Ron Washington Wisdom
Should you find you still care about party identification
Posted by TFG on November 9th, 2012
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
The permanent sunset of the Republican party is begun
By Donald Sensing
I want to note briefly that the Reverend Sensing has been on my reading list since the dawn of the blog, and that he is a fount of wisdom. Ignore him at your own peril.
Currently listening to Born To Lose, by the great Ray Charles. Seriously, it snuck in on the ipod shuffle deal betwixt ZZTop & Steely Dan.
10 Responses to “Should you find you still care about party identification”
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Well written. We are Sweden. Feel bad fro my kids. Hopefully they will marry rich busines men from china
Meh. Such sentiments after a disappointing election are understandable (and predictable), but I’d suggest that despite the considerable impediments that currently exist for American conservatives/libertarians/classical liberals described by the author, history tells us that there are no permanent majorities in American politics. Nothing I read there convinced me that this has changed.
It’s not quite time to give up, but we do have some things to rethink and repackage, hmm? If we care to.
Since the linked post is about the Republican Party, I’m going to assume you mean it’s not time to give up on the Republican Party. My answer is No, I don’t care to. If someone else decides different, that’s fine and admirable, but I will spend my time on something that might make more of a difference.
To be clear, too, I don’t have any idea what that is at this point, but I can’t see expending another erg on Republicans.
Here is what I believe the party needs to do:
1. Require all candidates for office pass an IQ test to ensure they have a working knowledge of human anatomy. We lost two senate seats to stupidity.
2. Ensure conservative candidates abide by separation of church and state. Moral values are set in the home and reinforced in church. They are not the provence of government and introducing a morality debate into political discourse is a recipe for failure at the ballot box.
3. We need to embrace minorities not just preach the doctrine of illegal immigration. The conservative base is shrinking, dramatically. I am a 3rd generation immigrant and a conservative. Bet there won’t be many to replace me given our noxious lexicon.
4. We need to advocate a simple and fair basis of taxation and ensure there are no sacred cows or special interest provisions. Our guiding principle ought to be to put tax preparation firms and software out of business.
5. We need to select a candidate for president who looks and acts like one “of the people”. My view, that is why we lost. People couldn’t see themselves in our candidate.
What he said
1. Only one candidate said something stupid, and he rightly lost. The other candidate had his words twisted in the worst possible way by an in-the-tank media and a ruthless campaign. And Elizabeth Warren STILL won in Mass. PS IQ tests aren’t in the Constitution, or basic arithmetic would not be the central problem in DC.
2. This is disingenuous. Which candidate, anywhere in America, plumped for a national religion? Barring that, I expect specifics to be debated, not generalities. We deal far too much in generalities. I would be thrilled to debate one case where a conservative candidate was trying to force his religion on the voters.
3. Pshaw, and hooie. Exit poll data shows that these minorities embrace and desire more, bigger government. As a limited government man, how do I appeal to someone like that? How do I make limited government “less noxious”?
4. Good fucking luck. The American people DO NOT WANT (that’s me yelling) a simple and fair basis for taxation. (Here I am yelling again) HOW ARE THEY GOING TO GET THEIR FREE SHIT if we change the basis for taxation?
5. Looks? We need better optics? Maybe, I guess. The Republican Party can go get the next winner of American Idol, and run him out there, so we can get the idiot “optics” vote.
it is all becoming indiotcracy.
I’m with you Otis I feel sorry for my kids In 4 years this country is going to be very different I hope by then people will of had enough of this bullshit But not likely
If the party dies it’s due to our political system working the way it’s supposed to work. You might want this or that but if that is not what the majority want, that doesn’t mean the world is ending. Our country is the same as it’s ever been. When there is a better country, I’ll move there (Monaco looks pretty sweet but I’m a couple hundred mil short). I don’t know a single kid who isn’t better off than his parents were. Nor do I think they will ever be worse off- every generation worries about that (needlessly). I’ve never understood conservatives or liberals. I just can’t be conservative or liberal on every issue. I sure don’t believe everyone wants free shit. SOME people want free shit and SOME people don’t want to do their fare share. Our founding fathers were a bunch of rich white guys who didn’t want to pay taxes. We’ve come so far!
OW! My balls!