Christine Todd Whitman just summed up what I've been saying for quite some time, now.
In a nutshell, she advocates for a more central GOP, as well as pulling the control of the GOP away from singular issue "social fundamentalists."
http://www.republican-leadership.com/node/669
Interestingly, she points out that the prediction of the failure exactly four years ago was actually realized THIS year. She notes those who led the attacks on the book "It's My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America".
She points out that despite the fact that McCain won more votes from self-identified evangelicals/born-again voters than George Bush did in 2004, he lost the independent/middle ground.
Anyone who knows me has heard me say it before. There are three MAJOR areas of voters reflected in America (and this is a huge generalization...there are of course numerous microcasms.)
There is the far left...and it carries anywhere from 30% to 35% of the registered voters. This is completely conditional on candidate and issues of any given year.
Likewise, there is a 30%-34% representation in likely voters of the far-right persuasion. And like their counterpart, this is also conditional on candidate and issues in any given year.
The magical portion of the electorate in ANY given Presidential contest since 1980 (that's as far as I can personally attest to the phenomenum, but others may feel free to go further --with proof, of course) is the 32% to 36% of the middle. They identify themselves as independents. And the suburbs are awash in them. It's the fastest breeding segment of our society.
They decide elections. Period. However they break, is how things shake out. Bill Clinton was even smart enough to parody a centristic position in his terms. (remember that Republican-inspired "welfare reform" Bill??)
And again in 2000 and in 2004, a larger portion of that center believed that their security was better guarded in George Bush's hands than in Al Gore's OR John Kerry's hands.
Our task from this point ?? Adapt and overcome. Like the Marines.
Silence the things that are singled out as the most obnoxious rhetoric from Republicans, and actually court the ethnic groups with dangling carrots (we already own the carrots... fiscal constraint. Equal opportunities, heavily underscored with personal responsibility. Free enterprise that meets human needs and economic justice, yet allows BAD businesses to fall by the wayside. )
Yessir. I think the gal is onto something here. The only unanswered question that remains is how long we will walk in the desert before we accept the way back home.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
The Politics of "Me".....
We've been witnessing it for about 20 years now, and it just keeps getting worse, and worse.
We have a whole generation that thinks that they are "literally" entitled. Their parents, wanting better for this generation, gave them anything they wanted...and asked for little in return. Most of them had no chores, no responsibilities in the house they grew up in, and never suffered the consequences of bad decisions.
Now, when they left home, and their parents were no longer responsible for their immediate needs, the next step in their agenda was to lobby the government to take care of those needs. And if you get enough of these morons together to vote as a Majority (aka -the last Election) we're all going to pay for their needs, nevermind the fact that WE worked hard, and belong to the "Do the Right Thing Club"--with special emeritus membership to the "No Matter What" Chapter...
Look, They walk into McDonald's and want to manage the stores on their first day...working the counter or the flipping station is for the "little people" in their minds.
When they started having children themselves, and thought that the government owed them "gold-plated" education for their sorry offspring, they vote time after time for referendums to fund schools. Many of them do not possess the "common sense" or the flat out logic to comprehend that they've just incurred huge debts in order to splurge on their kid's educations.
But there is another voter out there that is smart enough to understand that debt, but just doesn't care... because they know that they'll get the benefit of those schools and be long gone before the bill comes due.
Like the losers who started trading fuel futures at the end of the earning curve (those that were a day late and a dollar short) who were very impressed with themselves when they made $50 bucks on their fuel futures, and then had to hand the wife a $100 bill to fuel the family SUV....all the while never making the connection, or figuring out that not only were they in the hole $50 bucks, but they had also lightened the rest of our wallets equally.
We've seen three seperate, but distinctly similar revisions of this scenario. The first was the Dotcom boom and fall. More recently, the Real Estate boom and fall, and the last go around was the fuel futures rise and fall.
As a very wise man said... "First come the innovators, then the imitators, and finally, the idiots."
By the time the idiots are buying in on the failing stocks, the innovators have already moved on and are making their money on the next investment.
And this "entitled" culture has also removed the middle class (they now refer to themselves as the "Nuevo Riche"-- depite having $1.2 MIL homes that they cannot afford to fill with furniture, Cadillac Escalades that they cannot afford to fill with gasoline, and credit cards that they are just managing the minimum payments on), stomped on personal responsibility, sqaushed work ethic, and morally bankrupted a whole generation, and have started passing this tradgedy of ignorance onto another generation.
Where this gets tricky...
