Republicans tend to play the game of politics as ladies and gentlemen. Go along, get along: that’s the motto. Unfortunately, many Progressives don’t feel the same way. Republicans versus the Democrats are the middle school baseball team playing the Yankees. Republicans don’t play hardball. They don’t play softball. Hell, some of them don’t even play whiffle ball. They really believe their opponents want a level playing field and a rules book. |
Panthers or Pussycats: advice to newly elected Republicans
My neighborhood is in deep mourning.
You see, I live in Montford, an old neighborhood abutting Downtown Asheville, North Carolina. Most of the homes here were built between 1900 and 1920, large houses made for large families. Some of them are now divided into apartments, but most remain single-family dwellings that range in value from $300,000 to $1,000,000 or more. A few minority families live here in the smaller homes, holdouts from the 1970s when the neighborhood was impoverished, but for the most part it’s a comeback neighborhood, with white, young, affluent families buying up and restoring house after house.
My own dwelling-place is a spacious brick apartment building with large white columns and porches facing Cumberland Avenue. I have lived in my apartment for nearly six years and love the place. I can walk downtown in ten minutes, there are children in nearly every house on the block, and tourists swing by to take pictures of some of the homes, including my own building. It’s a sweet place to live.
Despite the beauty of these houses and streets, Montford is in mourning because we’re also a blue neighborhood, meaning that every third van has a “Mama For Obama” sticker. We’re so blue that if the nation reflected a similar voting demographic there wouldn’t be a Republican left in office anywhere.
Progressivism is just assumed in my neighborhood. Tell people here you’re a conservative, and you might as well tell them that you just popped their Chihuahua on the barbeque. Put a Republican campaign poster on your lawn, and it will be gone by the next morning. Put an innocuous sticker on your bumper opposing Obama, as I did, and you can expect your car window to be smashed in a few weeks, as mine was.
I preface the following with this description of my neighborhood because I don’t want you to think I live in a bubble. I live among liberals, progressives, and a few people so far to the left that they make Karl Marx look like Richard Nixon. Please take my situation into account when judging my next words:
It’s rumble time.
On Tuesday, November 4, Republicans, including many conservatives, took back the United States Senate. They gained seats in the House of Representatives. They won governorships in unlikely states, including President Obama’s home state of Illinois. They took several hundred seats in state legislatures across the country. Republican Red is the color of the season, and the Blue Democrats are in disarray.
This same election gave Republicans a platoon of talented leaders. Susana Martinez in New Mexico, Scott Walker in Wisconsin, Mia Love in Utah, Joni Ernst in Iowa, John Kasich of Ohio, and other winners join the ranks of Republicans like Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and Rand Paul. These and others form a pool of potential candidates for the U.S. presidency. Compared to these winners, ask yourself where the Democratic talent is. Who will step up as the Democratic presidential candidate? Joe Biden? Hilary Clinton? Really? That’s the best you’ve got?
But this situation will not stand. Progressives and their allies, the mainstream media, follow the Chicago Way: you bring a knife to the fight, they bring a gun. That gun won’t be loaded with bullets, of course, because Progressives detest guns. Instead, their weapons of choice will be lies, innuendo, cheating at the polls whenever possible, and pounding away at the American voter, whom these same Progressive elites clearly regard as a gang of sunken-browed Neanderthals, a collection of hillbillies, homophobes, racists, gun nuts, and Bible-thumpers.
President Obama will lead the attack, mostly because there’s no one left standing to carry out the Progressive agenda. He’s going to push on amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, people who are here, whatever their other reasons, as criminals. From the Mid-East to Beijing, the president will continue to misdirect our foreign policy. (This misdirection stems less from intent, I think, than from ineptitude and ignorance). He will continue to support the expansion of federal agencies and regulations, those burdensome shackles that have done as much damage to the American economy as higher taxes and horrendous spending. He will continue to follow Saul Alinsky’s destructive guidelines for radicals, best expressed by his former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel: “You never let a serious crisis go to waste.” We’ve had six years of crises, and given that record, the next twenty-four months should bring a host of other disturbing events that President Obama and his supporters won’t want to waste.
