RSS Feed MenuMy column in the current issue of The Week argues that you cannot rebuild a center-right coalition without the center. Conclusion:
I’ve never heard anyone derided as a “Republican In Name Only” for opposing the closing of redundant military bases, or for supporting Medicaid reimbursement formulas that favor the South and West at the expense of the Northeast and California, or for favoring lavish FEMA reconstruction projects after hurricanes and tornadoes. Why not apply equal latitude to other regional concerns?
Yes, regional concerns can be avenues to waste. We need budget hawks from every region. But there has to be some play in the system, a little more flexibility in determining which issues entail fundamental principle and which are open to normal politics.
That’s how we build national coalitions and national parties. Right now, I fear, the Republican mood is not conducive to party building. It’s a mandate for party shrinkage. Our current demand, to paraphrase P.G. Wodehouse, is for “fewer and better Republicans.” Better is always nice. But in democratic politics, quality is no substitute for quantity.
Chrisc23 // May 1, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Chris Christie is the front runner for the GOP in New Jersey and he is a great guy. Anyone who successfully prosecutes our slugs here in New Jersey deserves to be elected governor. I’ve met him. He is a great man. I’ve also met Jon Corzine and while he does have some good ideas to bring NJ around, his fellow Democrats ruin him. However I will still vote against Jon Corzine and it has to do with his accident a few years ago. Not wearing a seat belt was bad enough, but allowing his driver to speed at least 91mph on the Garden State Parkway in a 55/65 mph zone is ridiculous. What was his “emergency”? To rush to a meeting between Don Imus and the Rutgers basketball team. And this was totally covered up. His self serving interests will cost him my vote and I gurantee many others. What if my family was hit by his motorcade? I travel the Garden State Parkway and report people like him and his driver. Of course it will be tough because us Republicans cannot simply cut a multi million dollar check from our personal account to finance our campaign like Corzine will. And I urge you to travel the roads and you will see that money in NJ is mismanaged. Just take a look at the Xanadu project in the Meadowlands. The Democrats are awful and they MUST be replaced.
dragonlady // May 1, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Chekote, I like Michael Steele–I want him to succeed. But he has had a series of unfortunate moments with the Rush Limbaugh business, backtracking on abortion, etc., knives or not.
dragonlady // May 1, 2009 at 8:11 pm
sinz54, I didn’t say global warming wasn’t happening. I was disputing the notion that man is a big cause of it. There are many respectable scientists that disagree with the man-caused global warming hypothesis. But as far as your other ideas on turning towards clean energy, I’m all for that as long as we’re not using govt to to heavily distort the marketplace to chose winners/losers.
barker13 // May 1, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Re: Sinz54; 12:35 PM –”barker: Your position on abortion is one I would like, but it’s not going to sell with nearly half the country.”Sinz. Any reason you refuse to address me as “Bill?” I’d prefer it. Thanks.Glad to hear you “like” my position. As to “selling” it… that’s the point.You look at a poll and say “oh, well…”I look at a poll and first deconstruct it and next start thinking about how to influence the results not so much as they apply to polling data, but as to real life.In other words, Sinz, even if I believe the poll data is not only accurate in the sense of technically accurate… the methodology and so forth… this doesn’t mean there’s no way to move the opinions of people so that one poll “snapshot” is in time made a moot point because the polls/opinions have shifted.(*SHRUG*)Anyway… forgetting the hypothetical future and what I believe can be accomplished by education… marketing if you will.. as to your poll data…(*SHRUG*)Don’t take it too seriously. I say that not because I don’t want to believe it, but because I know (ok, I can make a pretty damn accurate guess) from both academic and professional experience that the pollsters weren’t gathering enough specific defined data (via asking the right questions and probing in order to really understand what individual respondents mean by their answers) to get the sophisticated reading you’d need in order to really trust the polling results in the sense that you could have confidence they were “real” in the sense of unshakable, immovable even in the short to mid term.”As you can see, public opinion is all over the map on this issue.”Yes… it seems that way – and in a sense it is – but this is in line with my insistence (ok, my strong belief) that there’s plenty of room to work with here if the goal is winning partisan support.”Always legal: 22%.”Case in point. No way in hell do I believe that in the sense that this is a firm 22%. Do you REALLY believe that 22% of Americans would support partial birth abortion if “forced” to understand exactly what it is? Heck… same for abortion past 26 weeks or so.”Always illegal: 18%.”This I tend to take at closer to face value because of the religious (doctrinaire) component to the issue.”Your compromise won’t sell with them.”So you say. (*SMILE*) Obviously I disagree.”If you proposed it on a talk-show, for example, you would be attacked by *both* NARAL and Focus on the Family.”Sinz. The average American is neither a member or active booster of either NARAL nor FOTF. (*SHRUG*)Anyway, Sinz.. I’ll make you a deal:I’ll keep an open mind that you’re right and I’m wrong.You continue to think I’m wrong but HOPE I’m right!(*WINK*)BILL
