Comments Posted By michael reynolds
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DEBUNKING MYTHS ABOUT MODERATES: 1) MODERATES HAVE NO PRINCIPLES
Tom:
You have a rather naive view of American history. Lincoln did not fight the war to free the slaves, he fought the war to prevent the extension of slavery -- and more importantly the political power of slave owners -- into territories we had recently stolen from Mexico: AZ, NV, NM, CO and above all, CA.
The reason we had to fight that fight was precisely because the Sainted Founders had set aside principle by compromising on slavery to begin with. But we also managed to declare independence because we violated principle.
While we're at it, we violated our principles wholesale in pushing the Indians off their land, taking Mexican land, grabbing Hawaii. We violated our principles in central America and the Philippines at will.
We won WW2 by violating principle and allying ourselves with the USSR and fighting on the side of several colonial empires while we ourselves enforced racist laws and denounced the Nazis.
And one more: which principle was Ronald Reagan upholding when he skedaddled out of Lebanon after terrorists murdered 241 Marines and Reagan then sent the Iranians a cake and a bible and spare missile parts?
It's good to have principles. But don't kid yourself that we got where we are because mythic heroes stuck to their principles. It was a long and twisted road that got us here. None of which is an argument for abandoning principle, just a reminder that real life tends to be complicated.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 6.05.2009 @ 10:50
IF REAGAN TOLERATED MODERATES, WHY CAN'T TODAY'S CONSERVATIVES?
The problem here is that people who call themselves "conservative" often are no such thing.
There's nothing "conservative" about nation-building, or wars of choice, or off-the-books financing of wars of choice, or torture, or expansion of federal power to wiretap Americans.
There's also nothing "conservative" about wishing away climate change, or opposing the rights of states to decide for themselves whether to allow gays to marry. Dog whistle racism isn't "conservative."
There's not even anything conservative about Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh or Glen Beck or Sean Hannity.
The term "conservative" has been devalued to the point of utter meaninglessness. A lot of people who think of themselves as "conservative" are no such thing. They're radicals, or loud-mouths, haters or fools.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 5.05.2009 @ 20:58
This is the reason I keep reading this blog. I'm fascinated by guys like you, Rick, trying to talk sense to what are, by any rational definition, crazy people. It's like watching someone try to talk a suicide down off a bridge.
I think to myself, "Why bother? The guy wants to kill himself. You're not going to be able to stop him."
You suggest, in the nicest possible way, that the guy not jump. And the suicide abuses you, insults you, ridicules you. And you keep talking. But the guy's going to jump. He wants to die. He's going to find a way to die. And as he falls to his death he's actually going to hate you Rick, and wish he could find a way to pull you off the bridge with him.
Why is anyone trying to save this shambling wreck of a party, this sad, stupid, hateful mess? Read the comments at Pajamas Media. These people are idiots. Creeps. People you'd never want to have a drink with.
Rick, you're an atheist living in sin. You're a rational man. You believe in evolution and understand that gay rights are coming, like it or not. You don't think torture is fun. You're not ant-intellectual. Why are you a Republican?
Seriously. Why are you a Republican?
Rick, I don't think "Republican" means what you think it means. Maybe it used to. But it doesn't anymore. Your "Republican" is dead and buried. You're part of a small and despised minority within what used to be your party. They hate you worse than they hate people like me. They want you to go away. They want you out of their party.
You can't toady them enough to make them love you. You can abuse liberals all you like, it won't make any difference to the wingnuts because they are fanatics and you are not and they will never, ever, ever accept you back into what used to be your party but is now theirs.
Face it Rick: you're not a Republican.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 4.05.2009 @ 21:46
Domino's. They deliver.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 1.05.2009 @ 21:55
Joe:
Extremes outperform moderates in non-democratic environments. Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. It's why if you're smart you'll bet on the Taliban in Pakistan: motivation, clarity of purpose, a willingness to sacrifice.
Unfortunately for the GOP this doesn't work in established democracies. The bulk of people in an established, bourgeois democracy are looking for stability. They just want to mow the lawn, get the kids in a decent school, be left alone. Extremes are inherently destabilizing, so they lose when the people get to vote.
Right now the GOP is in a self-reinforcing death spiral. The smaller it gets, the more extreme it gets. The more extreme it gets, the smaller it gets. The beauty part is that as you become more concentrated you're excluding virtually every growing demo: blacks, Hispanics, the young, the educated. The fact that the national GOP has zero power just hastens this descent into suicide.
The GOP's only hope now is in the states. Guys like Charlie Crist. Governors. People still connected to reality. But I don't think they're going to pull this out. I think Limbaugh and Hannity and Beck, combined with weak leaders like McConnell and Palin and Steele, leave the GOP almost helpless to even slow the spiral.
I imagine what will happen is this: they'll continue their so-far futile attempt to attach some narrative box to Obama. They'll fail. They'll tell themselves that 2010 will turn things around. It won't. They'll lose another 2 to 5 seats in the Senate.
And then, rather than the governors rescuing the national GOP, the national GOP will start sinking the governors. The GOP brand will poll about as well as swine flu. 21% now, they'll be lower by 2010. GOP pols who want to survive will start running as independents, a transitional phase to a new party.
And by 2012 we'll have a three party system with the rump of the GOP reduced to the deep south.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 29.04.2009 @ 22:17
US DECLARES HEALTH EMERGENCY WHILE OBAMA GOLFS
Rick:
Your first post warns AGAINST silly attempts to exploit this flu.
Your second post IS an attempt to exploit this flu.
And I'm the problem? Your problem is that you earn a living feeding red meat to partisan idiots. But you're not really a partisan idiot yourself. So we get these mood swings. One minute you're WFB, the next minute you're Michelle Malkin.
And I'm the partisan hack? Which is the real you, Rick?
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 27.04.2009 @ 13:56
William:
See, here's the thing: we won the election. You lost.
So how about Obama gets the cabinet members he wants, unless you have some evidence of wrongdoing.
Then, in the unlikely event that your side ever wins another election, the Republican president can get to choose his own cabinet.
See how that would work?
Holy Chirst Michael - and anyone else making the incredibly lame excuse that the GOP is somehow "obstructing" anything.
In this case, there are a handful of dem senators who are joining the Republicans on this one.
And how about a permanent head of CDC? Or someone besides a TV talking head as Surgeon General. Or any one of the other 17 positions he hasn't filled at HHS?
Face it, your man is far behind the curve at both treasury and HHS. He is dropping the ball and only a partisan hack would deny it.
ed.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 27.04.2009 @ 12:41
Derrick:
Yeah, that's kind of a big hole in brother Rick's rant.
On the other hand, blaming Susan Collins for stripping money that, even if appropriated, would have had zero effect on this current situation is dumb.
As is complaining that the POTUS is golfing as opposed to running around freaking out over a few dozen cases of flu.
It's a big heaping pile of dumb all around. How about we all learn from the last half dozen health freak outs and wait until we have actual data? Right now it's not exactly looking like the Black Plague.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 27.04.2009 @ 11:43
IT'S SILLY TO BLAME A POROUS BORDER FOR SWINE FLU IN US
Can we call this the "carnitas flu?" "Swine flu" is a lousy brand name.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 26.04.2009 @ 19:56
Busboy:
Thanks. I kind of like the brown plague though. Very Lou Dobbs.
I hope I can count on your support for renaming this Swine Flu as "Carnitas Flu." That way it sounds more like something you'd order at Chile's or El Pollo Loco, as opposed to something you might study in veterinary school.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 27.04.2009 @ 09:35
