The GOP: Not a Club for Christians - Jonah Goldberg - National Review Online

(Jonah Goldberg)

(NRO) In the scramble to make the GOP more diverse, a lot of people are looking at Asian Americans, who many believe are a natural constituency for the party. I would love it if Asian Americans converted en masse to the Republican party, but the challenge for Republicans is harder than many appreciate.

President Obama did spectacularly well with Asian Americans, garnering nearly three-quarters of their vote. This runs counter to a lot of conventional wisdom on both the left and the right. On average, family income is higher and poverty is lower among Asian Americans than among non-Latino whites. Entrepreneurship, family cohesion, and traditional values all run strong among Asian Americans, and reliance on government runs weak.
And yet Asian Americans — now the fastest-growing minority in America — are rapidly becoming a core constituency of the Democratic party.
I’ve joked for years with my Indian-American relatives and friends that they are the new Jews because their parents bury them in guilt and overeducate them. It turns out it doesn’t end there. Sociologist Milton Himmelfarb observed that “Jews earn like Episcopalians and vote like Puerto Ricans.” Well, Indian Americans earn like Jews and vote like Jews.
And maybe for similar reasons. The comparison to Jews is instructive. Perhaps the most common explanation for the GOP’s problem with Asian Americans is the party’s pronounced embrace of Christianity, which turns off many Jews as well.
According to Pew studies, barely a third of Chinese Americans are Christian, and less than a fifth of Indian Americans are.
“Whenever a Gujarati or Sikh businessman comes to a Republican event, it begins with an appeal to Jesus Christ,” conservative writer Dinesh D’Souza recently told The New York Times Magazine. “While the Democrats are really good at making the outsider feel at home, the Republicans make little or no effort.”
My friend and colleague Ramesh Ponnuru, an Indian American and devout Catholic, says the GOP has a problem with seeming like a “club for Christians.”
That rings true to me. I’ve attended dozens of conservative events where, as the speaker, I was, in effect, the guest of honor, and yet the opening invocation made no account of the fact that the guest of honor wasn’t a Christian. I’ve never taken offense, but I can imagine how it might seem to someone who felt like he was even less a part of the club.
A few years ago, Robert Putnam, a liberal sociologist, reported this finding: As racial and ethnic diversity increases, social trust and cohesion plummets. “Trust (even of one’s own race) is lower, altruism and community cooperation rarer, friends fewer,” Putnam found. “People living in ethnically diverse settings appear to ‘hunker down’ — that is, to pull in like a turtle.”
The villain isn’t racism or bigotry or anything so simple. The phenomenon is much more complex. Indeed, it’s not clear why this happens, but it’s clear that it does. Economic inequality and cultural attitudes do not matter much. “Americans raised in the 1970s,” Putnam writes, “seem fully as unnerved by diversity as those raised in the 1920s.”
Part of the explanation stems from the fact that people with shared experiences and cultures draw strength from working together, whereas with strangers, language often becomes guarded, intentions questioned.
The GOP is not a Christian club, but there’s no disputing that Christianity is a major source of strength and inspiration for many Republican activists. This is nothing new and, generally speaking, there’s nothing wrong with this. The abolitionist, progressive, and civil-rights movements were all significantly powered by Christian faith.
As someone who’s long argued for theological pluralism and moral consensus on the right, I think it’s nuts for the GOP not to do better with Asian Americans, particularly given how little religion has to do with the policy priorities of the day.
Twenty years ago, conservatives started referring to Judeo-Christian values in an effort to be more inclusive. The challenge now is to figure out how to talk in a way that doesn’t cause decent and dedicated Christians to pull in like a turtle, while also appealing to non-Judeo-Christians and the nonreligious. That’ll be hard, requiring more than name-dropping Confucius or Krishna.
— Jonah Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Online and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. You can write to him by e-mail at JonahsColumn@aol.com, or via Twitter @JonahNRO. © 2012 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

Winning the Demographic War and the Culture War

There is no better outcome that the Democrats could have hoped for than the demographic despair that has overtaken some sections of the conservative movement. While the Republican establishment prepares to accept Obama as the new FDR, the grass roots feels alienated and willing to write off the whole country.