Now we have a culture of excess in this country. The culture is readily observed in Wall Street, and many CEO's of Corporations, where despite abysmal performance, they still are able to reign in multi-million dollar bonuses and salaries. And more recently, a few even give an in-your-face rationale when they are caught in a concatenation of spending sprees like it's the good 'ol days before the Company was moribund. Why in the world AIG executives didn't nix three splurges of the Company's dime (and our bailout money) is beyond intractable. It's yet another bastardization of entitlement.
Add to this Barney Frank's drafting of legislation to "bail" out Ford and GM, and you begin to see the general feelings of socialism in that particular waste of a human. In their heyday, beginning around 1993 --and with the takeoff of the SUV, those automobile giants made $10K of PROFIT on EVERY SUV that rolled off of the showroom floor. Not the Dealer...the MANUFACTURER.
So $10K for every SUV sold from 1993 until 2007 (when the price of gas dropped the desire to own one) was profit. That's AFTER the labor and materials was paid. What on earth did Ford and GM do with that money? I'm one person, but I say let 'em work it out in bancruptcy court.
The market takes care of these things.
If Toyota builds a superior product at a better price, then perhaps it should move to the front of the line and serve as incentive to these turds to put a little more effort into their profession. And don't even get me started on the effects of the Unions in all this. (In full disclosure, I should offer that I worked several years as a union "buster". I've had fingers poke my chest, bats swung at me, and been called a jack-booted thug more times than anyone can imagine--so before you start---anything a reader can hurl is going to be pretty tame compared to that)
EVEN more later.
We have a whole generation that thinks that they are "literally" entitled. Their parents, wanting better for this generation, gave them anything they wanted...and asked for little in return. Most of them had no chores, no responsibilities in the house they grew up in, and never suffered the consequences of bad decisions.
Now, when they left home, and their parents were no longer responsible for their immediate needs, the next step in their agenda was to lobby the government to take care of those needs. And if you get enough of these morons together to vote as a Majority (aka -the last Election) we're all going to pay for their needs, nevermind the fact that WE worked hard, and belong to the "Do the Right Thing Club"--with special emeritus membership to the "No Matter What" Chapter...
Look, They walk into McDonald's and want to manage the stores on their first day...working the counter or the flipping station is for the "little people" in their minds.
When they started having children themselves, and thought that the government owed them "gold-plated" education for their sorry offspring, they vote time after time for referendums to fund schools. Many of them do not possess the "common sense" or the flat out logic to comprehend that they've just incurred huge debts in order to splurge on their kid's educations.
But there is another voter out there that is smart enough to understand that debt, but just doesn't care... because they know that they'll get the benefit of those schools and be long gone before the bill comes due.
Like the losers who started trading fuel futures at the end of the earning curve (those that were a day late and a dollar short) who were very impressed with themselves when they made $50 bucks on their fuel futures, and then had to hand the wife a $100 bill to fuel the family SUV....all the while never making the connection, or figuring out that not only were they in the hole $50 bucks, but they had also lightened the rest of our wallets equally.
We've seen three seperate, but distinctly similar revisions of this scenario. The first was the Dotcom boom and fall. More recently, the Real Estate boom and fall, and the last go around was the fuel futures rise and fall.
As a very wise man said... "First come the innovators, then the imitators, and finally, the idiots."
By the time the idiots are buying in on the failing stocks, the innovators have already moved on and are making their money on the next investment.
And this "entitled" culture has also removed the middle class (they now refer to themselves as the "Nuevo Riche"-- depite having $1.2 MIL homes that they cannot afford to fill with furniture, Cadillac Escalades that they cannot afford to fill with gasoline, and credit cards that they are just managing the minimum payments on), stomped on personal responsibility, sqaushed work ethic, and morally bankrupted a whole generation, and have started passing this tradgedy of ignorance onto another generation.
Where this gets tricky...
Now we have a culture of excess in this country. The culture is readily observed in Wall Street, and many CEO's of Corporations, where despite abysmal performance, they still are able to reign in multi-million dollar bonuses and salaries. And more recently, a few even give an in-your-face rationale when they are caught in a concatenation of spending sprees like it's the good 'ol days before the Company was moribund. Why in the world AIG executives didn't nix three splurges of the Company's dime (and our bailout money) is beyond intractable. It's yet another bastardization of entitlement.
Add to this Barney Frank's drafting of legislation to "bail" out Ford and GM, and you begin to see the general feelings of socialism in that particular waste of a human. In their heyday, beginning around 1993 --and with the takeoff of the SUV, those automobile giants made $10K of PROFIT on EVERY SUV that rolled off of the showroom floor. Not the Dealer...the MANUFACTURER.
