Category: Politics

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Politics

GOP Trying to Become the Aspirational Party

Ramesh Ponnuru writing at *Bloomberg*:

> Even the language the three men are using these days is similar. “We need to show folks that we are an aspirational party,” Jindal said. “We need to be the party that represents the upward mobility,” a party that believes “every single American has the same American dream, and we want to help them.”

I think this is similar to what the Democrat Party went through after losing in 2004. They realized their message was not resonating with the American people and they started to change the way they conveyed it. I think that the Republican Party now has to do the same thing, since I strongly believe that if people understand what the actual conservative positions were, they would support them in droves. I hope people like Governor Jindal, Congressman Ryan, and Senator Rubio are up to the task.

Categories
Culture Politics

The Best Thing You’ll Read on Preventing Mass-Murder Tragedies

Clayton E. Cramer first breaks down why new weapons bans are not the solution, and then gets to the real issue:

> If we are serious about reducing these relatively rare (less than 1 percent of U.S. murders are incidents of mass murder) but terrifying tragedies, we need to be looking at the root cause: untreated or inadequately treated mental illness. Focusing on the weapons may be good politics, but the experimental evidence suggests that it is bad public policy.

I strongly recommend you read the whole piece.

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Politics

College Republicans poised to elect first female national chair

Good luck to Alex Smith[^fn1]. I hope she wins.

[^fn1]: Not 49ers QB Alex Smith.

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Entertainment Politics

Laura Ingraham Takes a Radio Hiatus

I hope that wherever she ends up, there is a readily available podcast of her show.

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Politics

Wal-Mart Protests a Bust

Of course they were a joke. Did anyone really think these protests would be anything else?

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Politics

The Lessons from the Election’s Numbers Start to Emerge

Michael Barone, writing on *NRO*:

> My tentative conclusion is that we may be back to the nearly even balance between the parties we saw between 1995 and 2005. Since then, we’ve been in a period of open-field politics, with big swings to the Democrats in 2006 and 2008 and a big swing to the Republicans in 2010.

> Both sides hoped those swings would prove permanent. 2012 suggests both sides were disappointed. It looks like we’re back to trench-warfare politics at the national level.

This is probably the most positive thing that has been said about the Republican Party’s prospects going forward.

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Politics

It is Never too Early to Try to Tarnish a Republican Presidential Candidate

Such garbage. Personally, I would be fine with someone who does not known the “age of the Earth” off the top of his head if he could improve the economy.

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Economics Politics

It Didn’t work in Denmark, but I am Sure it Will Work Here

People who push for these European-style reforms should have to spend 5 years living in Europe to see how much they damage countries.

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Politics

Mary Matalin with a Blistering Critique of the Election

> What happened? A political narcissistic sociopath leveraged fear and ignorance with a campaign marked by mendacity and malice rather than a mandate for resurgence and reform. Instead of using his high office to articulate a vision for our future, Obama used it as a vehicle for character assassination, replete with unrelenting and destructive distortion, derision, and division.

Ms. Matalin does not hold anything back.

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Economics Politics

Let the Layoffs Begin

> Yesterday, a Las Vegas business owner fired 22 of his 144 employees, phoning in anonymously to a local radio host and explaining how the decision was directly caused by President Obama’s reelection.

As expected, ObamaCare starts to crush business growth.

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Politics

Examining North Carolina’s Republican Majorities

Hopefully this will clear the path for North Carolina to become friendly to small businesses.

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Politics

National Review’s Symposium on Lessons Learned from the Election

As you’d expect, it’s an excellent read. I find Adam Schaeffer’s take about recruiting young social scientists to be particularly interesting.

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Politics

Charles Krauthammer on how to Proceed

> The country doesn’t need two liberal parties. Yes, Republicans need to weed out candidates who talk like morons about rape. But this doesn’t mean the country needs two pro-choice parties either. In fact, more women are pro-life than are pro-choice. The problem here for Republicans is not policy but delicacy — speaking about culturally sensitive and philosophically complex issues with reflection and prudence.

> …

> Tuesday’s exit polls showed that, by an eight-point margin (51–43), Americans believe that government does too much. And Republicans are the party of smaller government. Moreover, onrushing economic exigencies — crushing debt, unsustainable entitlements — will make the argument for smaller government increasingly unassailable.