Demographics is a serious issue, but it's not a done deal either. Countries are not static. America was created because a large number of Europeans moved to a place that had formerly been populated by the descendants of Siberian refugees crossing over the Bering Strait. I have often said that demographics kind is destiny, but it's a mathematical destiny. Change the numbers and you change the destiny.
Taking back America demographically is a matter of having enough children within a cultural structure that passes down the values of adults to the children, while focusing on limiting immigration as much as possible. This isn't an impossible task.
The Amish population doubles every 20 years and they retain the majority of their children within their communities despite the obvious appeals of the outside world. There are 250,000 Amish in the United States and Canada now. By 2040 there will be over a million of them.
Utah has the highest fertility rate in the country and 9 out of 10 children are born to married couples. The Mormon Church is slowing down its expansion, and is having some retention and birth rate issues, perhaps due to its liberalization and growing investment in overseas missionary work, but its numbers are still a reminder of what is possible.
Demographics can be deceptive, because what we are really talking about are the economic and cultural factors that dissuade large family sizes and that alienate children from the values of their ancestors. What we are really talking about is a clash between progressives and traditionalists.
As an Orthodox Jew, I represent a group that is at the front lines of the clash. In the last century and a half, Jewish progressives have done everything possible to destroy Jewish religion, values and even nationhood. For half that time they were enormously successful, wreaking havoc across entire communities, using state power to force parents into their own schools, and building a literary and cultural infrastructure aimed at ridiculing and destroying traditional values.
They are still at it today, and their tactics and propaganda are as bad as they ever were, but they also losing. While the progressives embrace the culture of abortion and gay rights, the traditionalists have children. Within a decade, a majority of New York Jews will be traditionalist and the impact of that is already being felt in elections. The progressives have ramped up their usual hate campaigns against Orthodox Jews, which is why you see so many negative stories in the media, but the demographics of their progressive culture doom them to extinction.
This same outcome would have taken place nationally in the clash between American traditionalists and progressives, if not for the ace in the hole of immigration. And yet immigration is only half the picture. The bigger half of the picture is culture.
Would the Amish be who they are if in between plow breaks they were watching Reality TV and getting lessons on liberal values? Instead the Amish segregated themselves from the culture and have thrived because of it. And that can be done without completely abandoning technology as a whole.
Orthodox Jews built a cultural infrastructure to convey their values to our children while cutting them off, as much as possible, from the cultural programming of progressives. The largest expense of Orthodox Jewish parents and the community as a whole is on the infrastructure of private schools that teach traditional values to their children. An Orthodox Jewish community is defined by its schools and its best and brightest go into Chinuch or Education.
But schools aren't enough. Orthodox Jews raise their children on their own books and their own music. Everything that children are exposed to from the youngest ages is supposed to come from within their own culture to such an extent that when Oprah visited a Chassidic family they had no idea who she was, or who Mickey Mouse and Beyonce were. Obviously this isn't universal and the degree of exposure varies, but retention rates and birth rates are highest among those with the lowest levels of progressive cultural exposure.
Modern Orthodox Jews, a group of which I am, obviously, a member, have the highest levels of cultural exposure, the lowest birth rates and the highest susceptibility to progressive views. The Modern Orthodox approach was viable in 1950s America where the outside culture was healthy, but I have come to question its survival value in an era where the culture is decaying and hostile to any form of traditional family values. Chassidic Jews, with the lowest rates of cultural exposure also have the highest birth rates and, unlike Modern Orthodox Jews, I have yet to meet a single liberal Chassid.

So is cultural secession the solution? For traditional Jews it might be, but for traditionalists as a whole, who have the demographic reach to turn the national numbers around, it can be a temporary solution until the numbers and the political power that goes with them are theirs. As with Orthodox Jews, there is a Christian culture industry, but it isn't enough to have positive messages as an alternative, it's equally important to cut out as many negative messages as possible.
Above all else, education is the future. Traditionalists who fail to understand this will allow the educational system and the entertainment industry to transform their children into progressives. Progressives know that control of the educational system means control of the future. Without the educational system and immigration, progressives are doomed to be cafe radicals. With them, they can count the generations until they control everything.
The progressives have few children of their own. Your children are their children. If they can corrupt your children, then they have a future. If they cannot, then they will go off and die in a corner. The progressives have three strengths, class warfare, cultural programming and immigration. America had prosperity that negated class warfare, but it neglected to safeguard its culture from the left and did not consider the consequences of Third World immigration. With their political and culture power, the left destroyed prosperity and now with all three cards in their hand, the progressives are rising high.
But too many conservatives have despaired because they have fallen prey to the myth of a perfect America that once was and can never be again. But America was never perfect, like every person, it was a work in progress. It was a struggle between ideas and ideologies and that struggle did not end because the progressives have worked and plotted to get this far. Defeating them is a matter of exploiting their weaknesses and firming up our strengths.
Most of the Republican Party remains unwilling to acknowledge that this is a cultural war. And it is. Culture is one of the things that the left is good at. It's an easy and profitable way for the left to pursue its ends. And it's fun. But it only works with captive audiences.
The left's cultural infrastructure is wired to feed its programming to an audience that sits there waiting to receive it and is willing to even pay top dollar for the privilege. Like every Iago, it has no idea what to do if Othello not only doesn't pay for the privilege of going to its schools and movies, but actively tunes it out and forms a community that makes its own entertainment and education.
Forget physical secession for the moment and think cultural secession. Physical secession, even if it were achieved, would do little good without putting cultural secession first. And if you cannot manage cultural secession, then how will you ever achieve physical secession?
Cultural secession means cutting away the educational and entertainment culture of the left out of your home. It means creating your own alternative education and entertainment and grouping in communities that act as a support structure for traditional values. Is it easy? No. It involves sacrifice. But groups such as the Amish and Orthodox Jews have done it and have thrived doing it.
Some wars are settled by guns, but cultural wars are settled by the schoolbook and the movie. They are settled by the family.
The progressive agenda is to destroy the family, to undermine it, ridicule it, economically disadvantage it and burden it until it falls apart and is replaced by the Big Brother of the State. The traditional agenda is to maintain the family and pass along traditional values across the generations. That is what this cultural war is really about; whether the family or the state will the defining unit of human experience.
The progressives are out to break the family, to slice it up in a thousand ways from the ghetto to the Castro. Everything they do is aimed at eliminating any rival to the state. The traditionalist goal has to be to form communities that are capable of preserving the family despite the power of the state. This is not easy and will become harder as time goes on. But it is what has to be done to reclaim the country.

