We had dinner Saturday night with a guy whose business is in Ukraine and he lives there, his wife's from there. He's from Cody and has a house here too. So anyway he went to DC in December to visit with *anyone* about the war in Ukraine, wanting to offer a non-ArmsDealer argument for supporting the war effort. There was one evening devoted to incoming legislators, and several disparate groups were there, and the new congresscritters would go from table to table, talking about maybe The Environment at one table, shifting to Education maybe, then getting to the Ukraine group. Most of the people were taking info, listening politely, "thank you for coming" and on to the next group. The one new legislator who stood out as having something germane to offer at each stop: George Santos. They came away from the evening thinking they had a great ally to champion their cause, and then a few days later it all fell apart.
That's what the Second Amendment is for, I guess? That and school shootings. Gotta have that "well-regulated" militia to protect us as all from fraudulent elections, grade schoolers, and Demoncrats.
I'd like to feel bad for them, I really would, but they are missing the lesson of their own downfall.
Instead of bemoaning their fall from power and walking off in a huff they should stand and fight. After all when they were on top that's what the rabble that seized their party did—they organized, convinced people who thought like they did to join the party and seized power.
FTA:
"I had (brunch) with Laura Ingraham and Dinesh DâSouza in the â80s that helps me see, in retrospect, that people in my circle were pro-conservative, while Ingraham and DâSouza and people in their circle were anti-left. We wanted to champion Edmund Burke and Adam Smith and a Reaganite foreign policy. They wanted to rock the establishment. That turned out to be a consequential difference because almost all the people in my circle back then â like David Frum and Robert Kagan â ended up, decades later, NeverTrumpers, and almost all the people in their circle became Trumpers or went bonkers.
"...Everybody likes a story in which the little guy rises up to take on the establishment, but in this case the little guys rode in on a wave of know-nothingism, mendacity, an apocalyptic mind-set, and authoritarianism.
Within a few short years, a somewhat Hamiltonian party became a Jacksonian one, with a truly nihilistic wing."
Good story. Also liked these quotes
"Part of the problem is that so many Republicans no longer get into politics to pass legislation. They do it to become celebrities. The more feverish they are, the better it sells." (this goes for both sides, see AOC ...)
Trump brought the three horsemen of the apocalypse â immorality, dishonesty and bigotry.
The problem is that Trump turned the party into a single-purpose vehicle for cultural resentments. It doesnât help that coastal elites do so much on their own to feed those resentments.
Which brings me back to DeSantis. He seems to have figured out that the G.O.P. sits on a three-legged stool consisting of Trumpists, evangelicals and the business community. Heâs earned the respect of the first with his pugilistic jabs at the media, of the second with his attacks on Disney and his parental rights legislation, and of the third with an open-for-business approach to governance that has brought hundreds of thousands of people to Florida. Next to all that, the personality defects seem pretty surmountable.
I wish we had pivoted our conservatism even faster away from (sorry) Wall Street Journal editorial page ideas and come up with conservative approaches to inequality, to deindustrialization, to racial disparities, etc
House Republicans have declared war on the federal government.
They declare war on things all the time—drugs, poverty, crime—and they always lose. Soon enough they'll recognize what a handy instrument government is to punish your enemies with and they'll decide it's useful after all.
FTA:
"I had (brunch) with Laura Ingraham and Dinesh DâSouza in the â80s that helps me see, in retrospect, that people in my circle were pro-conservative, while Ingraham and DâSouza and people in their circle were anti-left. We wanted to champion Edmund Burke and Adam Smith and a Reaganite foreign policy. They wanted to rock the establishment. That turned out to be a consequential difference because almost all the people in my circle back then â like David Frum and Robert Kagan â ended up, decades later, NeverTrumpers, and almost all the people in their circle became Trumpers or went bonkers.
"...Everybody likes a story in which the little guy rises up to take on the establishment, but in this case the little guys rode in on a wave of know-nothingism, mendacity, an apocalyptic mind-set, and authoritarianism.
Within a few short years, a somewhat Hamiltonian party became a Jacksonian one, with a truly nihilistic wing."
"try persuading someone with reasonable, respectful dialog versus a political baseball bat" - internet abraham lincoln
Abe played first base for the Peoria Blues in the old Wabash League (low A-ball). Slugged .540 over three seasons, but that was when they used sheep intestines in the baseballs.
"try persuading someone with reasonable, respectful dialog versus a political baseball bat"
- internet abraham lincoln
Abe played first base for the Peoria Blues in the old Wabash League (low A-ball). Slugged .540 over three seasons, but that was when they used sheep intestines in the baseballs.
FTA: The entire party evaluated each of the candidate's characters, willingness to compromise on Democratic wants and culture war issues.
Stephens is still conservative on many issues, but is not nearly as right-wing as Merrin. Now, the speaker is seemingly pledging to stop far-right policies and act as a full moderate.
usually in a system where the people have a choice the inflexibility of extremism (on the right and the left) is a losing hand, no?
too many rules = too much violence?
when tolerance of peaceful people makes folks angry, then they may be doing it wrong?
"try persuading someone with reasonable, respectful dialog versus a political baseball bat"
- internet abraham lincoln
FTA: The entire party evaluated each of the candidate's characters, willingness to compromise on Democratic wants and culture war issues.
Stephens is still conservative on many issues, but is not nearly as right-wing as Merrin. Now, the speaker is seemingly pledging to stop far-right policies and act as a full moderate.
