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Obama’s Unaffordable Act
June 19, 2013 | 34 comments
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Curbing the IRS
June 12, 2013 | 70 comments
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Can We Get It Back?
June 5, 2013 | 39 comments
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The Ronald Reagan of Virginia
May 29, 2013 | 72 comments
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Time to Go for the Kill
May 22, 2013 | 67 comments
The Obama Watch
Enough of This Glumness
There’s light at the end of the Obama tunnel.
(Page 2 of 3)
Deficits and Debt
Moreover, what has come
out of the debt ceiling debate is that House Republicans are
committed to passing a budget that eliminates the deficit within 10
years, and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan is prepared to
produce a budget that is scored by CBO as doing precisely that.
What only readers of this column know is that Ryan’s 2013 budget
all but eliminated the deficit within 4 years, cutting Obama’s
deficit by 86% by 2017. The budget would be probably be entirely
balanced by that year if scored dynamically, taking into account
the lower spending, deficits, debt and tax rates proposed by that
budget.
Finally, Republicans and conservatives are realizing the treasure they have with Paul Ryan’s budget, especially as compared to the budget Obama is going to propose, and that the Democrats will pass through the Senate, if they ever get around to doing their job, and obeying the law. Ryan’s budget will actually, over the long run, reduce federal spending substantially below the long-term, postwar, historical average of 20% of GDP. Moreover, what even conservatives have not realized, Ryan’s long-term spending savings do not come from spending cuts proposed far into the future. They come from the long-term effects of the entitlement reforms proposed to be adopted now, which is very different. Those spending savings, and the deficit elimination, will result in sharply declining federal debt as a percent of GDP, phasing down to zero, over the long term so no one gets hurt in any way (yes, that is the truth of the Ryan budgets, no one actually gets hurt in any real way).
In sharp contrast to the Ryan budget, the Obama and Senate Democrat budgets will propose sharply higher taxes to finance even more sharply higher spending, leaving continued record deficits and debt. That frames the budget issues perfectly for Republicans and conservatives, and maybe in 2014 the Republicans will finally find new consultants who can frame campaigns to take advantage of that advantage.
That leaves two crucial tasks for Republicans, joined by conservatives where possible. One is that Obama can no longer be allowed to make up what is in the Ryan budget, as he has done in the past. He has actually stood before audiences with a litany of supposed cuts in the Ryan budget that were totally fabricated by Obama’s OMB. And conservative as well as Republican voices need to be raised to savage him, verbally of course, when he does. And those conservative publications that are not effectively joining the fight in this regard need to be called out for their failure.
This raises the question of how to deal with a President who does lie as a matter of fundamental strategy — I have called it Calculated Deception — and draw that to the public’s attention. Just calling him a liar is not going to be the most effective counter. Perhaps a few House Republicans can draft and file Articles of Impeachment, on the Rep. Barbara Jordan standard for Richard Nixon. Democrat Jordan said that the one thing she know for sure out of Watergate is that Nixon had “lied to the American people.” “And I would impeach him for that reason alone,” she said.
When Articles of Impeachment are filed on these grounds, that will draw public attention to Obama’s dishonesty. Republicans can use Obama’s speeches on Ryan’s budget as their grounds for the Articles. The point is not to actually impeach him, which in his case will never be politically viable. The point is to draw public attention to the dishonesty of what he says about Ryan’s budgets.
The second crucial task is that the Republican-controlled House committees need to hold oversight hearings on wasteful and ineffective federal spending programs, documenting for the public the waste and ineffectiveness of much federal spending. OMB and GAO professionals have conducted and published program evaluations, which rate several federal programs as wasteful and/or ineffective. But if oversight hearings do not take notice of that work, and publicize it, that work itself amounts to wasteful federal spending. Ryan can and should provide the leadership to his Republican colleagues on this point, drawing their attention to the opportunities. Then go on TV, radio, even the liberal networks, and publicize the results of the oversight hearings.
Taxes
Republicans are for classic tax
reform, closing loopholes and reducing rates, which most promotes
economic growth. Reagan joined with Congressional Democrats to
enact precisely such tax reform in 1986, leaving just two income
tax rates of 28% and 15%, to great effect.