Raising children within a traditional community is a revolutionary activity. It is an act of cultural and demographic defiance against the progressive state. The traditional community is becoming the new underground of progressive countries. It is the place where parents pass on subversive ideas to their children and teach them to pass on those same subversive ideas to their children.
Progressives want every child to grow up to be a slave of the state, thinking the same empty thoughts, laughing at the same things and trotting tamely along to the slaughterhouse. What they fear most is a future where the majority of children do not worship the state, do not accept their premises or parrot their propaganda. What they fear most is a demographic revolution.
Can American traditionalists quadruple their numbers in 40 years the way that the Amish will? Doing that will require taking lessons from the Amish, from Orthodox Jews and from other traditionalist groups that have found ways to build tight knit communities that protect their values and preserve their children. Building those structures is the hardest part. But once the structures are there, then the future is yours.

via sultanknish.blogspot.com

Has the UK's New Conservative Party Ceased to Exist?

(A. Millar) Former shadow Home Secretary David Davis said last week that the Conservative Party's "conservatism" has been "significantly diluted" by its alliance with the country's third party, the Liberal Democrats.
In power just over a year, the Conservative-LibDem coalition Government has more or less continued the policies of the much-detested former Labour Government. It is not worse, perhaps; it is simply that there has been no discernable positive change. Yet, to blame the LibDems is merely to shift the blame. The Conservatives dominate the coalition. They would also have won a historic number of seats in Parliament had they discussed the substantive issues, and promised essentially conservative measures, during the election campaign.
A coalition was necessary only because, as far as possible, the big issues – Islamism, immigration, the European Union – were kept off the table, and because David Cameron had already entrenched the worst aspects of political correctness in the party ideology and its hierarchy. Notably, the "army" of community organizers he promised to create if he were elected Prime Minster was credited to the work of Marxist Revolutionary, Saul Alinsky.
It is true, of course, that during the election campaign of early 2010, David Cameron – now the UK Prime Minister – was forced, finally, to address the issue of immigration. He promised to cut it dramatically, from several hundred thousand a year to "tens of thousands." Since the election, however, immigration has risen 21%. No less significant, while 400,000 new jobs have been created in the UK, 87% - that is to say, nearly nine out of ten – have gone to immigrants. The proportion is even higher than under the previous New Labour Government. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that Britain saw the highest rise in unemployment claims in two years this May, 2011.
Uncontrolled immigration has created serious problems that will affect Britain in the short and long term. In 2006, Rear Admiral Chris Parry claimed that mass immigration could ultimately lead to a situation for Britain comparable to "the 5th century Roman empire facing the Goths and the Vandals." Uncontrolled immigration, he predicted, would mean a "reverse colonization" of European states, with those from other countries using the internet and cheap flights to retain a distinct identity and an allegiance to their own group. "When you combine the lower prospects for communal life with macho youth and economic deprivation you tend to get trouble, typified by gangs and organized criminal activity," Parry observed. "When one thinks of 20,000 so-called jihadists currently fly-papered in Iraq, one shudders to think where they might go next."
Gang culture and immigration have been back in the news in recent weeks. Documents recently published by Wikileaks show that in Sweden, "immigrants or Individuals with at least one immigrant parent perpetrated about 45 percent of all crimes during the period 1997-2001. In regard to the most serious felonies - murder, manslaughter, assault and rape - the percentage was even higher."
According to a study, funded by the University of Nottingham's Integrating Global Society group, "following the [recent] riots [in England] people felt more threatened in specifically two ways. First, people were more likely to feel that their safety was threatened, i.e. they were more fearful of increasing violence and vandalism in their neighbourhood. Second, they were more likely to feel that wider British culture and society was under threat, i.e. they were more fearful that British culture is threatened."
From video footage and photographs, the perpetrators, sadly, seemed to be almost exclusively Black. Areas were also "defended" by groups that were of one ethnicity and/or religion – Turkish and Middle Eastern Muslims, Sikhs, and Whites. If this was not an illustration of how the country could split along racial and religious lines at some future point, with the potential for inter-group conflict, then one wonders what might be.
It is not only on immigration that the Conservative Party appears not to be in any way conservative.
Under Prime Minister Cameron, the party has abandoned its long-standing support of Israel, and has instead become one of its louder critics. Notably, Cameron himself stood on stage in 2010 with his Turkish counterpart, in Ankara, and denounced Israel for turning Gaza into a "prison camp," even though it has been wholly autonomous for over five years, ever since the Israelis forcibly removed their own citizens from it -- and for preventing a weapons-loaded flotilla from reaching Gaza.
This only one area in which the Conservatives appear to have relinquished their conservatism to the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), whose leader, Nigel Farage, had earlier publicly attacked Israel-bashing and anti-Semitism.
Perhaps Cameron is a pacifist. While the tax payer-funded, but anti-British, politically correct and appallingly tendentious BBC television and radio broadcasts operate on an annual budget of more than $4 billion annually, both the armed forces and the police are facing huge budget cuts, introduced by the coalition Government. The country's aircraft carriers are likely to be scrapped, leaving the Falkland Islands vulnerable to potential Argentine aggression again; and thousands of troops will also be made redundant. Similarly, large cuts in the police force ironically came in the aftermath of the worst rioting Britain has ever seen, and which, in many areas, the police seemed unable to control.
