Tag Archives: GOP

I think the climate is changing

And I mean the political climate.

Yesterday’s SCOTUS decision was a bad one in my opinion. It’s already having repercussions beyond the Republican obsession with the ACA. (Apparently at least one employer is already wanting to use the decision to discriminate against gays. This was totally predictable.) Now, I am not going to go into why the decision was wrong headed. I already did a post/essay on how I think you slice that gordian knot or individual religious freedom and public accommodation.

What I want to say is that this is really, I think, going to be bad news for the Republican Party when it comes to Presidential Elections.

Here is a graph I made of the female vote for all presidential elections since Reagan. (I selected 1980 because I think that is the point where a new republican started started to be born.)vote graf

Seriously, How is what happened at SCOTUS July 1 going to help that red line get any closer to that blue one? It won’t. Add the hispanic votes walking out the door and the youth vote giving the conservative party the finger and I think things look nasty for the Republicans in presidential elections.

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Hillary the Inevitable

In the 2008 primary season we were treated to a barrage of opinion pieces that proclaimed the inevitability of Hillary Clinton in her quest for the Democratic Nomination. Of course we have the advantageous position of historical high ground to see just how wrong all those predictions turned out to be.

Here it is 2014 and without the mid-term election yet resolved the opinion are flying fast and furious about 2016. Those opinions are as rooted in serious thought as the Fast and Furious films were dedicated to realistic physics. Naturally one of the most persistent memes is that Hillary is once again the inevitable Democratic Nominee for PotUS.

‘Inevitable’, you keep using that word; I do not think it means what you think it means. Hillary is no more ‘inevitable’ in her aspirations than any particular character is inevitably going to survive their encounter with George R.R. Martin’s bloody word processor.

It is certainly true that Hillary (It is no disrespect to refer her by her given name to prevent confusion with her equally famous spouse.) possesses tremendous advantages going into the fight; her name recognition, fund raising ability, a deep well of contact and connected supporters, all play an important part in a candidates odds of success, but other factors matter as well.

Hillary is a spectacularly poor campaigner. Like Mitt on the Republican side, she has actually won only a single electoral contest. She has displayed a gross inability to connect with voters, has a notoriously thin skin criticism, holds grudges with a tenacity unseen since Nixon, and has approached the nomination process, both in 2008 and 2016, as though it were a coronation.

None of this means she will not be the nominee. Just as Mitt was able to achieve victory in the Republican Primary field of 2012 she could pull it off, but I think it would take a similar dynamic.

Mitt faced a Party that did not trust him and was further to the right than what seemed his natural position. (Personally, I am not convinced we know what is Mitt’s true position. He was always the salesman and in a predominantly liberal state he played up the moderate and in a conservative primary he switched colors faster camera-equipped traffic light.) Hillary faces a party that is becoming more populist and more liberal while she herself has a difficult time selling that message. Mitt survived because there were plenty of not-Mitt candidates to split the vote, allowing the distrusted Romney to claim the Republican Iron Throne. Clinton would be best served by a pack of not-Hillary candidates who could split the more liberal voter of her party, allowing her a similar path to victory.

The rise of popular and decided liberal politicians such as Elizabeth Warren is a major threat to Hillary and only time will tell if she can survive and once again fail while being declared inevitable .

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A Brief Return to Politics

After a couple of film related posts, here’s a bit of politics for those who are inclined to hear my thoughts on the matter. This time I not interested in a particular  event or controversy , but rather an element of modern political life that had me feeling like an outsider.

Conflicted support.

It seems from most of people I have as friends on my Facebook page, or follow along on Twitter, or know in real life have a fairly easy time deciding who is right and who is wrong on any political issue. Naturally the right/wrong axis matches pretty closely to their side and the other side. I rarely feel so certain that one philosophy or strain of through has got it all worked out.

Worse yet for me I happen to have a number of positions that end up being mutually exclusive in our crude national political culture. For example I fully support marriage equality and I also support Second Amendment rights. It’s fairly difficult to find a person to vote of that fits both those bills. (yes I know about the Libertarians  but there are aspects of modern life that requires modern governance and you can have my FDA when you are my personal Guinea pig.) This of course is not my only internal political conflict, I do not believe in progressive taxation and I do support the ACA (‘Obamacare’ for the rest of you.)

I am forced in each election to put my beliefs through a grueling grinder to produce a hierarchy  and I am always for to sacrifice some to advance others. This doesn’t make me a terribly happy person with the votes I must cast, but it the reality of the universe. You cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good, and some progress is better than a principled stand to yields nothing.

However when I look around it seems to me that my relatives and friends and associates hardly seem to suffer this sort of conflict at all. Left is the way! Right is the Way!

I know that there is n end in sight for me. I will forever be balancing the times, my priorities, and what can be achieved, but  I dream of a day with more people will be open to their own conflicts and less religious in the certitude.

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Our Democracy is for Sale!

Well, following the recent Supreme Court decision, that’s the cry I keep seeing from the left side of my Facebook and Twitter feeds. As I understand it the Court found that it was unconstitutional to place limits on individuals when they contribute fund to political action groups and committees and the like. I am not terribly upset by the decision.  Of course there are great many others who are, however I am not swayed by their arguments.

