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James of England
I could be wrong. It is certainly possible that the democrats manage to undo Walker’s best reforms. But that outcome hinges primarily on elections. If the democrats fail to take one of the state houses in the next elections, they can’t undo them for a while. The longer it sits, the less likely it is to be changes as union power will continue to wane. If the GOP is crushed and the democrats win large majorities, they are more likely to undo the reforms.
That is why elections are so important. That is why James and I are so focused on winning them.
I love the sentiment and Thank You very much.
If that is what we have left to hang our hats on then keep your guns oiled because we are most likely doomed.
Thanks again.
OK. Maybe a wee bit of good news. Did you see this from Daniel Henninger?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/hey-conservatives-you-won-1440628311
Trink, that article is behind a paywall, but its introductory sentences do indeed sound like good news.
From behind the paywall to you:
So, the moral of the story is states help us when they defend their prerogatives.
If we want more of this, it’s important to defend the right of states to regulate the labeling of GMO foods sold within their states from the Republican effort to nationalize and centralize this function.
Also, I’d like to stress how emboldened these progressive thugs running the education departments are. I’ve heard people say they opted their kids out of PARCC testing even though it would be noted on their permanent records.
I never checked to see if it’s true. It didn’t matter to me because the excellence of my kids’ education speaks for itself. But, if you doubt the lengths the fascist Left are willing to go to to force their will? Trying to hurt kids for non-compliance should tell you something.
The Left is winning because it appeals to people’s base human nature — envy, sloth, greed, and, when all else fails — fear. Good luck overcoming that through electoral victories.
Only if one has the will. I have no faith that folks like Jeb Bush will take such an act. I’m not saying there aren’t those who will, but I can tell you which ones won’t.
Frank we are in a rhetorical battle, no, war. In such a war you must be willing to use rhetoric to combat rhetoric or those who don’t pay attention to the level that we do will begin to believe the only message they are hearing. This is the problem and folks who take your side of this argument refuse to even contemplate it, let alone address it.
To begin, Boehner and McConnell both spoke out against Obama’s rule changes. They both released press statements, they both talked about it in interviews. They do not own newspapers or television networks. They cannot force the press to cover this.
And they both have taken off of the table the mechanism with which to reign in an unlawful president, have they not? A press release and a couple of interviews is all you think we need in this rhetorical war? It’s not a news cycle issue Frank, this is something that you are not going to correct with a couple of soundbites and a press release. It needs to be brought up anytime Obama seeks anything from Congress.
Quite correctly, as a shut down cannot work. There is no downside to a shut down for the democrats. None whatsoever. There are very real negatives for republicans in these showdowns. The polling on the blame for these incidents is abundantly clear. The strategy is a loser.
Trying to win on all policy issues when you do not control the presidency or a veto proof majority is an exercise in beating your head against a wall.
Look at this from the democrat’s perspective. If Republicans learn that they can push their agenda on issue after issue with a shutdown, the democrats will literally lose all ability to push their own until they own all branches of government.
They have every incentive to never give an inch in a shut down as to not set this precedent. With the press overwhelmingly on their side, we cannot win this PR battle, and cannot break their will.
I am not a fan of engaging in hopeless battles when winnable battles are around the corner.
Also we have a leftist culture, so it doesn’t matter how many Conservatives/Republicans are elected, we are still doomed.
This is certainly the case, but Frank you assume that not having the media means we can’t go to our constituents directly. You assume that our constituents are dumb or at the least unreachable unless through the MSM. This is why we are losing because we think that the only way to reach the people is to go through a filter that is predisposed to hating us and twisting our words. Until we find elected officials who have the desire to go over the media and straight to the people–in this case to their own constituents–we are doomed, no matter what debt-to-GDP percentage you can come up with. If our elected officials are too lazy to visit their voters on issues of serious note, then we deserve the neutered party we have now. And believe me Frank, these guys are all Ken Dolls.
MBF
Wisconsin is a lesson for us all. Governor Walker is my first choice for president. We need a person of solid and straightforward principles who can with simple dignity win the battles.
Do you think his campaign has been fatally wounded by Trump? Trump is not a man of solid and straightforward principles (he is a thug) but he is certainly capable of speaking to people without being constrained by the media.
What does it say about me that I agree with both the optimists and the pessimists? But, really, life is generally like that. Some things get better while others get worse.
I tend to share your sentiments. I know the GOP has fighters in it, people who do not want their country to become some Western European hell hole. The problem is that I also know that there are people in the GOP who think it isn’t that bad and who think that, as long as they are in control of the money, things will be okay.
I tend to ally myself with the “things are bad” camp, but I don’t believe they’re particularly bad. It’s that we’ve gone down a perverse and foolish path.