> …

> Republicans lost the election not because they advanced a bad argument but because they advanced a good argument not well enough. Although Romney ran a solid campaign, he is by nature a Northeastern moderate. He sincerely adopted the new conservatism but still spoke it as a second language.

Excellent analysis from Dr. Krauthammer. Now that we are getting further and further away form the election things do not seem as bleak as they did when I woke up on Wednesday morning.

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Economics Politics

The Stock Market has its Worst Day of the Year

Clearly the market did not get the message about how much “hope” we have in a second term for President Obama.

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Politics

Elections show a Promising Future for North Carolina

John Hood writing for *Carolina Journal*:

> As I had previously predicted, the state’s Republican Party has just delivered its best performance in modern history. For the first time since 1988, voters have elected a Republican governor (Pat McCrory) and lieutenant governor (Dan Forrest). McCrory’s share of the vote fell only slightly below the record for a GOP gubernatorial candidate, Jim Martin’s 55.1 percent reelection victory in 1988.

> …

> In the Tar Heel State, the sentiment is rather different. Although disappointed with the national results, Republicans delivered North Carolina to Romney. They are poised to implement conservative reforms on taxes, education, and other issues. It’s too early to know how the results in all of the local races around the state, but it is at least conceivable that the GOP may break the current 50-50 tie in control of county commissions, opening up additional opportunities for conservatives to shape public policy on issues such as taxes and transportation.

The only silver lining about last night I can find. I just wish it was not at such a local level.

Categories
Politics

Erick Erickson with the Best Election Summary You Will Read

> As for you conservatives who are convinced today that suddenly we are a socialist nation, sober up and pay attention: the next two years are going to be some of the most impactful and fun years in the conservative movement. Republicans who, overnight, were screaming about the country headed toward socialism are, if we are honest, not yet deprogrammed from defending Mitt Romney. The Romney campaign, truth be told, has been pathetic at defining a real, right-of-center alternative to Barack Obama. It’s hard to say Americans embraced, overnight, socialism, when Americans delivered back the status quo — including the “crazy” tea partiers in the House of Representatives — rejecting only Mitt Romney’s brand of “I’m going to do what the President is doing, but with more tickle.”

> …

> Compromise? Like hell. We’re going to keep fighting. And we will find someone who actually doesn’t speak conservatism like he learned it from Rosetta Stone last week. For those of you on the left licking your chops thinking this spells doom — the nation just spent $6 billion for the status quo. I’ll take my chances.

> The nation did not drift left. It was just unpersuaded Mitt Romney would actually take us right and sure as hell did not know what it would get even if it went with Romney. The next two years will set the vision of a more populist oriented conservatism of which I am excited to play a part. And I think, when the Democrats finally realize the new Democratic coalition is only a Barack Obama coalition, conservatives and the GOP will be ready.

If you’re a conservative, trying to make sense out of what happened last night, then this is the piece you want to read.

Categories
Politics

The Reckoning

> The outside groups need to have a serious accounting. For months they touted their get out the vote efforts, ground game, ad operations, polling operations, voter contact, etc. and they really were full of b.s. for the most part. From national tea party groups that have mostly been infighting to some of the major 501(c)(3) and (c)(4) groups, much was donated and much was squandered with little to no oversight.

I have high hopes for a charge led by Erick Erickson and [Red State](http://redstate.com).

Categories
Politics

Marco Arment on Voting

Props to Marco for making a plea for American citizens to vote without making any partisan comments in any directions. Well done.

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Photography Politics

Tip of the Day

Do not Instagram your ballot, especially in North Carolina.

Categories
Politics

Victor Davis Hanson on Mitt Romney

> But whatever the verdict, conservatives can appreciate the way Romney conducted himself throughout the campaign. If one reviews the primaries, it is hard to imagine that the other rival candidates would have done as well as Romney has the last eight months. He ran against overwhelming odds that might have stymied others — a biased, sometimes vicious media, the Candy Crowley debacle, suspect polls that sought to create Obama momentum as much as sample voters, incumbency, and a $1 billion negative ad-based Obama campaign that sought to portray him as a near-felon and veritable killer of the innocent.

I have not agreed with all the decisions made by Governor Romney in this campaign. I do think, however, that he has shown that he would make an excellent president.