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Money is the sinews of politics, and Republicans have to raise theirs any way they can. Speaking to fears of this administration’s radicalism is a perfectly in-bounds means of doing so. If anything, yesterday’s leaked RNC fundraising document is reassuring on that score: It shows that senior Republicans don’t share the paranoid fantasies of the small-donor base.
But 2 concerns do arise from the leak:
1) It’s one thing for a political party to mobilize anxieties in this way. What happens though when we fund the entire conservative counter-establishment this way? Magazines, think tanks, and all the rest? The desperate need for funds in a time of economic distress has distorted the way so many conservative institutions not only talk – but also, in time, the way they think. It’s my sense that the quality of the work in the conservative world these past 18 months has been nowhere near adequate to the crisis. I often wonder: Has the need to fund our cause by mobilizing fears actually crippled our cause, made it less convincing and less valid than it should have been? Most people cannot sustain cynicism for very long. If your fundraising imperatives require you to SAY that Obama is a Marxist, most of those who repeat the slogan will come to believe it. If your fundraising requires you to pretend that Obama caused the economic crisis he actually inherited, over time you will genuinely forget how the crisis started and why it has lasted so long.
2) An enraged base will entrap the party. If Obama really is demoniacally determined to impose socialism on the United States, there’s no working with him. We can only fight him until we defeat and destroy him or he defeats and destroys us. So what happens when Congress and president must work together? To balance the budget after the recession ends for example? The party will have positioned itself so that any Republican who tries to do anything constructive will stand accused of selling out. As far as our voters are concerned, nothing can happen unless we control everything – and no deal is possible unless we get entirely our own way. That is not in fact the way the leadership of the GOP thinks. The GOP is better than its material, and its leaders are reasonable people with feasible goals. But a mood is growing in the Republican base that despises the higgling and haggling of real politics – preferring freedom from responsibility and the grim satisfactions of radical alienation.
If Obama really is demoniacally determined to impose socialism on the United States, there’s no working with him. We can only fight him until we defeat and destroy him or he defeats and destroys us. … any Republican who tries to do anything constructive will stand accused of selling out.
That is, in fact, the position of RedState.com.
They’ve stated it, many times, in almost those words.
What if this makes it impossible to run the government?
That’s OK, they say. Except for national defense (the one area where RedState.com wants the GOP to work constructively to pass defense budgets), we don’t really need a government anyway. We can survive without it till Obama is gone.
That is their position.
As far as our voters are concerned, nothing can happen unless we control everything – and no deal is possible unless we get entirely our own way.
No.
That’s not what the GOP base believes.
If a moderate Dem (say Bobby Bright) had become President, the GOP base would grudgingly work with him.
But the base believes that Obama is a genuine threat to American freedom–a man on an ideological bent to turn America into a European-style social democracy, which is anathema to the GOP base.
And they have a point.
I believe Obama, and especially his true believers he brought with him to the White House, really do believe in their heart of hearts that Europe and Canada have more just and “enlightened” societies than our own. In my own discussions with Obama’s fervent supporters, I hear this over and over: When will the U.S. “catch up” to the “civilized and enlightened” countries of Europe on issues like health care and global warming and gay rights? Why can’t we have “cradle to grave” security like the welfare states of Europe?
I think Obama is too intelligent to believe he can turn the United States into a somewhat larger version of the Netherlands. But he, and his supporters, carry that dream in their hearts.
DavidF, raising money for political campaigns –especially in an economy that looks like it’s going to become a Double Dip Obama recession soon– is tough, heavy slogging. It’s 100% sales and advocacy job to a core of supporters who have, literally, heard it all. As a Young Eagle in 43′s days, I was often asked to reach out to peers and raise money for the local GOP, state GOP, Congressional GOP groups and WH… as well as the RNC. It wasn’t tough to do, then. But then, my peers and I weren’t looking at a new tax bracket approaching 70+% either… back to the days of Carter’s Administration.
Demonizing Obama isn’t turning the reigns of power over to the lunatic fringe. The lunatic fringe doesn’t even get close to making the power decisions –and you know it.
