and the RINO's in congress?
Pecos Pete| 12.10.12 @ 9:16AM
Tucker makes it clear: The USA is screwed.
Peppermint Tea | 12.10.12 @ 10:16AM
The choice is clear: desperation and ruin on the one hand, or total annihilation on the other. I pray we will have the wisdom to chose wisely. (Hat tip, Woody Allen)
Peppermint Tea | 12.10.12 @ 10:26AM
As I see it, there is a third way.
Change the fight. Make this about the $16.3 trillion debt and raising the debt ceiling. Bohner should tell the country that the Bush tax cuts and the sequestration is small potatoes. Inconsequential. The REAL problem is the $16.3 national debt and that is what the GOP wants to tackle.
Then say, that Obama need to provide a plan for this year, not 10 years down the road.
Then say, to get Obama to quit farting in the wind, the House needs to shut down the government until Obama comes up with a plan.
Then shut it down, and tell the Prava press-corps that the US is in debt beyond our ability to pay. That Bernanke is printing money. That the can cannot be kicked anymore.
Then negotiate, and if Obama won't bend, pass his plan (not some little thing like making the top 2% pay but a comprehensive plan with entitlement reforms, taxes, stimulus, regulation).
THEN, sit back and let him own it. And keep America watching the debt clock as it keeps ticking. 17, 18, 19 trillion.
SUBVET| 12.10.12 @ 11:39AM
Here's my take for what it's worth......this whole Dem, Rep thing is all a smoke screen. THEY run the country all these pupits that are elected [and I use the term loosely] are just smoke and mirriors.
No matter who is in play THEY move their agenda either in a quick way as we have seen the past 4 years or when the other side just happens to get in a little slower. See folks wheather you like it or not "we the people" have and are being played.
I am a fighter I would like to see a valentine day's event. ......line'em up. I am old enough to have lived in the best of times.....I don't see that in the future for my kids.
Their obsession for a NWO and to CONTROL all is at an all time high. Everything they do is out of the playbook, it has been said many times here.
What do we do ???? has been the question. Many here have great ideas, but untill WE unit under a "true" leader it's going to be a hard road. They have divided us and they know it's working. We are getting tired and just want to "just give them what they want" ......BS I say come and take it...if you can.
Unless you want to be shot you had better get into my foxhole. I am standing my ground I am perpaired to fight to the end if need be.
SUBVET| 12.10.12 @ 11:43AM
BTW..........Tucker your a goat for the LEFT. Go plant your seed in someone elses garden.
Who Knows?| 12.10.12 @ 11:50AM
It really is simple.
Republicans should just say NO!
Just say, repeatedly and loudly, we don’t want what Obama wants.
But, we can’t stop him.
HIM!!!
He’s the one who was elected, and he has the power, and we SIMPLY disagree with him.
The cook, BHO, is baking HIS cake, and the GOP cooks have been banished from the kitchen.
For once, there AREN’T too many cooks in DC!
As always, though, there ARE too many crooks!
howard lohmuller| 12.10.12 @ 12:34PM
Mr. Tucker has a point and he may be right. But let's play the Devil's advocate and argue against his proposition. FDR got himself elected 4 times during the Great Depression. How did he do it? He continuously showed people he was trying for them. He started program after program, public works projects, welfare agencies etc. The Great Depression continued because his economic policies were wrong. President Obama is using the same Keynesian policies now that FDR used. And he just won an election by blaming the economic problems on President Bush and showing he cared about voters by extending unemployment benefits, public works projects, a junk car buyback and being a virtual husband and father to young unmarried women drawing them into the welfare state. He may feel he can win by following in FDR's footsteps. WWII got the country out of its doldrums and a great energy boom might be what gets America today out of hard times.
JD| 12.10.12 @ 12:57PM
Most of these posters are correct. The author, and Rand Paul, advocate the Ayn Rand approach of letting collectivism win until its failings are undeniable. The problem with that approach is that the Left is not honest. It will forever blame vestiges of the Right for all that goes wrong.
Even if it can be shown with certainty that none but the Left has any role in policy-making over a period of years, the Left can still blame historical remnants of the Right not yet corrected. Or it can blame the foreign Right.
Or most of all, it will blame individuals who are insufficiently selfless. These will never cease to exist, and so the Left will always have a scapegoat.
We must win with information, not with retreat.
TeaPartyNow| 12.10.12 @ 1:43PM
Until the American People civilly rebel & ALL OF US, decilne is perpetual. The fact that you look to the people who created this mess to get us out of it, shows how little you understand how far gone America truly is. Our culture cultivates the ignorant worship of the state. We the People are ignorant drones wholly incapable of freedom.
