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It’s action packed post-State of the Union podcast. We chat with GOP rising star Artur Davis on the President’s speech, the GOP response, and how to attract more minorities to the party. Then, an actual President for a change: Hillsdale College’s Dr. Larry Arnn joins to discuss the Constitution, the rising cost of higher ed, and whether online education really is the future. Finally, Texas Public Policy Institute’s Josh Treviño dons his Mitre to discuss there Pope’s resignation and who the favorite might be to replace him.
Music from this week’s show:
- (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes by Elvis Costello
EJHill is obviously our valentine.
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The Ash Wednesday podcast – no red meat.
I was thrilled to see your guest list, but, second time ever, had to turn it off at about the 7 minute mark. Rob Long is a one man voter suppression crew and I’m wondering about paying to have myself depressed over and over. It may feel sophisticated to criticize your own side, but the trick would be to propose something meaningful to make it better. “Hapless”? I’ve been irritated at the seeming silence of a lot of the (R)s in Congress, but by watching some of their FB newsfeeds, I’m realizing that a lot of their “silence” is to do with the Marcuse/Alinsky complicit media (which is abdicating their constitutional duty in the process). So, if, as they tell us out in flyover, 10 mil Republicans sat out for McCain, and that plus another 3 mil sat out for Romney, how is Rob’s commitment to trashing the Republicans helping to get the base to at least go out to vote against the Marxists? Maybe you guys can tell where in podcast timer Mr. Davis, Dr. Arnn (got to meet him in person once!), and Mr. Trevino (fabulous twitter entertainment) start.
The opening segment ends at about the 10 minute mark.
The argument posed by Mr. Davis that minorities should not be treated monolithically struck me as non-trivial and an important takeaway from the podcast. That message seems to me to be exactly what should be presented directly to minority groups by Republicans and conservatives. I envision that message being well received if it is delivered by the right people with the correct tone. Who should provide the message (other than Mr. Davis himself)? I’m not sure.
Until conservatives work to assure that the 90% of Americans who attend public school receive a quality education, then it is difficult to present ideas that are counterintuitive. For example, raising the federal minimum wage to $9 not only sounds compassionate, but appears to be a fantastic idea to aid the poor. This is despite the reality of hurting the poor and those will less skills, and the lack of compassion behind the policy.
Additionally, when the relationship between government services and the taxes to pay for them is broken, progressive ideas of “paying your fair share” sounds incredibly attractive, and those who advocate for personal responsibility, a simplified tax code with less deductions sound out-of-touch, and mean-spirited. (See William Niskanen: http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/gorging-beast_663547.html)
It is time to focus on that which many people find to be as hopeless or incredibly boring–increasing affordable, quality options in K-12 education, so there is a foundation of knowledge from which to persuade.
(As an aside, it is truly astounding how effective the late, great Milton Friedman was at explaining counterintuitive free market principles with clarity, humor and compassion.)
As an empirical minarchist, I’m not sure I can agree with Mr. Davis’ contention that it’s not important to advocate for small government at the state level. After all, Belgium and The Netherlands, for example, have been screwed by having a large state apparatus despite being smaller than California, Illinois or New York. To take his point about education – are the young teenagers of New York being deprived of anything resembling an education by Federal forces, or by elements internal to the state (or city)?
You’re giving me too much credit. I don’t have the juice to suppress even one vote. But I do just call it like I see it.
I agree about Josh Trevino, though. He’s hilarious.
Artur Davis’ point on the 47% is 100,000% right and the GOP better pay attention to it.
…and here is the article Mr. Trevino referenced concerning the “handicapping” of the Papal race.
Not to be a Mr. Complainer Pants, but please fix your audio feeds.
Three separate podcast episodes amongst three separate podcast series.
All of them had the annoying “mic feed goes crazy periodically and people’s voices either cut out or go high pitched and robot-like” problem.
And, just now….keyboard noise.