It’s just good, clean fun. The farLeft and Obama himself did it for years by calling Bush a “cowboy”, calling Cheney “Darth Vader”, democrat fundraising letters talked about the GOP being the “Party of Voldemort”. Later, as the Obami Cult fought for funds even against the needs of the natl Democrat Party organization, we had Dr Dean using words like “war criminals” to describe the sitting president and veep.
I’m sorry, you’re simply all wet on this score.
And before the farLeft trolls here start in on the “GOProud is excusing this demonization of our Messiah because the Dems did it before”… I’m not. It’s not an excuse. Dems and GOPers are free to engage in culling $$$ from donors however they want… as long as they don’t violate federal law.
Frankly, I think every single local GOP headquarters –down to the county level– should be plastering those Obama-as-Joker images on every legitimate surface available. It isn’t demonizing Obama or playing on fears… it’s simply capturing his essence, his political agenda and the craziness of his fevent, radical Obami Cult. And it’s fun. Like the “GOP for Voldemort” car bumper stickers.
If a moderate Dem (say Bobby Bright) had become President, the GOP base would grudgingly work with him.
I doubt it. The Republicans are basing everything on denial that GOP policies had anything to do with the economic crisis that existed on January 21, 2009 (well, except for maybe giving in to those poor black people who wanted Bush to force bankers to lend them money) … and that any delays in economic turnaround are a direct result of a Democrat being in the White House.
I believe Obama, and especially his true believers he brought with him to the White House, really do believe in their heart of hearts that Europe and Canada have more just and “enlightened” societies than our own.
How about societies which are more prepared to meet the economic and social challenges of the 21st century? You yourself are the one who tends to for example support some governmental involvement in the healthcare market on the basis of what is “just” and “enlightened”, noting that the unfettered free market would probably have left you to die and your family bankrupt already.
I don’t care about it so much from a perspective of “just and enlightened”, but what will make us a stronger nation in the future.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/04/roy-ashburn-arrested-anti_n_485419.html
The GOP, party of moralists and closet queens.
“How about societies which are more prepared to meet the economic and social challenges of the 21st century?”
You really believe that the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden etc. are prepared “to meet the economic and social challenges of the 21st century?”
The socialist countries of Western Europe have one big problem, they don’t have enough babies. You can’t continue to provide “cradle to grave security” when you don’t have enough young people of working age to support those who don’t or can’t work.
Without massive immigration mainly from Muslim countries, all of the Western European nations with the possible exception of France are below replacement level in terms of native population.
Looks to me like the moderates here Sinz and GOProud are getting pushed rightward by the lefties. That’s how I got here. This is exactly why I wanted McCain to lose, to expose the left-wing extremism of the Democrat party once and for all. People are seeing it now. When you see Obama blatantly LIE every day, when you see him promoting every left-wing nut into his administration when you watch what he does, not what he says, you have to strt to believe he has socialist intentions. I know it’s difficult to believe that an American President wants this, but it’s getting easier for y’all isn’t it? It’s only been one year folks and take a look…
When you look at this latest hypocracy of doubling down on Health Care reform by using reconciliation it becomes pretty clear his words mean nothing.
Obamas words mean nothing. NOTHING. So when he SAYS he’s not a socialist, it means nothing. You must look at what he does, who he appoints and what direction he’s taking the country.
Keep the dialogue alive and have at it.
rbottoms, one name you missed: Eric Massa (D-NY), closeted gay married man who sexually harasses Congressional male staffers… and gets to stay in office until after the Health sCare vote. At least GOP leaders got rid of Mark Foley pronto.
balconesfault: How about societies which are more prepared to meet the economic and social challenges of the 21st century?
European societies weren’t even prepared to meet the challenges of the late 20th century.
With ethnic cleansing taking place in the Balkans–on Europe’s very doorstep–the Europeans could do nothing about it without begging the U.S. for help. So we did. The U.S. Air Force answered the call, and bombed Serbia for 78 days straight till they agreed to retract their ethnic cleansing.