But Obama and Senate Democrats are for the opposite, tax deform, which involves increasing loopholes, in return for higher rates. That is what Obama has done so far, with his green energy, crony capitalism, tax credits, while increasing tax rates. Liberals are calling conservative talk radio shows complaining that GE pays no income taxes. Word has not seeped through to them that GE is a card-carrying member of Obama’s political machine, getting green energy corporate welfare in return for its political and financial support.
I am reporting that the House Republican leadership is planning to act on Paul Ryan’s tax reform plan, which will be proposed again in this year’s House budget, out before the end of March. House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp will take up Ryan’s proposed tax reform, which provides for an income tax rate of 10% for families making less than $100,000 a year, and 25% for family income above that. That amounts to another middle class tax cut, following the last middle class tax cut which was also passed by a Republican House, as proposed by a Republican President, overcoming Democrat opposition.
The reform for the corporate income tax will close corporate loopholes, like Obama’s corporate welfare green energy tax credits, in return for reducing the federal corporate tax rate to 25%, a cut of close to 30% from the current world leading federal corporate tax rate of 35%. That would only reduce American corporate tax rates to close to the world average, restoring American competitiveness.
If President Obama and the Democrats disagree with the Ryan tax reform, again they can pass their own reform plan through the Senate, with the differences again to be resolved through the House Senate Conference Committee. But that again will reveal that the Democrats want still more anti-jobs, anti-wages, anti-growth tax increases and still higher tax rates on the critical savings and investment necessary for more jobs and higher wages. That again frames the issue perfectly for the public.
The Social Issues
But there
is more. President Obama and the Democrats, drunk with power, are
busily branding their party as anti-Second Amendment, with
thoughtless gun control proposals that cannot stand the light of
public debate.
The government does not even have the power to take guns away from criminals. It only has the power to disarm their law-abiding victims. That indisputable fact is not an issue over which reasonable people can differ. But that senseless policy is exactly what President Obama and his Democrats are barnstorming the country for.
Similarly, the government does not even have the power to limit the number of shots available to criminals, by limiting magazine capacity for example. It can only limit the number of shots available to their victims. That indisputable fact again is not an issue over which reasonable people can differ. But that senseless policy is what President Obama and his Democrats are campaigning across the country for.
About the Author
Peter Ferrara is Director of Entitlement and Budget Policy at the Heartland Institute, General Counsel of the American Civil Rights Union, Senior Fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, and Senior Policy Advisor on Entitlements and Budget Policy at the National Tax Limitation Foundation. He served in the White House Office of Policy Development under President Reagan, and as Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States under President George H.W. Bush.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (68) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Peter Ferrara
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Appleby| 1.30.13 @ 6:32AM
No more back door anything. Do it all right out in front of the cameras, and keep your voices calm and firm; remember what your Mama did when she was laying down the law to a whining trible of kiddies demanding "But whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?" Calm, firm, "NO." Being the Party of No is not a bad thing when it's stopping the kiddies from taking the car over the cliff. Oh, and STOP CROWNING PEOPLE WHO CANNOT BE ELECTED. People are not going to fall for the Obi Wan Kenobe riff one more time. The East Coast Liberal disguised as a Republican is NOT Our Only Hope.
TLP| 1.30.13 @ 5:49PM
There is a Light at the end of the Obama Tunnel.
And he wants us all to Walk into that Light.
Get it?
Aristocat| 2.2.13 @ 5:55AM
loulou| 1.30.13 @ 11:23AM
Boner ain't going to grow a pair. He is a eunuch and the sooner he is deposed the better.
Appleby| 1.30.13 @ 6:32AM
No more back door anything. Do it all right out in front of the cameras, and keep your voices calm and firm; remember what your Mama did when she was laying down the law to a whining trible of kiddies demanding "But whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?" Calm, firm, "NO." Being the Party of No is not a bad thing when it's stopping the kiddies from taking the car over the cliff. Oh, and STOP CROWNING PEOPLE WHO CANNOT BE ELECTED. People are not going to fall for the Obi Wan Kenobe riff one more time. The East Coast Liberal disguised as a Republican is NOT Our Only Hope.