I know I’m being bitchy, but this stuff pulls me right out of the podcasts and into “club a baby seal” mode.
Love the content, but please listen and address, if possible. Thank you!
Skype is kind of like democracy — it’s the worst possible solution except for all the others. I’m with you on the keyboard noise though — that has nothing to do with Skype. I can report that the offender (who shall remain unnamed) was called out and roundly excoriated. I don’t expect it will happen again.
Three separate podcast episodes amongst three separate podcast series.
All of them had the annoying “mic feed goes crazy periodically and people’s voices either cut out or go high pitched and robot-like” problem.
And, just now….keyboard noise.
I know I’m being bitchy, but this stuff pulls me right out of the podcasts and into “club a baby seal” mode.
Love the content, but please listen and address, if possible. Thank you! ·2 hours ago
Hawkins – don’t listen to 3 martini lunch as they have keyboards clicking that will rattle your nerves.
Well, for what it’s worth, I like having a contrarian in the discussion provided that said contrarian is goading the others to defend their positions by making thoughtful, unconventional arguments; arguments that point out factors and considerations that I had neither heard of nor thought about before. I think Rob does that well. Exposure to these unconventional points of view helps prepare me to argue more effectively when I get into it with someone.
Likewise, the contrarian nature of Mickey Kaus (of the Left Coast/Right Coast podcast) is one of the two factors that make LC/RC one of my favorite podcasts. (The other factor is that neither he nor Jen Rubin allow conventional wisdom do their thinking for them.)
Three cheers for contrarians!
Well said John. If I wanted a back-slapping echo chamber I’d listen to mainstream “conservative” radio.
James Lileks made an interesting comment about rebranding as Progressives. The Canadian right split into several parties and were out in the wilderness for years. Then Stephen Harper smacked heads together and rebranded as…Progressives. Also, the Canadian Progressives picked story themes and built policies for groups if potential voters. So the soccer mums got tax breaks for paying for daycare, summer camp, music and hockey lessons for kids. Homeowners got tax breaks for renovations and putting in a new driveway.Artur is correct in saying that these issues about how to make a living cut across all skin colours. I enjoy Ricochet and its discussions around freedom and the intellectual details of political theory, but Artur is correct about what interests the voters.The Canadian Progressives had a press conference every day parliament was going and every day hammered at the left. They went after hot issues and pointed out what seems obvious to conservative thinkers but are not obvious to many others. It took a few years but now Harper is the longest serving PM, survived three votes.
The cat seems to be gradually creeping out of the bag with respect to universal pre-school for 4 year olds. The rejoinder to objections seems often to take the form of “working moms need the childcare.”
Well, clarity is something since the research seems to indicate that there’s no educational benefit to it. It’s discussed today in an editorial by National Review editors http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/340831/preschool-science-editors with links to the Department of Education study that was released last year.
Questions about it that remain unanswered are:
Finally, why is it the responsibility of a taxpaying family to pay for childcare for a never-married or divorced mom? Once again, if you play by the rules, You’re a chump.
I’m caught up as far as “Question Time” now. But I’m going to have to take a break from this podcast again, Peter’s tap-tap-tapping/thump-thump-thumping really gets on my nerves. And my computer speakers don’t like it either. Some things, it seems, just don’t get corrected. At least not for long.
Peter? Peter, look over here.
WHAP!
Knock it off, willya?
Not to get off track here, but sometimes 3 Martini Lunch sounds like an automatic card deck shuffler is running right next to the microphone.
The simplest proof that Artur Davis is wrong about black voting is the 90%-plus turnout for Obama. If there was really a variety of sub-groups as he claimed, with 40-year-old married couples worried about sending their kid to college etc, just like every other demographic group, and were acting on those concerns in rational ways, then the turnout would have been more spread out like the other groups. 90%-plus for Obama – and for every other Democrat candidate for decades now – proves that to be wrong.