As for economics: All of Europe is facing a conflict between the demands of the welfare state and the declining number of young people whose taxes would have to pay for it all. Instead, all European nations have rushed to make their own deals with Islamist nations of the Middle East, and Europe is becoming a colony of the Muslim world in all but name.
After the Yom Kippur War and the Arab oil blackmail in 1973, the then-European Community (EC) created a structure of Cooperation and Dialogue with the Arab League. The Euro-Arab Dialogue (EAD) began as a French initiative composed of representatives from the EC and Arab League countries. From the outset the EAD was considered as a vast transaction: The EC agreed to support the Arab anti-Israeli policy in exchange for wide commercial agreements. The EAD had a supplementary function: the shifting of Europe into the Arab-Islamic sphere of influence, thus breaking the traditional trans-Atlantic solidarity. The EAD operated at the highest political level, with foreign ministers on both sides, and the presidents of the EC — later the European Union (EU) — with the secretary general of the Arab League. The central body of the Dialogue, the General Commission, was responsible for planning its objectives in the political, cultural, social, economic, and technological domains; it met in private, without summary records, a common practice for European meetings.
Over the years, Euro-Arab collaboration developed at all levels: political, economic, religious and in the transfer of technologies, education, universities, radio, television, press, publishers, and writers unions. This structure became the channel for Arab immigration into Europe, of anti-Americanism, and of Judeophobia, which — linked with a general hatred of the West and its denigration — constituted a pseudo-culture imported from Arab countries. The interpenetration of European and Arab policies determined Europe’s relentless anti-Israel policy and its anti-Americanism. This politico-economic edifice, with minute details, is rooted in a multiform European symbiosis with the Arab world.
— Bat Yeor, 2002
Eric Massa (D-NY), closeted gay married man who sexually harasses Congressional male staffers
The two situations aren’t even in the same ballpark.
The Mark Foley scandal, which broke in late September 2006, centers on soliciting e-mails and sexually suggestive instant messages sent by Mark Foley, a Republican Congressman from Florida, to teenaged boys
The infection Mr. Frum refers to started back in 1994 when the far right loons started taking up with the militia movement, a courtship that lasted right up to the moment of the Oklahoma City Bombing.
That is not in fact the way the leadership of the GOP thinks. The GOP is better than its material, and its leaders are reasonable people with feasible goals. But a mood is growing in the Republican base that despises the higgling and haggling of real politics – preferring freedom from responsibility and the grim satisfactions of radical alienation.
The GOP passed that last signpost on the way to Crazytown right around 2004.
“the comments here from the usual wingnuts confirms that.”
Can you give one concrete example of a “paranoid corner” type comment from a “wingnut” posted on the FrumForum?
So when he SAYS he’s not a socialist, it means nothing.
Yeah – but when he skips over an obvious opportunity to truly nationalize the banking system as a way of rescuing it from the irresponsibility of the 00′s … when he puts federal grant and tax subsidy money out there to incentivize private investors to build windfarms and solar farms and electric transmission, instead of using the DOE and BLM to fund and develop those projects as TVA/BPA type entities … when he really doesn’t press for a public option in healthcare reform, despite clamor from the people who supported him during the election to do so …
it’s pretty clear that if Obama is a socialist, he’s a pretty sucky one.
rbottoms contends: “The two situations aren’t even in the same ballpark.”
Of course they are; you’d prefer them not to be because it’s now one of your closeted queens getting called to the judge’s bar. We get it. Doesn’t the farLeft call that “situational ethics”? “Relativistic politics”? First, we have Patterson strong arming a rape victim and no outcry from the farLeft FF trolls. Now we have a gay commenter defending a democrat scumbag who harasses male staffers? Oh, that’s right, to the farLeft, if SlickWilly can do it in the Oval Office, why can’t a sexually frustrated democrat Congressman. Ummm, right.
“The GOP passed that last signpost on the way to Crazytown right around 2004.”
I’m guessing you’re unaware that generic Congressional match ups now favor the GOP candidate over the democrat by 14 to 17 points nationwide. It seems “Crazytown” is limited to the space between your ears, rbottoms… the rest of us live in the political reality of today.