JKS| 1.30.13 @ 7:02AM
Great analysis. Peter, I think we should also include a payroll tax cut as part of tax reform. It help win votes among lower earners for whom the payroll tax is the main burden. It also may help job formation. Finally, it undermines the deception that payroll taxes are invested for each individual's social security. It is well worth the extra funds to cover social security from the general treasury.
I was surprised the Republicans didn't pick up on this issue
GobBluthe| 1.30.13 @ 7:49AM
No payroll tax cut. If the middle class want social security and Medicare they have to pay for it themselves. Those programs are entitlements not welfare. Cutting the payroll tax and removing the cap on upper income makes these programs pure welfare. Enough with the payroll deduction being a burden. You get back more than you put in. Unless you think 401k are a type of tax as well.
JimH| 1.30.13 @ 8:22AM
Between the demographics of who actually lives long enough to collect and the cap on income which is taxed, the payroll tax is the most regressive and racist of taxes. Geezers vote and babies don’t. This is why those who do collect, typically get far more than they put in. I’d prefer the whole thing to be privatized but failing that, lowering the rate and removing or raising the cap would make it less regressive. You want to remove the illusion that people are somehow contributing to their own savings account and make it clear that it is in fact run as an entitlement. This might help the move to privatization.
GobBluthe| 1.30.13 @ 8:54AM
It itsnt regressive, it is proportional up to about 110K of income. Lowering the rate and raising the cap makes it pure welfare and will make reform impossible, more so than now.
Buck Ofama| 1.30.13 @ 12:26PM
Lately, I was talking with a libtard musician, about how Nashville music work is really slow
in winter. He said he is going to retire in a year and take social security. He
asked what kind of work I do, then smugly referred to my software JOB as working
for the evil "military industrial complex". I told him that if he ever needed
some defense, then he should call Canada.
Today I was talking with another libtard musician. and the topic of slow work again
arose. I suggested that he could retire at 62 and get social security...
that is, if the gubmint would work out a bi-partisan agreement to fix and secure
social security.
The whining sniveling libtard then cringed and snarled some sloppy, uninformed,
meaningless libspeak about the "evil republicans" who want to privatize social
security.
Well YEAH, you dumb fvck! If soc sec were privatized the GUBMINT could not as easily steal from it. Moreover, you LOSER, if it weren't for WORKING people like me, you would not get any social security at all!
I am SO glad I got out of music years ago. In fact, the first step toward my
eventual exit from it was my epiphany that I- like a lot of musicians- was always complaining and looking
for someone to make me feel better.
TLP| 1.30.13 @ 5:56PM
The only responsible Tax Reform is this: We get rid of the Communist Manifesto Progressive Income Tax. We install a Flat Tax of 17% for EVERYBODY, No Exemptions. No Loopholes. No Tax Credits.
We cannot survive, as a Nation, with 50% of the Population paying NO INCOME TAXES.
Period.
This isn't Quantum Physics at the Molecular Level.
It's Math.
Purp| 1.30.13 @ 7:28AM
Ha!
Republicans caved on the fiscal cliff and debt ceiling...
Republicans surrendered on gun control...
Republicans absolutely just bent over for immigration reform...
Spineless, un-principled jellyfish.
They talk a good game, but have nothing but wus to back it up.
Keep electing them... you will get the same.
LMFAO...
GobBluthe| 1.30.13 @ 7:51AM
There is no GOP surrender on gun control as of yet. I suspect if anything is passed, it won't look a thing like feinstein's bill.
c. j. acworth| 1.30.13 @ 8:58AM
I seriously doubt that any gun control bill of real substance will be passed at all. Too many Democrats remember what happened to them the last time they banned "assault weapons". One of the senators from my own state of NH, Jeanne Shaheen will be reminded of a nice young fellow named Dick Swett who USED to represent NH 2nd district, until he voted for Feinstien's first ban in '94. After saying IN WRITING he would not. I actually hope that Obama pushes hard for this, it could ruin the Dems.
loulou| 1.30.13 @ 11:21AM
Did you know that ALL the shooters were lefties or Democrats? All of them--from Virginia Tech to Newtown--Democrats.
And I wish Gabby Giffords and her ambitious husband would just disappear.
TLP| 1.30.13 @ 5:57PM
Very Interesting, loulou.
loulou| 1.30.13 @ 6:32PM
Check it out, TLP.
