Patterico's Pontifications

1/16/2013

The GOP Sucks Because the Electorate Sucks

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:07 pm



There. In one headline I just summed up the argument I made at greater length in this New Year’s Day post:

You can blame the spineless politicians all you like, and I will happily blame them right along with you. But the fact is, this giant pile of irresponsible debt is what this increasingly soulless and immoral country wants. The longer we do this, the more we are wrecking our children’s futures. And tra la la, nobody seems to care. We’re going to “get the millionaires who are doing pretty well to do a little more,” to use the Huckster in Chief’s well worn phrase, and meanwhile the do-nothings who contribute zero to our society get to keep sucking on the socialist teat. And this is what we want, as a country. This is what we voted for.

I see Drew M. making the same point today at Ace’s:

Far from being a bulwark against this out of control spending and growth in federal partner, the GOP has been at best an enabler and at worst a perpetrator.

And I don’t blame the GOP one bit.

Political parties and politicians are about winning elections. In the end the best way to win an election is to give a majority of the people in the electorate what they want. What far too many Americans want (even some conservative Republicans in good standing) is other people’s stuff.

How many people who voted for Mitt Romney or actual conservatives for Senate and the House want their Social Security and Medicare left untouched? How many of them give lip service to a flat tax proposal but would freak if their various tax credits and deductions were eliminated? How many of them talk a good game about getting rid of the Department of Education but would freak if aid to their kid’s district were cut?

Of course Republicans are going to respond to these people. But these people who support all sorts of government spending while talking about “the damn government” and taxes are the problem.

Yup. And what’s the solution? Drew M. doesn’t know. I don’t know. I suppose we can keep trying to explain the problem over and over and over and hope that more people listen and understand. But we all pretty much know that won’t work. What will? I can’t think of a thing other than the country sinking like the Titanic.

But identifying the correct problem is certainly part of any solution. And the problem is clear: while you and I and the other readers of this blog are not the problem, we — by which I mean this country — we are the problem. We have become a horrible, lazy, soft, whiny, petulant bunch of good for nothings, combined with a bunch of people too ignorant to care. This does not describe everyone, but the majority of the electorate falls into one category or another.

Politicians can’t say that because they want your vote. I don’t care about your vote so I’ll speak the truth.

The GOP sucks because the electorate sucks.

103 Responses to “The GOP Sucks Because the Electorate Sucks”

  1. You want to expand the Republican party beyond the social-issue Republicans? Honor all Americans for their right to pursue their happiness in their own way.*

    but instead Team R gives us steaming piles of this

    followed by a chris christie pork feast in the honor of dumbass jersey trash who aren’t real clear on the concepts of “ocean” and “home insurance”

    then they’ll trot out marco rubio and wonder why hispanic womens aren’t throwing their bras at them

    happyfeet (ce327d)

  2. And what’s the solution?

    Secession.

    Dustin (73fead)

  3. Ditto.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  4. No, that’s too easy a diagnosis, the choice hasn’t even been offered, so how can one argue it’s been turned down,

    narciso (3fec35)

  5. What far too many Americans want… is other people’s stuff.

    Put another way, we want more from government than we pay in taxes. This applies to both the plural we as well as us individually.

    Even worse, it isn’t just that we want more from government, we have the RIGHT to whatever it is that we want. Name the federal outlay, and someone has not only established a claim to getting it in perpetuity, they’ve developed the narrative as to why they deserve to be getting what they want. And they will use every tactic possible to defend their claim against those who would take it away.

    And because no one – and I mean no one – is willing to give up anything they have a right to get (people don’t forgo their rights, just ask the gun side if they’re willing to give up their weapons) there isn’t going to be a happy ending.

    steve (e7e6c7)

  6. Steve – you are conflating capital R Rights with political small r rights to things. Not the same.

    JD (b63a52)

  7. I would give up SS if I got to quit paying in too.

    JD (b63a52)

  8. Like I was saying, this isn’t a problem unique to this country, Cameron a nominal Tory, has done little to either foster economic growth, or really
    cut the budget back, Spain’s new govt, is following the same path, Probably only Canada is showing anything close to common sense,

    narciso (3fec35)

  9. Secession.

    Good luck. I was where you are last month and I was telling people I’d move back if y’all did it.

    But as a Californian, I’d be shot if I tried.

    Anyway, it’s politically not feasible. Try saying it out loud to anyone not in your state.

    Patterico (8b3905)

  10. It’s because time is changing, the environment change, situation and people change. The new and future generation will be different from the past. People have different belief and way of thinking. Time had change and still changing rapidly.

