No Collaboration

The opening shots of the war for the soul of the Republican Party have been fired. . . by the moderates. Not two days after the election, McCain aides are viciously attacking Sarah Palin in a move that seems to me very preconceived, as if this was their contingency plan all along if they lost. Regardless of the validity of their claims (I am skeptical) these attacks have nothing to do with Palin's shopping habits or her intelligence. These attacks are coming this quickly because she's a right wing conservative. The moderates are panicked. They need a scape goat other than McCain in order to keep their grip on the party going into Obama's administration. Palin is an up and coming conservative star ripe for the targeting. If the moderates can succeed in painting the election as a referendum on Palin, they can deflect blame for the plight of the Republican Party.

This is where 2012 starts for us. Conservatives have to win back this party. We cannot let the moderates create a narrative that destroys Sarah Palin and whitewashes their own complicity in our ignoble defeat. If the moderates succeed in reaffirming their grip on the GOP, the consequences would be devastating. Already Democrats are conspiring with Republican moderates to have McCain lead the "opposition" in the Senate. This is what I mean when I say McCain should be nowhere near party leadership in the Senate. This ugliness serves to remind me why I never liked John McCain and why it pained me so much to vote for him. He is no conservative and no friend to conservatives. He is self serving and will destroy party unity to serve his own ends (see the gang of 14). This new found congeniality between McCain and Democrats is telling:

"Before resting from the grueling presidential race, John McCain began discussing with senior aides what role he will play in the Senate now that he has promised to work with the man who defeated him for president."

Hmm. . . I wonder what he discussed with his senior aides?

"The attacks on Ms Palin are set to intensify, with McCain aides keen to dish the dirt on their boss's running mate. One aide estimated Ms Palin had spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $US150,000. . . Another aide offered the "Wasilla hillbillies" comparison and said the truth would eventually come out."

This is the real, nasty, John McCain. The one who has hated conservatives at least since the 2000 campaign This is the John McCain that I didn't know if I could vote for. This is the John McCain we're now getting. Let me say it one more time: NO. WHERE. NEAR. PARTY. LEADERSHIP. McCain's quasi-liberalism is what got us into this mess in the first place.

Our opposition will be difficult enough without our party leadership openly colluding with liberal Democrats. Remember, "cooperating" with liberals never means that they make concessions. It means you adopt their liberal position or else you are a bitter partisan. Ann Coulter's definition of stare decisis is a perfect description of the liberal attitude toward negotiating with conservatives: "What's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable." This is what a McCain/moderate leadership means for us. We don't persuade or oppose them, we concede and abdicate in the hopes of getting part of the credit for whatever Pelosi/Reid/Obama do. In short, "me too" liberalism.

This of course is the opposite of what we need. We must be opposition in the fullest sense of the word. No "bipartisanship" or cooperation. Are we conservatives or not? The whites could have avoided many conflicts with the Bolsheviks if they had acted in a "spirit of bipartisanship", but they still would have all ended up living under communism. We must fight them, tooth and nail, and it starts now with the defense of Sarah Palin and unapologetic conservatism.

No Collaboration!

Our Way Forward

So here we are. First I'd like to apologize to the rest of the world. You may not realize this or you may not want to admit it, but the American electorate just screwed you over, big time. Secondly, all you young "first time voters". As you get older, many of you will realize what you have done. Just know right now that I have no sympathy for you. If I can figure it out this young, so can you. Instead you selfishly voted in droves for the hip, trendy pick because as much as you think you are "sticking it to the man", all you are doing is falling into lockstep with the rest of the misguided misanthropes that make up these fascist organizations we call college campuses, who can't seem to understand that they're not being individualistic by voting the same way everyone else on campus is voting no matter how many piercings they have. Congratulations, you just screwed over the country you're set to inherit. Someday maybe you'll understand that adults don't whine about the costs of student loans and vote a socialist into power. Adults understand that you pay for what you get and act accordingly (they get a job).

That said, we can't play the blame game for very long. We will have to rebuild the Republican Party and the Conservative movement, but we can't afford to neglect our role as opposition. It appears that the Democrats will fall short of the 60 Senate seats needed for a filibuster proof majority. The 40+ GOP Senators had better find a spine and find it fast. I don't buy the Obama as a pragmatist who will govern from the center line we've been fed from people on our own side. Barry will see this as a mandate and an opportunity to reshape this country in the progressive image. There will be at least two years where he will be able to pass whatever he wants if the GOP can't maintain unity against him in the Senate. I know that there are Olympia Snowe types in the Senate who can't wait to cooperate with the Democrat majority, and John McCain's concession speech didn't exactly fill me with hope last night. McCain needs to be nowhere near party leadership in the Senate. The moderates have had their chance this past election, and contrary to popular opinion, more times than not during the Bush administration. Its time for conservatives to rally around someone. We are facing the abyss. Will it be Mitch McConnell? I have my doubts, but we need a strong, steady voice in the Senate. Hopefully we'll be able to utilize moderate Democrat Senators from time to time. Otherwise our last line of defense is the courts.