CJW| 1.30.13 @ 8:48AM
Purpie/arnie the Village Idiot posted:
"Purp| 11.8.12 @ 10:35AM
"Hurricane Sandy and Chris Christie was the Lord's way of pressing his thumb on the scale to tilt in the direction of President Obama. It was His punishment of Republicans for their lying and trying to cheat (Voter Suppression) their way to political victory, while espousing faith, freedom and constitutional credentials."
purpie believes God killed over 100 persons and destroyed millions of dollars of property to help Obama win.
In Sept Purpie wrote that Amassador Stevens was at fault and caused his death.
Purpie also wrote that the unborn are biological entities not deserving of protection until God allows them to be born. (What does this mean?)
Purpie represents the Loon Left that should be mocked and ridiculed, and not engaged in conversation
jothepro| 1.30.13 @ 9:04AM
Why do you hate so much Purp?
TLP| 1.30.13 @ 5:57PM
Why not?
Anthony| 1.30.13 @ 9:42AM
This from the moron who daily chastises Rs for not "working" with Obozo and the Ds. Heads I win, tails you lose, the mantra of the left that we conservatives need to shove down their throats.
Purp the moron should be a lesson to Boner and the boys in congress. Placating Ds is a losers gambit, kicking ass will get better results.
The quicker Boner grows a pair the better, or he'll be back in Ohio with Dennis the Menace.
Anyway, it appears today is Purp's day to get out of bed and blog, while Arnie sleeps. The fun couple of Dick and Jane sure do make our days here at TAS.
Not to worry Purp, very soon, that smug smile on your face will be wiped off, along with the other stuff that Arnie left on your face this morning.
loulou| 1.30.13 @ 11:23AM
Boner ain't going to grow a pair. He is a eunuch and the sooner he is deposed the better.
Boar Hunter| 1.30.13 @ 1:03PM
Tony, you should not talk about both shoving things down peoples throats and "Boner" when talking either to or about Purp. It's liking kicking the fence of that yapping dog down the street.
GobBluthe| 1.30.13 @ 7:59AM
There is good reason for glumness. In fact there ought to be outright dispair. The author needs to read more Thomas Sowell. The GOP and conservative position is in fact worse, much worse than 1964. America in 1964 was 85 to 90 percent white. Today it is 65% white. Non whites don't vote GOP, end of story. Ideology doesn't matter to them, only party matters. In 1964, the GOP faced an ideological problem. In 2012, the GOP faces a demographic problem. The latter is much harder to overcome, if not impossible. It also isn't as though 1964 had no serious consequences. The growth of govt in 1965-66, has never been pushed back and the Dems who won developed a losing strategy in Vietnam, for which the USA never recovered.
The end of the Obama tunnel leads us to the Hillary tunnel. Or worse the Deval Patrick tunnel.
loulou| 1.30.13 @ 11:24AM
What matters to non-whites is GOVERNMENT FREEBIES. End of story.
RCV| 1.30.13 @ 12:43PM
You are such a despicable little racist, loulou.
Boar Hunter| 1.30.13 @ 1:13PM
OBAMA PHONE!!!! OBAMA PHONE!!!!
or how about "It's free swipe your EBT!" (It's a song, google it)
How about all the kill Romney tweets because he was gunna take our food stamps?
Is holder ever going to address the death threats by "his people" against a candidate for President of the United States?
Nope.
How about the Black Panthers who appeared at a polling place?
Nope.
Did Obama ever apologize for attended a racist church for twenty years?
All libs are hypocrites. They are blindly and aggressively ignorant.
RCV| 1.30.13 @ 1:58PM
Boaring...
TLP| 1.30.13 @ 6:06PM
You are Boring.
The Economy just SHRUNK - 0.1%. And that's after Trillion$ of QE Money Printing and $6,000,000,000,000 in New Obama Debt.
They think that they can Control Inflation, if they can just keep Printing Money.
Unfortunately, for us, everytime they Flood Wall Street with Worthless Paper, they make the Dollar worth Less. Everything bought with Dollars Costs More, and Prices go up.
If you thought that the Housing Bubble in 2008, and the Tech Bubble in the 90's was Bad?
