No, I'm not referring to a newly reelected Democrat President...I'm talking about our spineless Republican Speaker! Levin appropriately ripped him, and other feckless RINOs like him, a new one on Thursday night's program...
Mark calls out this new movement to try and have the Republican Party adapt to more Democrat Party ways, especially when it comes to immigration. The GOP is saying that conservatives don't matter, that we have to adapt to this new era in America of pandering and caving in. Why would we conform to the identity of the welfare state, when that is exactly what will drive more voters to vote Democrat? If you're a male, white, senior citizen then apparently there is something wrong with you. But the problem is that John Boehner and others are not representing you, the American people, and the Constitution. Mark says that John Boehner needs to go - that the abandonment of his conservative principles and our founding is not acceptable.
After playing a clip of Boehner surrendering before one of the despicable lib media intelligentsia's spokespersons, Diane Sawyer, Levin fired a stern warning to the Republican Establishment...
"I am trying to constrain myself here, I really am... This party better change, or I'm getting out. I can't stand this panic. I can't stand this constant lurch to the Left. I can't stand all the Bush guys all over the place who brought us to this point, telling us we need more of whatever it is that they're cooking. The abandonment of our conservative principles, the abandonment of our founding, it's just unacceptable. Can somebody today please tell me what the Republican Party stands for?"
The Left never gives up like this...Nancy Pelosi would never give up like this!
And you can guarantee that when it comes to the debt limit or tax increases, the Speaker will fold like a cheap suit, embarassing himself, the party, the Constitution and ultimately his country.
Mark also mentioned that while Harry Reid is consolidating power in the Senate, Boehner's 'bleeding all over the table'..."Why won't the man at least shut the hell up and wait to negotiate?"
"We gotta be truthful among ourselves. We're gonna have four more years of decline...there's just no question about it."
Oh how we need a new Republican Speaker who would at least FIGHT, damn it! You know, there is time for that, if the next Congress can muster the courage to risk certain congressional positions for core principles and challenge the establishment.
Here's a link to Levin's program...at least check out the first segment.
H/t: DailyRushbo
UPDATE: From Thursday on, Levin has continued to blast Boehner and the Republican leadership's ineffectiveness...on Monday, emphasizing that the Speaker is an intellectual lightweight who is constantly outmaneuvered by Obama and the Left; and following that on Tuesday, demonstrating the Republican leadership's inability to coherently explain the dire situation we face: "NOT THE FISCAL CLIFF, the COLLAPSE of our society in a few years if we don’t wake the hell up and deal with this."
As for Rove, Kristol and the rest of the defeatist Republican punditry...Mark says, "Get The Hell Off The Stage Already!"
Beyond all the excuses, all the attempts to figure out 'what happened', the numbers tell a bleak story:
- Total population of US is over 314M...out of those, over 235M are eligible to vote.
- 60.7M voted for Obama to 57.8M who voted for Romney...that's only 118.5M that voted (only HALF that are eligible to vote)
- Nearly 10M less turned out to vote for Obama in 2012 than in 2008, BUT close to 3M LESS turned out to vote for Romney in 2012 than voted for McCain in 2008. (McCain's vote in 2008 would have beaten Obama in 2012)
So...was it a case of voter suppression and fraud, or was it sadly voter apathy? And why? Here's my attempt to understand.
Now, before getting further into what these numbers mean, I should preface this with an acknowledgement of some of the things floating out there. If you hear some say 'the Republican Party needs to change,' meaning their principles on social values, let me offer a sobering perspective: Republicans can do a complete 180, drop Principle altogether, and support gay marriage, amnesty, drugs, prostitution, and an assortment of other destructive left-leaning issues, including abortion, and they will still LOSE to the Democrats...because those scoundrels have not only mastered the art of pandering, but they relish, celebrate and most of all BELIEVE in the self-righteousness of their wicked ways.
So back to the numbers and some clues to why the voter turnout might have been so low. First, I want to reference this RCP piece...