Then there is the questionable alliance with the European Union. In 2007, Cameron wrote an article for The Sun newspaper, giving a "cast-iron guarantee: If I become PM a Conservative government, we will hold a referendum on any EU treaty that emerges from these negotiations." Cameron's signature was even printed along with his article, giving it the look and feel of a contract. Having become Prime Minister, however, Cameron has reneged. There will be no referendum on membership of the EU, or any further relinquishing of British sovereignty, so long as the word "treaty" can be avoided – which it will be.
There are also significant issues relating to "Englishness" and devolution. In Scotland's Parliament, dominated by the Scottish National Party and Labour, the Conservative Party barely exists, and there has been much talk of the Scottish Conservatives disbanding and forming a new center-Right Party for Scotland which would be allied to the Conservative Party elsewhere. If the Scottish Conservative Party does fold, it will add even more weight to calls from Scotland for the nation to leave the United Kingdom.
England has also seen a rise in nationalism in the last decade, due to institutional hostility, and discrimination against the English. Unlike other regions of the UK, England does not have its own Parliament, and English taxpayers have been forced to subsidize Scotland to keep the issue of independence off the table.
****After more than a year in power, the verdict on the Conservative Party is damning. For those who support Israel; who believe the UK should withdraw from the EU; who believe in law and order and strong military deterrence; who want to see immigration cut and the English treated fairly, there is simply no possibility of supporting the party as it currently exists under David Cameron.
This is something that the United Kingdom Party's leader, Nigel Farage, understands. He believes that his party will not only pick up the protest vote (which has previously gone in large part to the LibDems), but will continue to pick up more Conservative votes, as the party's faithful realize that they have elected merely a version of New Labour.
In his speech at UKIP's recent annual conference, Farage railed against Cameron, the Conservatives, and the political class as a whole, which he aptly described as being "so hidebound by the European Union and political correctness that they simply refuse to stand up for the nation." Among UKIP's most noteworthy positions, Farage suggested that it was now the party of the working class. There had, he said, been a "betrayal of working class people in this country by [the] Labour [Party] by pursuing an open door immigration policy depriving British workers of jobs." Clearly, the situation has only become worse under the Conservative-dominated coalition Government.
While Farage announced that UKIP will campaign for an English Parliament, he also suggested that the issue was bigger than that. "There is a growing feeling in England – and certainly I feel it," said Farage at the conference, "that our leaders are ashamed of the very word 'England'. We are discouraged from describing ourselves as English. Our leaders seem to reel in horror at the idea of [the flag of England,] the cross of St. George."
Neither of these positions seems to be on UKIP's natural ground. Like the Conservative Party, UKIP has a largely middle class base. Interest in England specifically also appears myopic for an anti-EU party with "United Kingdom" in its title. Farage, however, knows that this is precisely the territory that his party – or any up-and-coming center-Right party in England – needs to occupy. Earlier in the year, a Populus poll found that 48% of the population would consider supporting a new party committed to cutting or stopping immigration; tackling Islamist extremism; and that "would support policies to make it statutory for all public buildings to fly the flag of St George or the union flag."
Although Farage's message will resonate with some former Labour and LibDem supporters, it is clear that he has set his sights on disgruntled conservatives who had naively looked on Cameron as the last best hope to revive England. Many had already realized that, under his leadership, the Conservatives had turned into little more that a version of New Labour, and had defected prior to the election.
In 2010 the UKIP vote cost the Conservatives ten seats and an outright majority. Farage is clearly aiming for more than that in the next election. He wants to win seats and to replicate the success his party has had in EU elections, and in local and UK national elections. "If you're a patriotic, Euro-skeptic, Conservative voter," Farage announced at the annual conference, "under David Cameron you're party has now ceased to exist. If you want to vote for what you believe in, you must come and vote UKIP."
If Cameron wants to prove Farage wrong, time is running out.

via hudson-ny.org

Porn Star Dumps Democrats

It's all about financial frugality or something. As well as an obvious tweak of the RNC.

"While this decision has not been an easy one, recent events regarding Republican National Committee fundraising at Voyeur, an LA based lesbian bondage themed nightclub finally tipped the scales.
"As I have said for well over a year, it is time that our government and our tax policy begin rewarding entrepreneurship and creativity again. It is time again to inspire positive risks and out-of-the-box thinking in the interest of growing a strong economy and a strong America.
"For me, this spirit can be summed up in the RNC's investment of donor funds at Voyeur.
"As someone who has worked extensively in both the club and film side of the Adult Entertainment Industry, I know from experience that a mere $1900 outlay at a club with the reputation of Voyeur is a clear indication of a frugal investment with a keen eye toward maximum return.
"And I firmly believe that it is precisely this type of creative and calculated investing that we, as taxpaying Americans, should expect not only from our political parties but from our government. The American taxpayer deserves consistent conservatives who reject wasteful spending and unwarranted government intervention in the private sector.
"As is the case with so many of my fellow Louisianans, I have been a registered Democrat throughout my life. But now I cannot help but recognize that over time my libertarian values regarding both money and sex and the legal use of one for the other is now best espoused by the Republican Party."

via jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com

Vulgar Americans

because that is what is good for me

guilty of a traffic violation for being a Republican

tonight I was told that because I was intimidated by the police after getting hit by a car with my bicycle that I deserved being bullied because all police are Republicans and that these individual knows what people think when they go into a booth to vote. does this logic make any sense? I was told I deserve to rot in jail for voting for Republican. as far as I know Republicans are the ones trying to make the government smaller so that the police don't have to aggressively give out tickets to men with bicycles that get hit by cars. at any rate I was told I will not be helped with this, so I will be going to jail because I can't afford to pay the ticket and for some reason business keeps on leaving a state that has high taxes, so I don''t have employment. It was nice to know you all, but obviously some people enjoy playing a joke with the paradox and catch 22. so I say goodbye. I'm sorry I had to chase that rainbow of a college education and pursuit of higher thought before I realized that it was all about insuring that government gets bigger

Playboy: conservative women hate f*(% top 10

updated from last week. the original post was 6/2/09

I find it amusing that they didn't just go with it. it would of been interesting to establish the libidinal nature of all of this. when it got outside of the frame of slander they just censored. there is such a thing as hate sex... in language. but the reality is that people who sleep with those they disagree with... are usually not disagreeing privately. they might turn it into play, but the media and the left had a preoccupation for decades with Clintons campaign advisor James Carville (married to Republican political pundit Mary Matalin). the reality is that the polarity of politics is rarely reflected in the bed room. it is just a matter of time before all of us are arguing as "liberals" against American Sharia Conservative law. those that are really against us are not sexy.

Media Abuses Ann Coulter

Ann Coulter is right and does not offend me at all I need to stand up for her perspective to be right if I ask others to stand up for mine. Did you think I was offended by her?
Ann Coulter is right and does not offend me at all I need to stand up for her perspective to be right if I ask others to stand up for mine. Did you think I was offended by her?
http://new.seesmic.com/threads/eIEcMuLhuV

New GOP

www.flickr.com

"Noah" Maxim

big cancerous business ends in big government, but big government does not necessarily evolve to big business. that is a "Noah" Maxim

how Religion trumped Science and Objectivity with Rationalism

Don't Ask Don't Tell

funny enough the Conservatives are believing the media's myth about their demise, but actually the Republican Party has not been this healthy in decades. Obama is doing so badly that I think we could elect a dead man in 2012. even CNN is poking the White House.

Re:Why are you loyal to your city?

Un-Fairness Doctrine

I oppose the Un-Fairness Doctrine. You should, too. Please join:

How Obama Bought VOTE with MID-EAST OIL $!

OBAMA'S CREDIT-CARD CRACKUP: "A breakdown of controls has enabled foreign and other unaccountable funds to pour into the Obama campaign — and it's not an accident." The campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has been and may still be accepting credit-card and prepaid-card contributions from overseas. It has done so in a way that may very likely prevent it from refunding the contributions to “donors,” many of whom may have had their credit cards used without their consent. It’s virtually impossible that the system for accepting card contributions was inadvertently set up without adequate controls, and almost certain that existing controls were instead deliberately disabled to create untraceability. Finally, it is likely that the total dollar amounts involved run in millions, if not tens of millions, of dollars.

LINKS
http://xrl.us/Jerusalem
http://del.icio.us/simonstudio/Obama
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-obama-campaigns-credit-card-crack-up/
Digg - Obama Tells Abbas: I Support Dividing Jerusalem http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Obama_Tells_Abbas_I_Support_Dividing_Jerusalem
http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/search/label/ACORN
Stop the Obama Constitutional Crisis
http://www.rallycongress.com/constitutional-qualification/1244/stop-obama-constitutional-crisis/

WHAT WENT WRONG?

You had better hope I'm wrong about everything. let's see how the stock market does this week. DOH!

I wish more GOP had disrespected some of the decisions Bush made... now our soldiers suffer when Obama pulls the rug from under them.... did I support the war? yeah I did. did I like Rumsfeld's decisions during the war... well no. did I think dropping the interest rates were a good idea for the FED... no. did I like the end of the church/state division... no. do I support GOP, America, and Israel: hell yes. Bush f*cked up... and McCain took the fall. John is a good man. McCain got beat by Bush twice. most of all I am pissed that after voting for Gore and Kerry that I had to make a choice about supporting my worst nightmare. I have now lost three straight executive office elections. whatever side I'm on... I lose. all those Nader people on 2000 caused all this you know? I just hope I'm not right about Obama like I was right about Bush... I wish you could see videos of me before 2000 and saw what I felt about Bush... I felt about Bush the way I feel about Obama today
 
Noah David Simon at 12:40am November 5
I don't think Bloomberg will win with all the Socialist mania going down. don't doom the moderate or you will make McCain lose twice this year
for me it isn't about theory... but rather about leadership and people. Bloomberg is an able administrator... and a rational man. this is a world full of freaks this year.

