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Political Hay
Countdown to Capitulation
The GOP has already accepted that its role is to follow, not lead.
The only remaining question in the fiscal cliff debate is not if the Republicans will capitulate to higher taxes but when. “I, as a Republican, would take raising the rates on the two top brackets if in return, we had tax reform laid out over a period of months, if we had entitlement reform,” said former RNC chairman Haley Barbour, foreshadowing the coming capitulation of House Republicans.
The GOP is rapidly changing from the party of no to the party of maybe. Maybe it will accept tax hikes. Maybe it will accept gay marriage. Maybe it will accept amnesty. Maybe it will change its position on abortion.
Imagine if prominent Democrats, after losing in 2004, had proposed significant changes to four or five major stances of the party. All hell would have broken loose. Instead, Democrats concluded that the problem was not their message but their messenger, and they waited for a better candidate. The party didn’t move to the center. If anything, it moved even farther to the left. A San Francisco liberal became speaker of the House and a leftist community organizer became president of the United States.
Unable to show that level of patience or principle, Republicans appear ready to negotiate away much of their platform. A white flag peeks out of their pockets. During the presidential campaign, they said that the federal government “has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.” But no sooner had they lost than they accepted politics as a joint search for more government revenue.
A few Republicans still go through the motions of saying that tax hikes are bad for the economy, but that is not a very principled objection to high taxation or a sturdy one, as evident in Barbour’s comment (he acknowledges that a tax hike is “bad for jobs and bad for the economy,” but would support it anyways). The principled objection to increasing taxation is that it is unjust. For decades, the federal government has taken more in taxes from the people than it needs to perform its legitimate functions. By accepting the lie that the federal government suffers from inadequate revenue, the Republicans show that they accept the Democrats’ conception of an unlimited federal government and its use of taxation as an instrument of theft.
Republicans are following, not leading, on what they think is a path to political redemption. But irrelevance is the more likely destination. Given a choice between two liberal parties of varying degrees, the people will choose the more authentic one, as they do in California and Northeastern states. The Scott Brown versus Elizabeth Warren race could become the paradigm of American politics, with the more liberal candidate winning each time.
In the meantime, American political discourse will grow more and more narrow and complacent — a case of the blind leading the blind. The media already spends most of its energy on trying to reduce the two “reasonable” positions in any given debate down to two barely distinguishable liberal ones. This task will only get easier as the Republicans signal retreat.
On a recent This Week, all the panelists supported gay marriage, including the designated “conservative” ones. George Will, who used to quote Edmund Burke about the dangers of mobs, now prefers to quote pollsters on the “emerging consensus.” To the delight of his fellow panelists, he pronounced gay marriage an inevitability: “There is something like an emerging consensus. Quite literally, the opposition to gay marriage is dying. It’s old people.”
This is exactly what members of the chattering class want to hear and they buzzed over Will’s brilliance for a couple of days. But they didn’t mention that this expert on the future composition of America had recently predicted a Romney landslide. So he doesn’t have his pulse on the present, much less the future. “I’m projecting Minnesota to go for Romney,” Will said. Let’s see if his “Quite literally, the opposition to gay marriage is dying” prognostication holds up any better. At the very least, it is premature: he didn’t mention that thirty-three states have banned gay marriage despite the “emerging consensus.”
There is certainly an emerging consensus in the green room of ABC and other networks on that and other issues. But so what? Republicans used to understand that false ideas, even if ostensibly popular and spread by powerful elites, fade and end up discredited. The existence of the Soviet Union was thought to be permanent by the liberal elite; Ronald Reagan said Communism would collapse under the weight of its own lies. His impolitic honesty about that was in the end the best policy and politics — a lesson waffling Republicans forget at their own peril.
About the Author
George Neumayr, a contributing editor to The American Spectator, is co-author, with Phyllis Schlafly, of the new book, No Higher Power: Obama’s War on Religious Freedom.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (79) | Leave a comment
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 12.12.12 @ 6:46AM
Where can the Republicans run? Where can they hide? They are in public view.
Are there any men or women left who won't throw themselves on the dust bins of history to hang onto their power in Washington?
They will realize and too late that there are some things worth fighting for. Obama didn't win the election, he bought it and with your money.