It’s like Tolstoy’s saying: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” The US has become an unhappy country, but in the midst of unprecedented plenty.
It was Alaska state employees that went after Sarah Palin using everything they could find. When Palin was selected as John McCain’s running mate, 2 private jet loads of lawyers and political investigators descended on Juneau and began gathering smear material.
Add in the IRS shenanigans under Obama, with EPA and OSHA piling on and you get the point–government employees are going to punish you.
How do you go to them directly? Here in Wisconsin, this week the RNC has gone to farm tech fairs and manned booths, held picnics, knocked on doors, held conferences, and made phone calls. They’ve put out memes, emails, infographics and blog posts. They’ve badgered people on minor newspapers (I’m not sure what your definition of MSM is) to cover the Gwen Moore claim that Walker is “literally” putting a noose around the necks of African Americans. They’ve had office hours where constituents were encouraged to talk to them. They’ve put up signs, and handed out and worn shirts and bumper stickers. Walker’s given a big speech on foreign policy and sent out summaries, filled an audience, etc. etc. etc. What are they not doing that, if they did do, would result in victory?
There’s a limit to how many voters can be reached by volunteers; the number of volunteers. Most people just don’t want to spend their Wednesday mornings turning up at a Farm Tech fair at 7:30am, and then not actually touring the fair because they’re sat at a booth handing out flyers and talking to the cranks (left and right) who take up so much of the booth’s time.
It might have been. Walker needs Iowa, and Iowa is Trump’s lowest hanging fruit. If Trump wins anywhere, it will be Iowa (where the turnout is very low indeed, so the Huckabee approach of getting people who have never caucused before to caucus doesn’t need huge numbers to work). After that, Trump isn’t likely to go far, but just winning there and thereby boosting the Jeb vote in New Hampshire (Jeb is the anti-Trump there), he would make it much, much less likely that Walker will win, and much more likely that Jeb will. The third candidate, the non-Jeb, non-Trump would be likely to be Cruz, who has a passion and a talent for fundraising, but who cannot win. Between Trump and Cruz, maybe some Carson, most of the anti-Jeb votes are likely to be soaked up, and it’s very hard indeed for a candidate to become prominent after Super Tuesday.
My sense is that it’s still plausible that Trump will eventually wear through the considerable tolerance he’s amassed and all that could be avoided, so the wound isn’t there yet. Currently, the wound is there in the GOP approval rating, and he might win the Democrats a fair number of downticket races, but the last time we took a hit the year before the elections (2014), it energized the party to stop it, and 2014 was a pretty well behaved year. Maybe the same thing will happen again.
Trump can certainly get his words to the people, because they’re more relateable than the words of a person who was concerned about policy. Everyone has an opinion on Kelly’s bleeding, and lots of people pro- or con-, gave page views and watched news because of it. Likewise with the make Mexico build a wall thing, or paying vast sums for Clinton to attend a wedding. They’re also motivated to watch because Trump was already a pop culture icon.
What they’re not motivated to do is to hear a conservative, or even anti-Democrat idea. So far as I can tell, listening to Trump talk, and being persuaded by every word of it, will not make any voters more conservative or cause them to believe in any conservative doctrines. I’m not a fan of Cruz, but a lot of Cruz’s speeches contain genuine efforts to educate the listener. The same is true of just about every other candidate. The downside to this is that policy is less exciting than personal insults or the spectacle of Trump proclaiming his wealth.
That is to say, Trump seems good at getting airtime, and we want airtime, but it doesn’t follow that there’s a lot that we ought to do to imitate Trump. The closest thing, perhaps, is to make more use of celebrities. Phil Robertson has been pretty good for us. Maybe Jenner can be trained up; Arthur Brooks could do a world of good if he could get a session into the schedule.
There are different issues at play here. If Walker manages to get voter ID through the courts (which might end up being the result of Walker appointing a SCOTUS judge if things work out right), that might end up being repealed if the Dems win back the legislature. They really hate that, and it harms them, and there’s no reason for them to keep it. The abortion ultrasound? Also gone; the only way to keep that is to keep at least one of the state house, senate, or governor’s mansion and a reasonably strong minority in the legislature at all times.
Act 10, though? Barret’s found it invaluable in running Milwaukee. Democrats are getting great savings from it across the state. Even if Democrats win across the board (which doesn’t seem likely to happen soon in the legislature), it’s likely that at least a good chunk of Act 10 will remain. The gun rights, too. There’s a bunch of his reforms that seem pretty durable.
Voter ID is already through the courts.
You’re right! I don’t know how I missed that. I think we’re still not out of the judicial woods, because there may be other cases; a denial of cert isn’t as good as an affirmative ruling, but yes, that is good.