 
Q:at 12:42am November 5
Bloomberg will win. It's already in the bag. My concern is what does that really get us? Since McCain lost anyway would we not have been better off running someone who could articulate conservative principles and shape the debate and build a movement?  An able administrator? Yes, absolutely. A leader? No. To be a leader you need followers. You need a movement to lead. He is not doing that. That's what Reagan did and it's what Obama is doing for the left.  That's how you change people's minds on basic issues, it's how you shape the electorate, it's how you move the population to your positions, it's how you WIN THE FUTURE.

 
Noah David Simon at 12:46am November 5
I'm awful tired.... and depressed. I really just want to keep the fringe from taking over. I don't care how charismatic they are. I vote for Tsongas in the 1992 primary.

 
Q:at 12:48am November 5
You have to realize that much of the country is not you and does not think the way you do or have your perspective. They need something to believe in and they need leaders to EXPLAIN things to them in ways they can understand and make them feel like they're part of something bigger than themselves.

 
Noah David Simon at 12:48am November 5
why not Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson or Hitler... cult of personality... I will take Bob Dole

 
Q:at 12:49am November 5
I would take Bob Dole too. But if he loses what's the difference between losing with him and losing with someone who actually excites people ? I think the difference is the future of the movement.

 
Noah David Simon at 12:50am November 5
I know that people who excite people are nutballs

 
Q:at 12:50am November 5
Bob Dole lost. McCain lost. That's the point.
So is it really better to run candidates who are more acceptable to moderates who still don't vote for them?

 
Noah David Simon at 12:51am November 5
yeah... and so Henry 2nd lost... and so on.... but the reality of Richard III is about to be felt

 
Q:at 12:51am November 5
What does that achieve other than giving New York Republicans an easier time with their liberal friends?  OK. But if McCain loses to Obama ANYWAY why is it better to run him?
I agree he would be better if he won. But he didn't. Neither did Dole. Because America is not New York.

 
Noah David Simon at 12:52am November 5
L. L... I didn't like Rudy... there are many kinds of Conservative... I ain't for a police state.

 
Q:at 12:53am November 5
I'm not trying to make you agree with me on all the issues. But please address the central point. If McCain and Dole lose ANYWAY why is it better to run them?
Bloomberg wins New York. I get it. I never argued with that. But McCain and Dole and Ford all LOSE America.
 
Noah David Simon at 12:55am November 5
I just vote for the man who represents me. why should I run with the mob and the pitchforks?

Q:at 12:56am November 5
Well if you think Rudy or Romney or Thompson are the mob with pitchforks I don't know what to say.  And if you're now saying you just vote for people who represent you, you've changed the argument. Because you were telling me why I should accept people who don't represent me cause they're better than the alternative. So everyone else should compromise but not you?
And again, if we lose anyway how does this help anything except make us slightly less distasteful to the left as we lose.

 
Noah David Simon at 12:58am November 5
no... just Rudy. it isn't the theory. It was from the experience of my stay in NYC that makes me warrant that opinion. Romney seems more level headed. ...don't get me wrong... I like Rudy as a commentator... just not running as mayor. and Thompson is a great man.  this is a real politic argument. I'm not talking theory. I'm talking application. Rudy made me miserable.

 
Q:at 1:00am November 5
Hey, I'm not a Rudy nut. He wasn't my guy. I'll take any of these guys. They would all lielly have lost but they would have articulated their positions and shaped the debate and made Obama explain himself.

 
Noah David Simon at 1:00am November 5
btw I voted for Romney in the primary... so... there you go

 
Q:at 1:01am November 5
I'm not looking for ideological purity. This is a pluralistic democracy of 300 million. I get that. But I'd like someone who can speak to principles.

 
Noah David Simon at 1:01am November 5
Rudy is funny... but on TV... I don't want him running the country. sorry but I feel that way about my Dad too

 
Q:at 1:01am November 5
I voted for Romney too. He was the best choice by the time the primaries got to New York.
You don't have to apologize to me for having problems with Rudy. I just want people who will shape the discussion and move the electorate. McCain and Dole and Ford all failed to do that.

 
Noah David Simon at 1:03am November 5
Romney lost because America still has bigotry against Religion... I know that from my own life. I loved Romney, but I would of been happy with Thompson.

 
Q:at 1:04am November 5
Agreed. But since we lost anyway wouldn't it have been better to run any of these guys and maybe win some of the arguments and shape the policies a little?

 
Noah David Simon at 1:04am November 5
look... I wasn't from Arizona... so I didn't have a hard look at how old John was till the debates. he looked horrible and I was trying to lie and say he didn't but he did... I knew it. I liked him because his words rang true... but he looked weak

 
Q:at 1:06am November 5
All I'm saying is politics is more than the next election and economics is more than the next quarter's profits. We have to run on ideas not just cynically try to pick the most appealing candidate and think we can win any election.

 
Noah David Simon at 1:06am November 5
L. L I'm a new conservative... so I felt akin to John... shaping policy isn't my place when I barely know the history of the party identity.. and it would seem the identity is going to radically change now anyway

 
Q:at 1:06am November 5
This was a Democrat year. I just would ahve liked to win some policy arguments and some down ballot races.