In the 2008 final exit polls (unavailable online), the electorate was 75 percent white, 12.2 percent African-American, 8.4 percent Latino, with 4.5 percent distributed to other ethnicities. We’ll have to wait for this year’s absolute final exit polls to come in to know the exact estimate of the composition this time, but right now it appears to be pegged at about 72 percent white, 13 percent black, 10 percent Latino and 5 percent “other.”
Obviously, this surge in the non-white vote is troubling to Republicans, who are increasingly almost as reliant upon the white vote to win as Democrats are on the non-white vote. With the white vote decreasing as a share of the electorate over time, it becomes harder and harder for Republicans to prevail.
Sean Trende, the author of this piece, mentions the renewed discussions to draw in minority voters, but Trende says, and I agree, "I think these analyses are off base." Rather, Trende points to a critical absence...
But most importantly, the 2012 elections actually weren’t about a demographic explosion with non-white voters. Instead, they were about a large group of white voters not showing up.
As of this writing, Barack Obama has received a bit more than 60 million votes. Mitt Romney has received 57 million votes. Although the gap between Republicans and Democrats has closed considerably since 2008, Romney is still running about 2.5 million votes behind John McCain; the gap has closed simply because Obama is running about 9 million votes behind his 2008 totals.
Of course, there are an unknown number of ballots outstanding. If we guesstimate the total at 7 million (3 million in California, 1.5 million or so in Oregon and Washington, and another 2.5 million or so spread throughout the country), that would bring the total number of votes cast in 2012 to about 125 million: 5 million votes shy of the number cast four years ago.
Trende asks, "So who were these whites and why did they stay home?" Well, the verdict's still out on that, but I think there are a couple of suspicions here. Trende believes...
My first instinct was that they might be conservative evangelicals turned off by Romney’s Mormonism or moderate past. But the decline didn’t seem to be concentrated in Southern states with high evangelical populations.
My sense is these voters were unhappy with Obama. But his negative ad campaign relentlessly emphasizing Romney’s wealth and tenure at Bain Capital may have turned them off to the Republican nominee as well. The Romney campaign exacerbated this through the challenger’s failure to articulate a clear, positive agenda to address these voters’ fears, and self-inflicted wounds like the “47 percent” gaffe. Given a choice between two unpalatable options, these voters simply stayed home.
Now, I'm not certain that I agree with all of Trende's conclusion (particularly the 47% that the MEDIA distorted), but I think Trende is 'trending' towards an answer. Adding another level to that assessment, Kevin Dujan over at HillBuzz delves further into the absent, asking 'Did the Ron Paul Revolution stay home?'
Mitt Romney won 3 million votes less than McCain while Obama lost 10 million votes of his own from 2008.
Where did those 3 million McCain voters go?
The main part of why I believed Romney would win this time because I knew the 10 million Obama supporters would sit home…but never in my worst nightmares did I imagine McCain voters would sit home. I counted on them to show up and bring friends this time to boot Obama out.
The only thing I can think of is this:
- Ron Paul supporters sat the election out because of Dr. Paul, because of the conflict regarding the convention and the other delegate issues
- Evangelicals went through with their threat to sit home because Romney is a member of the LDS Church
And these two groups thought allowing Obama to have a second term was worth sitting home.
Personally, I think if there was an evangelical voter absence, it has more to do with not being listened to as opposed to Romney's beliefs...I mean, look at Obama's nonbeliefs! Regardless, DuJan goes on to share Trende's feeling that the Ministry of Truth talking heads are saying that 'it was all about Hispanics,' but says that's a red herring. Agreed. "That doesn’t explain dropping three million votes below McCain and a total of five million votes from Bush in 2004."
Ron Paul supporters seem to explain that first drop from Bush’s 2004 numbers, sitting out to the tune of 2 million when McCain ran in 2008…and then sitting out even more this time; perhaps it’s a combination of Ron Paul people and Evangelicals who sat home “to teach everyone a lesson”.