    Belastingschijven 2013 (e212e5)

  11. it goes without saying we need term limits on the speakership

    that orange boy is tired and broken like he been rode hard and put up wet

    happyfeet (ce327d)

  12. Dear Patterico,

    But that’s not how many conservatives choose to characterize such poor choices. Just today Instapundit cites a Walter Russell Mead column that describes what Mead calls the “blue death spiral” in San Berdoo and concludes “It is truly unfortunate that the good citizens of San Bernardino are caught up in this mess.”

    “Truly unfortunate”? No, it’s just what they deserve.

    Yours truly,

    ThOR

    ThOR (0d3941)

  13. Best thing to do is to look forward

    In just a few months the nomination process for 2014 senate races will begin. We have chances to pick yp seats in:

    Oregon
    North Carolina
    West Virginia
    South Dakota
    Montana
    Minnesota
    Louisiana
    Illinois
    ALaska
    Arkansas

    We have maybe 2 vulnerable seats theyhave 10 real vulnerable seats, and they just raised taxes on everyone

    Look forward, comiserating will not get us anywhere – we knew we were going to get stomped with Romney and some crazy tea senate candidates and we did giving up seats in Indiana, Delaware, Colorado, Nevada and Missouri in the last 2 years.

    Those will be coming back also – so the 4 yeqr outlook showing 7 to 12 seat gain for the republicans if we can control our tempers and not stampede the populous by clinging to views that havent been fully explained and bought in.

    Remember, jobs and cheap energy, tends to keep the parties in power, in power, Obama dodged a bullet by running against a known loser.

    EPWJ (8a4ca7)

  14. Team R is in far better shape locally than nationally

    but Akin wasn’t a tea party candidate he was a lisa roser

    totally different species of fish kettles

    happyfeet (ce327d)

  15. he was a *lila* roser I mean not lisa lisa is her much cooler sister

    happyfeet (ce327d)

  16. JD: What gets a capital R is in the eye of the recipient. To some people, free health care or abortion or having the rich pay a boatload in taxes or whatever is as much a Right to them as your Right to a gun or whatever it is that you capitalize. You can huff and puff all you want that they have no such Right but they’re doing the same to you. And their vote counts just as much… more, in fact, because there are more of them.

    steve (e7e6c7)

  17. I think maybe a lot of the good and decent people in the last days of the once proud and mighty Roman Empire could relate to us.

    elissa (d5bfef)

  18. Happy,

    Akin was aided by a Ownes like candidate that split the voteso Aiken rode barely to the top.

    You are right -he wasnt tea, but tea put him there

    EPWJ (8a4ca7)

  19. not if they saw our video games

    my goodness that stuff would hairlip the pope

    happyfeetblackburn (ce327d)

  20. yes you are right Akin benefited from shenanigans

    happyfeetblackburn (ce327d)

  21. oops that last comment was actually by me

    happyfeet (ce327d)

  22. speaking of shenanigans wtf?

    no one tells me anything I have to find out about this stuff on the internet

    oh hey it’s on sale

    happyfeet (ce327d)

  23. Just give up, peole. It is too hard to explain the difference between a Right and a right. It is too hard to make the fundamental changes needed to get us on the right course. Just give up. People don’t want to listen, and telling them again won’t make any difference.

    Capital R has nothing to do with the eyes of the recipient, steve. But since you are willing to concede even that ground, no wonder you are where you are.

    JD (b63a52)

  24. When you realize the republicans are the same as democrats, it will be easier to sleep, knowing your f-cked either way. This is no fault of mine, the gop should be arrested for impersonating Americans. Second place pays pretty good. Patterico, you want this fixed? See you on the streets of D.C. The electorate should have been in the face of these traitors years ago.

    mg (31009b)

  25. Surprisingly, Otto gets it wrong, Akin was McCaskill’s preferred opponent, as she focused on him, singling him out in the advertisement, he had his strong points, subsequently glossed over, in Rove’s stalingrad like retreat, but there were reasons for concern, not surprising the point about job and cheap energy was a nonsequitor, because there was none about neither

    narciso (3fec35)

  26. Sarkozy, likewise ultimately lost to Hollande, because despite mediocre economic growth, his trump card had been tackling the Islamist threat, and the Toulouse incident, dented that advantage on his side,

    narciso (3fec35)

  27. “The GOP sucks because the electorate sucks.”

    KY-05, OK-04, OH-08, we are talking about you.

    No-information voters.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  28. 1. ‘Gingrey, who formerly had his own pro-life OB-GYN practice, continues to argue that Akin was at least “partly right.”‘

    Another dumbass Doctor who makes a lot more money leeching us dry. Tom Coburn you are a fraud.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  29. 28. Gary, Coburn at one point seemed conservative, now he comes across like most republicans, a progressive twit.

    mg (31009b)

  30. bobby shieffer needs to make love with a sturdy branch on a oak tree.

    mg (31009b)

  31. 13. The MN GOP, may they wake up dead like Sennacherib’s army, wants John Kline MN-06, one of Boehner’s ‘loyal’ 89, for Senator.