Maybe you should watch another Children’s Choir singing for the Dear Leader, your Messiah. It might calm you down?
http://beltwayblips.dailyradar.com/video/cult_of_obama_missouri_youths_militaristic_obama_chant/
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/09/burlington_school_under_fire_f.html
GOP leaders knew about Mark Foley for quite awhile before they actually had to face the news publicly – longer than Massa has even been in Congress.
There is no evidence that anyone knew about this prior to a complaint last month.
Meanwhile, Massa’s bio:
He retired from the Navy in 2001 after serving 24 years, including graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy. He served in Beirut, Bosnia and the Persian Gulf.
Be careful about who you call a “closeted queen”. I challenge you to provide evidence that you’ve provided 1/10th of the service to our country that Massa has given.
Although Massa does have a (D) next to his name – so we must remember the GOProud multiplier – just as Rangel’s trips are worse than Cunninghams millions … a single allegation against Massa must be the equivalent of years of page chasing by Foley (and years of complicity by Hastert et al).
A huge part of the middle class who vote who are simply waiting for economic solutions to emmerge from SOME group that can develop, introduce, and execute these policies. More junk like this infers that mudslinging is where all the GOP energy is spent.
The middle majority who elect are no longer moved to loyalty, contributions or even votes just because of the political party itself. If the GOP can not get beyond the political war based on namecalling or vague tagline ideology and move to the presentation of complex and pertinent solutions for improving our economy, the population will re-elect or call for an Independent to step in and this trend will persist well beyond 2012. This powerpoint leak furthers the image that no one is or has the ability to crunch the numbers. The namecalling strategy is slim. DF’s concern is correct.
The GOP appears to completely overlook an appeal to the educated population which has been increasing since at least the 1980′s. Logic will trump fright based appeals to this demograhpic which was lost in 2008. Why would 2010, 2012 register a different response?
Why bother to fund raise without a concrete broad appealing business plan should more be the question. I’m a registered Republican and I know of none but I receive querying surveys. Why not stick to economic basics that require no feedback. Leadership of substance needs to occur. The masses are waiting for the adults who skip the playground and do their homework to appear.
Picking up here and there representation will occur but a required wave of new loyalty and membership will not happen until complex and sound solutions are crafted.
Of course senior GOPs don’t fear the “paranoid fantasies of the small-donor base.” That’s because the senior GOP and the senior Dems are on the same page. Both are under the control of Goldman Sachs and their “funny money” shock troops down on Wall Street. What they fear most is the “small-donor base” in the GOP and the “small-donor base” on the “left” meeting in the same food bank line.
I don’t think you could demonstrate more clearly the corrosive effect of fundraising on the political climate than this leaked document does.
Publicly funded elections, and free airtime to candidates, now.
Thanks for proving my point again, GOProud. You make it too easy!
This is pretty much the expected outcome of the years of GOP fearmongering. It’s pathetic to see a bunch of delusional old and middle aged men playing anti-terrorist crusader. It’s downright frightening to see that an officer of the law is arming them.
Sinz54 wrote:
> As for economics: All of Europe is facing a conflict between the demands of the welfare state
> and the declining number of young people whose taxes would have to pay for it all.
It’s way too early to predict how this will play out in the long run, in ALL Western nations regardless of whether the governing ideology is center-right or center-left. The elderly are healthier than ever, so it seems logical to assume that part-time work after you retire will become increasingly common as long as it’s made economically attractive.
—
Conservatives and libertarians have been predicting the demise of the modern Western welfare state for decades now, yet this particular model continues to be reasonably successful and highly popular with voters even in the United States. Having to pay taxes isn’t fun, but it beats the alternative of having a Third World/19th century social security system based on voluntary charity work.
MARCU$
Balcone,
“it’s pretty clear that if Obama is a socialist, he’s a pretty sucky one.”
No one said he was a competent socialist. I’m not sure if he’s a socialist, a communist or a fascist or some combination, but he’s not a free market capitalist, that’s for sure. But I can no longer rely on this man’s WORD. He LIES. Repeatedly. Brazenly.
Rob Bickhart, the man blamed for the tasteless RNC fundraising presentation exposed by POLITICO, is no stranger to political money controversies.
