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Everything you need to know about the GOP tax plan from two terrific experts: Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform and economist James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute;
Another #MAGAMonday segment, starring longtime blogger and Istapundit favorite Don Surber;
Team Obama finally finds a “red line” they will enforce;
And indisputable proof that there is a God, courtesy of the NFL.
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Published in: Politics
On all your survey numbers, what’s your solution? It just sounds like you’re being Cassandra here. Are Republicans going to fix it, you ask? What would you suggest? What’s the fix? Have Donald J. shut up? First, that’s not going to happen, and second, as your guest mentioned, some of us consider his antics refreshing.
How about this: quit being Mr. Doom and Gloom. Do we have challenges? Sure. But if your solution is to decry our side and highlight our challenges every day, why should we listen to you? We can get this crap from CNN and MSNBC. Besides bringing on your guests, what has Michael Graham done for us lately? It’s fine to report the numbers, but you don’t have to set your hair on fire over them or try to get us to do the same.
Straighten up and fly right, Michael. You’re in a blue-state miasma. Stay strong.
I will never understand this.
I’m with you, Julia–as are an overwhelming number of Americans. Getting angry over what the polls/voter turnout/election results actually show is just another form of “stupid on purpose.”
That’s fine. I never much understand why people think most comedians are funny.
I’m not angry over the polls, Michael. I’m angry over your constant glee in bringing bad news with no real solutions. It is possible to say:
“Here are the numbers. It does not look good for us. (Here are my suggestions of what we need to do/I don’t have any ideas. Does anyone else?)”
Again, if I want glee in bad news, however it may be disguised, I can go to CNN for that. I want to hear someone working for our side here on Ricochet.
I’m bothering to engage here for a reason, Michael. Whatcha got?
Who’s the target audience for your podcast?
Try.
I’m not the biggest G Norquist fan but this is the second time I’ve heard him talk about the tax plan and he certainly (1) knows his stuff and (2) makes a good case for it.
A lot of us don’t. No, he’s not going to shut up but that doesn’t magically mean his tweets aren’t causing problems for the GOP! The polls are against them. WHY is that? It’s not just the tweets. The health care debacle is also part of it but even there Trump’s rhetorical contributions didn’t help. If you really were interested in a solution, the reactions to his tweets would matter to you. Those of us who don’t find his antics refreshing are the very people the GOP needs to win to their side.
Why? My disgust for Trump and his antics only grows. I believe it is Pence and some in his cabinet we can thank for the good things coming from this Administration and I give Trump credit for putting them in place. However, we could have had those good things with almost any of the other primary candidates, WITHOUT Trump’s cringe inducing behavior. And yes, I think several would have easily beaten Hillary and even won the popular vote as well. Trump’s role in all this is to act like a vulgar fool. I am not going to even try to like it.
That’s not what I asked you to do.
I’m not sure that it’s true that several would have. The only two whom I would give a chance would be Scott Walker and Ted Cruz. And frankly, Ted Cruz was not seen favorably by a lot of people. (I voted for him in the primary because Walker had dropped out long before.)
As I already said, I am fine that you don’t enjoy Trump’s act. I’m ambivalent at best. Just, please do not destroy everything just because you have no common ground with Trump.
Would I like to see the whole GOP, including Trump, do a better job of getting the truth out there and selling our ideas to a broader audience? Yes, I would. Does it help our side when half our people tear down McConnell and Ryan and the other half tear down Trump? No, it does not. We are a coalition, not one unified group. But we need the coalition to find common ground so we get things done. If we can only do what we supposedly agree on, that would take us a very long way.
Little ‘ol me? I’m an old grandma with one vote and can’t destroy anything. Trumpers and Bannon followers can though. Sorry but I’m too old to try to understand why people could possibly like Trump. I believe they are deluded at best. I think it is best for the country and for the GOP if people (like Mr. Surber) would stop their hero worship of Trump and look at him objectively. He seems to think we only need Trump and that we have a monarchy again or something. Everything Trump has done (with the exception of judges) can and will be undone with lightening speed as soon as the democrats get their next loon elected. So go ahead and praise Trump for saving us from Hillary and for Gorsuch but if he doesn’t quit his antics, we could easily get President Kamala Harris (or similar) in 2020.
True, and certain Senators actively voted against it, something Trump never got to do, did he?
They do matter, but I know that I have no power to change them, so I’m not whining about them. I might have some small ability to change Michael’s propensities, since he reads the comments here. Michael has a much larger audience than I do, and if he goes in a better direction, that is huge leverage.
Who is the GOP? If it is not you and me, who is it? Have you ceded the party to Trump? Does it belong to McConnell? Or is it a membership organization that belongs to all of its members. If you’re going to pack up and go home crying because some politician tweets in a way you don’t like, then you’re nothing. Fight for the GOP you want.
But also realize that every political party is a coalition. We don’t have the luxury to toss out everyone we don’t want in the coalition unless we can find other constituencies to replace them. So, who have you got in your back pocket to build the coalition with?