    He has ‘Comity’ tattooed over his heart.

    A winning proposition: Fight foaming-at-the-mouth partisanship and ‘the Fool’ Franken with milquetoast.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  32. 29. BS flows in their veins. A cynical scam perpetrated on the microcephalic. They play so-cons like a taut drum.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  33. Pork was served yesterday at the house as many republicans are now voting with democrats to form a majority. Patterico, Any lawyers have any balls to stop talking and start marching to d.c.? Probably not. So leave it up to lawyers to take us deeper into the bowels of attorney wisdom.

    mg (31009b)

  34. 32. Having a head with a small brain case sounds about right.

    mg (31009b)

  35. The one and only plank of the ‘loyal opposition’ needs to be Divest Amerikkka of its Government.

    Make that two, add Necklace GOP ‘Leaders’ with Plastic Bags.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  36. 35. I will drink to that, although I’m drinking Ethiopian coffee.

    mg (31009b)

  37. 36. For me its Seattle’s Best #2. Otherwise only have Bolivian fair trade beans. The girls wake up very ornery tho.

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-16/crossing-through-x-date-what-happens-after

    I take it that Boehner really meant it when he said he will not deal with Dog or Dingy.

    So the strategy is just slow and deliberate dinking around until the death rattle.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  38. 37. Money quote from link:

    “But perhaps the biggest threat for the US when it crosses the X Date is not so much the debt interest, nor the prioritization of payments, but the roll over risk of some $500 billion in debt maturing between February 15 and March 15! That’s right – recall that when it comes to the US debt, it is the ever greater frontloading of short-term maturities that amplify the interest rate risk facing the country. And while interest rates are likely to explode across the curve, what is virtually assured is that the rolling of the half trillion in debt will become impossible due to lack of funding, and the inability to find buyers of matched short-term debt to roll the retiring paper, in an environment in which suddenly it is unclear if even 4 week Bills will be money good. And for all those predicting a failed Treasury auction, this will be your time to shine, as it is unclear if even full direct and outright monetization of ultra short term debt by the Fed will be enough to get piggyback buyers on paper whose rate of return is so low as to not justify the risk of exposure to a real deal maturity non-payment default.”

    We know Dog lusts after default and Thugs are soiling themselves knowing they’ll be blamed but their only recourse in full flight is to let him have at it.

    We have the Ceiling, CR2013 and the Sequester to jump thru between March 15&31. Somebody’s going to get singed if not immolated.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  39. 37. I roast my own beans. My better half gets served every morning with a fresh cup of coffee. I have been payed back ten times over. Are you telling me I will need a wheel barrow full of benjamins for a gallon of milk when the rattle rattles?

    mg (31009b)

  40. 39. Perceptive. One sidelight we’ve mentioned is Central Bank currency wars heating up.

    So who’s going to spook when the Fed suddenly springs for several hundred $Billion$ in short-term paper on top of the $1 Trillion he’s committed to for 2013?

    Everyone will print. In 1998 France sold 7% of the world’s exports. Today 3%. Germany and Japan, export ICU tenants, are in recession.

    Open the floodgates.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  41. Tom Coburn, he’s chosen poorly before. befriending Obama. who the latter used his association to excuse Ayers.

    narciso (3fec35)

  42. Ministry of Troof hiding the flatline:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-17/chart-day-housing-starts-adjusted-vs-unadjusted

    Can I get a pulse here? Stomp your feet, anything.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  43. You can blame the spineless politicians all you like, and I will happily blame them right along with you. But the fact is, this giant pile of irresponsible debt is what this increasingly soulless and immoral country wants.

    It is not “irresponsible” debt that this country wants. Rather, it prefers it to all the other alternatives that are on the table. (and they’re right, by the way)

    It’s kind of like Winston Churchill’s definition of democracy : the worst form of government, except for all the others.

    There are several possible alternatives that are a little or a lot better. First and easiest, instead of running up so much debt, create money without having to pay interest, as with the platinum coin. The problem here is not doing this more than is safe to do – and that’s hard.