barker13 // May 1, 2009 at 8:20 pm
choccity20051:41 PMchoccity20051:55 PMdanbmil994:33 PMdanbmil994:35 PM(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)(*THUMBS UP*)BILL
choccity2005 // May 2, 2009 at 1:48 pm
danbmil99 : I totally agree that the zealots on both sides of the aisle are destroying this country.I mean…..Abstinence is what i teach my children while they are young,but when they reach 13-16 and beyond i will make the transition to letting them know about the dangers and the pleasures of sex.Honesty must be shown in order to give children a full array of ideas on how to conduct themselves.The pleasure of sex should be as god made it ,between two people(preferably married)who love each other.A man does not love you if he won’t commit to you.that’s what i will tell them.then i will show them video tapes of children who have gotten pregnant early and the struggles they go through.Then show them film of the diseases,the hiv and aids patients.The devastation of finding out these thinks.When they are in the middle teens it is my DUTY to arm my children with all the knowledge they need to make the right deisions.
choccity2005 // May 2, 2009 at 2:07 pm
ALL conservs must ….MUST,answer the abortion question this way.It should be up to the states to decide.If churches want to protest against it,then so be it.A politician(conservative)should not be in the buisness of promoting one side or the other in this heated debate.the same with gay marriage.All conservs should be for civil unions even if they are against it.The answer should be it is a state’s right.If mississppi wants no gay marriage and vermont does,i support thier decision.All conservs should be for the promotion of sex ed…..in the teenage years.13 and up…..with parents having the right to have thier kids opt out of the class.They should promote extensively on college campuses condoms,birth control,morning after pills…etc.The fact that religious pharmacists won’t sell these things and conservs won’t promote it is ludicrous.There is nothing in the bible about forcing religion down peoples throats.We cannot act like b/c someone wants to live thier life another way we have to be against them.Although i feel abortions should be illegal,until we have the majority on the supreme court it will not HAPPEN!!Why keep fighting something that won’t happen yet.I would rather see abortions reduced dramatically…..then to keep up this charade that people don’t have sex.people who are not religious have sex,they have kids out of wedlock and they get stds and aids…..although abstinence is the best way to live we all fall short.So the best thing is to promote health,and responsibility.Plus i’m tired of paying taxes to support single mothers who keep making bad decisions.it is also proven that 60 percent of criminals in prison come from single mother homes.
danbmil99 // May 3, 2009 at 2:29 pm
just for the record — “people who are not religious have sex,they have kids out of wedlock and they get stds and aids…”So do religious people. Lots of them. Just look at what goes on in Mexico. I may get crap for this, but the fact that Latinos are mostly Catholic has everything to do with the size of their families and how fast they are growing as a demographic. I’m not saying it isn’t their right to do as they please, but when people have kids without any means of support, those kids become my responsibility as a taxpayer. That gives me at least some right to comment on the behavior, and yes, even the belief system that promotes that behavior. And when religious folk try to use my taxpayer dollars to promulgate this irresponsible (by my lights) set of values, and call them the values this country was founded on (wrong), well that gets me riled up.
choccity2005 // May 3, 2009 at 6:28 pm
danbmil99:I totally agree with you.Of course religious people have sex,stds and get aids.When i made that statement it was b/c religious people act like it’s not happening.The pope doesn’t want africans to use condoms?They want abstinence! I would love thier to be a world where everyone practiced abstinence…there would be no aids,no STDs,No herpes,No teenage un wed mothers,The prison system would be less crowded…Society itself would benefit from it.NO ABORTIONS!! That is the fact…..that’s why i hold to those principles of abstinence for the youth.But this society,you have sex EVERYWHERE.newspapers,mags,billboards,tv,movie,songs,commercials,internet…it is unavoidable.So The policy must change with the times.We can’t govern what people do,We can only live our life with priciples and hope that people see it and live thier lives as such.WE do have a responsblity as legislators(if i were one)to protect the public from themselves and legislate for the greater good.That’s why politicians have to put in drunk driver legislation and promote sex ed,condom use,birth control,Which will in affect reduce abortions and reduce the burden on taxpayers when dealing with teenage mothers.