en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/6017231 Comments by Inagua1970 http://dc-web2.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/29/iran-passes-the-point-of-nuclear-no-return/#IDComment742116022 Sorry, I mistakenly posted on the wrong thread. I was reacting to Tobin's post about Rational (non-Cruz) Republicans. My bad. Wed, 30 Oct 2013 12:49:54 +0000 http://dc-web2.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/29/iran-passes-the-point-of-nuclear-no-return/#IDComment742116022 http://dc-web2.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/29/iran-passes-the-point-of-nuclear-no-return/#IDComment741818828 Tobin is upset that some conservatives refuse to quietly acquiesce in the continued growth of the federal government. When Tobin calls Mitch McConnell a "genuine conservative," some of us remember that McConnell voted for Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind, the Bush Stimulus, TARP, and the Auto Loans, all of which we consider deeply un-conservative expansion of the federal government. Tobin apparently considers these policies to be conservative. He is wrong. He is also wrong about the Buckley Rule, which he incorrectly restates as "conservatives should always back the most electable conservative, not the most right-wing candidate." The Buckley Rule actually posited that conservatives should support "the rightwardmost viable candidate." There is a huge difference between electable and viable. Buckley himself ran for mayor of New York knowing he was not electable. But he was viable. This is a distinction that even a faux-conservative like Tobin should be able to grasp. Tue, 29 Oct 2013 20:33:23 +0000 http://dc-web2.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/29/iran-passes-the-point-of-nuclear-no-return/#IDComment741818828 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/20/the-tea-party-mindset-obamacare-ted-cruz/#IDComment738184109 Tom - When you say, "most people aren't going to get subsidies," I suspect that you are referring to those people that currently purchase individual health insurance. And that is where we differ, I think. I do not consider these people to be in Obamacare because they will not be purchasing their health insurance from an Obamacare Exchange unless they qualify for an subsidy. Perhaps if I had phrased it as, "the majority of people who will purchase health insurance from an Obamacare Exchange will be subsidized, then you might agree with me." Mon, 21 Oct 2013 14:01:30 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/20/the-tea-party-mindset-obamacare-ted-cruz/#IDComment738184109 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/20/the-tea-party-mindset-obamacare-ted-cruz/#IDComment737840523 Tom - The people who get the subsidies, which will be most of the people who sign up, will almost certainly become very fond of Obamacare. Consider people up to eight years over voting age whose parents have insurance; people who get a sudden serious illness; and a family of four earning $90,000; they all get subsidies. Plus anyone willing to provide the Exchanges with earnings information that might not be completely accurate. Sun, 20 Oct 2013 22:51:30 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/20/the-tea-party-mindset-obamacare-ted-cruz/#IDComment737840523 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/20/the-tea-party-mindset-obamacare-ted-cruz/#IDComment737774751 PDQ - We disagree only on the definition of existential, which I take more literally than you do. Otherwise, I agree with every word of your post. Sun, 20 Oct 2013 18:28:48 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/20/the-tea-party-mindset-obamacare-ted-cruz/#IDComment737774751 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/20/tea-party-despair-and-obamacare/#IDComment737749260 Tobin fears that "the Republican Party won’t be able to stop the liberal’s next move." And he is right because the liberal's next move will be "Comprehensive Immigration Reform," which will add millions of low skilled workers and reliable Democratic voters to an economy that needs neither. And one of the reasons is will be difficult to stop is because RINOs like Tobin support it. Sun, 20 Oct 2013 16:37:21 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/20/tea-party-despair-and-obamacare/#IDComment737749260 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/20/the-tea-party-mindset-obamacare-ted-cruz/#IDComment737715586 Yes, Mr. Wehner, some of us really do believe that America is approaching a tipping point. The number of independent, self-reliant citizens is shrinking, and the number of government dependent residents is increasing. And Obamacare will exacerbate this trend. You are correct that this is not an existential threat. It is nothing like the Great Depression, WWII, or Communism. But it is the slow acceptance of the creation of a European style welfare state, which some of us consider deeply