Santa Claus isn't coming to town in D.C., he is the town.
There is another election cycle just two short years away.
If the Republicans throw their identity away they are done.
Von Mises Jr| 12.12.12 @ 7:37AM
Not only are you spot on with branding of the platform, Bill, but the policies we are pursuing will be a disaster. So capitulation only makes sense if the GOP is Statist partners with the liberal Democrats and adversaries to the conservative base.
I stopped in Boehner's and Cantor's Office on a trip to DC and spoke with one of the Staffers. This bright young guy went to Hillsdale College and took a two semester economics course where they used Ludwig Von Mises "Human Action" as their text. Anyone who can digest 881 pages of Austrian Economics is not ignorant and uninformed. So we know that at least the Leadership's Staff understands that our fiscal and monetary policy is a catastrophe waiting to happen.
So ask yourself: why would the GOP join hands and jump off the cliff when they can watch the Democrats go it alone.
I know Boehner was Ameritrade buddies with Pelosi benefiting from inside information, but is he so wed to joint liberal governance that he wishes to take the GOP splat onto the rocks below with his fellow Democrat Socialist traders.
Coco| 12.12.12 @ 10:57AM
Good news for Senior Citizens!
Joint pain is God's way of telling you he loves you.
Joellen| 12.12.12 @ 7:21AM
REPUBLICANS NO COMPROMISE! Keep repeating this NO COMPROMISE - let the dems have their party, Republicans stay away from it - and know that if you dont compromise, eventually you will emerge victorious.
And do yourselves a big favor and stop listening to the likes of George Will, Peggy Noonan, Bill Crystal, etc.
Listen to Rush, Mark Levin, Dennis Prager, Sean, Glenn, and the commentors here at TAS. Listen to the likes of Tim, Nancy in NC, CJW, Albert, Bob Grant, Pecos Pete, etc., etc., etc. Listen to the real folks, whose lives will be affected by your decisions for the rest of our lives and then future generations.
In other words, listen to the people who elected you to do your job - NO COMPROMISE.
Pecos Pete| 12.12.12 @ 7:28AM
Joellen: We hereby appoint you as adviser to the Republican Congressional Leadership.
Al Adab| 12.12.12 @ 10:25AM
I'll second that Pete.
GobBluthe| 12.12.12 @ 9:31AM
NO COMPROMISE means 98% get their taxes increased.
Al Adab| 12.12.12 @ 10:25AM
That Mr. Blue is exactly what the Dem centralizers want. They get to blame the GOP (like always) and further impoverish the public.
OP4| 12.12.12 @ 10:43AM
Yes - that's a win win.
No Compromise also means that real spending cuts take place. Win.
With everyone feeling a tax hike, people might lose their enthusiasm for tax hikes for anyone.
Joellen| 12.12.12 @ 7:25AM
And I dont care that I spelled Bill Crystal's name incorrectly - to me he's a wannabe commedian.
Von Mises Jr| 12.12.12 @ 7:42AM
He is a liberal Trust Fund Baby. His father was a Senior Fellow at American Enterprise Institute and bestowed the Medal of Freedom.
Little Billy is simply an egghead commentator. I have heard him on Fox Panels and his reasoning is not even coherent, no less conservative. He is not a comedian, but he is a joke.
TLP| 12.12.12 @ 1:36PM
You spelled Comedian wrong.
Warrior| 12.12.12 @ 2:04PM
She was thinking of communist or commodian or "comma" Sutra...
Joellen| 12.12.12 @ 2:31PM
Tim, in case you havent noticed, I've been in a very cranky mood, so stop mucking with me or I'll have to come down and beat you.
Joellen| 12.12.12 @ 2:33PM
And I spelled mucking correctly!
TLP| 12.12.12 @ 2:37PM
Are you coming on to me?
Warrior| 12.12.12 @ 3:39PM
Maybe it was a bit to subtle, but I was.
TLP| 12.12.12 @ 5:13PM
I KNOW you were.
I was talking to her.
TLP| 12.12.12 @ 5:13PM
And, you spelled "too" wrong.
