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Ask The Founders
This week on the world famous Ricochet Podcast, you ask the questions. Peter Robinson and Rob Long will take any and all questions on any topic under the sun. That includes the current political situation, philosophy, TV sitcoms, Ricochet, and more. Leave them in the comments. The floor is yours…
Thanks to the great sculptor of Photoshop, @ejhill
Published in General
Peter, Rob – What lessons/takeaways do you think the respective GOP House and Senate Leaderships have gained from the Tea Party and Trump’s winning the nomination & presidency? How have those takeaways been incorporated into policy and legislative initiatives?
Why do we give so much credence to reporters on politics when they almost have never done any of the work on politics? We wouldn’t trust medical reporters to diagnose diseases, but we allow political reporters to explain to us all the inner workings of party politics. Why is that?
They are all married to Democrat party apparachniks
A question for both of our founders: What’s the best and worst things Trump has done since he’s become President.
Ricochet is about seven years old now. How’s it doing? Where’s it going?
Rob is quite the peripatetic guy, so these questions are mainly meant for him, though I would like to hear Peter’s response, too:
In traveling for pleasure, what is the most interesting/extraordinary/memorable locale you’ve been to? What is the most unusual form of transportation you’ve used?
Beware of Greeks bearing gift subscriptions
Oh! Oh! Oh! I can picture the hilarity now! What great fun!
Alternatively, it could be a movie.
What has happened to all the talented writers and directors? Have they been hog-tied and are they hidden on some island? Why all the obsession with horror and sci-fi? Will they ever make another Seinfeld style show? Will we see the end of the nightmare called “reality TV” in our lifetimes? Can we just go back to 13 channels where football and baseball were free? That’s all one question by the way…….
If you had your choice, who would be the Republican nominee in 2020?
Who is your favorite singer/band and why? Favorite song.
What event led you to become Conservatives? Was it a book person or other?
My question: What do you think our two-party system will look like 50 years from now? (Replacement party for one or both? A 3-party system? etc.)
My wife’s (a Democrat) question: What tips do you have for living with a Republican?
I am fascinated by some of the older “Uncommon Knowledge” episodes that I view on the Hoover Institution’s YouTube channel. I could watch “The Sixties” episode with Christopher Hitchens and William F. Buckley on a continuous loop.
To Peter, what was it like to moderate that episode? Are there any interesting anecdotes that you can share that didn’t make it on camera?
Is Justice Gorsuch alone … rather than the alternative uinverse that we would have been living in … worth the ‘cost’ of President Trump?
This is especially for Peter but would love to hear everyone on the subject. When Reagan left office there was not a Conservative heir. George Bush was a fine, competent man who I admire in many ways but he was not a Conservative leader and he had no direction for the Conservative movement and his theme of “I am competent for whatever problem arises” did not sell very well for the re-election.
After Bush lost Gingrich came in on an agenda that could be fairly summed up as “Finish what Reagan started.” For a while and on that agenda he beat Bill Clinton like a drum for nearly two years.
Then we had Dole. Dole was “Hey I am next and Clinton is bad, really band elect me.” It was all kind of sad, really.
After that you didn’t have a politician of real talent champion any real Conservative agenda. George W Bush was a conservative man that ran on several Conservative ideas but he mostly ran on a theme, “I can be a moral, upright, Bill Clinton with Conservative seasoning”. Which is why the drunk driving charge hurt him so much during the first election. People wanted a more moral and upright guy after Clinton and they got cold feet about Bush.
After Bush is President he really run on Leadership, not policy or an agenda and wins re-election going away and earlier, and even more remarkably, wins a mid-term on his war Leadership. People don’t back his agenda but they like him as a leader. So when Katrina seemed to expose Bush as a bad leader he was politically crippled despite the blazing success of the Surge in Iraq.
McCain we run simply because he is as far from Bush as we can get and hope that his Maverick rep will stave off the far leftist novice that is Barack Obama.
Romney again is not really a Conservative politician, though he ran with quiet a list of Conservative policy items, but his over arching message was really “I am competent, Obama is not competent elect me and get a truck load of competence flavored with Conservatism.” That did not sell either.
So then we get to Trump and he does build a case for a Conservative agenda, though he does many Conservative things, but instead he builds a brand that you might sum up like this, “You know everything you hate about Washington I am going to smash it all! All of it! The people in Washington you hate, yeah, them I am going to insult them until they cry like the little girls they are!” That sold.
So we are now 30 years after the Reagan Presidency and we have not had someone running on Conservative Agenda since the 1994 mid terms. We have not had a Conservative Leader since the first year of Gingrich Speakership so say 1995 and some parts of 1996.
So my question is: Why can’t we have more Conservative leaders running for high office? Is the agenda just so hard to sell that it takes a once in a Generation talent like Reagan to sell it? Did Reagan by backing George Bush for President cut the legs out from the Conservative movement he worked so hard to build? Is it just that we don’t have any talented politicians? How could people not see the success of Reagan and Gingrich and work to build on that with Conservative agenda, it it us the Republican voter that messed up? What do you think?
I hope that Peter appreciates the lengthy build up I had to my question! In the previous comment.
Question for Peter:
How did you become a speechwriter?
Question for Rob:
Do you enjoy stepping all over James Lileks’ segues?
Question for Rob – Where do you see the TV world going? How is the Netflix / Amazon / Apple challenge changing the market for TV programming? As one who “cut the cord” 9 years ago, I’m especially curious how these changes have affected the sitcom world, as it doesn’t seem like the upstarts are doing much there as yet.
Peter answers that question here in great detail:
[Redacted]
(Because those of us left behind need the reinforcements. ;) )
Probably too late to make the podcast, but does Hollywood truly have liberal bias to the point that they “blacklist” conservative actors, screenwriters, etc.? Is there any difference between TV and movies? And if Hollywood is truly that biased, how has that affected you (Rob Long)?
Fox news today: ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ actress: I came out as a conservative in Hollywood. Here’s the incredible story of what happened next
This story is part of what prompted my question.
What do you see as the end-game of the current division in the conservative movement? Peter has seen the conservative movement for decades, and Rob has the friendly outsider perspective.
I’m sure this is way past the deadline, but:
James Lileks and Rob Long, do you regret voting for Evan McMullin?
Have you ever had facts change your opinion on an issue that is pretty well established as conservative orthodoxy? Something like Bill Buckley coming out for marijuana legalization or some of Alan Dershowitz’ apostasies from the liberal party line lately.
Thanks to everyone for all the great questions! We just finished recording the show and it will be out shortly.
Blue Yeti Post author
Thanks to everyone for all the great questions! We just finished recording the show and it will be out shortly.
Shoot. I guess the intimate questions about the founders’ sex lives will just have to wait.