Bill Whittle has another example of the ways the Communist Left in America is killing off the things it finds offensive.
This time he examines how to make sure our warrior class – and we certainly have had one since the days of the Revolution when the Scots Irish immigrants stepped forward to fill the ranks – withers and disappears.
If Putin could only figure out some way to make Obama president for life…
The GOP House and Senate could stand up to him but doesn’t. The GOP leadership may as well be agents of the Muslim Brotherhood for all the good they are doing – which is none.
It’s difficult to stand erect if you don’t have a spine. The GOP slithers…
In the old days i felt connected to the GOP. There was a clear distinction between them and the demo rats. Now i consider them just as evil or even worse..Worse for talking right wing only. Rep.in name only..
We got the same situation here in Europe. Meaning. All the old “right wing conservative” parties are infected with political correctness. Their counterparts radical lefties like the demo rats are now not to say: communists.
Where did it all go wrong? Why is the teaparty faction still in the Not so Grand and very senile Party?
In the US we’re locked into a two party system. So anyone who has problems with either party pretty much has to join one or the other and seek to influence it. The Tea Party can influence the Republicans, however there’s zero chance of them influencing the Democrats or ever getting elected as Democrats.
This is similar to how “progressive” Maoist groups like SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) effectively infiltrated the Democrats and turned it into a much more Marxist party than it originally was. My mother’s father always voted for Democrats, however if he were still alive he would never vote for Democrats today.
So “tea party” actually describes a “movement” rather than an actual party. The only way a new party would be able to form is if an existing party were to become so divided that it split, and it takes much more extreme polarization for that to happen in the US system than it does in a parliamentary system.
So the Tea Party people are working on “fixing” the Republicans, but this is very difficult because now is the point at which all of these children of the 60s are old enough to assume positions of power. All we can do is hope the 60s “progressives” can be prevented from turning this place into Sweeden before they leave power.
“The only way a new party would be able to form is if an existing party were to become so divided that it split, and it takes much more extreme polarization for that to happen in the US system than it does in a parliamentary system.”
All it takes is to form another party.Using the Gop as a vehicle is useful- and i do understand the reasons for the Tea Party to do so- but that did not work in my opinion. So the question is..why are they still in that party?
Being in a party with somebody like Sen.Mac Cain is intolerable to me. That guy almost made me team up with Poetin. Mc Cain is always on the wrong side, backing IS in Syria… Such a man can not be in any party i would vote for.
Sen.Mac Cain and others like him in the Gop did so much damage to your nation..it is almost beyond repair.
There is a growing segment of voters – it may even be the majority by now – who call themselves “Independent”. That doesn’t work if you’re in elective office in Washington because it leaves you no group to caucus with, but as a voter it gives you certain advantages, depending on the state in which you reside. Your designation might be important for primaries, but not in all cases.
The amount of money required to effectively run for office can be prohibitive. The fellow who beat out the Virginia 7th District Congressman, Eric Cantor, was an economics professor with little funding. Cantor had the money backing and a huge amount of support from the machine in Washington. He held a powerful position as The House Majority Leader – you simply CANNOT unseat someone of his standing. It has never ever happened.
Cantor had it all: good looking, charismatic, effective, long-term politician who knew everybody. There was one slight flaw…he didn’t listen to the voters in his district concerning immigration. Hamartia brought ol’ Eric down:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamartia
The professor with the unlikely name of Brat, with the assistance of grassroots’ work by Tea Party volunteers, defeated Eric Cantor. It still feels odd to write that sentence. A few more terms and Cantor might’ve been running for president. Our first Jewish president.
The former Congressman Cantor did not take defeat well. He left the House months early, in essence leaving his seat vacant and his district without a voice in Congress. He slammed out the door and took one of those investment banking jobs where he can make $3.5 million a year. With benefits. And I read last month (can’t find the link now) that his former staff are bound and determined to “destroy” the GOP and the Tea Party in Virginia. He/They may succeed re the GOP, but the Tea Party will be much harder. Those folks will disappear into the woodwork.