It appears that the first legislative tasks come January will be the Employee Free Choice Act and the Fairness Doctrine. I don't think that either of these should hold up if brought to the current Supreme Court. However, how long will the court remain constituted as it currently is? Of the current basic conservative majority on the court, Chief Justice Roberts will be 54 in January, Justice Scalia will be 75 in March, Justice Kennedy will be 75 in July, Justice Thomas will be 61 in June, and Justice Alito will be 59 in April. No matter what you think of the Bush administration, part of his legacy will be the presence of Roberts and Alito on the court for the next 10-20 years. The question though, is Scalia and Kennedy. I don't care about the liberal members, if Obama replaces any of them it won't alter the balance of the Court. While Kennedy isn't a reliable conservative vote, he is infinitely better than anyone Obama would appoint. Remember, Obama would choose his justices based on their empathy for certain segments of society and has expressed regret that the courts haven't redistributed American wealth regardless of action by Congress. Scalia and Kennedy must remain on the bench for at least four more years. Even two years would put us in a much better situation as long as the GOP can make midterm gains in the Senate, but experience makes me wary of trusting the courage and resolve of Republican Senators, therefore I pray Scalia and Kennedy can hold out for a Republican administration. This is the most important fight over the next 2-4 years. The only way we may be able to stop Obama is over the Constitutionality of his Legislative agenda. I'm afraid though that there is little that we can do other than pray for the health and energy of the current majority.

What we can do is demand conservatism from the Republican Party. The moderates have had their shot and its been an unmitigated disaster. Its time to get back to our roots. Its time to demand conservative candidates and principles. Fiscal conservatism must be brought back, no more bailouts. Its time to rediscover the Libertarian wing of our party. Don't abandon capitalism. We can't become a "me too" liberal party. Don't run from social issues. California is on the verge of banning gay marriage. Barack Obama wants to reinstitute Federal funding for abortion. The GOP must make a stand in the House and Senate. These are winning issues for us. We must reestablish ourselves as the conservative alternative. The American public hasn't really had one in a while.

It is what it is. Obama has won. We have to deal with it. We have to weather the coming storm as best we can. Do not feel sorry for yourself. We took an awful candidate and tried our best to drag him across the finish line. It didn't work. Live and learn. We'll carry on. Obama didn't forever alter the balance of power in America. We are still a center-right country. Did you notice how many bans on gay marriage passed last night? If we just stand fast to our conservative principles, America will hand us the reigns again. We survived 4 terms of FDR. We survived the Great Society. We survived Jimmy Carter for goodness sakes. America and conservatism will survive Obama, but the Republican Party had better rediscover its convictions, and fast.

Damned Right I'm an Angry, White, Male!

Obama critic and author of "The Obama Nation" Jerome Corsi has been detained by authorities in Kenya:

"Corsi had promised a news conference today that would 'expose details of deep secret ties between U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and a section of Kenya government leaders, their connection to certain sectoral groups in Kenya and subsequent plot to be executed in Kenya should Senator Obama win the American presidency.'"

Hmm, combine this with the millions of dollars Obama is allegedly receiving from abroad, and you begin to wonder who is backing his meteoric rise to power. Personally it frightens me a bit that a man who would be the most liberal President since LBJ appears to have such foreign support. D0 we really know anything about this guy? He's a relative unknown with socialist, if not marxist leanings, who has unknown, possibly foreign, backers behind the scenes. Do the American People know this? Is anyone trying to tell them? Do we know the kind of "change" Obama represents? Good Lord! The Democrats nominate a collectivist with more backing abroad than in the States, and all the Republicans throw against him is John McCain?

If Obama is elected, the resulting 4-8 years of socialism wrought on America will be a black mark not only upon the Democrats, but upon the spineless Republicans who were too unprincipled and cowardly to oppose McCain and then speak out against Obama. Why should we vote for you? Even in the minority role, you won't speak out. The reason I'm even considering voting for your nominee is because the other side is rolling out a Maoist. Big changes (1976-80-esque) need to take place in the Republican Party. Even if we somehow redefeat socialism in America, this will be far too close. Remember when wackjob leftists lost in 40+ State landslides? Do today's idiot GOP leaders know how hard the Buckleys, and Hayeks, and Goldwaters, and Reagans struggled on the fringes of American politics to pull this country back from the collectivist abyss? Now we just give all those gains back? We let them create a financial crisis, we let them blame us for it, we let them declare it a new "Great Depression", and we not only let them decide we need "New Deal" type government intervention, we collude with them to do it?!

