Thank you for the input from the Libertarian kiddy table. I suppose it's much easier to criticize other parties when you never win elections, lol.
On Monday, July 18, 2016 at 9:41:42 PM UTC-4, KeithInTampa wrote: > > Obviously you Michael, (for posting this) and literally clueless Nick > Gillespie aren't watching the Republican National Convention! > > Anyone who watched the two surviving Benghazi soldiers tonight in > Cleveland could not support Hil Clinton unless they are a traitor..... > > On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 7:55 PM, MJ <[email protected] <javascript:>> > wrote: > >> >> >> >> *A party whose rhetoric (if never its actual policies) is all about >> shrinking the size, scope, and spending of government cannot even pretend >> anymore to stand for any of those things. *Jul. 18, 2016 >> >> *The RNC Isn't a Convention, It's a Wake * >> *Cleveland is where the GOP as we know it is going to die. *Nick >> Gillespie >> >> Reason TV, Todd KraininThe Republican Party, conservatives, and certainly >> Donald Trump may not fully understand it yet, but they are meeting in >> Cleveland not to chart the future of the GOP but to host its funeral. >> >> The Republican Party and the larger conservative movement for which it >> has stood since the days of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan is dead but >> not yet buried. A party whose rhetoric (if never its actual policies) is >> all about shrinking the size, scope, and spending of government cannot even >> pretend anymore to stand for any of those things. As important, it hasn't >> been serious about governing for a very long time. Remember just how >> terrible and world-ending they said Obamacare was back in 2009 and 2010? >> They weren't wrong and yet it took the Republicans, despite holding >> congressional power for most of the 21st century, until June of this year >> to roll out an actual alternative that certainly wasn't worth the wait >> <http://reason.com/blog/2016/06/28/the-gops-new-health-care-plan-shows-that> >> . >> >> Before whatever Trumpian display of narcissism, delusion, and disdain for >> actual knowledge of policy and process clicks into high gear in Cleveland >> over the next few days, it's worth taking stock of what the Republican >> Party has become. Trump is not the cause of its collapse but an effect of >> utter failure of Republicans to deliver even partly on their promises over >> the past several decades. Republicans and conservatives have officially >> elevated atavistic tribal allegiances to the most important place possible >> in their causes. While Trump famously and disturbingly called out Mexicans >> at the start of his speech announcing his candidacy last year, his >> dyed-in-the-wool conserative critics actually attacked him for not *being >> tough enough* on immigration. National Review, in its house editorial >> laying out the case against Trump, didn't conjure the ghosts of Ronald >> Reagan and George HW Bush in 1980 arguing over who would do more to >> legalize and help illegals gain a legitimate place in our country >> <http://reason.com/blog/2015/08/20/the-gops-35-year-devolution-on-immigrati>, >> >> they said the Trump's plan to remove 11 or 12 million people from the >> country was a "poorly designed amnesty" plan >> <http://reason.com/blog/2016/01/25/pity-national-review-conservatives-for-d> >> . >> >> Let's leave aside for the moment that by all accounts illegal immigration >> into the United States by Mexicans country peaked in 2007 >> <http://www.pewhispanic.org/2014/11/18/unauthorized-immigrant-totals-rise-in-7-states-fall-in-14/ph_2014-11-18_unauthorized-immigration-05/>. >> >> Should a political party be taken seriously when fears about people >> choosing to come here to work and live is among its top concerns >> (especially since immigrants, legal and otherwise, commit less crime >> <http://reason.com/reasontv/2015/01/06/more-immigration> than natives)? >> Immigration isn't simply part of America, it *is* America, which >> explains why fully two-thirds of us >> <http://reason.com/blog/2015/08/12/two-thirds-of-americans-favor-citizenshi> >> (including at least 50 percent of Republicans) want to create some pathway >> to legal status for illegals. Since then, of course, Trump and Republicans >> have burnished their credentials as xenophobes by conflating religion and >> race, and declaring that refugees from the same Middle East that >> conservative and Republican policymakers have done so much to destroy and >> wreak havoc on should not be allowed to enter the United States. Here too >> the Republican brain trust (such as it is) is divided against itself, as >> it's chided Trump for not being harsh enough or war-like enough or >> personally dedicated to a Weekly Standard-style foreign policy of military >> aggression. >> >> When it comes to social issues, the Republican Party has spent the past >> several decades warring against abortion (even as its incidence has >> declined, along with declines in rates of youth sex and unwanted >> pregnancies >> <http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-abortion-rate-is-falling-because-fewer-women-are-getting-pregnant/> >> >> too) and "homosexual agenda" and pimping for the drug war that has managed >> to turn the United States into the world's largest jailer nation. Even as >> Americans of all stripes are rethinking the stupidity of putting more and >> more people in jail, the party's vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence >> told Indiana residents this year in his State of the State Address that he >> was " leaning into the drug war >> <http://reason.com/blog/2016/07/12/meet-mike-pence-possible-donald-trump-vi>" >> >> and increasing mandatory minimums for various drug-related activity. Being >> anti-abortion and scared of gays and in favor of the drug war are central >> to the conservative movement. These are not the concerns of a party with a >> future. They are the issues of a party that is terrified of a present that >> has escaped its understanding. Forget about thinking about the future. The >> Republican Party with its ritual incantation of the traditional family and >> normalcy or whatever, isn't even living in the present any more. >> >> When it comes to economic policy, Trump (like Hillary Clinton, to be >> sure) stands adamantly against the free-er trade that is articulated in >> trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the North American >> Free Trade Agreement. Neither of these things is perfect but we can say >> with certainty that NAFTA, which created 25 million net jobs in the 15 >> years after it passed, was better than the status quo it replaced. What are >> non-Trump conservatives positing in the place of TPP? Nothing really, other >> than shifting the conversation to how China must be hemmed in a rising >> global economic and military power. >> >> The greatest failure of the Republican Party in recent memory was the >> Bush presidency <http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123275512887811775> which >> was perpetrated with virtually total support of a Republican Congress and >> the conservative commentariat at the time. Bush presided over a 50 percent >> increase in federal spending, mired the country in two wars that were >> failures both in conception and prosecution, increased major regulatory >> structures and thenas the door was hitting his ass on the way outbailed >> out the financial industry and the auto industry, claiming nonsensically >> that the only way to save capitalism was to embrace socialism. Channeling >> the "destroy the village in order to save it" logic of the war he worked so >> hard to avoid fighting in, Bush actually said, " I've abandoned >> free-market principles to save the free-market system >> <http://reason.com/blog/2008/12/16/ive-abandoned-free-market-prin>." The >> 2008 GOP presidential nominee, John McCain, signed TARP and all the other >> related legislation, as did his Democratic rival, Barack Obama. Those of us >> who opposed bank bailoutslibertarians mostly, and some lefties toowere >> called nihilistic for wanting to business to rise and fall on their >> performance in the market. The conservative-Republican position was in >> favor of bailouts, with pundits such as National Review editor Rich Lowry >> and the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal defending Bush's >> incoherent position. In The New York Times, David Brooks said the >> congressmen who initially voted down TARP were staging a "revolt of the >> nihilists." >> <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/opinion/30brooks.html?_r=0> >> >> But after eight years of a supposedly conservative Republican government >> that increased spending on everything by 50 percent in real dollars, >> creating whole new entitlements such as free or cheap drugs even for >> wealthy seniors, consolidated federal control of education funding via No >> Child Left Behind, pushed a full-employment act for accountants known as >> Sarbanes-Oxley, an energy bill that lead to the phase-out of incandescent >> lightbulbs <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pNKz7iOaLE>, created a new >> cabinet agency and, perhaps most devastatingly, entered willingly not just >> into failed military interventions but secretly built a surveillance state >> anathema to the history and ethos of our country. >> >> So forget Trump burning the mother down this week. The GOP has been in >> ashes for most of the 21st century because it has never faced up to just >> how awful it behaved when it had power. It was the failure and the fraud of >> the Bush years that destroyed the GOP and the broader conservative movement >> by making it impossible to reconcile the vast difference between their >> generic rhetoric about smaller government and individual freedom on the one >> hand and the actual actions of a GOP majority on the other. >> >> In the years since Bush retreated from public life and started painting >> David Hockney-style bathroom art >> <http://www.chron.com/life/article/Which-of-George-W-Bush-s-paintings-is-your-5885691.php#photo-4364385>, >> >> conservatives have not seriously grappled with what the GOP did the last >> time it controlled the federal government. Rather than look inward, confess >> their sins, and work for atonement with the American people, they instead >> sounded the alarms about Barack Obama and the creeping socialism that >> ultimately was not so different from what they themselves had recently >> signed off on. Rather than face up to the party's complete abdication of >> serious reflection and engagement with an increasingly libertarian >> sensibility growing in America that they might contribute to, it was more >> than enough to say that Obamacare would gut Medicare instead of, you know, >> actually pushing through any sort of health care reform that would actually >> allow markets to develop and flourish. It was more important to claim the >> Obama and the Democrats weren't war-like enough, even as they continued the >> ruinous foreign policy created under Bush. It was enough to stamp their >> feet about the rise of post-gender and post-sexual-orinetation America and >> instead have moral lepers like Newt Gingrich talk about the sanctity of >> traditional marriage. >> >> The lack of focus and seriousness in the Republican Party is what created >> the conditions for Donald Trump to risein a crowd of 17 candidates, >> including more than a few who were serious people and might have made >> excellent presidents. To be sure, the clown show that is now upon usthe >> Republican Party has nominated a man to be president who has absolutely >> zero experience in public office!will accelerate the demise of today's >> Republican Party. So will his plan to increase spending as a percentage of >> GDP from a historically high 22.1 percent to 22.5 percent over the next >> decade (for contrast, Hillary Clinton wants to raise it only a little more >> than Trump, to 22.7 percent). Here we are, nearly 20 years into a century >> in which fewer Americans have confidence in major institutions than ever >> and want the government to do less and spend less >> <http://reason.com/blog/2015/05/22/the-libertarian-moment-is-everywhere-aro>. >> >> And the Republican nomineechanneling the most recent Republican president >> and his own partywants to jack up spending even more and plainly use the >> government to bully any individuals and groups that bug him. This, in a >> country where according to Gallup >> <http://reason.com/blog/2016/03/08/the-libertarian-moment-is-so-over-that-l>, >> >> socially tolerant and fiscally responsible libertarians comprise the >> single-largest ideological group in the country, bigger than conservatives, >> liberals, and populists. Good luck with all that, GOP. >> >> There are good reasons to believe that whatever ultimately replaces this >> version of the Republican Party may well be better, especially if the GOP >> channels the energy and appeal and future orientation of its >> libertarian-leaning members such as Rand Paul, Jeff Flake, Mike Lee, Thomas >> Massie, Justin Amash, and a few others. But until conservatives and >> Republicans admit that they have brought this on themselves through their >> unwillingness to propose policies that match the libertarian rhetoric they >> mumble like bored altar boys saying the Rosarynothing will stir in the >> ashes, either here in Cleveland or beyond. >> >> http://reason.com/blog/2016/07/18/the-rnc-isnt-a-convention-its-a-wake >> >> -- >> -- >> Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. >> For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum >> >> * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ >> * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. >> * Read the latest breaking news, and more. >> >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "PoliticalForum" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected] <javascript:>. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