Joellen| 12.12.12 @ 5:42PM
Speaking of "coming on" CAN NOT MAKE THIS UP - latest news on the man who STIFFED TWO PROSTITUTES, Rober Menendez (I refuse to call him Senator) had an illegal alien SEX OFFENDER working for him in D.C!
Now do you understand why I am so cranky. A good man like HERO ALLEN WEST loses, and this slime Menedez gets another 6 years. Its not you I really wish to do some hurting on Tim (although it could be fun cause you is the man), its the American People who voted Obama, Menedez, Loonie Tune Jackson Jr.; Pelosi, Reid, etc. etc in to those halls that our Founding Fathers so walked.
And to add to my crankiness ALREADY Hillary 2016 is being played! I feel like Charlie Brown everytime he gets that dang football pulled from under him UTTER FRUSRATION.
aware| 12.12.12 @ 6:14PM
Speaking of Jackson,Jr.
See where his "replacement", who by the way is one of the most anti-gun of the entire anti-gun web of corruption known as Illinois Democratic "Party", went and got himself arrested for carrying a pistol in to an airport? Even better than the sex story cause it involves a petard and hoisting:
http://conservativeanimal.com/.....nt-nabbed/
Warrior| 12.12.12 @ 8:57PM
I meant 2. Or is it I meant II.
Virtue| 12.12.12 @ 7:25AM
"The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts." Edmund Burke, 1777.
uuu| 12.12.12 @ 7:48AM
the fact of the matter is that the founding fathers set in motion a process of liberalization and this country has moved to the left ever since. name one thing that liberals haven't already got or aren't in the process of getting.
at the very least this country hasn't been center-right since the ratification of abortion in 1973.
The Big E| 12.12.12 @ 9:24AM
Abortion wasn't "ratified," which is the process by which an Amendment to Constitution is approved. It became the law of the land through a Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court may well "interpret" the Constitution, but they do not "ratify" amendments to it. Their decisions can be reversed by subsequent Supreme Court decisions, and that has happened many times in our history.
And as for the idea that liberals always get what they want - and presumably keep it - have you watched the news recently? Heard of the "right to Work" legislation passed this week in Michigan?
uuu| 12.12.12 @ 7:59AM
just listen to conservatives today whimpering for women's rights in the islamic world. where were these same conservatives forty years ago in this country on women's rights?
conservatives always buckle.
The Big E| 12.12.12 @ 9:42AM
Forty years ago in this country, women could vote, run for and hold office, own property, drive, seek educational or business opportunities as far as their ability and ambition would take them, hold professional licenses to be doctors, lawyers, etc. Today, throughout much of the Islamic world, they can do none of those things, and in many places will whipped, stoned, or in the case of a 13 year old girl in Pakistan who wanted to learn how to read, shot if they try.
And yet you compare the "plight" of women in America of 40 years ago to that? That not only demonstrates exceptional ignorance of both American history and current events, it is also disgraceful, and extrememly disrepectful and condescending to women who truly must risk their lives to have even a tiny fraction of the freedom that women in this country had, even a century ago, let along 40 years ago.
And while your asking questions about where people were, let's ask a couple more?
Where were Democrats when the KKK was lynching blacks across the south?
Answer - underneath the hoods of those doing the lynching.
Where were they when Blacks were fighting against Jim Crow laws designed to prevent from exercising their right to vote?
Answer - in state legislatures voting to enact and strengthen the very Jim Crow laws the civil rights movement wwas fighting.
Al Adab| 12.12.12 @ 4:13PM
E:
The only right of women that uuu is concerned about is the "right" to sacrifice their children to the godess Choice.
Frank Drackman| 12.12.12 @ 8:10AM
OK, heres my Conservative BonerFides...
1:Cast first vote for the Gipper in 80'
2:Went swimming at Chappaquidick
3:Drove around for 10 yrs with a David Duke Bumpersticker..OK, I told everyone it was just a "Duke" Bumpersticker, which in Alabama, got you even more shit.
Am I the only one who finds George Will as annoying as, umm whats the word for those turds that break off, and you gotta use like a whole roll till your wipin clean, he's one of those.
In fact, lets start a movement, like the Homos did with "Santorum", as in,
"I was late in responding to the Code, because I was taking care of a George Will"
That grating voice, like an 8th grade english teacher, the not short/not long hair, and worst of all, his treatment of baseball like its a friggin religion.