The RNC – Republican National Committe – shares Cantor’s visceral hatred of the populists in the Tea Party. Hasn’t been so much hate to spread around since the Jacksonian Democrats upset the political applecarts back in the first half of the 19th century. [Times have changed and now there is a movement among the Democrats to replace him on the $20. bill with a woman, or Martin Luther King…I don’t know if they can generate enough energy to make that happen.]
The RNC’s arrogant decision to cut out the Tea Party during the 2012 election cost Romney what should have been an easy victory. Without the TP, they had no dedicated volunteers at the grassroots level, which is where elections are won or lost. The Tea Party would’ve “energized the base” which for Romney was a whole bunch of white guys and a not-insignificant number of black conservatives (quiet as the latter may be).
For the RNC, being in power w/ all its perks is far more important than any passing presidential campaign. But the Tea Party has learned its lesson and makes sure not to register on the RNC radar. If you’ll notice, they managed to defeat am RNC pretty boy – Eric Cantor. The lines of enmity are hardening.
No point in paying attention yet to the jostling for pride of place on the Republican side. But once that settles out, once the GOP convention is over and done with, then it will be interesting to watch.
But that’s just my opinion. The Baron thinks the Wicked Witch will take it away.
Patriot,
Yes I agree McCain is a jerk. He frequently undermines his own party.
See this for an explanation of why we end up with a two party system in the US: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-party_system#Causes
Other parties can be formed, and are, but they can’t really get anywhere. Forming a separate party would just rob votes from the republicans and help the democrats win. Similarly the radical leftists have formed parties that just rob votes from the democrats and help republicans win.
So there are ways of doing things, but something straightforward and obvious like forming another party tends to have the opposite of the desired effects because of the way the election rules work.
I probably should’ve posted this on the “Daddy, what’s a liberal?” thread, but…
The men in my family on the paternal side have served in the armed forces of the U.S. or Great Britain for *at least* five generations, consecutively. This count includes my brother, a former U.S. Navy corpsman who served among Marines.
My maternal grandfather, brought to the U.S. as a toddler, served in the U.S. Armed Forces as well.
It is this heritage, in my blood (and unfortunately enfeebled body), which will NOT lay down for the Left as much as the Left sometimes has thought I had lain down for–and with–them.
I firmly believe in the social contract–that we are all connected and that we live or die together–and that, together with the military history, brings me to a lonely place in the modern State of California, esp. the San Francisco Bay Area. I do not believe in violent revolution to achieve political aims but firmly encourage use of the ballot box, city council, public forum(s), etc., to gain one’s viewpoint.
But of course this assumes that all are playing on a level playing field under rules known and disclosed evenly to all.
I had, until just now, been unaware of the Colorado incident described on the tape.
Obviously, it got no play in any public media *here*! But incidents like the Colorado “enumerate your firearms” one are anathema to a free society.
Thus, yes: I may be the only Classical Liberal in the State of California. I’ve felt alone for a long time, but have discounted my military upbringing in my political position. Now I can see that it plays in, keeping me from moving more leftward, even as the Social Contract–and considerations of environmental destruction, unaccounted for in our financial system–keep me from moving rightward.
What was that definition of a mugwump? Someone with his mug on one side of a fence and his wump on the other…?
Here be such.
Cynthia, you’re not the only Classical Liberal in California. See V.D. Hanson:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Davis_Hanson
and his column, here:
http://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/
I think you can subscribe to his work, not sure. One of our commenters is a great fan so I get to be lazy and wait for him to send us his essays. Lots of history, lots of sadness about California’s future. I think he’s a fifth generation Californian.
There are some great places in California whose philosophies would align with yours:
http://www.claremont.org/
Back when I could afford magazine subscriptions, I used to get theirs. Here is the archive, which is free:
http://www.claremont.org/claremont-reviews-of-books-archives/
Wish I could see the new one: it will be a Memorial to Harry Jaffa, who was a mentor to the men who founded the magazine.
Here is a link to used copies of Jaffa’s famous book about the Lincoln Douglas debates:
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?isbn=9780226391137&n=100121503&cm_sp=mbc-_-9780226391137-_-used
They start at about 4.00+ shipping but that’s one you could no doubt get at the library. I think it’s “safe” by California standards.