So $10K for every SUV sold from 1993 until 2007 (when the price of gas dropped the desire to own one) was profit. That's AFTER the labor and materials was paid. What on earth did Ford and GM do with that money? I'm one person, but I say let 'em work it out in bancruptcy court.
The market takes care of these things.
If Toyota builds a superior product at a better price, then perhaps it should move to the front of the line and serve as incentive to these turds to put a little more effort into their profession. And don't even get me started on the effects of the Unions in all this. (In full disclosure, I should offer that I worked several years as a union "buster". I've had fingers poke my chest, bats swung at me, and been called a jack-booted thug more times than anyone can imagine--so before you start---anything a reader can hurl is going to be pretty tame compared to that)
EVEN more later.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
The Good 'Ol Boys Network attempts a comeback....again.
Those same old worn out echoes from so long ago filled the internet (and some phone lines) more recently, when Andy Resnick and Dale Polen Myers again teamed up to make disparaging comments about the current LCRC, which neither is a member of and which neither can speak of, with any objectivity, the status of that organization. Except this time, their old friend Brian showed them how an anonymizer site works.
As a member of that Committee, I can tell all of Loudoun that the Loudoun County Committee is strong, and gaining membership rapidly. The current pot-stirring concerns certain members of the past LCRC who still hold a grudge (and in this capacity have elected not to join the current LCRC--or at least remain inside of the committee. However, a couple who I thought had dropped this rediculous and moribund set of issues are indeed still members and are thereby bound by the Chairman's direction, or have the option of removing themselves from the Committee)
The mess on other blogs has been purposefully set before us as "democrat" opposition, when in fact the very actions of these people indicate that the greater democrat representation of Loudoun is not specifically involved.
The "build-out set"(that is those who ran the old committee on a bastardization of property rights that more closely resembled "profit" rights has combined with elements of a fractured democrat regime that the LCDC would do well to distance themselves from publicly.) has contributed heavily, because it is the only audience that the group is actually getting these days.
How do I know this? Look on any Loudoun Democrat's blogs and webspaces, and you'll see a crack at Eugene Delgaudio somewhere on the pages of each. (and I'll admit that much of the time, he brings it on himself) But on this latest trainwreck of a blog, there are no such attacks.
That's because the blog is really about a small number of issues which are near and dear to the Good 'Ol Boys Network of Loudoun, of which Eugene is a member of.
Now, I have a fair enough relationship with Eugene, so I'm not castigating him on all of his issues, but the one in this case that's strong enough to join a few democrats with his particular view on a singular issue?? INOVA Hospital. And who are the bunch that's lined up to push BRMC out of the County, if it were left to them??
The Real Estate witch, several members of her failed attempts to run independents against the Republican races to Convention , a couple of the Board members at Inova, and a whole host of the Good 'Ol Boy's Network are involved behind ANY attempt to throw York out, and instantly defame anyone who dares to run against Poisson. Throw in Andy Resnick (a Dave Poisson operative) as the host of this trainwreck, define his purpose...and walla!!
You have the cast behind the first rumblings of this crapfest...
http://virginiavirtucon.wordpress.com/2008/05/15/loudoun-bos-chairman-york-i-for-32nd-hod/
Please read the whole thread of comments and you'll begin to get the history behind the trainwreck that erupted more recently when they thought they had an opening. Outright lies and agitprop with plenty of foofaraw dressing is the standard fare with this bunch, so consider yourself warned. You have to investigate each of their claims individually, but you'll discover that they are prone to stretching truth and in some cases, inventing it.
As a member of that Committee, I can tell all of Loudoun that the Loudoun County Committee is strong, and gaining membership rapidly. The current pot-stirring concerns certain members of the past LCRC who still hold a grudge (and in this capacity have elected not to join the current LCRC--or at least remain inside of the committee. However, a couple who I thought had dropped this rediculous and moribund set of issues are indeed still members and are thereby bound by the Chairman's direction, or have the option of removing themselves from the Committee)
The mess on other blogs has been purposefully set before us as "democrat" opposition, when in fact the very actions of these people indicate that the greater democrat representation of Loudoun is not specifically involved.
The "build-out set"(that is those who ran the old committee on a bastardization of property rights that more closely resembled "profit" rights has combined with elements of a fractured democrat regime that the LCDC would do well to distance themselves from publicly.) has contributed heavily, because it is the only audience that the group is actually getting these days.