I played baseball, pitched in fact, lefty, and there were some players I beaned just for the fun of it.
And check the records, Georgie, there's never been a World Series ended with a hit batter.
And if Mike Torrez had hit Bucky Dent in the earhole, Bucky Dent would only be remembered as the mediocre utility infielder he was...
Seriously, George Will's enough to make me vote for Joe Biden in 16'
Frank
KennesawJack| 12.12.12 @ 8:28AM
Frank, the only thing you've done that worries me, even a little bit, is the Chappaquidick thing. However, to the point at hand. George Will, is he just now coming to this realization? Hell. Most of us here have known this for years. Seems to me he was one of the first ones to advise the Republicans to force Romney to turn over his tax returns, all of them. Let me see now, council capitulation and then, four months later, bemoan capitulation. What an ass. He and Kristol are cut from the same cloth. Opinionated pseudo-intellectuals with a strong likeness to the North end of a Southbound horse. By the way, my David Duke bumper sticker never caused me any problems in Alabama.
KennesawJack| 12.12.12 @ 8:30AM
Oh, I almost forgot. He's a life-long Cubs fan. Loser.
Frank Drackman| 12.12.12 @ 8:46AM
OMG(hey I have 2 teen daughters, I can say "OMG") George Will's a Cubs fan??
OK, sure I watched, ummm maybe 2,000 Cubs games in the 80's(I know they only played 1625 games, I watched some over and over)but only because they were the only team besides the Braves that was on every day. ESPN didn't have baseball, and the Saturday NBC game was always Yankees/RedSox/Dodgers. Hey, let me know if George Will ever goes to one of those Fantasy Baseball Camps, it'd be worth the fee to drill that MilkToast in the ribs with my 75mph.
OK, 55 mph "Fast" Ball
Frank "Lefty"Drackman
KennesawJack| 12.12.12 @ 9:13AM
Only if I can be the Catcher.
CJW| 12.12.12 @ 10:19AM
K Jack
Will has three or four books that are a collection of his columns. I bought some for one dollar at our library used book sale. Some of his early stuff, 1980's when he supported Saint Ronald Reagan were good, but he has lost the zip on his fastball (Trying to stay with the baseball images), and has nothing left. I may have overpaid for the books.
KennesawJack| 12.12.12 @ 10:28AM
Probably not more than 80 or 90 cents, though.
TLP| 12.12.12 @ 2:39PM
So, he's gonna be the Pitcher, and you wanna be the Catcher?
Expect a Call from Purp.
Frank Drackman| 12.12.12 @ 10:27AM
Umm thats a little fruity, but OK?.........
and if I wasn't "Born that way"
LEFTY, not Homo,
I'd probably have been a Catcher too.
I think it's the whole mask thing.
Frank
KennesawJack| 12.12.12 @ 10:29AM
I was implying I would get to call it "high and tight". Whoops.
KennesawJack| 12.12.12 @ 12:04PM
Sorry. The girl at the picnic callef for it high and tight. I was confused for a moment.
Butch| 12.12.12 @ 5:30PM
I can verify Frank's David Duke bumper sticker remark. They were blue and white, and said only "Duke." The blue was the right shade, too.
On the way home from the "Redneck Riviera," (Destin, FL on the panhandle gulf coast, patonized exclusively by Sawthreners, where David Allen Coe can be heard on the juke box at the Hog's Breath Saloon), I kept seeing cars with "Duke" bumper stickers. I wondered why so many of those southerners were Duke fans. When about the tenth one came by, I started noticing that they all had Louisiana plates. Frank speaks the truth, as usual!
c. j. acworth| 12.12.12 @ 8:49AM
I'm still trying to figure out a good strategy for the Stupid Party to use (since they clearly don't have one of their own). Remember, they can't just vote "no" and walk away. The LSM will see to it that they and they alone get the blame for "middle-class tax increases", and the next recession. Comes the mid-terms, the Dems take back the house, and get a super-majority in the senate. The R's have to offer something that will sound reasonable to people and let the Dems vote it down. Or allow the Dems to pass something (while voting "present" themselves) so it is clear to all that the inevitable crash belongs to Obama and the Dems. And I do believe the crash is inevitable at this point. We're going back into recession next year, no matter what gets passed in the next few weeks. The only point that matters is the continued existence of an Opposition Party composed of adults who can pick up the peices and rebuild America. Obama is looking ahead to getting back the single-party rule he had for his first two years.