Meanwhile, the divisive Senator Harry Reid, Democrat and former Majority Leader of the Senate, is already calling on Republicans to cooperate and to meet him and his party halfway in solving the problems of the nation. This would be risible if Reid wasn’t serious. No, actually, it becomes even funnier because he is serious. The man who again and again turned his back on compromise, who slapped down his opponents at every opportunity, now expects the Republicans taking office to reach across the aisle to him.
And here’s the awful truth: Republicans may damn well just take that extended handshake from the Democrats. Why? Because Republicans like to think of themselves as nice people.
Traditionally, they tend to play the game of politics as ladies and gentlemen. Go along, get along: that’s the Republican motto. Unfortunately, many Progressives don’t feel the same way. Republicans versus the Democrats are the middle school baseball team playing the Yankees. Republicans don’t play hardball. They don’t play softball. Hell, some of them don’t even play whiffle ball. They really believe their opponents want a level playing field and a rules book.
No more, gang.
It’s time to knock off the cowboy up.
You see, I live in Montford, an old neighborhood abutting Downtown Asheville, North Carolina. Most of the homes here were built between 1900 and 1920, large houses made for large families. Some of them are now divided into apartments, but most remain single-family dwellings that range in value from $300,000 to $1,000,000 or more. A few minority families live here in the smaller homes, holdouts from the 1970s when the neighborhood was impoverished, but for the most part it’s a comeback neighborhood, with white, young, affluent families buying up and restoring house after house.
My own dwelling-place is a spacious brick apartment building with large white columns and porches facing Cumberland Avenue. I have lived in my apartment for nearly six years and love the place. I can walk downtown in ten minutes, there are children in nearly every house on the block, and tourists swing by to take pictures of some of the homes, including my own building. It’s a sweet place to live.
Despite the beauty of these houses and streets, Montford is in mourning because we’re also a blue neighborhood, meaning that every third van has a “Mama For Obama” sticker. We’re so blue that if the nation reflected a similar voting demographic there wouldn’t be a Republican left in office anywhere.
Progressivism is just assumed in my neighborhood. Tell people here you’re a conservative, and you might as well tell them that you just popped their Chihuahua on the barbeque. Put a Republican campaign poster on your lawn, and it will be gone by the next morning. Put an innocuous sticker on your bumper opposing Obama, as I did, and you can expect your car window to be smashed in a few weeks, as mine was.
I preface the following with this description of my neighborhood because I don’t want you to think I live in a bubble. I live among liberals, progressives, and a few people so far to the left that they make Karl Marx look like Richard Nixon. Please take my situation into account when judging my next words:
It’s rumble time.
On Tuesday, November 4, Republicans, including many conservatives, took back the United States Senate. They gained seats in the House of Representatives. They won governorships in unlikely states, including President Obama’s home state of Illinois. They took several hundred seats in state legislatures across the country. Republican Red is the color of the season, and the Blue Democrats are in disarray.
This same election gave Republicans a platoon of talented leaders. Susana Martinez in New Mexico, Scott Walker in Wisconsin, Mia Love in Utah, Joni Ernst in Iowa, John Kasich of Ohio, and other winners join the ranks of Republicans like Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and Rand Paul. These and others form a pool of potential candidates for the U.S. presidency. Compared to these winners, ask yourself where the Democratic talent is. Who will step up as the Democratic presidential candidate? Joe Biden? Hilary Clinton? Really? That’s the best you’ve got?