You ain't seen nothing, yet.
RCV| 1.31.13 @ 11:45AM
Of course the economy shrunk last quarter. That's what happens when you slash government spending when the economy is still recovering from a crash. Idiot.
Al Adab| 1.30.13 @ 8:30AM
There will be an election in 2014. I make no prophesy beyond that. There lies the one chance to regain any measure of limited government in this nation. Sadly there is no monolithic party organ that selects candidates, we voters must do that. Candidates must be both principled and articulate; they must represent a fusion of the various factions of Conservatism. In some places the best we can get is a Brown, while in others there is a Ted Cruz. There is a measure of the art of the possible in politics and Barry Goldwater will never win in Mass.
A few Senate seats and more representatives would give the GOP and the Movement one last opportunity to begin (it is a long journey) to address the issues threatening the survival of this country. Continual faltering before the juggernaut which is the Lefts' agenda does not serve either the nation or the larger goal well. Note how many simultaneous actions and proposals from The Left we face. It is a strategy to bury the opposition under an avalanche and designed to make it difficult to oppose at every front concurrently. A strategy, not infighting, to advance the cause is sorely needed. We divide ourselves issue by issue while unity within the Movement is what we require.
CJW| 1.30.13 @ 8:57AM
I agree. If we can get a Senate majority we can block O's supreme court appointments, which will probably be Eric Holder.
There are many conservative/Republican governors, such as Walker, Kasich, Jindall, Haley, Martinez, and others that should help in the 2014 elections.
In the meantime, the Reps should oppose every proposal by Obama, and draw clear, sharp distinctions.
O knows this and he is already campaigning in Nevada yesterday, and trying to silence opposition by his repeated attacks on Fox News and Rush. He is not satisfied with having CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, AlJazeera-Gore, and Steve Kroft kiss his ass. And on FOX, Hannity is consistent but O'Reilly was soft on O during O's first four years.
MarkJeff| 1.30.13 @ 8:33AM
OK, if they do what you suggest, fine. But leave it to the GOP to somehow mess things up!
Hardcard| 1.30.13 @ 9:06AM
Glumness ? No corruption and socialism must end. Freedom and the rule of law must prevail. The government has become a game of musical chairs.
William L. Gensert| 1.30.13 @ 9:13AM
I too warned about Mitt Romney, but then, I drank the Koolaid and thought he would win:
http://www.americanthinker.com....._away.html
Recently, I've made the case for the sequester and supported the debt ceiling increase:
http://www.americanthinker.com.....orons.html
I was devastated by the results of the election. But, I believe that Obama is on the path to self-destruction if we will only get out of his way.
CJW| 1.30.13 @ 11:31AM
What was the alternative, vote for Obama, stay home, or vote third party?
TLP| 1.30.13 @ 6:07PM
Exactly.
Contest on Friday.
cicero| 1.30.13 @ 9:29AM
The demographics today make the conservative cause a much harder sell. As long as the liberals are allowed to plunder the country, passing out the treasury to their friends and supporters in return for favors and money, without the conservatives specifically pointing this out, there is little that can be done. The Dems ran on a promise of confiscating the property of the wealthy, forgiving private debt (student loans and mortgage debt), and the redistribution of wealth. This appeals to the bottom 47%, particularly so when they are being taught in out schools by a teaching class that itself is part of the problem. When you add to that the socialist base who are profiting from having a pipeline to the treasury, and the die is cast. Recall Rome in the first century b.c., and the similarities are striking.
The only hope for the country is for a bare knuckled fight by the conservative side. Perhaps they can convince the majority that their only hope lies with the conservatives. Equality of opportunity should be the rallying cry. Equallity of poverty should be the graphic placed squareley before the voting public. It is not as if we lack for examples. We have ample examples of the outcome of an aristocracy of the beaurocracy in recent memory, that even our undereducated population may recognize.
fmm| 1.30.13 @ 9:31AM
One thing you forget is that the general public is much less sophisticated now in terms of knowing how the government is supposed to work than they were in the 60's, 70's, and even the 80's. This woebegone fact empowers the liberals to do their dirty deeds.