That’s an expensive lesson if this is right.
Indeed. So, 3 Million mostly-white Republican voters didn't show up. Some obviously tired of moderate candidates, others tired of not being listened to. And they couldn't get past that to get rid of the current rabid statist? Could it be, as Rush ponders this morning, that they didn't see a constitutional, conservative campaign? Rather than figuring out the next level of pandering to gather traditionally Democrat voters, perhaps the Republican Party should focus on it's base that didn't show up.
Disclaimer: None of what I've discussed here pardons the Republican Establishment's role in dividing the Party either!
Levin posted the following on his Facebook page this morning:
Please do not miss tonight's show. I will spend a considerable amount of time dissecting yesterday's events. But let's be honest. We feared this day might come, if not in this election cycle in another, although we hoped it would not. Our challenges are daunting and our path is difficult, but there are near- and long-term goals we must pursue. After a day or two of rest, we dust ourselves off and gear up for the future's challenges. Let me just say that while it is necessary and important to defend against soft tyranny, while things look as gloomy as they possibly can, it is time we become more proactive and take aggressive steps against this. We must take control of the future. We must follow a new course. A truly conservative, constitutional course.
See you this evening, fellow patriots.
Emphasis mine. Mark also supplied the epilogue to Ameritopia as a useful tool in understanding what is actively occurring in America...check it out here.
My premise, in the first sentence of the first chapter of this
book, is this: “Tyranny, broadly defined, is the use of power to
dehumanize the individual and delegitimize his nature. Political
utopianism is tyranny disguised as a desirable, workable, and even
paradisiacal governing ideology.”
Plato’s Republic, More’s Utopia, Hobbes’s Leviathan, and Marx’s
workers’ paradise are utopias that are anti-individual and antiindividualism.
For the utopians, modern and olden, the individual
is one-dimensional—selfish. On his own, he has little moral value.
Contrarily, authoritarianism is defended as altruistic and masterminds
as socially conscious. Thus endless interventions in the individual’s
life and manipulation of his conditions are justified as
not only necessary and desirable but noble governmental pursuits.
This false dialectic is at the heart of the problem we face today.
ADDENDUM: By the evening, during Wednesday's program, Levin pulled no punches with the unvarnished truth of Tuesday's loss and the attacks on conservatism, as well as getting around to the Leftist 'scoundrels'.
God help us.
"We've got the 'Mulligan President'."
"Conservatism did not lose. It's just very difficult to beat Santa Claus."
"Obama is hell-bent on remaking this country."
"We are living in the midst of the Democrat Party transforming this country."
ONCE UPON A TIME, there was a country that was discovered by people looking for freedoms, a new way of life and prosperity. The country was so free and God-loving, that many more people found their way to its shores. The country had leaders then, that w
H/t: Linda Rogers
A divided America rebuilt this...
Four more years down the rabbit hole. No hope, no change...just more of the same. Start apologizing to your children NOW...and pray that our generation might one day be forgiven.
We beseech Thee, O Lord, on this Election Day, to hear this Prayer for Our Country...
ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favour and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honourable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogancy, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Source: The Book of Common Prayer
History has such a strange way of repeating itself...sometimes within our own lifetimes. Listen to these familiarities...
You know, the first Republican President once said, "While the people retain
their virtue and their vigilance, no Administration by any extreme of wickedness
or folly can seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years."
If Mr. Lincoln could see what's happened in these last three and a half years,
he might hedge a little on that statement. But with the virtues that are our
legacy as a free people and with the vigilance that sustains liberty, we still
have time to use our renewed compact to overcome the injuries that have been
done to America these past three and a half years.
First, we must overcome something the present Administration has cooked up: a
new and altogether indigestible economic stew, one part inflation, one part high
unemployment, one part recession, one part runaway taxes, one part deficit
spending seasoned with an energy crisis. It's an economic stew that has turned
the national stomach.