    But this is valuable. The United States owes its prosperity to the measured creation of money. The State of Pennsylvania did this, at the instigation of Benjamin Franklin, about the year 1729. It was one of the first things he advocated for the general public. The money was backed by land, and Pennsylvania did not get into the trouble France did in 1719 or England in 1720-1 with the Mississippi bubble. (both of them caused by the Scottish economist John Law)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Law_%28economist%29

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Company

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin

    Throughout his career, Franklin was an advocate for paper money, publishing A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency in 1729, and his printer printed money. He was influential in the more restrained and thus successful monetary experiments in the Middle Colonies, which stopped deflation without causing excessive inflation. In 1766 he made a case for paper money to the British House of Commons.[61]

    The second thing is a more general policy of having a goal of growth and not regarding the level of growth as something outside the control of the government. The problem here is people disagree as to exactly what helps, and there are many snake oil proposals (The spending proposals that President Obama touts for infrastructure or education, is one of them. So are, probably,tax cuts. What definitely works is increasing the money supply, as long as people don’t wind up getting too much income from sources that don’t involve a connection with anything of value happening.

    One easy method of achieving growth in GDP is increased immigration, especially of college graduates, which should be limited only by security considerations. The problem here is the economic theory that restrictions are based on – basically the lump of labor fallacy.

    Sammy Finkelman (b4516d)

  44. 38. it is the ever greater frontloading of short-term maturities that amplify the interest rate risk facing the country.

    Exactly. This is terrible.

    But budgeting practices in Washington doesn’t make it too easy to deliberately pay 2% or 3% more a year in interest, in order to pay a lot less later.

    The most important number probably is the percentage of GDP in debt that has to be rolled over every year, not the percentage of GDP that debt has reached.

    Sammy Finkelman (b4516d)

  45. Looks like pegging an enterprise to land, is not the solution, nor is inflating the currency;

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Sea_Company

    narciso (3fec35)

  46. Sure glad I don’t live in a crappy little country where a foot of snow and 23 mph winds would mean the heat’s likely going out.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/9808984/Britain-braced-for-40-hours-of-snow.html

    But there are no guns so freezing to death before the hospital gets you is brilliant.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  47. Secession is politically not feasible, Pat. But it’s definitely more realistic than the national GOP bringing spending under control. The national party is more impressed by stagecraft than a solid record. The democrats are practically socialists, and the GOP is fractured badly because we all have different visions for the country and party.

    So secession just seems like the least unrealistic solution. Which is scary.

    FWIW, I love the United States. Many parts of the country outside Texas are beautiful, with great people. But this union can’t last with the way it’s going, and I think the many takes on government would all be a lot happier if they could get what they wanted. We no longer have federalism, and the only way to even approximately get there is to break apart.

    I think as the democrat and RINO agenda continues, the country will destabilize and secession will become more realistic. If Texas should become its own country, we will see a horde of refugees much like the USA had during the industrial revolution. That could lead to something powerful down the road.

    Dustin (73fead)

  48. 44. And the best news of all is investors of free money seem to be taking the Equity and Corporate Bond bets while Treasuries float back up. Just in time for the rollover.

    We are blessed to live in interesting times but the next 60 days may satiate.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  49. At every instance, they have chosen poorly, by contrast, at every step, the Dems push forward, they don’t let the facts, the law, or common decency get in their way.

    narciso (3fec35)

  50. 47. The good news as Pwesident Shiva has no plan to transition to the Imperial Soviet.

    http://www.bob-owens.com/2013/01/shock-the-system/

    As we speak the Army Corps is dumping the Mississippi headwaters to keep barges afloat during the dead of winter.

    Hutaree could be the best we got and we’re still a cinch.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  51. The only possible solution I see is a showdown between the state governments, many of which are under constitutional obligation to have balanced budgets, and the federal government. The GOP does well on the state level and can leverage that into various fights with the federal government.

    Part of the problem is that we are so used to shipping vastly more money to D.C. than to our state capitols that we can’t conceive of not having the feds fund something, but that something still have money. If we were to send more taxes to the states than to the feds, it would be perfectly understandable to have states regulate the environment, invest in our schools, and provide for people who are down on their luck. However, the current system requires us to either pay twice for the same result (which few can afford to do), or to grovel at the feet of Washington, D.C., begging for our own money back like Oliver Twist asking for more food.

    bridget (ade74e)

  52. There isn’t any one thing. Somebody suggested recently that a conservative billionaire like Sam Zell (who for some strange reason bought the Tribune Company) buy some women’s magazines which are full of articles lauding liberals and their ideas as wonderful. Buy a few and put conservatives in charge of them. That’s a specific constructive suggestion.

    There is not a majority for fiscal conservatism except in the abstract. As soon as something specific is suggested most of the middle-of-the-roaders turn against it. Until that changes it won’t be possible to make headway.

    The main thing Republican politicians still haven’t figured out is how to say things in a way
    that will impress the low information voter. For example a lot of them still think that the massive spending is a legacy of the Bush years. It’s not clear to me that most GOP politicians understand that.