In 2006, Bickhart found himself on the periphery of an earmarking scandal involving one Pennsylvania Senator and smack in the middle of a fundraising and earmarking scandal involving the other, then-Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who was his boss at the time.
Santorum was blasted for securing a $6 million earmark for a redevelopment project headed by a big donor to both his campaign and charity.
At the time, Bickhart was serving as both finance director for Santorum’s political operation and as executive director of the charity – while both Santorum’s political action committee and the charity were paying to rent space from Bickhart’s suburban Philadelphia company, Capitol Resource Group.
The charity, Operation Good Neighbor, which Santorum founded in 2001, accepted big checks from several top donors to Santorum’s campaign and PAC – both of which Bickhart helped run – according to exposes in the Philadelphia Daily News and The American Prospect by reporter Will Bunch.
Separate stories around the same time also criticized the charity for its high overhead and low donation rate.
Soon after the rash of bad publicity, which prompted a Washington Post editorial asserting that Santorum’s charitable fundraising had a whiff of “extortion,” Bickhart resigned from his position at the charity, but not before it had paid him $75,000 in salary, as well several thousands more in rent, according to Internal Revenue Service filings.
Bickhart continued raising money for Santorum’s political operation, though – even after the Republican lost his 2006 reelection bid.
According to Federal Election Commission filings, Santorum’s PAC paid Capitol Resource Group more than $470,000 in fees and rent from 2003 through September 2009 – months after Bickhart took over at the RNC.
And Capitol Resource Group also cleared more than $300,000 in lobbying fees in 2008 and 2009, according to filings with the Senate Office of Public Records. They show that Bickhart lobbied Congress and the Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of St. Mary’s Medical Center Foundation in the Langhorne, Pa., and Thomas Jefferson University and Temple University hospital, both Philadelphia medical schools.
Bickhart terminated his registrations for all three on June 30, 2009, the same day the RNC paid him a lump $12,600 salary payment – but more than one month after the RNC announced it hired him as its finance director.
He was not registered to lobby in 2006, when the chief of staff for Sen. Arlen Specter, who was then a Republican, nonetheless identified Beckhart as having lobbied Specter for a $2.5 million earmark for a company whose registered lobbyist was the husband of a Specter appropriations staffer.
The RNC has paid Bickhart $130,131 in payroll since June 2009, according to FEC filings. Bickhart appears earn a salary of about $16,360 a month, putting him on pace to pull in a little more than $196,000 per year from the RNC
Wow, this whole post just disappeared from the front page of the site. Stepping on somebody’s toes, perhaps? It was replaced with a laudatory article about Michael Steele. How Orwellian!
balcones says,
“I don’t care about it so much from a perspective of “just and enlightened”, but what will make us a stronger nation in the future.”
That’s because you’re a dedicated control freak who can’t seem to grasp that we don’t need some esoteric construction of statist government directing our healthcare sector.
Steele on Faux Noise. “We love our donors”
Translation “We love our SUCKERS and their dollars”
What about this “hard copy had been left in the hotel hosting the $2,500-a-head retreat”.
Just who left it behind? Is there such a thing as a political mistake, especially once such as this? Last week, didn’t the “GOP” declare it needed to distance itself from identification by its extremes? This looks like step 1.
We might be smaller before reaching a functioning majority but really, change is good.
BlankHead opines: “GOP leaders knew about Mark Foley for quite awhile before they actually had to face the news publicly – longer than Massa has even been in Congress. There is no evidence that anyone knew about this prior to a complaint last month.”
Not true again, BlankHead. Like with your “charges” about Duke Cunningham and trying to compare swift GOP leadership reaction to his misconduct to the painfully slow, half-measured non-response from the Dem leadership to Charlie Rangel’s massive tax fraud, massive campaign ethics violations and criminal conduct… you’re wrong here again.
Rep Alexander (R-La) said he knew about Foley’s indiscretions in the fall 2005. Other GOP representatives have sworn depositions to federal investigators that they learned of Foley’s harassment in early Sept, 2006. Foley was told to resign by attorneys working for House GOP leaders or face sanctions by the Caucus and the House. Foley resigned on Sept 26th. Less than a month after House GOP leaders have sworn under penalty of perjury that they knew nothing of Foley’s emails and indiscretions before that time.