Its not until now that I understand what it was like for men like Hayek and Buckley, what its like to be a lone voice in the wilderness, "standing athwart history yelling 'Stop!'"

The 228

What a bizarre day. Let's all just take a step back and calm down for a second. 777 is the biggest points drop in Dow history, but at just shy of 7% it doesn't even approach the 26% drop in 1987. There will be much moaning and gnashing of teeth. Congressional leaders are already declaring that they will not give up, but they're going to have to go back to the drawing board. Beyond that, there's even a question of whether or not some leaders in Congress want a bailout vote to succeed. Nancy Pelosi must not have wanted this to pass, that's the only way I can explain away her anti-GOP rant at the close of the debate today. You don't build bipartisan support for a deeply unpopular bill by attacking the minority party whose support you need, right before the vote. We know she supports heavy handed government intervention in the U.S. economy, so her actions today leave only two possibilities in my mind. She may be gambling that the economy is going to tank (Wall Street's reaction to the vote was predictable) and wants to blame the Republicans for voting down the bailout, or she is completely inept, incompitent, and just plain stupid. If anyone else has a viable explanation for her unhinged remarks today, I'd like to hear it.

Now don't get me wrong, I hate this bailout and am happy to see it fail. The bumbling Republicans however, have missed their opportunity. This crisis was caused by government regulation. By forcing lenders to accept less than qualified home buyers because of economic or racial status, they placed the housing market on a house of cards. Instead of pointing this out and educating the American people, the GOP leaders (you know, the party of limited government) responded to an over regulation problem with support for a mass government intervention that would make Karl Marx smile in whatever corner of hell he's stewing in at the moment. Are there any classical liberals in the upper echolons of the Republican Party anymore? Thank God the rank and file voted against it (if only because they feared being booted out of office). This is the problem conservatives face right now. We seem to be losing our hold on the Republican Party. Hardly if ever do I see an elected Republican promote the Libertarian economic principles that our country was founded on and swept Reagan into office. The American people aren't dumb. They will see who is in the right if we actually argue and defend our position. As Margaret Thatcher put it: "The facts of life are conservative," but you have to let people know what the facts are.

The 228 stand victorious for now, hopefully no one shows Henry Paulson a goat path.

House GOP: Not Geldings After All

Finally, someone in the GOP is pounding Pelosi and the Democrats over the ban on drilling. I was beginning to question their intelligence and genitalia.

No Time Left For You

Nancy Pelosi has no time to entertain Republican proposals to end the congressional ban on off shore drilling because she's "trying to save the planet". How arrogant can you get? If Republicans don't fall over each other to get to a camera, then we're pretty much doomed. If we don't take this and run with it, then we're too stupid to run the country anyway.

The Democrats weren't elected by the American people to "save the planet" by keeping oil supply low. If Mrs. Pelosi wants to make that case, I say be my guest. I'd love to hear a different Republican every day lambaste the Democrats over oil prices. This is our issue. Its their fault that we aren't exploiting domestic sources of oil. (Well, we can also blame George H. W. Bush, but then again we can blame him for a lot) There's a reason that Congressional approval is in the teens. If only Republicans would grow a set and go on the attack.

Pelosi is completely inept. She thinks she still represents San Francisco. I hope it isn't news to House Republicans that most Americans don't want to become San Francisco. I shudder to think of even setting foot in that God forsaken place.

Bizzaro St. Louis

I was screwing around in Time Magazine's online archives and found this little nugget from the April 17th 1933 issue:

"Last week for the first time in 24 years, St. Louisans elected a Democratic Mayor. Victorious candidate was Bernard Francis Dickmann, 44, bachelor realtor. A grey-haired, ruddy-faced, wisecracking good-timer. Mayor-elect Dickmann is president of the City Real Estate Exchange. A party worker for 20 years, he had never before run for office."

St. Louis, like any other city in America, has been under Democratic control for at least a generation, but having lived in the area my entire life I really can't imagine it being any other way. This really blew my mind:

"The St. Louis Democracy's (I hope they mean "Democrat's") victory, an echo from last November, was far from complete. Republican Louis Nolte was re-elected city comptroller for the fifth time. Republicans retained a majority on the board of aldermen"

Maybe someday, we can win it back. Maybe Osama Bin Laden will move to San Fransisco and Marry Ariel Sharon's comatose body. Anything's possible.