But this situation will not stand. Progressives and their allies, the mainstream media, follow the Chicago Way: you bring a knife to the fight, they bring a gun. That gun won’t be loaded with bullets, of course, because Progressives detest guns. Instead, their weapons of choice will be lies, innuendo, cheating at the polls whenever possible, and pounding away at the American voter, whom these same Progressive elites clearly regard as a gang of sunken-browed Neanderthals, a collection of hillbillies, homophobes, racists, gun nuts, and Bible-thumpers.
President Obama will lead the attack, mostly because there’s no one left standing to carry out the Progressive agenda. He’s going to push on amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, people who are here, whatever their other reasons, as criminals. From the Mid-East to Beijing, the president will continue to misdirect our foreign policy. (This misdirection stems less from intent, I think, than from ineptitude and ignorance). He will continue to support the expansion of federal agencies and regulations, those burdensome shackles that have done as much damage to the American economy as higher taxes and horrendous spending. He will continue to follow Saul Alinsky’s destructive guidelines for radicals, best expressed by his former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel: “You never let a serious crisis go to waste.” We’ve had six years of crises, and given that record, the next twenty-four months should bring a host of other disturbing events that President Obama and his supporters won’t want to waste.
Meanwhile, the divisive Senator Harry Reid, Democrat and former Majority Leader of the Senate, is already calling on Republicans to cooperate and to meet him and his party halfway in solving the problems of the nation. This would be risible if Reid wasn’t serious. No, actually, it becomes even funnier because he is serious. The man who again and again turned his back on compromise, who slapped down his opponents at every opportunity, now expects the Republicans taking office to reach across the aisle to him.
And here’s the awful truth: Republicans may damn well just take that extended handshake from the Democrats. Why? Because Republicans like to think of themselves as nice people.
Traditionally, they tend to play the game of politics as ladies and gentlemen. Go along, get along: that’s the Republican motto. Unfortunately, many Progressives don’t feel the same way. Republicans versus the Democrats are the middle school baseball team playing the Yankees. Republicans don’t play hardball. They don’t play softball. Hell, some of them don’t even play whiffle ball. They really believe their opponents want a level playing field and a rules book.
No more, gang.
It’s time to knock off the cowboy up.
It’s time to wrap a roll of quarters in your hands before you throw the next punch.
It’s time to fight and make this country work again.
We’re on a wrong path. It’s time to change direction.
Here are seven suggestions for our leaders, Republicans and Democrats alike. I would think of more than seven, but have not imbibed my quota of gin for the evening.
It’s time to fight and make this country work again.
We’re on a wrong path. It’s time to change direction.
Here are seven suggestions for our leaders, Republicans and Democrats alike. I would think of more than seven, but have not imbibed my quota of gin for the evening.
1. Unleash America’s economy. This is a great country, but we’re like Gulliver, tied down by Lilliputians, otherwise known as bureaucrats and regulations. Federal regulations enacted under President Obama are crippling our economy. They’re costing the country billions of dollars annually and untold man-hours. Fight against new regulations. Trim back or kill government agencies. Put a moratorium on federal hiring. Slice, dice, whop, chop: cut government growth and give us back our freedom.
2. Roll back Obamacare, the laughably named Affordable Health Care Act. It’s not affordable. Beginning next month, my insurance premiums will increase by another $2000 per year. Why? Because I am paying not only for my family’s health care, but for others as well. Do I resent this tax? You betcha. This bill was brought to us courtesy of the Democrats. Let’s shove it right back at them.
3. Approve the Keystone Pipeline. This year, no thanks to the Progressives, America became one of the great energy powers of the world. To reject the Keystone pipeline, which would create thousands of jobs and add to our already burgeoning supply of fossil fuels, is crazy. The pipeline is safe. It’s smart. It’s good for the country. Just do it.
4. Start cutting entitlements. TANSTAAFL: There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Toughen up the requirements for everything from food stamps to Social Security. (Note: I am less than two years away from being eligible for Social Security. I can wait another two years. Everyone has to feel the pain). Quit giving away money. Begin gradually weaning away those on the state tit. You know it can’t go on this way. Do something about it.