How do I know this? Look on any Loudoun Democrat's blogs and webspaces, and you'll see a crack at Eugene Delgaudio somewhere on the pages of each. (and I'll admit that much of the time, he brings it on himself) But on this latest trainwreck of a blog, there are no such attacks.
That's because the blog is really about a small number of issues which are near and dear to the Good 'Ol Boys Network of Loudoun, of which Eugene is a member of.
Now, I have a fair enough relationship with Eugene, so I'm not castigating him on all of his issues, but the one in this case that's strong enough to join a few democrats with his particular view on a singular issue?? INOVA Hospital. And who are the bunch that's lined up to push BRMC out of the County, if it were left to them??
The Real Estate witch, several members of her failed attempts to run independents against the Republican races to Convention , a couple of the Board members at Inova, and a whole host of the Good 'Ol Boy's Network are involved behind ANY attempt to throw York out, and instantly defame anyone who dares to run against Poisson. Throw in Andy Resnick (a Dave Poisson operative) as the host of this trainwreck, define his purpose...and walla!!
You have the cast behind the first rumblings of this crapfest...
http://virginiavirtucon.wordpress.com/2008/05/15/loudoun-bos-chairman-york-i-for-32nd-hod/
Please read the whole thread of comments and you'll begin to get the history behind the trainwreck that erupted more recently when they thought they had an opening. Outright lies and agitprop with plenty of foofaraw dressing is the standard fare with this bunch, so consider yourself warned. You have to investigate each of their claims individually, but you'll discover that they are prone to stretching truth and in some cases, inventing it.
Friday, November 7, 2008
The day the Party got it's elephant....
The GOP: Celebrating 150 Years
Origin of the Elephant
This symbol of the party was born in the imagination of cartoonist Thomas Nast and first appeared in Harper's Weekly on November 7, 1874. An 1860 issue of Railsplitter and an 1872 cartoon in Harper's Weekly connected elephants with Republicans, but it was Nast who provided the party with its symbol.
Oddly, two unconnected events led to the birth of the Republican Elephant. James Gordon Bennett's New York Herald raised the cry of "Caesarism" in connection with the possibility of a third term try for President Ulysses S. Grant. The issue was taken up by the Democratic politicians in 1874, halfway through Grant's second term and just before the midterm elections, and helped disaffect Republican voters. While the illustrated journals were depicting Grant wearing a crown, the Herald involved itself in another circulation-builder in an entirely different, nonpolitical area. This was the Central Park Menagerie Scare of 1874, a delightful hoax perpetrated by the Herald. They ran a story, totally untrue, that the animals in the zoo had broken loose and were roaming the wilds of New York's Central Park in search of prey.
Cartoonist Thomas Nast took the two examples of the Herald enterprise and put them together in a cartoon for Harper's Weekly. He showed an ass (symbolizing the Herald) wearing a lion's skin (the scary prospect of Caesarism) frightening away the animals in the forest (Central Park). The caption quoted a familiar fable: "An ass having put on a lion's skin roamed about in the forest and amused himself by frightening all the foolish animals he met within his wanderings." One of the foolish animals in the cartoon was an elephant, representing the Republican vote - not the party, the Republican vote - which was being frightened away from its normal ties by the phony scare of Caesarism. In a subsequent cartoon on November 21, 1874, after the election in which the Republicans did badly, Nast followed up the idea by showing the elephant in a trap, illustrating the way the Republican vote had been decoyed from its normal allegiance.
Other cartoonists picked up the symbol, and the elephant soon ceased to be the vote and became the party itself: the jackass, now referred to as the donkey, made a natural transition from representing the Herald to representing the Democratic party that had frightened the elephant.
The source:
http://gopgermany.com/News20040713b.htm
Origin of the Elephant
This symbol of the party was born in the imagination of cartoonist Thomas Nast and first appeared in Harper's Weekly on November 7, 1874. An 1860 issue of Railsplitter and an 1872 cartoon in Harper's Weekly connected elephants with Republicans, but it was Nast who provided the party with its symbol.
Oddly, two unconnected events led to the birth of the Republican Elephant. James Gordon Bennett's New York Herald raised the cry of "Caesarism" in connection with the possibility of a third term try for President Ulysses S. Grant. The issue was taken up by the Democratic politicians in 1874, halfway through Grant's second term and just before the midterm elections, and helped disaffect Republican voters. While the illustrated journals were depicting Grant wearing a crown, the Herald involved itself in another circulation-builder in an entirely different, nonpolitical area. This was the Central Park Menagerie Scare of 1874, a delightful hoax perpetrated by the Herald. They ran a story, totally untrue, that the animals in the zoo had broken loose and were roaming the wilds of New York's Central Park in search of prey.