Pecos Pete| 1.30.13 @ 9:41AM
Mr. Ferrara writes a well reasoned article. Maybe some, or all, of his reasoning will happen. Or maybe not. As others have said, demographics is working against sanity. The democrats governing message is that free stuff is better than no stuff. To the uneducated voter, that's a powerful message.
Al Adab| 1.30.13 @ 11:08AM
Conservatives, in alliance with the GOP need to pick carefully the battles they can win, and a couple where losing is advantageous, and work diligently to build a strong position for 2014. In that regard the separation of illegal migration from legal immigration as a term of the debate is crucial.
PolishKnight| 1.30.13 @ 10:00AM
If this is a speech to cheer conservatives on, it's pretty awful. Lessee: Let's have history repeat itself like in 1968 so a moderate Republican can be elected, just like then, sign off on stuff such as the marriage penalty and affirmative action, and then resign in disgrace.
Yeah, sounds like a lot to look forward to. Perhaps Reagan will be cloned 20 years from now! But even Reagan wasn't perfect and didn't do as much for domestic policy as was needed (otherwise, why would be in the mess we're in, yes?) Think about it! Reagan's economy lasted for about 20 years or so and that was with 8 of them under a Democrat.
Bottom line: This won't go away on it's own. The bottom line is the left cares about winning and has bought significant votes via race and gender entitlements along with government unions and welfare. All the rest are table scraps but that seems to be what the Republicans want to serve up each election cycle. Good luck, they'll need it.
Von Mises Jr| 1.30.13 @ 10:23AM
Let's see: Romney and the GOP refused to even speak badly of Obama while he called Mitt a felon, said he killed a man's wife, and didn’t pay taxes for ten years and hates dogs, and they dropped the ball on Benghazi. Obama gets re-elected with abundant voter fraud and the GOP is silent. Since November, Boehner has caved on taxes on the rich and the debt ceiling, will surely cave on the CR and passed a $60B Sandy government bailout to insurance companies and created more slush funds. The GOP gives Hillary a pass on Benghazi.
So we are to believe that the GOP hates statism and will now stand tall on taxes, CR's and debt Ceilings leading up to a brilliant 2014 campaign?
I met Peter and heard him speak. He is brilliant with his statistics. But unlike Peter, I may have been born at night, but I wasn't born last night.
PolishKnight| 1.30.13 @ 10:45AM
I'm curious about the voter fraud. Was that really needed to push Obama over the top? It appears that the left's electorate continues to show up while the right was lagging (perhaps because Romney failed to inspire.)
Neat lesson about this election is that a president being awful isn't sufficient to get him out of office. Voters need a reason to get out of bed and show up.
loulou| 1.30.13 @ 11:26AM
The SEIU carted nursing home residents with dementia and group home dwellers to the polls and voted for them. Is that fraud?
PolishKnight| 1.30.13 @ 11:53AM
Provided they could get them into the booth on their own and they pulled the lever, technically, no. It's not fraud.
But even so, I don't think those numbers pushed them over the top. The fact is the Dems have successfully made get-out-the-vote campaigns for legal voters in their special interest demographics. The problem is that the right refuses to even RECOGNIZE they have a demographic much less appeal to it. (I didn't say pander, but rather address the interests of their group.) It's even considered heresy in some circles "special interest politics" yet, that IS politics. Deal with it.
Russel| 1.30.13 @ 11:35AM
Well Von , I take your musings and thots most seriously , but at least Peter is attempting to cheer us up . And he also got me to thinking about the line " behind closed doors " we never hear about . I'm about ready to defect from our Wyo. senator ( who could be arguably the most conservative and common sense member of DC ) since he voted to raise our taxes . Point being is that we may not see the whole picture : the members should get behind a mic and shout out to us what they're doing . Explain . A major weakness that leaves us angry and confused .
C. Vernon Crisler | 1.30.13 @ 10:12AM
What is causing so much glumness is that we seem to be losing the cultural war. At least in Johnson's day, there was a public morality. Today, it seems that most Americans no longer want to have a society governed by objective moral norms. It's difficult to watch as America abandons its exceptionalism, a holdover from its Puritan and Pilgrim past, and pursues a nihilistic course.