 
Q:at 1:08am November 5
Romney would not have lost Nevada and Colorado and would have helped with Senate races all over the place and would have won some economic arguments. Same with Thompson only he would have helped more in different regions and on legal issues more.

 
Noah David Simon at 1:09am November 5
like I said before I knew it was bad for the GOP when I was on their side. I hardly reflect the people. I'm from the elite college educated northeast establishment... for me the idea of giving the rich money seems foreign... but here I am

 
Q:at 1:10am November 5
Sometimes it's better to lose a battle in a strategic fashion that puts you in better position for the future than to compromise everything in a desperate attempt to try and win a lost cause.

 
Noah David Simon at 1:10am November 5
agreed... the Republicans are in a bad place.
it all sux... either way. no good will come from this. the real problem is not McCain... it was that Bush didn't represent his own values

 
Q:at 1:12am November 5
In a two party system you win some and lose some. But if you lose your principles then you're done.  Bush didn't represent conservatism but he did represent his values. Compassioante conservatism. Hands across the water. Let Ted Kennedy write the education bill and immigration bill, etc.

 
Noah David Simon at 1:13am November 5
theory is crap... but say what you are going to do. Bush didn't... we will suffer because of that... and my bet is we will suffer from Obama for the same reason

 
Q:at 1:14am November 5
See Bush compromised conservatism so all the geniuses decided we shoudl compromise it even more with McCain and that would save us. Then they all jumped ship and went for Obama.

 
Q:at 1:15am November 5
Theory is crap but conservatism is not theory. It's based on past real world experience from centuries of Western Civilization.  But see this is the point. We need leaders articulating that.

 
Q:at 1:15am November 5
Not reducing conservatism to "get the bad guys".

 
Noah David Simon at 1:18am November 5
for me the bad guys were a bit more threatening... but the problem is you can't compromise what you said you were going to do to keep us drunk and happy. dropping the FED interest rates costed the GOP the election. it wasn't getting the bad guys that was the problem... it is that you can't fight when you are stoned and drunk.  the fact is there were a lot of things that went wrong... I think McCain would of won three weeks from now

 
Q:at 1:19am November 5
I'm not against getting that bad guys I'm just saying that can't be your whole message. You need a message of why it is good to NOT drop the FED rate and take the short term pain. Remember, Wall Street liked the FED cut at the time. Cause it was good for short term quarterly profits.  Just like the intelligentsia all wanted the bailout.
It was the evil right wing pitchfork people who opposed these things.
See just because Bush wears cowboy hats and believes in Jesus doesn't make him a conservative.

 
Noah David Simon at 1:22am November 5
well the bailout seems to be working... no? but it is pointless to talk about a patient dying on the table... yeah this is an emergency... but just because I give permission doesn't mean I want my doctors to Rumsfeld my operation

 
Q:at 1:23am November 5
He is the scion of an elite New England moderate Republican dynasty who happened to grow up in Texas.

 
Noah David Simon at 1:23am November 5
yeah bailout... but what are the parameters of that? I'm not an expert here... but it seems like we have a mess here

 
Q:at 1:24am November 5
And the only way to avoid all this is to have leadership that articulates conservative principles on economics, fiscal and monetary policy, and other things in addition to getting the bad guys.

 
Noah David Simon at 1:24am November 5
believe me... I know who Bush is

 
Q:at 1:26am November 5
The biggest problem for the Republican party is not losing this election. It's that most people i the country have no idea what conservative even means anymore.
People who didn't agree with Reagan voted for him. People who do agree with McCain voted against him.  Moderates voted for Reagan in droves but abandoned the moderate McCain for the left wing Obama. People need articulate, principled leadership. Even when they don't totally agree.

 
Noah David Simon at 1:28am November 5
I think the problem was that McCain didn't have people. charisma is a factor though. but it is hard 2judge, cuz I really liked him

 
Q:at 1:29am November 5
I still like him. I don't want to kick him out of the party or anything.
He's a good man and an American Hero. He's just not a principled and articulate leader.
But he was only ever as popular as he was because the media used him to weaken the Right by playing up his maverick opposition to actual conservatism.

 
Noah David Simon at 1:30am November 5
I'm tired... and depressed and it is 1:29 AM. my brain cells are gone. I have been cartooning all day. this sux... I can't argue you competitively

 
Q:at 1:30am November 5
As soon as he was the nominee they slaughtered him.
Have a good night. You're part of the unofficial American aristocracy. What you think matters more than me. Please consider what I've said.

 
Noah David Simon at 1:31am November 5
McCain lost because the economy took a plunge... knit picking will do no good. you would of said the opposite if the election were last month

 
Q:at 1:32am November 5
I really would not have. He would have lost anyway. Just by less. The debates are why McCain lost.

 
Noah David Simon at 1:33am November 5
L.L. you seem to be on the inside... I wouldn't of friended you otherwise. is the American Aristocracy unemployed? ask my girlfriend... I'm college educated... but I am broke

 
Q:at 1:36am November 5
I honestly didn't mean that as an insult or to be sarcastic or anything. You really are. If the Republican Party loses everyone with a degree we're finished. This is why I try my best to express things to people from all walks of life. We need a broad coalition. Schlubs like me are not enough. We need people who are more liberal, more moderate, more intellectual, etc. Seriously, think about what I've said. Ideas matter. Articulate and passionate leadership matters.
As for your current financial situation, I really do hope things turn around for you.