TLP| 12.12.12 @ 2:41PM
There actually is a way to Walk, and Chew Gum at the same time, on this one.
Give Hamas' Deliverer what he wants on the Taxes on the Rich, but only with the following Condition.
He wants another $250 Billion Stimulus.
No way, and remind everyone what he did with the last Shovel Ready Infrastructure Jobs Stimulus.
Then get out there and tell the American People that you're doing this to prevent the Decimation of our National Defense, and Medicare. And say it every time you open your mouth, to exhale.
The Rich aren't Stupid. They will find their way around all this, and the Inevitable Economic Downturn will be laid at the feet of the Political Party with the Jackass as it's Symbol, and it's Leader, and his Second in Command.
This is the only way out of all this.
Trust Me.
Have I ever steered you wrong?
Sjccoach| 12.12.12 @ 8:59AM
The Republican Party is on life support. Capitulation will be the death of the party. I will not vote for a Democrat or a Democrat lite. I will either vote for a third party candidate or stay home.
ArmyAviator| 12.12.12 @ 9:14AM
We may see the TEA Party rise-up and replace the Republican Party. If not the TEA Party, another one will. The Republicans are losing support of the people they claim to represent. IF we don't see the emergence of a new party, one who will espouse FREEDOM and FREE ENTERPRISE along with freedom from government, the nation will not remain intact! I think there's more to the SECESSION movement than simple disgruntlement with the '12 Election cycle. The Secession movement has some very dedicated members. If current politicians don't bother to concern themselves with what the Secessionists are saying, they do so at their own peril. I've always been a Union man, but can clearly see the issues raised by the folks in Texas as well as Montana. Washington is not working for them. It's not working for the people of our nation, it's only working for Washington and the Liberal Socialist ELITES. Haven't the Kerry's, Clintons, Kennedy's and yes, the OBAMA'S accumulated enough money for a lifetime? How much more do they need?
GobBluthe| 12.12.12 @ 9:39AM
A Tea Party type party would have at most 30 senate seats. It would be a party full of Murdoucks, Palins and Angels. I supported the Tea Party back in 2009-10, but it has become clear that they are incapable of mature political behavior. They have cost the GOP about 5 senate seats over the past two cycles.
Limbaugh is nothing more than a conservative wrecking ball. No one would have ever heard of Sandra Fluke, had Limbaugh not opened his fat mouth and made her a national martyr. His moronic Limbaugh Rule meant to replace the Buckley Rule has been a political disaster.
Conservatism is losing not just the GOP. Conservatism does not and will not appeal to members of the Democrat coalition. The Tea Party is sign of conservative weakness, not strength. They are like the Kamikazes of the right.
Simon Templar| 12.12.12 @ 12:06PM
And besides pretending that you are not a troll and throwing around a few diatribes about what the GOP should do, what exactly are you? So, the TEA Party and conservatism is at fault, now. Are you just another idiot liberal troll pounding off some lame convoluted nonsensical diatribe to confuse those stupid conservatives? Or another enlightened modern libertarian of some new stripe that now hates conservatism, this week? Last week you were telling us that you were the true conservative? Sorry but it is hard to keep up with your turning and twisting.
Mature political behavior? LOL.
You might consider getting some mature political thinking before you shoot your mouth off.....
GobBluthe| 12.12.12 @ 12:35PM
I am a conservative who is fed up with the childish utopian outlook of the Tea Party and its followers. There is nothing conservative about defending the top 2% from taxes they were paying slightly more than 10 years ago. There is no political constituency for such a position. The GOP should agree to raise rates and that is it. No spending increases no debt ceiling increase and no loophole changes, that will be for later. I also oppose the extremism in MI over RTW. The GOP should not be declaring war on private sector unions.