    Gerald A (f26857)

  53. I think the suggestion was that Sheldon Adelson buy some women’s magazines since he’s been involved in funding campaigns.

    Gerald A (f26857)

  54. > it would be perfectly understandable to have states regulate the environment

    How does that work in areas like NYC? Both NJ and NY have to operate by similar rules for it to work.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  55. Looks like the SEIU picked a lame nag:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-17/guest-post-misunderstanding-austerity-stimulus-and-demand

    As consumerism is 70% of this economy and the middle class is only deeper in hock(hopefully at lower rates) this recovery seems inverted.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  56. THe solution, is apparently to lie, that’s how the Democrats get things done,

    narciso (3fec35)

  57. 45. There was nothing real behind the South Sea company. Not so with the Pennsylvania money.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  58. 51. Well I find this Sovereign States notion entirely credible. We will plainly be back on some manner of gold standard soon, following Federal, State and Municipal defaults.

    54. The option, of course, is to move. I guess no one is left but the inmates.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  59. Gary: huh? I don’t understand what you’re responding to.

    I’m asking how state-by-state environmental regulation works in areas where effective environmental regulation requires cooperation between the states because the environmental resource is shared.

    I don’t see how moving is the answer to that question.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  60. In California, where the ARB is forcing Valero, one of the few discount oil producers out of business, in NY where Cuomo stedfastly ‘filibusters’ fracking, how does that work again?

    narciso (3fec35)

  61. Narciso – and of course sending all environmental regulation back to the states would make it *easier* for CA to drive discount oil producers out of business and would make it *easier* for NY to ban fracking … so I don’t understand your point. 🙂

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  62. what’s a discount oil producer?

    happyfeet (4bf7c2)

  63. Along similar lines, Texas is currently involved in a court dispute with Oklahoma in which Texas is asserting that its right to water of a certain quality from the Red River allows it to collect water inside Oklahoma and export it, which Oklahoma denies; and it is involved in a dispute with New Mexico over New Mexico’s water use.

    In a world without federal rules for resolving such disputes, how do they get resolved?

    My point here is that there *are* issues which require some sort of structure for interstate conflict resolution, and that often environmental issues are going to trigger a need for such structure.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  64. It sells gas about 15 cents per gallon, lower than most over here, the 51 flavors of gas, do complicate this problem,

    narciso (3fec35)

  65. oh I’ve been to some of those

    i don’t go to am/pm except for beverages on really hot days cause they don’t take credit cards

    they have really kick-ass beverage islands though, but you have to use debit

    happyfeet (4bf7c2)

  66. I think if you are gonna run the EPA you shouldn’t pull a Yelverton and have gender-bending aliases aka Dick Windsor.

    JD (840c05)

  67. You are right -he wasnt tea, but tea put him there

    So, the tea party gets the blame for opposing the nominee and for being the nominee. Hmmm … pretty likely to end up blaming the tea party for everything.

    (BTW there were two tea party candidates who split the vote. Akin was the anti-tea-party candidate).

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  68. Secession isn’t possible except may with Texas. It all depends if the federal government is willing to go all Tiananmen Square on Texas. Or Sherman. One would have thought the Soviet Union would never break up either; that still amazes me when I think about it.

    There is hope for California, though. It could be (and should be) broken up into more manageable states of 10 million with clearer common interests.

    A 4 state solution might be:
    1. LA, Ventura and Kern counties.
    2. Orange, San Bernardino counties and everything south and east
    3. The Bay Area, plus the coast down to Santa Barbara
    4. everything else

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  69. I don’t understand why Kern goes with LA in that universe, Kevin. Surely Kern County’s political and economic interests are more tightly bound to the rest of the central valley.

    For that matter, the LA/Orange and LA/San Bernardino boundaries are arbitrary and cut right through the heart of an urban area without a clear geographic boundary; it would be very, very difficult for the average person to understand where the state lines *were* and when they were crossing them.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  70. It would be interesting to see if a socially moderate, fiscally conservative party could take enough unhappy democrats and disaffected voters to make up for the hardline social conservatives who would go sulk.

    We lost the last election by pandering to the social right enough to piss off the middle, but not enough to actually get the socons to the polls.

    If there is secession, it’s a damn sight easier to secede from a political party that from a country.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  71. aphreal,

    geography mostly.

    The real reason to split southern cal is that it has over 20 million people and if you don’t split it there’s no point.

    And really, no one wants to be in the one that has LA.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  72. it would be very, very difficult for the average person to understand where the state lines *were* and when they were crossing them.