sad. We consider it sad because we care about ordinary citizens, and we know that it is ordinary citizens who suffer the most from the low growth and high unemployment that the Welfare State produces. Surely you know that the standard of living for the average, ordinary European is far below that of the average, ordinary American. Are you willing to stand by while America moves in this direction? What, specifically, do you propose to do about the growth of the Entitlement and Regulatory State? And, by the way, adding large numbers of low skilled workers, which is what Comprehensive Immigration Reform will do, will not help average, ordinary American citizens. Most of them do not benefit directly from cheap house cleaning, child care, or lawn maintenance. Some Americans still do these chores themselves. Do you personally know any of them? But government policy is not the determinant factor in quality of life; human ingenuity is. And human ingenuity has given us the cheapest and best food in human history; dependable automobiles at reasonable prices; air conditioning; flat screen TVs; smart phones; good clothing at cheap prices, etc. People like Norman Borlaug and Sam Walton and many unrecognized engineers and computer geeks will continue to make life better despite our poor public policy decisions. Sun, 20 Oct 2013 14:51:59 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/20/the-tea-party-mindset-obamacare-ted-cruz/#IDComment737715586 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/18/who-lost-the-shutdown-matters-cruz-mcconnell-tea-party/#IDComment737174972 Charleston - The results of the next few elections can be predicted with great certainty because of the demographics of our persistent tribal voting patterns: the Democrats have a near lock on the Presidency, and the Republicans are a regional and Congressional Party only. Nationally the Democrats will pretty much always get a solid majority consisting of 95+% of Blacks; 70+% of Hispanics; 70-ish% of Asians; 70-ish% of Jews; and 40% of White Christians.  But because many of these Democratic voters cluster together, they have a lock on only about 45% of the Congressional districts. Republicans will continue to control the House, and the Senate will see-saw. The best the Republicans can hope to do is run some states well, which they do; and to slow the growth of the Entitlement State, which they do poorly, in part because of tacit collusion (Bush) and in part because of lack of unity (the Shutdown setback.) Republicans will have very little input into foreign policy, although a unified objection to a nuclear Iran might exert some influence on Obama and Kerry, whose Iran actions so far frankly terrify me. Sat, 19 Oct 2013 13:10:15 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/18/who-lost-the-shutdown-matters-cruz-mcconnell-tea-party/#IDComment737174972 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/18/who-lost-the-shutdown-matters-cruz-mcconnell-tea-party/#IDComment736891737 BDZ - To continue your sports metaphor, team mates should work together while the ball is in play. Federae is correct that if Republicans had held together and all said, "Obama shut down the government rather than apply Obamacare to Congress," the result of PR battle over the Shutdown might have been better for Republicans. McCain calling Cruz a wacko bird and Tobin criticizing the Shutdown Caucus while the ball was in play was not good team work. Contrast McCain's and Tobin's behavior with the Tea Party types who warned that Romney might not be the best candidate to carry an anti-Obamacare message, but worked and voted for Romney after he became the candidate. Fri, 18 Oct 2013 23:52:35 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/18/who-lost-the-shutdown-matters-cruz-mcconnell-tea-party/#IDComment736891737 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/15/the-gop-chooses-surrender-over-suicide-shutdown-debt-ceiling/#IDComment735144308 As Tobin points out, Obama wanted a Shutdown. And a Shutdown was inevitable because no sane Republican could ever give Obama what he demanded, unlimited spending and borrowing power. So the question facing Republicans was how to frame the argument. And this was the failure. The Republicans never came up with a simple, unified message to rally public support. Two Congressmen, Sean Duffy and Tom Cotton basically said, in effect, "all we are asking is that Congress live under the laws it enacts for ordinary citizens, and that Congress treat ordinary citizens as it does Big Business." This message might have had a chance of gaining public support if the Republicans had all adopted it. It was the lack of a unified message, plus the criticism without even the suggestion of an alternative policy by RINOs like Tobin that produced this defeat. Tue, 15 Oct 2013 14:52:32 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/15/the-gop-chooses-surrender-over-suicide-shutdown-debt-ceiling/#IDComment735144308 