MUGWUMP?? I see you’ve been reading Alan Watts in your mis-spent youth;-) IIRC, that reference was to one’s sexual ideals vs. one’s behavior. He probably knew that one well – preached something he couldn’t live up to…
We’ve got a relatively benign environmental problem in this country…well, except for L.A. Most of the issues involve building too densely for a particular place. California is lethally overbuilt; it’s normally semi-arid climate isn’t suitable for what’s been done to it. On the other hand, within a generation-and-a-half (or so), the demographic implosion will take care of that problem.
I’ve always considered California a bellwether state: whatever problems it is facing at the moment will be problems for the rest of the country is ~ 5 years. But with the huge boomer generation moving like a pig thru the python, it’s harder to use CA as a gauge anymore. Now y’all are overrun with illegals but some other places are worse off so who knows?
Even as California ceases to be the center of gravity – it may even lose Congressional seats – it’s hard to say which will replace it. My best guess is Texas. But again, the environment has to be protected from development. Texas is proactive that way, even with oil wells, etc.
Thank you thank you thankyouetc. for the links to Prof. Hanson and the others! Woo-hoo!
Unfortunately, Prof. Hanson is perhaps a 4-hour drive south of here, in Fresno County, and the Claremont Colleges are in Los Angeles County, a 7- or 8-hour drive from my house (approx. 425 miles). So I’m not the *only* one in California, but perhaps the *only* one in the Bay Area….not too surprising, actually.
re. books being ” ‘safe’ by California standards”: I tried to find Diana West’s “American Betrayal” in the county library system. No go. OK, I thought; I’ll check the interlinked libraries on Interlibrary Loan.
Say what?! Could *not* find an entry in the combined catalogues, which include dozens of colleges and universities, as well as other counties’ library systems. Had to settle for West’s “The Death of the Grown-Up,” which is excellent in its cultural analysis, but my true love is history & politics (as well as math/science/languages), so I’m still looking around for “Betrayal.” I prefer to read a library-type book before springing for a personal copy, IF a personal copy will be needed; we’re not made of money, and I’ve just finished a year of no work and no income, leeching off of DH.
I *did* read some Alan Watts, true, but I’m pretty sure my definitely non-original statement about mugwumps was acquired elsewise…now I have to track it down. It’ll become one of those “Aha!” things in the wee hours of the morning, no doubt. 🙂
Thanks again for the links to other not quite left, not quite right sources. AND Prof. Hanson is a fellow admirer of John Keegan, military historian! I can’t tell you how much I admire (and miss) Keegan.
Even snakes have spines, if little else. Congress doesn’t even have that.
so who the hell do we vote for? Is there ANYONE out there that would be like that Roman, whose name I no longer remember?
Anyone left to stand up for our country or do we become a squish client of the UN (biggest mistake of the 20th century, other than the wars, which were not our fault), that “bastion of freedom” forgive me for laughing my [derriere] off at that thought.
Everyoone has freedom as long as they adhere to the PC speech codes,pledge allegiance to the Muslim Brotherhood (our future masters, unless we man up), and promise to never ever speak over a whisper, or perhaps at all.
Some life. Some freedom, ne’stce pas (sp?)? My french is very bad. Pardon.
Horatius at the bridge? Cincinnatus, whose term as dictator/tyrant lasted six months and who then returned to his fields?
Lucius Junius Brutus, whose two sons were convicted of treason against the Early Republic and who himself condemned them to death? Honored ever after for his integrity and his devotion to Rome?
To list later Romans is to run up against Rome’s drive for Empire and her destruction of the ancient Phoenician culture centered in Carthage and Tyre; her waste of her men in Pontus against Mithridates the Great; her destruction of the people of Gaul….
But perhaps it *is* a later Roman you’re trying to remember. Here are just a couple of names:
–Gaius Marius, general who remade the Roman Army and who served as consul seven times.
–Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, defeated Hannibal at Zama in the 2nd Punic War, for which Rome gave him the cognomen “Africanus.”
–Gaius Julius Caesar, who defeated Gaul, Spain, and other areas near the Mediterranean Sea, and who was assassinated just as he planned to set out for Pannonia, today’s Balkans.
I’m partial to the dictatorship of Sulla myself….
Died an old man in his bed too after giving up the dictatorship.
however, I DO love Bill Whittle! Thank you so much for that much. Is there any movement afoot to battle this?
I look back at my hazy memory of US history and I’m thinking of someone who galloped his horse warning about danger, about people who did man up and fight for freedom.
Sigh. It was only a dream. I’ve awakened now and realize that our shackles are upon us already and we just don’t realize it. DOOM.
Full text of Longfellow’s poem: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173903
I am inspired whenever I even *think* about that epic.
There is no silent majority? Earlier today The Drudge Report is running a headline ‘Muslim majority in 50 years’. Great propaganda for our Muslim enemies being streamed in by their people in the White House. Had 9/11 worked completely there woukd be a New White House today. Hard to believe such a radically anti Christian ideology can march in virtually unchecked or challenged.
” Hard to believe such a radically anti Christian ideology can march in virtually unchecked or challenged.”
It’s easy to understand: politics is downrange of culture. Whoever owns the culture can set the narrative, and therefore owns the politics. For over 60 years the socialists have dominated our culture – academia (history books), entertainment (movies, theater, etc.), and news media. Until we take back the culture, the slide will continue until communist dictatorships will begin popping up like mushrooms across the West. Sadly, I feel we have reached the point of no return.
I heard the same report yesterday, on the radio, with a follow-up interview. The interview focused primarily on Europe. But people who have “no religion” in the survey(s) are almost as large a sector of the population as those who declare a religion.
And, of course, massacres of Christians, esp. young women, such as the massacre this week at Garissa College in Kenya, will only hasten the day–and intensify the hatred–when Muslims and Christians have “equal” numbers.
Muslim men are particularly detached from their children, or at least many in sub-Saharan Africa are. National Geographic covered the famine in Sudan a year or two ago. One Muslim man interviewed had fourteen (!) children by his wives; another had lost eight (!) children. The man who had lost eight children was extended condolences–naturally–by the National Geographic writer through the on-site translator.
The response: “Oh, I can just marry a couple more women and make more children. It won’t take too long.”
I was staggered. As well as breeding so prolifically and requiring Muslim women to marry within the faith (the men can marry outside the faith because all of their children are considered Muslim at birth–nice racket, huh?), the men have little regard for either their wives *or* their children, even their sons, from what I read in this article.
(I’ll keep in mind that I need to track it down; will provide the citation as soon as I find it.)
Cynthia,
there is a woman in the San Fran area who has a website called Bookworm Room, in case you would like to read conservative material and know there are others — plus she gets and posts some of the funniest conservative cartoons I’ve ever seen.
I’ll check it out! Thank you.
I’m even alone in my own marriage, alas. DH, after years of waffling, decided the other day to call himself a Pragmatic Centrist, which means nothing at all, of course. I usually do all the research on the Propositions and the candidates in the elections and then suggest to him how to vote (i.e., how I’m voting and why). He can actually come up with *reasons* to oppose me sometimes, but often just agrees and votes “my” way.
@Nimrod and Dymphna
Thanks for all the info about your system and extra thanks to D for the classical
lesson 😉 Forgot all about Hamartia! Nice to read it once more after some 30 years.
Well. The TP can always use the GOP as a vehicle and drive guys like Cantor to madness and eventually out. They did a good job on this psychopath. If i was an American? I would pick my TP candidate and register strategically using all tha tricks in tha book of American politics.
I got a friend living in North C who explained me all about being registered as a demo rat but still being somebody with a TP mindset and voting.
I belong to the 10% of Dutchies with a Gop mindset and we – in general- are concerned about the way the GOP operates. We see people like Mac Insane, Eric C, this Boehner guy and that makes us wonder…? Whats up in that party!?
Thanks for the enlightenment on that subject!