It is on us, not them. Or it is gone.
holmegm| 12.10.12 @ 3:26PM
Yeah, the problem with that is that we and our children have to *live* here for the next four years.
Don't throw in the towel yet. Things change. The downward slide won't go on forever. History is full of surprises, and the last notable person who predicted the end of history was rather spectacularly wrong.
Stan Redmond| 12.10.12 @ 3:36PM
The republicans will still get the blame no matter what. The statists are still blaming republicans for the failures of Obamacare and Dodd-Frank. Every good statis knows they need a boogeyman. In the socialist paradises of North Korea , Venzuela, Cuba, and Iran everything is America's fault. Since Obama's merry band of miscreants can't blame America they can blame half of America. If Republicans give everything to Obama they will still get the blame and piss off what little base they have left. Where are the republican Onions? Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin seem to be the only ones with testicular fortitude. As tempting as it is to say "give Obama everything" I for one don't feel like getting punished with a small hope that OBama and the democrats will get the blame of a crap economy. It's going to bring a lot of pain to a lot of people. And the democrats are masters of blame and demonizing.
factotum | 12.10.12 @ 3:42PM
The only thing that this article lacks is any supporting evidence. Of course finding evidence in the physical world to support a lie is, to say the least, difficult.
Mr. Tucker does share a gift with many psychopaths however. He can spin a wonderful tale using emotionally charged words. The only problem with that is that it is the same idea that got the GOP where it is today. That and a lof of outright lying
JD| 12.10.12 @ 4:30PM
Oh, how backwards you are.
Drunken Sailor| 12.10.12 @ 5:02PM
Mr. President, shouldnt you be talking to Mr. Boehner or at least packing for your vacation?
MichtoLA| 12.10.12 @ 4:07PM
This article is very, very wrong headed because it does not take into account the left's amazing ability to spew propaganda or for the power of dependency. If we follow Mr. Tucker's plan, the Democrats will simply blame the "rich" or "corporate greed" or "the banks" for the state of the nation and the media will happly push that theme. And, once people become addicted to subsidies and social programs, all the Democrats have to say is that they will preserve those programs in order to win. Republicans will lose no matter what.
Personally, I think Republicans should hold out for a rational deal, or let the county go off the cliff. Giving Obama lots of new goodies to had out like crack cocaine will only create more adicts.
Let's rumble| 12.10.12 @ 4:54PM
Well, I agree with Mr. Tucker, some of you seem to think we can affect things by putting up resistance. You still don't want to admit that we are headed there quickly or very quickly. They won, they win every time, nothing Obama has done has ever been stopped, not he has a second term. He has the sychophantic media, he has the minorities and all the tattooed millenials, he has the guilty whites and the true believers. The die is cast. The Repubs are nothing but whipping posts for Dems sadistic pleasure. Give them thier damn tax increase, they aren't ever going to cut anything....and be done with it. It won't help the country but it's what they want. Then try to grow a backbone for the 2014 elections. Conservatives can actually run against Boehner and for America and the reason they voted present. How can you not understand our only option is to shoot ourselves in the foot by shutting down the government tit. Just pretty damn stupid.
Jane Chingo| 12.10.12 @ 5:59PM
Please stop this pointless maundering. It's over. It's time to take Captain Dominic Flandry to heart (since you mentioned banana republics):
"The Empire is currently in the early stages of decadence, which is the most agreeable time to inhabit: peace and pleasure, and the society not yet rotted so far that chaos sets in. One might say the Empire is a banana just starting to show brown spots."
EclecticHorzman| 12.10.12 @ 7:52PM
I first thought this was a frivolous notion, but now I'm pretty much convinced. Letting Obama's gamble take us over the cliff is far preferable to another Quisling deal.
One thing, though: Conservatives and the GOP will not escape blame. As Obama crawls out from under the rubble he will doubtless complain "You should have stopped me."
Pej | 12.11.12 @ 12:38AM
I don't think that Obama cares one way or the other about the "fiscal cliff". His objective at present is to campaign against the Republican House, with the intent to get them all fired in 2014 so he can put so more big issues on the books.
And, I doubt there is much that can be done to stop him, because the average American is so eat up with being in the cool crowd, following the celebrities, and being modern, that they never hear anything the Republicans say.
What this all says is that it is a Leftist game for the next few years. And, when the economy gets so bad that they can't afford TV's to watch Obama any longer, then a new party of C0nservatives may have a shot. Call it the Poor Man's Entrepreneurial Party--nothing to hate about that, and we can win the election before the Leftists get the hate built up among the airheads again. Its a better plan than trying to negotiate with Obama.
sdfhlk | 12.12.12 @ 3:34AM
thank you for your show of the post,Merry Christmas to you