On hand they seems to be saying that money buys politicians. Of course I think what they mean is that money buys the other dies’ politicians. I doubt that there is any level of campaign contribution that would induce Diane Feinstein to become pro-gun, for Elizabeth Warren to go lax on big finance.  There is  a tendency, which I try not to share, to believe that the politicians you support are good and virtuous people and those you oppose are corrupt scamps selling out their country, Virtue and vice exist across the spectrum.

A more substantial argument is that with massive amounts of money, an interest group can get ‘their man’ into office to bent the process to their will. On one level this is true, but it is equally true when you raise money for liberals or conservatives, you are using your money to influence the election to bring about the result you desire. The question seems to be is big money an overwhelming factor and determining who wins an election?

Well that depends on the election. Local city races, state reps, here where fewer people are engaged, the news is far less interested, money can be a big factor, but as the races get more national money is important for getting the message out it is far from determinative in respect as to who winds.

In 2012 Obama spent 683 million to Romney’s 433 million, so you might think Obama bought the election, but that just the candidate’s spending. The national parties also took part; Democratic spending was 292 million and the Republicans spent 386 million.  Outside group also threw money at the presidential race (these figure are just for the presidential contest, not the whole election cycle.) Liberal interests groups spent 131 mill massive outspent by conservative who threw 418 million trying to get their man into office and failed.

I believe that as long as the money flow is transparent, particularly in this age of information, it is far less corrupting than it used to be. This court decision isn’t costing me any sleep, but here’s some advice for those on the left.

You want more out of government? You want to see the obstruction stop? Four words are key, but I suspect the challenge will be to great for your team.

Get. Out. The. Vote.

Too often your team only fields a full force during Presidential elections, while on the right that have managed to energize and motivate their base to show up. And before you gripe that they do it with lies and distortions and slanderous personal attack, that does not matter. They get the warm bodies to the polls in off year elections. You gave them 2010, a redistricting year,  and you’ll feel that sting until 2020 and perhaps beyond.

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Good Job Senator Paul

It is easy to be partisan. You cheer your party when they are right, you denounce the other party when they are wrong, and you stay silent on the inverse.

Let publicly state a admiration on Senator Rand Paul’s old-style filibuster this week. Now there are lots of areas where I part ways with Senator Paul, but here he is a lot more right than he is wrong.

The administrations dodgy answers retaining the option for military drone strike on US soil is flat out wrong. American citizens on American soil get full Constitutional protections and rights. (I know that there are those who extend that world wide, but I do accept the frame work we are at war with Al Qaeda and that people who in effect ‘take up the enemy’s’ uniform can’t complain when they are fired upon on the battlefield. However, here at home, we more than have the resources to capture them without using Hellfire missiles fired from drones. Any US Citizen get full access to courts and full protections. (It is one of my chief bitches about the Bush 43 that he violated that and why he ranks for me as the worst US president.)

Some may ask, ‘So do you now regret voting for Obama?’

No. The use of drone on US soil is still a hypothetical, albeit a very troubling one, where the Republicans have yet to renounced Bush 43’s torture program and abuse of US Citizens, which are matters of record, not maybe of future abuses.
What Paul did was a true filibuster, not that travesty that gets used so much today of quiet paper filings against things you do not like.

For that Senator I salute you.

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Suggestions for the GOP

the election of 2012 should have been one favorable to the GOP. The US was still coming out fo a bad economic period, something that usually hurts thee incumbent, and yet no only did they lose the presidency, the Democratic party held the Senate and even gathered more popular votes than the GOP in the house. Only the fact that it’s district by district allowed the GOP to hold onto their majority there.

So here my question – since I do not have a Sunday Night Movie to discuss.

What one or two policy changes would you, if you are a conservative or a Republican, endorse or accept to gather in more votes in the next cycle?

For the liberals and Democratic party members reading, what one or two policy changes could the GOP do that would cause you to reconsider and possibly vote GOP?

 

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Let’s talk Assault Weapon Bans

With the recent tragedies there has been a lot of talk of gun control laws and in particular reviving the Assault Weapon ban from 1990s. I am going to assume the best motives for those people who favor a ban on assault weapons, but in doing so at best I can say is that they are misguided.

Before I get started let me state that I’m working from a couple of premises.

One – That a desire to ban any class of firearms is advanced with an objective of a reduction in firearms deaths.

Two – The whenever anyone proposes a restriction of rights, the burden of proof is on those advocating the restriction.  When in doubt I err on the side of granting rights rather than restricting them. Continue reading

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Mini-Review Number 1: Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted

These reviews are not in the order I watched them in, but in just whatever random order they occur to me in terms of what I want to talk about.

This documentary was the least satisfying of all those that I completed. (I will not review any based on a partial viewing, that is not fair to the filmmakers or anyone reading the review.) Media MalpracticeThe premise of the film is that the media, because of a liberal bias, failed to due their due diligence in vetting Obama as a presidential candidate,facilitating his election and damaging the republic. Perhaps this argument could be strongly made, but John  Ziegler is not the filmmaker to do it.

This documentary is composed of two major elements. The first element is John Ziegler showing clips from the media coverage of the 2008 presidential election, and narrates in voice over his interpretation of what the clips mean. He doesn’t support the arguments with facts, or testimony, but simply keeps pouring on more and more clips with more and more of his views in what the clips show about the people who made them. There are times when he seems fairly on target and other times when it strikes me as Oz in Buffy would say ‘a radical reintrupretation of the text.’ Without supporting evidence it’s John stating his opinion over and over. Very unpersuasive. Continue reading

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