Simon Templar| 12.12.12 @ 1:34PM
The fact is that it will be more than just the 2 percent, it will be across the board and for everyone. That is a liberal talking point. The fact is that we are already taxed enough. The fact is we will be here again in the next cycle and they WILL be demanding another hike. The fact is the Tea Party is more than just a do not raise our taxes group, it is more about the spending side...fiscal responsibility is one of there three planks, remember? It is the GOP establishment that loves to pretend it is for no new taxes but says nothing about spending as it is largely afraid to make real cuts or propose them. The GOP can agree to return to Clinton tax rates ans Clinton levels of spending. The damn well better not agree to raise taxes for nothing in exchange and that be that as you have said. Yeah, that would be brilliant. Guess what, that is exactly what they will probably do.
Nothing new or original there.
Simon Templar| 12.12.12 @ 1:58PM
There will be no later, because you have no leverage after that and nothing to bargain with...
There is a political constituency for raising taxes and reducing spending, most of the public wants both.
GOP is not declaring war on unions, it is declaring war on public unions that are out of control and bankrupting the states. These public unions should not exist in the first place. Those states legally elected representatives that represent the majority of citizens of those states that WANT the right not to join a union, not destroy unions or take away their bargaining right or right to have a union.
Simon Templar| 12.12.12 @ 2:06PM
Your point of view seems to be a childish Utopian idea that the course of action you are proposing is going to lead to anything good or responsible or somehow is going to change the fate of the GOP. Right now, the GOP establishment is proposing nothing, just reacting, not showing leadership, and certainly not bargaining to accomplish anything. Their biggest mistake is not controlling the narratives about them that the media and the Democrat socialist are creating about them and the crisis in general.
Al Adab| 12.12.12 @ 2:42PM
The Conservative position in re income taxes, if there must be any at all, is that all people should be treated the same. There should be no progressive rates which punish income (which is a form of property) based on its volume and source. To take a dollar (and taxes are a taking) and treat it differently than any other violates the equal protection clause of the 14th.
Simon Templar| 12.12.12 @ 2:50PM
Very good point. Many also forget that conservatism is more than just tax rate policy or positions.
Al Adab| 12.12.12 @ 3:32PM
Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind. Well worth the read.
ArmyAviator| 12.12.12 @ 5:48PM
When the Liberals raised taxes in the 1930's, it only deepened the DEPRESSION and put more people out of work. But now, we have Welfare, Food Stamps and WIC. So, okay, raise taxes on the 1% or 2% or whoever you want. Why not? We can ALL lose our jobs and go on 99 weeks of unemployment and then Welfare. This is what it sounds like many of you want. I don't!
GobBluthe| 12.12.12 @ 6:36PM
RTW impacts private sector unions more than public sector unions. I would favor abolishing public sector unions, but leave the private sector alone.
PolishKnight| 12.12.12 @ 9:15AM
The Democrat party's defeat in 2004 didn't result in much navel gazing on their part because they knew their candidate sucked. A self-proclaimed military hero who had betrayed his fellow soldiers with a cheating slimy trial lawyer VP. Yet, they got a significant percentage of the popular vote. On the other hand, Romney went down in flames despite being a good overall candidate against a lousy president.
The main Democratic platform is race and gender entitlements. They even sneered during the whole election that there weren't enough "white guys" in the Republican party to win meaning that they appeal to non-white guys via racist goodies. All the rest of their agenda doesn't matter and they know it.
Bob K| 12.12.12 @ 9:16AM
Maybe the party will disappear like the Whig party did?
Derek Leaberry| 12.12.12 @ 9:17AM
The Republican Party is a party of cowards on all fronts- budget, taxes, social issues like abortion, queer "marriage", family values, feminism, and immigration. Unless there is a depression in the next two years, it must be expected that the Democrats will win large gains in 2016 because of the dispiriting of the Republican base.
The Conservative Movement, such as it is, is no better. They have no ability to conserve anything. Too many "conservative" writers seem to be metrosexuals whose estrogen levels are higher than Lady Gaga's.
As for George Will particularly, he has been an anti-conservative "conservative" since my college days long ago. Like Judas Iscariot, he sold out for thirty sheckels to betray what he claimed to love most. He lives in the sterile DC suburb of Bethesda and the closest he gets to normal people are in his limo trips to the ABC studios or the box seats at Nats Park. Like his pal Charles Krauthammer, he hates organized religion but worships at the feet of Charles Darwin.
