I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
In posts over the last couple of days, I've inflicted a certain amount of gloom on everyone here at Ricochet. The Republicans in Congress are intent on thwarting ObamaCare and cutting spending--but the politics of the situation, I've been feeling lately, are against them. They'll do what's right and just. And then they'll find themselves losing seats in the House in 2012 as Obama coasts to re-election. So I feared.
In the end, as many of your pointed out in the long, vigorous threads that developed, there really is no way to game this. The stakes are too high. The time is too short. Republicans in Congress simply must pursue their own agenda, boldly and unapologetically, and repose their faith in the American people. Which is what it comes down to. Either Americans can see through Obama to the need for spending cuts or they cannot. Either they can see that ObamaCare will do more harm than good--much more harm--or they cannot. That's the way the Founders set this whole thing up. They made a big bet on the voters. And a couple of times a generation, it seems, there comes a moment when we have to make the very same bet all over again.
And while we watch and wait, there's some good news. Pat Caddell, a friend of Ricochet, has posted an item over at Politico. An excerpt:
[D]irectly after the House voted to repeal, a few polls showed slight upticks in favorability. But whatever ground the health care law appeared to have gained proved fleeting. A poll released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health shows the law remains unpopular — with 50 percent of respondents viewing it unfavorably, up 9 percentage points from the last survey.
The health care law is at its “lowest level of popularity ever,” said Jake Tapper of ABC News, citing a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll. Rasmussen Reports, which has measured support for repeal since the bill passed, continues to find more than 50 percent of respondents in favor of repeal.
It could even be that no such piece of major legislation has created the continued, vehement public opposition that health care has provoked since the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 — which resulted in the abrogation of the Missouri Compromise.
Americans, in short, are still good and riled.
There's hope.
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Dec '10
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
Fortune favors the bold. And in general, so do the American voters.
Nov '10
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
Republicans cannot possibly suffer as much for pushing repeal of Obamacare and they will suffer if they don’t.
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
True--and nicely stated.
Sep '10
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
Win one for the gipper Peter. We need you.
Jun '10
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
When Obama was elected with majorities in both the House and Senate, the left decided it was time to put all the chips on the table. Their (ongoing) effort is nothing less than a socialist putsch. If pride goeth before a fall, then arrogance goeth before the tipping point. The progressives forgot that one way or another they answer to the American people. We're taking this country back. We must. There is no alternative.
Oct '10
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
Peter... Forgive me if this sounds religious. I firmly believe that God reads the hearts of the people, and then gives them the government that they have voted for in their hearts. I also believe that the American people have, for the last 50 or so years, proven themselves unworthy of their heritage. But, repentance of the heart is, perhaps, now in evidence. If I am right, only bold action can prove our hearts. The Republican party shows strong evidence of having heard the Tea Party's voice, and that voice is as close to civil repentance as we have at the moment.
God Bless America.
Dec '10
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
A couple of good arguments on Ricochet trumps the effectiveness of a regular dose of Prozac.
We'll have to keep that to ourselves, lest the baleful growth of the bureaucracy's Food and Drug tentacle move to regulate Ricochet as a drug.
Oct '10
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
Anyone noted that every time Obama speaks he seems to come across as more hollow and fragile ? Nearly a disconnect with reality on its face.
This may suggest that the pressures of the office and inability to adapt could lead to Obama being not able to complete his term in office.
Just an observation.. With what outcome should this event occur?
Dec '10
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
Peter,
Your angst raises, yet again, the fundamental political question and applies it directly to our times. Was Hobbes right and leviathan the best hope for humanity, or did Locke see the truth of man? It can be a daily struggle to side with Johnny over Tommy, but the reality is that if Hobbes prevails then I am no more worthy of fundamental, inalienable rights than anyone else.
Sep '10
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
The only person of the three you have picture that I have any confidence in is Paul Ryan. I have zero confidence in Boehner, no child left behind, comprehensive immigration, Medicare part D, TARP the list of issues he has been on the wrong side of is almost endless. Couple this with his K street connections and you have a preeminent go along to get along Washington insider. If he is the new conservative messiah in congress I would hate to see the devil.
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
Peter: Sorry for not following the earlier threads to which you refer, but I think your take here is exactly right. I really think we must avoid the "gamesmanship." We can be strategic without being cute or playing games. The grassroots are well equipped to tell the difference and I believe they want authenticity in pursuit of government shrinkage. I am quite optimistic about their ability to do the right thing AND profit politically. But to do so, they not only have to do the right things, but know how to communicate and to understand that false overtures of compromise, getting along, bipartisanship and the like are traps for the unwary and the credulous. We know what Obama stands for and we know he won't change. If he offers an olive branch it will not be to the end of moving toward the people's will. He's not about to change.
Jul '10
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
Peter,
Check out this fellow's take on Obama's current popularity.
He calls it the Catharsis Theory of Obama's Comeback.
I think he's onto something.
Oct '10
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
Milton Freedman is credited with observing that it isn't about getting the right men doing the right thing. It is creating the environment where even the wrong men do the right thing. Boehner is by no means the right man, but the pressure presently on the GOP from the Tea Party and conservative Americans might actually be able to get him to do the right thing. Or, he can also be replaced, perhaps by Paul Ryan??
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
RAYCON
Milton Freedman is credited with observing that it isn't about getting the right men doing the right thing. It is creating the environment where even the wrong men do the right thing. Boehner is by no means the right man, but the pressure presently on the GOP from the Tea Party and conservative Americans might actually be able to get him to do the right thing. Or, he can also be replaced, perhaps by Paul Ryan?? · Jan 30 at 2:24pm
This makes much sense, imho.
Jul '10
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
David Limbaugh
RAYCON
Milton Freedman is credited with observing that it isn't about getting the right men doing the right thing. It is creating the environment where even the wrong men do the right thing. Boehner is by no means the right man, but the pressure presently on the GOP from the Tea Party and conservative Americans might actually be able to get him to do the right thing. Or, he can also be replaced, perhaps by Paul Ryan?? · Jan 30 at 2:24pm
This makes much sense, imho. · Jan 30 at 2:32pm
I was never privileged to meet Milton Friedman. Had I been able to ask him one question, it would have been, "Do you ever get tired of being the wisest man in the universe?"
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
Kenneth
David Limbaugh
RAYCON
Milton Freedman is credited with observing that it isn't about getting the right men doing the right thing. It is creating the environment where even the wrong men do the right thing. Boehner is by no means the right man, but the pressure presently on the GOP from the Tea Party and conservative Americans might actually be able to get him to do the right thing. Or, he can also be replaced, perhaps by Paul Ryan?? · Jan 30 at 2:24pm
This makes much sense, imho. · Jan 30 at 2:32pm
I was never privileged to meet Milton Friedman. Had I been able to ask him one question, it would have been, "Do you ever get tired of being the wisest man in the universe?" · Jan 30 at 2:47pm
Very true. I wonder if Thomas Sowell tires of that as well. Or Charles Krauthammer, who I don't agree with as much as I do Sowell, but who is unarguably brilliant.
Oct '10
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
Victor Davis Hanson must get that question quite often as well.
May '10
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
Sowell and Hanson were both almost single(uh...double)-handedly responsible for converting my previously liberal wife. Both are national treasures.
Oct '10
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
The american public probably won't until it's too late. They just oppose obamacare, is all.
Oct '10
Re: I'm Feeling Much Better Now, Thank You
David Cameron did not campaign on spending cuts. although he started doing it after he got elected. just sayin.
Campaign to kill obamacare? go ahead. campaign to cut other programs? be careful.