Whether reading before or after this statement, and throughout Reagan's 1980 acceptance speech, it's amazing how much applies to the state of the current administration when simply replacing 'Carter' for 'Obama' and 'billions' for 'trillions'.
Carter didn't work then, and Obama doesn't work now. It's time for a new direction...
Rush deciphers the polls, which aren't factoring 2010 into this election. Patriots, don't allow the media to discourage you...now is the time to march in droves to the polls!
"My thoughts, my intellectual analysis of this, factoring everything I see, plus the polling data, not even close: 300 plus electoral votes for Romney."
"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." ~ James Madison
So...tomorrow is Election Day! And though some perceptions out there remain cloudy, one thing is certain: this election is a clear choice between Liberty and Tyranny. Choosing less government imposition and more civil liberty, or maintain the present, ever-increasing velocity towards an overbearing, authoritarian State. That choice lies before us all.
Many have voted already. But before those who've waited for Election Day journey to their local poll to cast their final decision, I'd ask of them to do one simple thing: reflect on a record. Recall the many promises that an eager candidate Obama made and reflect on the outcome of those in the four years of his presidency. One will find multitudes broken. Here's only a fraction of those that give cause for concern among either camp:
- Increase transparency (decreased, more closed-door sessions);
- Close Guantanamo (still open);
- Disclose personal records (still waiting for college transcripts, among others);
- Reduce national debt (grown to $16 trillion);
- Reduce federal deficit (trillion dollar deficits for four straight years);
- Unemployment rate no higher than 5% by first term (U-3 is at barely under 8%, U-6 is over 14%);
- Obamacare is not a tax (fought for and was upheld as a tax)...'keep your plan' and 'no death panels' goes along with the many lies of Obamacare;
- Reform entitlements (raided Medicare to pay for Obamacare, done nothing towards Social Security solvency, increased food stamps, and stripped out the work requirement for welfare);
- Immigration reform within first year of taking office (no reforms, raised lawful restrictions through executive order);
- Tougher rules against lobbyists (increased lobbying/cronyism, picking winners and losers);
- Increase minimum wage to $9.50 an hour (no plan provided on how to achieve that);
- No family earning less than $250,000 will see tax increases (negatively affecting small business, and then there's more Obamacare seepage and lies through tax penalties);
- Work with Republicans to pass an agenda
(Obama's brought about a record-setting partisan divide).
The laundry list of broken promises goes on and on and on...here's five pages worth from Politifact...enough to even make a Democrat blush!
Also, add to that the many scandals that have arisen over Obama's first term...again, here's just the few I could think of off the top of my head:
- Solyndra
- Fast & Furious
- Intel leak
- Keystone Pipeline
- Voter ID
- Foreign donors
- Benghazi
So somehow all of these campaign failures and scandals are supposed to reinvigerate the American people into granting another term to this President and all the king's men? It's time to use our minds, America, and set the campaign rhetoric aside. What we know is that one man has prolonged the mess that he 'inherited', but was elected based on his self-proclaimed capability of fixing it. That man proclaimed that he'd be a one-term president if he couldn't fix it. Yet, now he needs more time? Meanwhile, another seeks to draw upon both his successes and experiences, as well as that of America's, not to remake America, but to reclaim it.
I'll leave you with Arnold Ahlert's conclusion:
Just remember two more things: one, as mentioned above, the list compiled here is by no means complete. A complete list would likely result in sensory overload. Second, and perhaps the most critical consideration of all, this list has been compiled by a president and an administration constrained by the need to get re-elected. It is truly frightening to consider what this bunch, who have already demonstrated their contempt for the rule of law, the separation of powers, and the Constitution, could do once that constraint is removed.
Those are the real stakes in this election. Barring any shenanigans, on Wednesday Americans will learn whether we have stepped back from the precipice -- or abetted our own disintegration.
Bottom line: you want to live in a third world nation? Vote for Obama -- but never, ever say you weren't warned.
Oh, and never forget..."you didn't build that."
