Comments Posted By michael reynolds
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INTELLECTUAL CONSERVATISM ISN'T DEAD: WOULD YOU BUY A USED CAR FROM A LIBERAL? (PART II)
That’s stretching things a bit, boys.
I'm sure in most cases you're right, but that's not how I feel. I don't have an interest in sports and I don't analogize life to team sports. It's not a we win, you lose thing to me. I don't want to shuffle off to my death bed counting victories, I want to understand. I want to understand better at the end of each day than I knew upon waking.
In my lifetime liberals have taught conservatives about Civil Rights and conservatives have taught liberals about economics. That's a net plus all around. That's why we need intelligent debate and not political coup counting. That's why I want a functioning conservative intelligentsia because (shock!) sometimes they're right and when they're right I want to know about it.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 6.10.2009 @ 11:43
INTELLECTUAL CONSERVATISM ISN'T DEAD: IT'S RESTING
I trepidate as well. (Hell, I can make up words, I'm a writer.)
The political process that's led to our current ridiculous military posture is roughly as follows: Republicans say, "You Democrats are pussies." Democrats says, "No we're not, we'll spend just as much as you." With the result you point out: that we are absolutely ready at any time to fight the Battle of Kursk. And just as soon as Al Qaeda gets their tank army together we will totally kick their ass.
This is the same political process we use for Medicare, Education and many other issues with the parties swapping roles as necessary. Each party essentially goads and dares the other party into a budgetary suicide pact.
We then finalize the madness by insisting that not only must we have everything, we must pay for none of it.
This is why I am so frustrated with the GOP's 'party of no' strategy. I think we Democrats were actually prepared to use the crisis to look seriously at a range of issues. Speaking for myself, I'd like to see means-testing of Medicare. I'd like to see retirement ages raised. I'd like a serious re-evaluation of our military spending and posture. (We're defending Germany why? And from whom?)
And then I'd like a comprehensive look at taxation. Maybe a VAT. Maybe cut the corporate rate. I don't know, but I know we can't get anywhere if the question is instantly demagogued from both sides.
I won't make the argument that we opened our arms to Republicans, but we did extend a hand, and still extend a hand, and we got a slap across the face in return. We Democrats are in a position similar to the Israelis: neither of us has a partner for peace, a person with whom we can negotiate. As long as Limbaugh and Beck control the GOP agenda -- and they do -- and so long as GOP leadership is weak enough to be cowed by their extremes, there's no one for us to talk to.
We have paralysis. And no, divided government fans, that's not a good thing. Because what we've frozen-in-place is untenable. We need some movement. We have some very serious problems. Big, grown-up problems. And a political dialog dominated by children.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 6.10.2009 @ 10:13
We remain the only superpower. The EU could contest but it's not to their advantage to do so, far more profitable to leave the heavy lifting to us. The better question is whether superpower status is worth what we pay for it.
I note your return with a mixture of joy and trepidation. I would add that "what we pay for it" will soon become too much. Half trillion dollar defense budgets are not sustainable nor necessary. Why we need 5,000 tanks in a world where no other nation has but a few dozen or hundred is beyond me. Our entire military is still geared to fight the Soviets on the plains of Mittel Europa. But defense spending has become a jobs program for giant corporations and has little to do with buying the hardware necessary to address our major security concerns.
ed.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 6.10.2009 @ 08:31
Steve:
It's not a war, genius, you're looking for votes. You cannot encircle votes, or besiege votes, or cut votes off from their supply line. Your comment is the perfect example of why your side needs functional intellectuals: you don't even know what the game is.
Transplanted Lawyer:
As usual the one rational voice in a wilderness of howling loons. For all the good it will do you.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 5.10.2009 @ 19:24
DEFENDING POLANSKI: 'IT'S NOT RAPE-RAPE'
Actually very few liberal pundits and no liberal pols as far as I can find, have written or spoken about Polanski. Nothing on Kos as far as I can find, nothing on TPM.
Here's one liberal who has written about it.
Eugene Robinson:
That is grotesque. In general, I agree with the European view that Americans tend to be prudish and hypocritical about sex. But a grown man drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl? That's not remotely a close call. It's wrong in any moral universe -- and deserves harsher punishment than three decades of gilded exile.
So who the hell are you even talking about? Deborah Winger? Seriously?
You're right down there in the gutter with Glenn Beck now Rick. And every bit as credible.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 29.09.2009 @ 09:07
WHY IS THE PRESIDENT GOING TO COPENHAGEN TO LOBBY FOR THE OLYMPICS?
Richard:
I'm not sure you understand: the Right has a quota of at least one item of manufactured outrage per week. Without nonsense like this they might start thinking about actual issues. Which would not turn out well for the party of Glen Beck.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 28.09.2009 @ 13:57
Or maybe it's a way to bring millions of tourists and billions of Euros, Yuan, Yen and Swiss Francs to the US.
Obviously that lacks a conspiratorial or partisan air.
Far better to let Spain, Brazil or Japan soak up American tourist dollars.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 28.09.2009 @ 13:40
RUSH AND RACE: THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
No, it couldn't be racist because conservatives are professionally blind to racism. Can't see it, can't hear it. Used to have some racism around here but it all went away one magical day. Poof! All gone.
You know why you never see racism, Rick? Because without racists the GOP is about half the size it is right now. Your party needs racists.
Do you think it's a coincidence the GOP is 99.9% white? And southern? And old?
So you'll walk right up to the edge of it and then step back. The truth is too poisonous for you to admit. You want to, you need to for your own self-respect, but you just . . . can't.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 16.09.2009 @ 11:27
NO WONDER BUSH WAS A FAILURE AS PRESIDENT
Summarizing:
Liberals were right about Bush. Proof that they are stupid, juvenile morons.
Conservatives, including Rick, were wrong. Which is evidence of their superior intellect.
Short list of other things liberals were right about:
Civil rights.
Women's rights.
Medicare.
Social Security.
Environment.
Gay rights.Conservatives now agree with liberals on the first five, not yet the sixth. Which once again just goes to show how juvenile, stupid and moronic liberals are.
Apparently the smart, mature and sensible thing is to be wrong and wrong and wrong again, and to abuse all those who are right and right and right again, and only to be right once it's too late to matter.
Conservative: a person who is wrong when it matters, right too late, arrogant and insulting throughout.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 15.09.2009 @ 18:03
WHAT ABOUT THAT MEMO SHOWING KENNEDY WORKING AGAINST AMERICAN INTERESTS?
Rick:
Yeah, I'm "in the tank."
Am I getting paid to toss out red meat? No. That would be you.
But you're right, it's time for me to move on. I had hopes that you and a few others like you would get together and repair the damage that's been done to the Party of Lincoln. Because even when I disagree with conservatives I understand the need for them, for what they bring to the debate, for the necessary brakes they sometimes apply.
But you haven't changed the party, it has changed you. And we no longer get the Rick Moran who talked about the need to rethink and reformulate and honestly question the state of the party. Now we get the guy on PJM's payroll.
We need a rational conservative party, an honest conservative party, because we need a two party system. Both parties need a functioning "other" to discipline them, to force them to make some sort of sense, to occasionally grab the steering wheel away. And you're just the kind of guy that new conservative party, that real conservative party could use.
It's depressing to watch. So I'll take off.
Of course I still question the party, and the conservative movement. It is you who are not questioning orthodoxy anymore Michael. Your knee jerk defense of even the most idiotic liberal actions paints you as a party man - something I am not and do not aspire to be.
ed.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 29.08.2009 @ 11:12