5. Seal the border with Mexico. To keep allowing illegal aliens—yeah, that’s right, I’m using the politically incorrect term—to allow law-breakers to cross in droves into our country is insane. A country that has lost control of its borders is going down the tubes. There should be no talk of amnesty until the border is sealed. This really isn’t that difficult. Build the wall and then man the wall. If we don’t do this, then you in the government are worthless pikers who are failing to protect your constituents.
6. Foreign affairs and war: How about considering America’s interests for a change? Again, this is no insurmountable task. Invigorate our relations with our traditional allies, get involved in those countries where we have something at stake, and wave goodbye to everyone else. Keep the military lean and effective, and quit sending American soldiers to fight and die in causes where we aren’t out for victory or where we have no national interest in the outcome.
7. Stick to economic issues. It’s why you won the election. Remember when Republicans were always attacked for their stances on social issues? This time it was the other side that stuck to social issue—the war on women, gay marriage, contraception—and this time it was the other side that got kicked by the election. Accept the fact that because of our educators, our media pundits, and Progressive leaders, we have for now lost the war on culture: gay marriage, legal drug usage, prayer in the schools, and so on. But we can win the war on the economy. We can also reset our policies in the realms of foreign and domestic policy.
You won the election. Many of you fought hard to get elected. Now it’s time to start fighting the real war. Reach across that aisle whenever you can honorably do so. Otherwise, roll up your sleeves, pick up those brickbats, and clean house.
2. Roll back Obamacare, the laughably named Affordable Health Care Act. It’s not affordable. Beginning next month, my insurance premiums will increase by another $2000 per year. Why? Because I am paying not only for my family’s health care, but for others as well. Do I resent this tax? You betcha. This bill was brought to us courtesy of the Democrats. Let’s shove it right back at them.
3. Approve the Keystone Pipeline. This year, no thanks to the Progressives, America became one of the great energy powers of the world. To reject the Keystone pipeline, which would create thousands of jobs and add to our already burgeoning supply of fossil fuels, is crazy. The pipeline is safe. It’s smart. It’s good for the country. Just do it.
4. Start cutting entitlements. TANSTAAFL: There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Toughen up the requirements for everything from food stamps to Social Security. (Note: I am less than two years away from being eligible for Social Security. I can wait another two years. Everyone has to feel the pain). Quit giving away money. Begin gradually weaning away those on the state tit. You know it can’t go on this way. Do something about it.
5. Seal the border with Mexico. To keep allowing illegal aliens—yeah, that’s right, I’m using the politically incorrect term—to allow law-breakers to cross in droves into our country is insane. A country that has lost control of its borders is going down the tubes. There should be no talk of amnesty until the border is sealed. This really isn’t that difficult. Build the wall and then man the wall. If we don’t do this, then you in the government are worthless pikers who are failing to protect your constituents.
6. Foreign affairs and war: How about considering America’s interests for a change? Again, this is no insurmountable task. Invigorate our relations with our traditional allies, get involved in those countries where we have something at stake, and wave goodbye to everyone else. Keep the military lean and effective, and quit sending American soldiers to fight and die in causes where we aren’t out for victory or where we have no national interest in the outcome.
7. Stick to economic issues. It’s why you won the election. Remember when Republicans were always attacked for their stances on social issues? This time it was the other side that stuck to social issue—the war on women, gay marriage, contraception—and this time it was the other side that got kicked by the election. Accept the fact that because of our educators, our media pundits, and Progressive leaders, we have for now lost the war on culture: gay marriage, legal drug usage, prayer in the schools, and so on. But we can win the war on the economy. We can also reset our policies in the realms of foreign and domestic policy.
You won the election. Many of you fought hard to get elected. Now it’s time to start fighting the real war. Reach across that aisle whenever you can honorably do so. Otherwise, roll up your sleeves, pick up those brickbats, and clean house.