Al Adab| 1.30.13 @ 11:05AM
Correct C. Vernon:
The nation has lost what was once its moral consensus. Now all is relative and Truth is nowhere to be found. It is from that source that the social issues stem. Additionally, we once had two parties which agreed on patriotism and American self-government. That also is no longer the case. Where are the Scoop Jacksons or the tax cutting Dems like JFK?
C. Vernon Crisler | 1.30.13 @ 11:13AM
Yes, for those of us who grew up during Johnson's day, patriotism, respect for the flag, civil society, moral norms, were still honored, if not always kept. Now we have a largely amoral society, cynical, abortionist, and as you say relativist with respect to truth. In an earlier day, such nihilism was confined to elites who fancied themselves above everyone else; now it has become general.
Sure, we've gained some things, and we can be grateful for that, but what we've lost is irreplaceable.
David T| 1.30.13 @ 11:44AM
Sad, but true. Politics is downstream of culture, which is downstream of religion. Absent the Hand of Providence, we are doomed.
Job| 1.30.13 @ 1:10PM
great comment
CJW| 1.30.13 @ 11:37AM
The Dem party has been taken over by the left that believes in abortion, amnesty, redistribution, appeasement and bowing to the Islamists, high progressive income taxation, and government control of everything. I read it was Senator Tom Eagleton, McGovern's first VP choice, that used the phrase "abortion, amnesty, and acid" to describe the Dems of 1972. Of course, the amnesty then was for the draft evaders in Canada.
RJ| 1.30.13 @ 11:47PM
So true. We can't give up, but it looks like a very uphill challenge.
N8tivTxn| 1.30.13 @ 10:39AM
And conservative as well as Republicans voices
need to be raised to savage him, verbally of course, when he does
"Savage him"??? Okaaay!
WHO?
Those of us in the hinterlands have turned him upside down (shaken, not stirred) as well as inside out, for four-plus years, seemingly without notice of our DC Elite pols.
Depending on "our" media is an exercise in futility.
I would love to be so optimistic as the author.
A perfect example of our lack of influence is the immigration initiative we were whip-lashed with, on Monday. Adopting Obama regime-style tactics, Republican Senators boldly stepped forward to announce a paradigm shift in opinion (who's I don't know), when no such change has occurred in the national narrative.
Overwhelmingly, Americans continue to want existing law enforced. The regime is not doing that, so why no "savaging" on that topic? Instead, we are be-dazzled with the fast-talking (allowing for NO questioning) Marko Flamenco-dancer Rubio's full court press forwarding the fantasy that a "new" comprehensive law will change that... Uh huh!
loulou| 1.30.13 @ 11:27AM
Marko is no Ted Cruz.
N8tivTxn| 1.30.13 @ 12:58PM
Funny loulou... apparently Ted Cruz may be no "Ted Cruz"...
Evidence: Cruz recent statements at a Nat Rev summit last w-e and Steven Hayward's subsequent article in Powerline outing Ted as a proponent of using the Leftist handbook, Rawlsian prism.
Hoodwinked again?!?
Simon Templar| 1.30.13 @ 11:51AM
Peter is still thinking like a typical irrelevant inside the beltway Republican. The same old bullshit.
Peter it is 2013, not 1968, or 1964, or 1948.
Peter, this is what is going down in 2013.
A state run progressive media that does not pretend anymore to be objective or a free press.
A school system from grade school through college that is controlled by progressives and radicals.
A media that is completely dominated by liberals and leftist.
A gigantic portion of the population on welfare or some form of federal assistance or entitlement.
A political class in DC that is completely corrupt and driven by corporate cronyism.
Twenty one million invaders about to become citizens and new democratic voters.
Simon Templar| 1.30.13 @ 11:55AM
Peter Ferrara, please enlighten us without references to the long gone past of three to four decades ago why conservatives should believe that the likes of Boner and the current crop of Republicans will fight on any of these issues you have outlined and not just surrender like they have in the last four years.
Crickets?
I thought so.
Who Knows?| 1.30.13 @ 12:07PM
Liars figure, and figure lie.
It’s always fun to try to use the past to help make sense of the present, but more importantly, to give “hope” for the possible “change” that can be the future.
Nice try, Peter.
Republicans are STILL digging themselves deeper into their “stupid party” hole.