Why can they? Only because they have numbers and are willing to fight instead of deploring the fact that politics is an ugly, dirty game. People like you probably have higher numbers, but if you take your ball (vote) and go home every time something goes sideways or something might violate your principles, then you are correct that you have no power.
I’m a classical liberal. The closest party to my views is the Libertarian Party. I have not voted for a Libertarian (so labeled) in over a quarter of a century. Why? Because I can do more as part of a larger coalition than I can in a party that can’t muster 5%. That coalition has nominated people like McCain who was incapable of running a national campaign. I held my breath and voted for him. I’ve held my breath and voted for a lot of candidates. A few have pleasantly surprised me. Donald Trump is one of those. Yes, he’s imperfect. Yes, he’s a vulgarian populist at heart. On the other hand, he’s doing the right things, or trying to. And a few of my votes have counted for something, even if my principles are somehow sullied by voting for the less worst candidate according to some.
So, if you want to just be a grandma with one vote, that’s fine. But there are more of you out there deploring things and sitting on the sidelines than you know.
I see the danger in electing Trump. You do not. He hasn’t pleasantly surprised me. He is doing exactly what I thought he’d do. And I am afraid he will do much more that will be bad. I voted so I did not sit on the sidelines. And I agree that there are a lot of people out there who feel the same way. People who refuse to vote for Moore or Gillespie because they wanted to send Trump a message. Republicans in Congress are in a hopeless position. I believe there will be far fewer of them after 2018. Trumpers like Mr. Surber do not think that will matter. That is delusional. Trump needs to stop the antics now. He can’t. He’s a huge problem.
Peeps!
This is not an “either/or” proposition. I love conservative judges as my guest Don Surber laid out. I hate insulting attacks from a sitting president that demean him and the people who voted for him.
I love cutting taxes. I hate a president who doesn’t know enough math to explain the policies he’s pushing.
I love aggressive deregulations. I hate a narcissist who’s so paranoid someone might take away the glory of his electoral victory that he digs political holes that prevent him from doing more.
Someone asked who “my target market is.” It’s people who are able to hold more than one idea in their minds at the same time. People who are staunchly conservative but refuse to cross the line into “crazy”–at least not on purpose.
Is there room for us on the Right? I think so….but what the hell do I know. But I can do math, and I can read the 2017 election results and I can read polls. The Right has a problem, and yelling “you suck, shut up!” at everyone who notices it is probably not the smartest strategy for solving it.
I beg to differ. I saw it very well, and thought it would be much worse than it has been. I still voted for him in the general election, because Hillary would have been much, much worse.
You must be an optimist, then. The reason I am pleasantly surprised is because I expected much worse. I expected him to give us crappy judges like his sister. I expected to see other things that were much worse than I’m seeing. I’m not sure I would even give him a C grade, so far, but it is definitely in the exceeds expectations category.
I can only vote for one Congressman. I hope to send a Republican to Congress again. I believe one of my idiot Senators is up for election. If so, I will vote against them as usual, because they’re Democrats. If we each send Republicans to Washington where they are now, we’re probably going to be okay. If we sit on our duffs, we will not.
Yep. Or at least, probably. I have seen too many pollsters blow it and have stopped participating in polls myself. Maybe the delusional is the truth. Remember all the polls on who was going to win in 2016?
Again, it’s not going to happen. Unless you’ve got a magic wand, Trump is going to continue being Trump. Accept it. Get over it. And then let’s see what we can do to accentuate the good parts of that and mitigate the bad.
Agreed, and again, that is not what I am saying. Let’s get off Destruct and into Construct.
One thing I think will help is to promote the ideas that:
I have been amazed by the negative polls on the tax bill that have come out in the last two weeks . Has anyone stopped to think that the bill is just now being finalized? How could anyone intelligently respond to a poll on that bill last week or the week before? Where were these people getting their information — from the pundits on TV? I went to a dinner a week ago and was told by a Dem friend that she opposed the tax bill and was totally unable to tell me what specific provisions she didn’t like other than to repeat the Dem mantra of tax breaks for the rich. I frankly told her I didn’t really know what to think about it yet as it hadn’t been finalized. The trouble with many voters in this country is a ridiculous reliance on soundbites for their information which is often reflected in their poll responses.
Amen, but there are all sorts of polls, including the ones on election day. If the low-information voters trouble themselves to come out, we’re always in trouble.
I agree with both your points (1) and (2). Grover Norquist is a well informed expert on tax issues whose passions occasionally get the best of him.
Today Grover Norquist was ON FIRE with his analogies!
Brilliant. Another GREAT SHOW, @michaelgraham Michael!
Overnight.
Who looks more foolish today: the reluctant Trump voter, or the enthusiastic Evan McMullin voter?
Democrats have found the off year turnout engine which has, and will, bring out their voters who normally just vote in Presidential elections. It’s Donald Trump’s behavior, and to a lesser extent, his policies. Every few days Trump reminds people who hate him why they hate him. There is not time for that red hot hate to cool off. We do get a lot of good things with Trump’s policies, but the behavior makes things worse.