GobBluthe| 12.12.12 @ 9:30AM
George when you arrive back in reality from LA-LA Land, youll realize that taxes are automatically scheduled to rise. There is nothing the GOP can do. Period.
Your piece is just a bunch of complaints, without any solutions or leadership. In the 1970s, when the GOP was adrift, it was NR that took the lead for the conservative movement. Yet we see nothing of the sort from AS.
uuu| 12.12.12 @ 9:35AM
when krauthammer criticizes our immigration policy he can't possibly be talking about our legal immigration policy since we let in more immigrants every year than the rest of the world's countries do combined, (itself a leftist policy) so he must be saying that we should lighten up on the illegal immigrants.--- go to the left even more.
the fact of the matter is that the history of america is one of going to the left and the impotence of the right to prevent it.
yes. we capitulated--- the day we went right.
C. Vernon Crisler | 12.12.12 @ 9:36AM
I wonder whether George Will will accept an emerging consensus for polygamy, pederasty, beastiality, cannibalism.
Lincoln believed there were some things that were right or wrong regardless of the emerging consensus. Will has in effect adopted Stephen Douglas's view that emerging consensus (popular sovereignty) determines what is politically right or wrong.
Hardcard| 12.12.12 @ 9:38AM
WHO IS GEORGE WILL ?
JP Jones| 12.12.12 @ 9:51AM
Well and with Idiots like the Republican Govs of Wisconsin and now Michigan 2014 will be a bust.
The only chance the Reps have had is to win back the white working and socially more conservative middle class aka...the Reagan folks.
Well with this current obsession on Union Busting in Wisconsin and now Michigan that is never going to happen.
The tragic story here is that Clinton and Obama were only able to Rally those mid west folks because of Walker's ill advised antics
but the super brains at the Heritage Think Tank will never admit it.
So your stuck with Socialism and Crony Capitalism.....one in the same
congratulations
GobBluthe| 12.12.12 @ 9:59AM
I have no problem with Scott Walker taking on the public employees unions. Your argument is somewhat undercut by Walkers 53% win in June 2012. But it will be soon revealed to be a huge mistake the GOP has undertaken in declaring war on private sector unions.
As the state of TX and AZ leave the GOP due to demographics, the GOP will have to find states that will replace those EVs (Hispanics will never vote GOP more than 35%). States which today lean Dem but have little to no demographic change. PA, OH, MI, WI, IA have more EVs combined than TX and AZ. But the GOP will have to drop its elitist economic policies. Embrace private sector unions (make clear distinctions between public and private sector unions), renounce free trade and support reasonable increases in the minimum wage. Support a policy to reduce healthcare costs without nationalisation.
R Martin| 12.12.12 @ 10:05AM
The problem with the coming capitulation is that it is just the thin edge of the wedge. Once the Republicans agree to the need for more revenue, they'll find it difficult to resist as Democrats press to drill all those untapped yet visible revenue sources: consumption, the internet, carbon.
JP Jones| 12.12.12 @ 10:24AM
GobBluthe:
Your spot on!
I should have clearly stated the war on PRIVATE SECTOR unions is ill advised.
Unfortunately, those super brains at the conservative Think Thanks don't seperate the two and are giving bad juice advice to the Rep politicians.
I actually think they mean well but they don't really get what you and I are talking about.
Funny, folks like us are the true conservatives, and freedom loving people in the USA
Frank Drackman| 12.12.12 @ 10:25AM
heres an example of how Stupid George Will is.
he recently said something to the effect
"In 1980 there were only 3 NFL players over 300lbs, now there's 300!!!"
Thats like saying because in 1980 even Corvettes only had 180 HP, and now V-6 Camaros have over 300, that we should go back to those hideous T-Top Turbo TransAms.
Besides, if he wasn't a Baseball Poindexter, he'd now that the NFL changed the pass blocking rules in 1980, favoring the Sumo Body Habitus.
Who is George Will anyway, Has he run anything other than a tab at the Homo Store??
