Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Republican Self-Sabotage
The latest CBS poll suggests that the Trump juggernaut continues to roll, with 35 percent of Republicans supporting him. Ted Cruz, his nearest rival, garners 18 percent. Jeb Bush, the candidate who should have been the obvious choice if conventional wisdom about money and politics were even remotely true, is dead last with 4 percent. In vain does Ted Cruz protest that Donald Trump is not a conservative. Among those who describe themselves as “very conservative,” 35 percent favor Trump versus 30 percent for Cruz, and 12 percent for Rubio.
In South Carolina, Trump is ahead among the evangelical voters Ted Cruz targeted as his savior army that would rise up to carry a true conservative to victory. According to a Fox News poll (2/18), Trump leads Cruz 31 percent to 23 percent among evangelical Christians. And while Cruz leads among those who identify as “very conservative” it’s a razor-thin edge (well within the margin of error).
As in New Hampshire, Trump leads nationally among a broad swath of voters. Not only those with just a high school diploma (47 percent), but also those with some college (33 percent), and college graduates (25 percent). He is the preference of men and women, and among all income groups including those earning more than $100,000.
Any number of theories have been advanced about the Trump voters – that they represent the downscale whites who have been abandoned by the Republican Party, or that they are enraged by Republican failure to secure the border.
But as noted, Trump does well among upscale voters too. As for the great immigration rage, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Immigration was listed last among matters that were on voters’ minds in Iowa and New Hampshire. Besides, Trump did well even among voters who said they favored a path to citizenship for illegals living here.
No, there’s a better theory for why 35 percent of Republican primary voters are ready to hand the nomination to a bullying, loutish con man who accuses George W. Bush of war crimes while promising to commit some of his own (killing the wives and children of suspected terrorists, stealing the oil of Middle Eastern nations).
For the past several years, leading voices of what Matt Lewis has called “con$ervative” media, along with groups like Heritage Action, and politicians like Sen. Ted Cruz, have ceaselessly flogged the false narrative that the Republican “grassroots” have been betrayed by the Republican leadership in Washington.
Rather than aim their anger at President Obama and the Democrats, right wing websites, commentators like Ann Coulter and Mark Levin, and many others have instead repeated the libel that “Republicans gave Obama everything he wanted.” There has been a flavor of the “stab in the back” to these accusations. But for the treachery of the Republican Party, they claim, a party too timorous or too corrupt to stand up to Obama, we could have defunded Obamacare, balanced the budget, halted the Iran deal, you name it.
Aiming fire at your own side can be very satisfying for radio wranglers, et al. They have zero influence on Obama, but they can take down Eric Cantor. They can’t do much about Eric Holder, but they can dethrone John Boehner.
This is not to say that Republican leaders were perfect or that they couldn’t have done more in some instances to put bills on Obama’s desk – even if only to force vetoes and lay down markers for the next election. But the list of Obama initiatives Republicans thwarted is very long (universal pre-K, gun control, “paycheck fairness,” higher taxes). Moreover, the bloc of conservatives in the House that refused to vote for any budget made it that much more difficult for leadership to exert pressure on Democrats. Lastly, who believes it makes no difference that Republicans control the Senate in the wake of Justice Scalia’s death?
So congratulations to those conservatives who’ve been preaching the “betrayal” of the base by the establishment. You’ve won. You’ve convinced 70 percent of the Republican primary electorate (per the CBS poll) that the most important quality in a candidate is that he will “shake up the political system.”
With all its faults, the Republican Party is the only vehicle for conservative ideas in this country. Conservatives themselves, or at least those who styled themselves conservatives, may have sabotaged it, handing the reins not to a moderate, nor even to a liberal Republican, but to a lifelong Democrat.
Published in General
I’ve already answered that.
Real estate increases don’t necessarily reflect inflation or a bubble. It typically reflects the desirability of a particular location and that desirability it effected by everything taking place in area around the home. If the amount of economic activity has grown, if school systems have improved, if there have been great infrastructure improvements, if there have been declines in surrounding areas making demand in your area higher, all of these things increase the real value of your home, whether you have made any improvements to your home or there has been any deterioration in the physical condition of your home. The value of your home is at least as much related to it’s location as it is to the amenities of your home.
Of course it’s not, buying debt is always a risk. It just so happens that despite our current problems and weaknesses, we still look better than any other place in the world to invest.
Sure, that a real increase in value independent of inflation and bubbles.
Of course, but a house itself doesn’t inherently increase in value was my point in response to Jamie’s point. Quite the opposite even if the neighborhood’s desirability stays steady.
But what do they get out of buying our debt? We’re not talking about the local banker deciding whether to invest in the business down the street. If the investment is paid off in dollars and they’re not using the dollars to buy our stuff and they can’t use the dollars elsewhere, then what do they get out of it?
Where? You said they get a rock solid currency. A currency they can’t use elsewhere and they don’t use here. To what end?
It depends on which country or foreign investor you’re talking about. Many foreigners, as do many domestic investors, simply use the US treasuries as a hedge against economic calamity. Even though it has low returns, it’s seen as incredibly safe. The Chinese buy treasuries to help keep the Yuan stable against the dollar and keep the Yuan from appreciating against the dollar. This insures that Chinese export goods, the engine of the Chinese economy, stay cheap in one of China’s largest markets, and thereby keep the Chinese economy growing.
No, you disagree, so you therefore say her argument is not smart or coherent. It makes perfect sense, it’s just not how you see things. Big difference.
But you are right, this is more than a simple disagreement. I think many of us who are technically on the same side are as frustrated with each other as we are with liberals! Luckily, the Dems are in total disarray as well. Or, unluckily for our country.
Solon, you just think that way because you have been duped.
No, I think most Republicans weren’t duped by Romney at all. We knew exactly what he was. And that’s why it was so depressing when he was made “inevitable” early on. Jeb getting in early was a sign that we were in for… how did we put it earlier? Ah yes. “More of the same“. Thus, Trump.
As long as you’re going to reference the joke, let’s paraphrase it then, shall we?
Conservatism, Inc. :”Sire, the base is revolting!”
GOPe: “You got it. They stink on ice!”
I should have made clear that I was joking.
That is interesting, I thought the backlash against this post was that it implies that people were dumb enough to bet duped by politicians and radio hosts. So the reply is, ‘No, you are the ones being duped.’
This reminds me of conversations with left-wingers: They say, ‘You’re being duped by oil companies and bankers!’ I say, ‘You’re being duped by climate alarmists and left-wing universities!’
I guess we’re all being duped!
Don’t get all rational on me now, Solon
That’s what the square root of 2 always says…
Be well!