IMHO, yesterday’s Rush Limbaugh show that featured Rubio and Limbaugh talking about immigration reform could be the equivalent of Joe Kennedy being told by the shoeshine boy to buy stocks.
In short, what passed between the two heavyweights on the air SHOULD tell anyone who’s awake that the GOP “market” is actually still “over-bought”, and it has a LOOOONG way to fall---as regards the federal dimension of government.
See, Obama and his gang of progressives haven’t even begun to fight. The next four years, you can bet on this---they will go hard and fast to the left, ignoring ALL laws and NOT ENFORCING those they hate, and the stupid party won’t be able to stop them.
As an Oregon Duck football “fan”, and as Rush even noted, it’s like Obama is doing the no-huddle offense, running as many plays as fast as they can, and the GOP defense will always be a step OR MORE behind, as well as more and more tired as time goes on.
Maybe it will REALLY be different, this time, and Obama is on his way to becoming a Chavez or Castro.
Bandido| 1.30.13 @ 12:57PM
Just because Republicans came back in the past does not mean they will now. Unlike in 1964 or 1974, this is a psychologically exhausted bunch, plum out of ideas and woefully short on guts. In those years, conservatism was in the ascendancy, unlike today when it is shrunken and belittled within the Party. The electorate has changed and wants the goodies and reassurance that all is well that Obama Democrats are offering, regardless of its unsustainability. After them, the deluge. Their philosophy is, party today, for tomorrow we die.
PolishKnight| 1.30.13 @ 2:01PM
1964 was a watershed year. When the so-called civil rights act of that year was passed, the Dems transformed from being the party of Jim Crow into reverse Jim Crow. They decided that political inertia in their existing voters wasn't sufficient for them because working and middle class whites didn't support socialism. So they decided they needed to throw their electorate under the bus. But the problem was: where did they get another electorate from?
They manufactured and imported them. Broke up two parent families via welfare and feminism to produce confused and angry women and multi-generational dependent single parent families. Gay elites in the party celebrated "fresh meat": confused young men and women ready to be "flipped" (I have friends who are gay, these are terms they use.)
On the import side, they brought in illiterate non-whites to bribe via welfare and race entitlements. We now live in a post-cultural transformation. The Holy Constitution is now DEAD. Get over it and come up with an action plan.
Job| 1.30.13 @ 1:14PM
There are three crucial tasks not two:
"One is that Obama can no longer be allowed to make up what is in the Ryan budget, as he has done in the past."
"The second crucial task is that the Republican-controlled House committees need to hold oversight hearings on wasteful and ineffective federal spending programs, documenting for the public the waste and ineffectiveness of much federal spending."
The third and most difficult and may very well be impossible crucial task for Republicans is to grow a set of balls.
Cat Shot| 1.30.13 @ 2:46PM
Republicans should...Republicans must...Republicans can... Oh! My sides!
pie-eyed piper| 1.30.13 @ 2:48PM
Next up: amnesty for 11 million illegal Mexicans, i.e. 11 million more voters for the democratic party. No hope. The republic is screwed. Tyranny has won.
Not enough real Americans left to make a difference.
JD| 1.30.13 @ 3:14PM
In the past, Conservatives came back after being small minorities because the results of left-wing ideology in practice caused the public to move right.
Since Reagan, though, the Left has learned that the key to its advancement is Orwellian changing of the language. Left-wing ideas are framed as "center-right", resulting in a country which claims to be more right than left nonetheless voting for the Democrats. As it stands, when the status quo is said to be bad, the majority of the public is led to believe that the necessary "change" is a move FURTHER LEFT.
So long as the Left's dishonesty persists, the Right will not gain ground. There is no historical precedent for a resolution to this situation.
Jane Chingo| 1.30.13 @ 5:00PM
What does the light at the end of the tunnel matter when the train has derailed? This, sir, is not 1964. The tipping point has been reached on stupidity and narcissism and gimme. Please do not spread your reality-ignoring anodynes to the rest of us.
JimP| 1.30.13 @ 7:46PM
This is very good news. It underscores how inept the GOP leadership is though. Why does Mr. Ferrara understand this, but Boehner, Cantor, McConnell and the others did not foresee all this much earlier- which they should have?
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