Frank
7-08| 12.12.12 @ 10:34AM
One of my favorite Larson cartoons depicts a raging torrent of a river roaring over a huge water fall. In the center of the torrent is a multi story building tumbling over the precipice. Out of some of the windows on the all floors pour flames and smoke; in some of the windows people are waving their arms and screaming. A sign over the front doors proclaims, “CRISIS MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE.”
It should say “Capitol Building of the USA.” Now - the Republicans can be occupants in that doomed conflagration or they can stand on the bank and survive the disaster.
OP4| 12.12.12 @ 10:46AM
After the Republicans capitulate, the countdown until they receive another donation from me can begin. They can start at infinity and count backwards.
Simon Templar| 12.12.12 @ 11:46AM
It decided this around the turn of the last century. It is amazing that you and your other talking heads have just figured this out, a century later.
Al Adab| 12.12.12 @ 12:53PM
In 1938, following a tour of European nations, Herbert Hoover made a series of radio addres to the nation. From Oklahomo City he reported, none of the "totalitarian nations started with the intention to surrender liberty. They started by adopting panaceas to cure slumps or overcome economic difficulties. They all undertook [change] under some title, usually planned economy. In variable doses they undertook credit and currency manipulation, price fixing, pump priming, and spending with huge deficits and huge taxes. Step by step they sapped the vitality of free enterprise by government experiments... They had the illusion that...[there was[ a middle road between Fascism on the right and sociqlism on the left."
Hoover: Freedom Betrayed, 2011, pg 104
cicero| 12.12.12 @ 2:11PM
The only reason fo the Republicans to capitulate on the tax issue is so that the press will love them. Fat chance. I would rather be hatedd than despised. If the Reps are going to actually stand on principle, they will have to demand acctual spending cuts, or walk away from the table. They will either be vilified by the press, or by their own constituents.
Being from Michigan, and growing up in the UAW, I find it interesting that the Reps have chosen to attempt to solve their pubilc sector union problem by alienating the private sector union members. How stupid! All they had to do was revert back to 1960, and revoke the ability of the pupblic employees to unionize. Everybody knew 75 years ago that that was a bad idea.
jbspry| 12.12.12 @ 2:17PM
"Republicans are following, not leading, on what they think is a path to political redemption. But irrelevance is the more likely destination."
They are already there in my book.
bison cookie| 12.12.12 @ 5:15PM
OBAMA’S MONEY PLANS BACKED BY COMMUNISTS. The Communist Party USA is backing Barack Obama’s position on the coming fiscal cliff and claims its economic program “will unfold in the coming year” with the reelection of Obama and continued Democrat control of the U.S. Senate. The statement came from Joelle Fishman, chairwoman of the … READ MORE: http://bwcentral.org/2012/12/o.....ommunists/
Mike in N.C.| 12.12.12 @ 6:22PM
I think the majority of the posters here are either posers, wanting all to they they are a member of the 2%, or they are so altruistic that they are willing to pay higher taxes in order to protect those very wealthy at the top who cannot take care of themselves. Maybe they are merely fools.
Butch| 12.12.12 @ 8:00PM
The ole "2%." At $250K you are hitting the gas station owner, the dry cleaner, and the heating and air conditioning contractor who file Schedule C for their Sub-S corporations. Primary job creators. If you want to tax Wall Street mil-plus bonuses at 99.9% most here would go along with it. Wealth creators, lay off; wealth traders, go get 'em, as far as most of us are concerned. Don't focus on the amount, focus on how they earn what they do. But only coupled with spending cuts of four times revenue generated.
Warrior| 12.12.12 @ 9:01PM
We knew you were posting bullshit when the first two words were I think.
Rhoetus| 12.12.12 @ 9:57PM
While it's none of my business whom you marry, it defiantly is everyone's business when government becomes abusive, omnipotent and omnipresent. Taxation is theft.
bluecollarbytes| 12.13.12 @ 9:23PM
Republicans are hunkering down in this, their own 'jobs initiative'. Was it that long ago there were declarations of the 'death of the Left'? No, I believe it was earlier this year, pre-Roberts, pre-Benghazi, pre-Obama2. It looks like Democratics will be the ones writing the Republicans' future for them.