Foley left office. He was replaced by a sleazey Democrat, TimmieTwoBabesMahoney, who paid hush money to hookers and mistresses during his campaign to cover up his extramarital affairs.
Foley was not charged with any violation of federal or state law –a fate that the new Democrat sleaze bag, Eric Massa, will not avoid.
Wow, you are really striking out today on just about every issue you think you can fool FF readers into believing your spin is close to truthful. Facts are stubborn things, BlankHead… and they certainly are NOT your friend or companion this day.
After watching what they did with unemployment benefits,I have no love for either side anymore:
http://americaspeaksink.com/2010/03/unemployment-extensions-politics/
Mr. Frum, you are a very astute and wise man.The radical radio talkers of your party have whipped the masses into a frenzy. Obama is Hitler,Stalin,Mao,Pol Pot.He’s a radical Muslim, a Kenyan, the anti-christ.People in your party will say or do anything to destroy Obama.IMHO there is blood on their hands.Thanks for being a rational voice.
Interesting. This post should hat tip Sid B. …
BlankHead writes at 12: “Yeah – but when he skips over an obvious opportunity to truly nationalize the banking system as a way of rescuing it from the irresponsibility of the 00’s … when he puts federal grant and tax subsidy money out there to incentivize private investors to build windfarms and solar farms and electric transmission, instead of using the DOE and BLM to fund and develop those projects as TVA/BPA type entities … when he really doesn’t press for a public option in healthcare reform, despite clamor from the people who supported him during the election to do so …
it’s pretty clear that if Obama is a socialist, he’s a pretty sucky one.”
The whole Obama should have nationalized the banks line, is it, BlankHead.
Last time I heard that one was from George Soros… the godfather of the farLeft fringe. Maybe we were wrong– you don’t get your talking points from farLeft groups like the DailyKos… they’re not whacked enough for you.
You get ‘em from George Soros. Yeow, that’s scarey.
athensboy // Mar 5, 2010 at 7:15 am
“Mr. Frum, you are a very astute and wise man.The radical radio talkers of your party have whipped the masses into a frenzy. Obama is Hitler,Stalin,Mao,Pol Pot.He’s a radical Muslim, a Kenyan, the anti-christ.People in your party will say or do anything to destroy Obama.IMHO there is blood on their hands.Thanks for being a rational voice.”
I can tell you don’t listen to talk radio. And you are obviously a liar. It’s right there in your post “IMHO” Your opinion isn’t in the least humble, it is grandiose, exaggerated and arrogant, (besides being wrong, that is).
My favorite quote from the movie Patton:
Lt. Col. Charles R. Codman: You know General, sometimes the men don’t know when you’re acting.
Patton: It’s not important for them to know. It’s only important for me to know.
(The GOP machine has evolved into a bunch of Pattons who have lost track of when they’re acting.)
balconesfault: “I don’t care about it so much from a perspective of “just and enlightened”, but what will make us a stronger nation in the future.”
Can you and I agree that neither Canada nor Europen countries are “strong nations” (in the sense of being able to work their will on the world stage), and therefore America should not attempt to emulate them?
If there are any nations that have world-class influence over the planet, they are Japan, India, and China. And guess what: By introducing free markets, by emphasizing sound engineering and rapid industrialization, those nations grew great by emulating America.
And Scooby Doo, If You Come Through, You’re Going To Have Yourself A Scooby Snack! « Around The Sphere // Mar 6, 2010 at 12:51 pm
[...] David Frum at FrumForum Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Scoobie and Shaggy [...]
OpinionEditorial — Blog — The GOP Coalesces Around Crazy With Its 'Freedom From Responsibility' Plank // Mar 8, 2010 at 7:14 am
[...] Republican blogger David Frum calls this “Freedom from responsibility,” but he is being too kind to a party that has worked [...]
This was a great first post to read as a new member of this blog. Just the website I was looking for.