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/14/the-democratic-moment-wont-last-debt-ceiling-shutdown/#IDComment734722356 This is all wishful thinking on Tobin's part. The people who move the approval numbers are the low information types who have very limited understanding of any of the issues Tobin mentions. While it is policy that is at stake, it is communication that matters in moving public opinion. The Democrats won the communication war by having a unified message of calling Republicans extortionists, hostage takers, arsonists, and terrorists. The Republicans had no unified message, openly argued with each other, and lost. All that is left is the terms of surrender, and the Republicans can't even agree on that. Instead, they go separately (first Ryan, then Collins) to beg Obama's forgiveness. Disgusting. Mon, 14 Oct 2013 17:29:57 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/14/the-democratic-moment-wont-last-debt-ceiling-shutdown/#IDComment734722356 http://dc-web1.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/11/barack-obama-our-dogmatic-amateur/#IDComment733810352 Tom - The lack of Republican unity has lead to the revolting spectacle of Republicans competing with each other to see who can abase themselves most abjectly before Obama. Last night Obama rejected the Paul Ryan fashioned House surrender attempt, and just a moment ago the Senate Democrats voted down the Susan Collins fashioned Senate surrender attempt. What's next? The contest to see which Republican can apologize the most abjectly for having been a capitalist roader and volunteer to go to a re-education camp? The failure of the Congressional Republicans to make the case that Obamacare does more harm than a Shutdown is deeply disappointing. Sat, 12 Oct 2013 18:57:06 +0000 http://dc-web1.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/11/barack-obama-our-dogmatic-amateur/#IDComment733810352 http://dc-web1.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/11/barack-obama-our-dogmatic-amateur/#IDComment733703307 Tom - Defund had a chance, albeit a very slight one. It would have required retiring Senator Max Baucus to live up to his word that Obamacare is a "train wreck;" Senator Joe Manchin to live up to his word that the Individual Mandate should be delayed for a year; and then pick off a few Red State Senators up for re-election next year. Cruz failed, but his 21 hour speech was the first exposure many previously inattentive observers had to the defects of Obamacare. Had the Republicans, in a unified way, built on the effort and stuck to the message of "have Congress live under the Obamacare law, and have Obamacare treat ordinary people like it does Big Business," there would have been a decent chance of winning the PR Battle over Obamacare/Shutdown. Sat, 12 Oct 2013 14:11:00 +0000 http://dc-web1.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/11/barack-obama-our-dogmatic-amateur/#IDComment733703307 http://dc-web1.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/11/barack-obama-our-dogmatic-amateur/#IDComment733407948 Tom - Perhaps I was not clear. The Obamacare PR Battle War I was referring to was the effort to defund/amend Obamacare. The Republicans lost that battle. You are correct to point out that Obamacare is bad policy, but so what? Bad policies are almost never reversed -- Ethanol, Sarbanes-Oxley, Dodd-Frank, etc. A significant step on the road to a European style welfare state was taken when Obamacare was not defunded/amended. Sat, 12 Oct 2013 00:58:10 +0000 http://dc-web1.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/11/barack-obama-our-dogmatic-amateur/#IDComment733407948 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/11/why-ted-cruz-is-now-discredited/#IDComment733296370 So Wehner now thinks there was "a far more plausible strategy, which was to focus on delaying for a year implementation of the individual mandate (which has widespread popular support)." But at the time ("The Showdown Cometh" 10/1/13) Wehner wrote that "the effort to delay it a year" is "unwise" and "not achievable." Which is it, Mr. Wehner -- plausible or not achievable? Or doesn't it matter because your primary objective is criticize the Republicans who try to do something? Certainly Wehner has never put forth a positive plan to either oppose Obamacare or to get something in return for a debt limit increase.   Cruz failed, but at least he tried. And he might have succeeded in laying the groundwork for a possible one year delay of the Individual Mandate if RINOs like Wehner had rallied around that proposal, which they did not. Fri, 11 Oct 2013 19:53:13 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/11/why-ted-cruz-is-now-discredited/#IDComment733296370 http://dc-web1.