    Much like the east coast.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  73. Well back before say 1934, the commerce clause, actually regulated interstate commerce fancy that.

    narciso (3fec35)

  74. Republicans have lost conservatives forever, after seeing the republicans vote for the pulled pork sandwich yesterday. I see people standing by the republicans and are trying to fix their issues, they are either lawyers or commies, or both.

    mg (31009b)

  75. Kevin – I’d adjust the county lines and use the following geographic markers:

    * the high ridge line of the mountains in the angeles and san bernardino national forests (putting lancaster + palmdale in the central valley state)

    * the pass between redlands and yucaipa (putting san bernardino and redlands in with LA, yucaipa and beaumont on the other side)

    * a more or less staight line from box springs mountain through lake mathhews to the mountains (putting corona and riverside in with LA, moreno valley and perris on the other side)

    * through the mountains down to san onofre

    basically the idea would be to keep the large urban agglomeration together while allowing the more rural parts of SB and Riverside counties to coalesce with San Diego + Imperial.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  76. The solution is to work in elementary education, to work in entertainment, to do all the jobs that libs have been doing for decades. Check out http://www.greatheartsaz.org/ for an apolitical means to teach the wisdom of the western tradition.

    Mike (96dcfa)

  77. aphrael, i did not want to move county lines. Even though there is no visible difference between LA and Orange counties, there is a big cultural change as you pass through the Orange Curtain.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  78. Orange County has changed and not for the better. I lived there from the age of 5 through the age of 33, before moving to NorCal.

    Look, if a sizable number of “conservative voters” couldn’t find enough motivation to get off their dead, fat asses to defeat the most execrable administration this nation has ever suffered under, then we are truly screwed and I fear for my children and grandchildren’s future… and for generations to come. My despair has only increased since November 6, 2012.

    Colonel Haiku (6fcf5f)

  79. 59. Effective? There’s no money for effective. Take away 45% of the Federal budget, count that in months, and there is no Federal environmental oversight. Laws may remain on the books, perhaps, but there will be no enforcement.

    Its last stand is an unfunded mandate on the States.

    Progress is kaput, dead, over.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  80. We have now entered the endgame. Japan’s new PM, Abe, wants inflation of 2%. The yen has tanked and gas is up 50%.

    We are but steps behind on precisely the same policy path.

    The euro and US Treasuries continue to drift upward in price while the dollar erodes. Banks are rolling on stocks and investors on commodities, Treasuries be damned.

    Seriously, 2009 will be the good ole’ days in just months.

    I’m not even sure the GOP screwed up on Sandy pork. A good portion of that money will not be spent until its halved in value.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  81. Even toothless Fitch has said without March ending in a feasible path to reduction of the debt, we’re going to be downgraded.

    Sorry, there is no way the deficit gets under $1 Trillion. Our system is coming to an end, maybe it will take a few years, but we’ll all see it coming, real soon.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  82. ==It would be interesting to see if a socially moderate, fiscally conservative party could take enough unhappy democrats and disaffected voters to make up for the hardline social conservatives who would go sulk==

    Kevin M—Depending on where it stood on, and how it handled second amendment issues I actually think there would be substantial voter support for a party such as you envision because I hear people on the right say this all the time and many people on the moderate left are also very disaffected because of the fraud, cronyism, unsustainable pork and freebies. Unfortunately, I do not have a clue, though, who is out there to be its face and intellectual champion, and could effectively lead this new party. But in another decade it will be too late because many citizens who were taught in schools when actual learning and sanity still reigned– and were raised by depression era parents– will be dying off and the young voters will have been thoroughly marinated in the Bill Ayers education system and socialism. I fear they are already lost forever.

    elissa (f0ffcc)

  83. a lot of sulky socially backwards cons are entrenched to where they can and will whine very vocally

    for example Fox News deems Mike Huckabee worthy of his own show

    and people are still electing wack jobs like Phil Gingrey

    and even relatively credible would-be nominees like Marco Rubio are doing the Full Lila when they think normal people aren’t looking

    happyfeet (ce327d)

  84. GG and mg– have you ever read Paul Theroux’s 1982 novel The Mosquito Coast? It was made into a not very good movie but the book is quite well crafted and powerfully thought provoking, as well as often very funny. I just reread it for the first time in over 25 years and was glad I did. I found it to still be relevant and amazingly timely. It touches on so many of the very same problems American citizens are troubled by in these Obama days. (What to do about over-consumerism, waste, invasive government, high gas prices, a flighty and shallow popular culture, inflation, an uninformed and complacent citizenry, etc. etc.)