Cartoonist Thomas Nast took the two examples of the Herald enterprise and put them together in a cartoon for Harper's Weekly. He showed an ass (symbolizing the Herald) wearing a lion's skin (the scary prospect of Caesarism) frightening away the animals in the forest (Central Park). The caption quoted a familiar fable: "An ass having put on a lion's skin roamed about in the forest and amused himself by frightening all the foolish animals he met within his wanderings." One of the foolish animals in the cartoon was an elephant, representing the Republican vote - not the party, the Republican vote - which was being frightened away from its normal ties by the phony scare of Caesarism. In a subsequent cartoon on November 21, 1874, after the election in which the Republicans did badly, Nast followed up the idea by showing the elephant in a trap, illustrating the way the Republican vote had been decoyed from its normal allegiance.
Other cartoonists picked up the symbol, and the elephant soon ceased to be the vote and became the party itself: the jackass, now referred to as the donkey, made a natural transition from representing the Herald to representing the Democratic party that had frightened the elephant.
The source:
http://gopgermany.com/News20040713b.htm
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Not for the lack of effort....
What I saw on Election Day was the way a proper ground war is run. There were massive phone banks, there were numerous precinct walks, and Melinda did a supreme job with the 72 Hour game, and was busy WELL BEFORE that time frame, too. As a previous member of several years (having dropped membership thruout a particularly disturbing period of the Committee) and a current member of just over a year, I can say without a hitch, that Glen Caroline ran and organized one of the most intense county efforts I've ever witnessed. (And my first time out the gate was for Reagan in 1978). In Loudoun, on the last week of calling, when the volunteers ran up against 9:00PM locally, they were still jazzed enough to call Colorado until it was 9:00PM there, too...
At the end of it all, if the whole McCain loss were a boat with a bad leak, the LCRC ran the pails much more effciently than many of her Va. neighbors, and much of the Country. The loss could have been huge, but it wasn’t anywhere near as catastrophic as it coud have been locally.
I see this newly fused LCRC as the model from which the State Party should be patterned in the future . There will always be some dissagreement, but we pushed the naysayers aside and forged ahead, our duties on display. We are inclusive, and the only ones we do not tolerate are those who attempt to misdirect the effort, nor those who chock the wheels, preventing forward motion, and this year will be our testament to a turning point.
We all worked as a team….dare I say, a machine. Having worked alongside of these fantastic people, I have a crystal clear picture of who is worth knowing, and who picked their feet up and let us push on their behalf.
This isn’t a club where “talk” is enough to stay. We need committed individuals to join an outstanding group to shoulder the loads and offer the County a clear champion for it’s citizens. And I don’t care what your particular issue is, so long as you can fall in and do your part, I'll always be glad to work alongside of you.
I’m very thankful for the whole Committee’s team and for Melinda out in the Sterling Office. I’d absolutely go out of my way for ANY ONE of these folks. They are the very definition of spirit, dedication and character. If anyone hasn’t made these people’s aqaintance, your life is not as rich as mine.
At the end of it all, if the whole McCain loss were a boat with a bad leak, the LCRC ran the pails much more effciently than many of her Va. neighbors, and much of the Country. The loss could have been huge, but it wasn’t anywhere near as catastrophic as it coud have been locally.
I see this newly fused LCRC as the model from which the State Party should be patterned in the future . There will always be some dissagreement, but we pushed the naysayers aside and forged ahead, our duties on display. We are inclusive, and the only ones we do not tolerate are those who attempt to misdirect the effort, nor those who chock the wheels, preventing forward motion, and this year will be our testament to a turning point.
We all worked as a team….dare I say, a machine. Having worked alongside of these fantastic people, I have a crystal clear picture of who is worth knowing, and who picked their feet up and let us push on their behalf.
This isn’t a club where “talk” is enough to stay. We need committed individuals to join an outstanding group to shoulder the loads and offer the County a clear champion for it’s citizens. And I don’t care what your particular issue is, so long as you can fall in and do your part, I'll always be glad to work alongside of you.
I’m very thankful for the whole Committee’s team and for Melinda out in the Sterling Office. I’d absolutely go out of my way for ANY ONE of these folks. They are the very definition of spirit, dedication and character. If anyone hasn’t made these people’s aqaintance, your life is not as rich as mine.
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