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/11/barack-obama-our-dogmatic-amateur/#IDComment733252141 Aha - That the mainstream media does not report fairly on Republicans is precisely the reason that from the moment this battle began every Republican should have prefaced every interview with, "Thank you for the question, Katie. As you know all we are asking for is that Obamacare apply to Congress as well as ordinary citizens, and that ordinary citizens be treated like Big Business." The answer to any second question should always have been, "I can't believe that the Democrats want to shut down the government rather than live under the law they pass for ordinary citizens, and that they refuse to treat ordinary citizens like they do their friends in Big Business." And then, repeat, repeat repeat...........To break through the mainstream media firewall Republicans must learn to keep it simple and to repeat it constantly. And failure to do that is why we lost. Every Democrat stayed on the terrorist/hostage taker/arsonist/extortionist line, but only two Republicans to my knowledge made the case as set forth above, Congressmen Tom Cotton and Sean Duffy. Fri, 11 Oct 2013 18:06:36 +0000 http://dc-web1.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/11/barack-obama-our-dogmatic-amateur/#IDComment733252141 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/11/public-revulsion-at-our-political-institutions/#IDComment733172891 Wehner says "it is the job of our elected representatives" who "hold fundamentally different worldviews" "to reconcile these things." But "fundamentally different worldviews" cannot be reconciled. One side must prevail. Right now, the Left is winning. But that does not mean the Right should give up and become what Wehner calls a "Reality Caucus." We should continue to contend for free markets, less government regulation, and less crony capitalism. But we have to learn how to communicate with the public better. And the best way is to have a clear simple message, and have everyone stick to it. The Democrats do this, and we don't. Having lost the Obamacare PR Battle, we on the Right have to brace ourselves for the next big battle -- appeasement of Iran. For those of us who consider a nuclear Iran to be the paramount threat to world stability, everything John Kerry says is terrifying. Fri, 11 Oct 2013 14:47:39 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/11/public-revulsion-at-our-political-institutions/#IDComment733172891 http://dc-web1.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/11/barack-obama-our-dogmatic-amateur/#IDComment733153572 Obamacare may be a mess, but it is the Republicans who lost the PR Battle over it. Had the entire Republican Party put forth a simple Obamacare message of "We want Congress to live under the laws it enacts for ordinary people, and for ordinary people to get the same treatment as Big Business," then Republicans could have won the PR War and been in good shape for the 2014 Congressional races. But the Republicans spoke with many contradictory voices (even calling each other Wacko Birds and the Suicide Caucus) and they lost the PR Battle. The Republican Party now has the lowest approval rating in history, and lags the Democrats by 15 points. Well done, Stupid Party. Fri, 11 Oct 2013 13:59:14 +0000 http://dc-web1.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/11/barack-obama-our-dogmatic-amateur/#IDComment733153572 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/10/another-dem-no-could-be-a-big-mistake/#IDComment732763513 Ana - I am expressing myself poorly. Of course the opportunity to say anything exists. It is the coordinated discipline to agree upon and stay on a message that is missing. Every Democrat that ever gets in front of a microphone always says exactly the same thing. But the Republicans are all over the lot. For example, Paul Ryan wrote an op-ed piece in the WSJ that didn't even mention Obamacare. The Republicans divide among themselves and make their conquest easy. Thu, 10 Oct 2013 20:18:31 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/10/another-dem-no-could-be-a-big-mistake/#IDComment732763513 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/10/another-dem-no-could-be-a-big-mistake/#IDComment732750719 Ana - Perhaps I am wrong, but I consider this primarily a PR battle, where the winning side gets to blame the losing side for the Shutdown/Default Crisis, and therefore gets a leg up on next year's Congressional elections. The Democratic message has been clear and consistent: No negotiations with hostage takers, extortionists, suicide bombers, and arsonists who want to shutdown the government and wreck havoc with the world economic order. And the Republican message has been what? Republicans missed a golden opportunity when they failed to unite behind the simple message of "We want Congress to do to itself what is does to ordinary citizens, and to treat ordinary citizens as it does Big Business." Thu, 10 Oct 2013 19:48:31 +0000 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/10/10/another-dem-no-could-be-a-big-mistake/#IDComment732750719