    For anyone unfamiliar with its theme: a brilliant and disillusioned American father, who hates institutions in general and especially schools, religion, and most government (early 1980s) policies, and who was also convinced that the U.S. was in its last days, wanted to escape from the hornet’s nest before it was too late. He moved his family to a remote place where he thought he and his wife and 4 young kids could live simply and safely and with his values intact. It didn’t turn out so well as he became ever more a zealot and they found out that trying to find/force utopia and to live in the world as you want it to be, rather than in the one that actually is, can be very difficult. In the end, what they escaped to was much worse than what they were escaping from.

    Has anybody else read it and have any thoughts about it as relates to this thread?

    elissa (f0ffcc)

  85. The Trans-Oconee Republic was a short-lived, independent state west of the Oconee River (in the state of Georgia). Established by General Elijah Clarke in May 1794, it was an attempt to head off the new Federal government’s ceding of lands claimed by Georgia back to the Creek. In September 1794, state and federal troops forced Clarke and his followers to surrender and leave the settlements. The armed forces destroyed the houses and forts.

    happyfeet (ce327d)

  86. Wait there’s more;

    In late 1794, the Georgia General Assembly passed a bill allowing a portion of the lands west of the Oconee River, the same land which Clarke’s followers had recently occupied, to be distributed among veterans of the Revolution and various Indian conflicts. A supplementary act (the Yazoo Act) attached to the bill provided for the sale of 40 million acres (160,000 km2) of western land to four private land speculation firms: the Georgia Company, the Georgia-Mississippi Company, the Upper Mississippi Company, and the new Tennessee Company, persuaded the Georgia state assembly to sell more than 40,000,000 acres (160,000 km2). As many of the firms’ members included many political insiders, the whole enterprise was scandalous and came to be known as the Yazoo Land Fraud.[1]

    narciso (3fec35)

  87. elissa – I just thought GG and mg were competing to see who could be more negative. I think I missed what prize Patterico is offering.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  88. ooh maybe it’s a kenny chesney cd

    happyfeet (ce327d)

  89. Heh, Yes, daley, there was a method to my madness. It’s gratifying to see that at least someone picked up on my ever so subtle and well meant gesture.

    elissa (f0ffcc)

  90. Thr GOP sucks because the GOP sucks – all by its sorry, lonesome self . . .

    And that it left the electorate with little choice between socialst A or socialist B is not nearly all the electorat’s fault.

    We have two parties that suck, offer us little options to their schemes, and fight any true crusaders to break through crap.

    But it’s our fault. Well, not quite mine, because I refruse to vote for the losers either party puts before us.

    jb (eb132a)

  91. Yup. And what’s the solution? Drew M. doesn’t know. I don’t know. I suppose we can keep trying to explain the problem over and over and over and hope that more people listen and understand. But we all pretty much know that won’t work. What will? I can’t think of a thing other than the country sinking like the Titanic.

    Indeed. The fact that Americans believe in a contradiction indicates the depth of their moral depravity. Poll after poll show a sizable majority of Americans want “smaller government” (whatever that means) but at the same time don’t want to/ won’t accept any cuts to their bennies, cushy deductions, their public sector jobs, etc.

    You can’t have both and the time’s coming when the American people won’t have a choice in the matter — so they do what’s necessary to stick their head in the sand, pretend that everything’s okay and kick the can down the road. (To hopelessly mix my metaphors…) Unfortunately, what Americans have collectively thought (and have been taught for the last several decades) is that you can have contradictions: that you can have free enterprise — and a socialist welfare state; that you can have healthy economic growth, without the booms and the busts without a sound currency; that you can have a vibrant, participatory and educated populace in a culture dominated by anti-life, anti-reason authority figures; that you can have individual rights in an atmosphere of oppressive government regulation; and just because there is an ever-increasing governmental regulatory state is no reason to believe that a business climate for investment cannot be maintained indefinitely; that government can make decisions in people’s lives and pick winners and losers in the marketplace more intelligently and efficiently than the market can.

    A contradiction cannot exist (forever) in reality; eventually, reality wins out.

    Always.

    The moral lesson that America needs to understand is that we’ve tried to cheat reality for far too long. And when the results of that cheating doesn’t hurt enough, no one will listen. But you need to be there, Patterico, when it does begin to hurt enough folks that they begin demanding answers. Because the socialists will be there offering the People evermore of the same poison of socialism, while wanting to silence you, the opposition.

    The People will be ripe for a socialist dictatorship by then, just as they were in the Thirties. You’d better have your philosophical “A” game ready by then because the Republicans of that era didn’t have theirs and look what happened.

    J.P. (bd0246)

  92. 84. No, ‘lissa, have not read same but find the title familiar. The analogy breaks down a bit over the utopian tack.

    Regarding negativity, we have no defense. But we’ve two months 4 a nasty jolt to FX markets and Treasury prices.

    If I’m wrong, I’ll ring the bell.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  93. Secession won’t work, but maybe we can get the collectivists to eject a few states as being uncompatible with civilized society.

    If it’s their idea, to make a more perfect union without all of those lowbrow, education hating rednecks like there are in places like Texas, it might have a chance.

    And they can sell Alaska to Canada to help pay down the debt. Win-win-win.

    Roland (c4ee0b)

  94. No, I don’t think so, this is the president who told the ‘bad czar’ Volodya, what a great deal we got for Alaska, he’d probably sell it back to Russia, at a loss.

    narciso (3fec35)

  95. Comment by J.P. (bd0246) — 1/17/2013 @ 11:43 pm

    that you can have healthy economic growth, without the booms and the busts without a sound currency;

    ??? It was efforts to maintain a “sound currency” that created 3 of the worst busts in American history:

    1) that of the 1830s (brought on by Andrew Jackson’s Specie Circular in 1836),

    2) The 1890s (belief in a sound Dollar – the depression only ended because gold was discovered in the Transvaal (South Africa) in 1897 and in Alaska in 1898) and,

    3) The Great Depression of the 1930’s (made much much worse after 1931 by attempts to remain on the gold standard, which had to be given up in the end. And it was created in the first place anyway by the Fed. Benjamin Strong died and nobody was around to make any course corrections.)

    Speculative booms are not ended easily and gently, and if somebody wants to end it, they are going to have to quickly recreate money to replace the money that’s being destroyed.

    Anything that is traded can be come the object of a boom and treated as money.

    On the other hand, periods of prosperity are associated with creating money out of thin air – that’s the reason wars were historically associated with prosperity, when logically it should be the opposite way.

    Sammy Finkelman (03b22d)

  96. This is what we voted for.

    NOT ME.

    We have become a horrible, lazy, soft, whiny, petulant bunch of good for nothings, combined with a bunch of people too ignorant to care.

    What’s this “we” shit, kemosabe?

    IGotBupkis, Legally Defined Cyberbully in All 57 States and some Canadian provinces (98ae1f)

  97. I know its just empty symbolism but when the money runs out it’ll dissolve:

    http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/01/new-jersey-town-considers-ban-on-flying-us-flag/

    Seriously, is there a bigger sh*thole stateside than northern NJ? EPA needs to outlaw open urban trashheaps. Good riddance.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  98. The Krautscheisster on current tactical ‘thinking’:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-a-new-strategy-for-the-gop/2013/01/17/e751be18-60d3-11e2-9940-6fc488f3fecd_story.html?wprss=rss_opinions

    Money quote: “Want to save the Republic? Win the next election. Don’t immolate yourself trying to save liberalism from itself.”

    Aye, there’s the rub. Lose all 3 branches to save your Republic deserting pension.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  99. Just to be clear, as worthless, as cynical, as blatantly parasitic as we find the GOP, Democrat supports aren’t just low-information, lucy-in-the-skies, well-meaning fools, they are effete, deluded, insidious bags-of-mostly-water.

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-18/guest-post-money-velocity-free-fall-and-federal-deficit-spending

    This is no trough in the business cycle, this is no descending staircase of depression, this is looming global financial RESET.

    The GOP is afraid of their own shadow.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  100. Gary G- Mosquito Coast really is a good book–an intelligent psychologic adventure tale that also gets into how one person’s slightly warped outlook can affect a whole family or community-especially kids. I hope you know I was not trying to poke a stick in your eye or suggest that you come across as any specific character in the story. I enjoy repartee with you. But geez, GG, your comments and mg’s here yesterday would have made Mary Poppins stick her head in the oven!

    elissa (b61397)

  101. (made much much worse after 1931 by attempts to remain on the gold standard, which had to be given up in the end

    Uh, how about the little matter of Herbert Hoover and then Franklin Roosevelt raising income taxes on all Americans, but, even more so, on affluent citizens right up to the confiscatory level of 70-plus percent? Roosevelt even wanted to rocket taxes up to above the level of 80 percent. Moreover, all that brilliance took place in the few years following the effects of the great stock market crash of 1929.

    Mark (e66007)

  102. 99. You’re most welcome. I’m fond of you too.

    As DRJ said a couple weeks back, insults get old. Comity gets old, enthusiasm, ..

    Sicko and I are just pissed at this ‘Runaway to Fight Another Day’ hokum, recycled once again.

    74. Is on the money. Toms Cole and Coburn may well be as safe as the Earth’s iron core, they will never be worth spit in a fight.

    And trust us, a storm gathers.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  103. What’s this “we” sh*t, kemosabe?

    From the post:

    And the problem is clear: while you and I and the other readers of this blog are not the problem, we — by which I mean this country — we are the problem.

    Patterico (8b3905)


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