 
Noah David Simon at 1:39am November 5
well... the election has given my cartoons some exposure... but I was on the loosing side. so maybe next time I'm the big man on the winning side

 
Q:at 1:41am November 5
Unless we stop Obama from rigging the courts, rewriting the rules, passing the Fairness Doctrine and Card Check for Union Elections and buying votes with his "tax cuts" that are really welfare I wonder if there will be a next time.
We are facing the prospect of a decade or more in the wilderness living under left wing rule.
We need organization, better use of technology and communication, younger faces, new blood, and articulate leadership.
We are now the minority at all levels of government. All we have now is 4 and a half Supreme Court Justices.

 
Noah David Simon at 1:44am November 5
I know... and that means any money I will make goes to his ass
I like being the underdog... I'm an artist. we complain a lot

 
Q:at 1:45am November 5
It also means that any victories in the War on Terror he'll take credit for and any failures will be blamed on Bush and therefor Republicans

 
Noah David Simon at 1:46am November 5
look I'm not happy... ok? but I'm tired. I know Obama is going to sell us short. I get it

 
Q:at 1:46am November 5
Petraeus now works for him. We need more then getting the bad guys because only the Commander in Chief can take credit for that.

 
Q:at 1:47am November 5
What he's going to do is not sell us short but fundamentally change America, move us left, and build a permanent governing coalition.

 
Noah David Simon at 1:47am November 5
Obama is power hungry... he might not act like Bush didn't over turn Roe V Wade.

 
Q:at 1:48am November 5
Obama is definitely power hungry. I don't get the reference to Roe though.
But I'll let you get some sleep. I know you said you're tired.

 
Noah David Simon at 1:49am November 5
political minds don't always say what they do. they compromise once in power. abandoning our troops would make Obama lose in 4 years

 
Q:at 1:50am November 5
He will only lose in four years if we reshape the political landscape. Ethnic politics is very powerful, being from NY you should know that.

 
Q:at 1:50am November 5
He is about to lock up the hispanic vote.
Please consider reading some Russell Kirk. I think you'll find his "The Conservative Mind" informative and not at all pitchforky.

 
Noah David Simon at 1:53am November 5
I will... thanks for the chat... zzzz ....tired!

 
Q:at 1:54am November 5
Israel launches first airstrike on Gaza since June...
20 rockets fired from Gaza to Israel...
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081105/D948I1AO0.html It begins....
That's up on Drudge. Get ready for four years of madness.

 
Noah David Simon at 10:01am November 5
what a lousy night

Bleed the BIG FOWL for your PANIC

Bigotry is reflective... there is no such thing as trickle down bigotry.

Hate is cyclical in a community.

It is doubtful with my personality that I would have had the desire to look for the better parts of conservative fiscal plans if it had not been for the fact that I was forced to look. I am thankful that the Democrats decided to be a bunch of NAZIs. It is complex thing to ask people to accept that poverty is not caused by government, but rather is caused in the details of a society that hates and has bigotry.

Hating some rich Cracker driving a Humvee is not going to improve your community... you might get one by selling drugs... but that is at the expense of those around you. You will not effect the rich man who has the means that you don't have to simply leave your ecosystem. Obama might call it a tax return, but a tax return should be from a job... if it isn't then it is welfare. Shared wealth is not caused by force, but is caused by trust.

Even the rich need a community and they are the first ones to open their hearts to new liberal ideas. The reason is they are more then anyone else looking for love. If they don't get it they go elsewhere. The elite has Patty Hearst disease... they are desperate for something that will make them loved. They want to accept Obama's plan in hope that they can find affection... what they do not realize is Obama's plan takes away the American dream of making money. They won't have a revolution, they will just find tax free ways to profit. ...back to selling drugs. tax free... tax free gun running... tax free prostitution... tax free living at mom's house

Stupid Conservative

River Tadpole do not be so self righteous.

Do you have any idea how many times in the next seventeen years of your life you will find yourself arguing the opposite of what you believe in? I understand you are in school and that things can be very emotional for you because you are surrounded by people who feel as strongly as you do. I know what it is like. You talk about a march on Washington? When I was exactly your age I was marching on Washington to protect women's rights by marching in a Pro-Choice rally. We had more people at that march during Senor Bushes administration then any other march in Washington. When I got home and turned on the news the mention of the march lasted thirty seconds. Almost like it never happened. Today I am not the extremist I was when I was seventeen... I understand both sides of the argument... and I can tell you I don't have all the answers when the issue is abortion. I truly understand the issue like I didn't when I was seventeen and yet if I were to get up and debate Ron Paul on it or anyone I doubt I would come across as informed because the one thing I know is that I don't know. That abortion is a horrible evil murder and yet we can't make it illegal because there are women that get raped and all kinds of grey areas. As someone who was a radical leftist and felt a women's right to choose was undeniable as compared to where I obviously stand today is almost laughable. When I look back now at where I was when I was seventeen I now know I was less concerned with right and wrong and more interested in talking women into sex without commitments. I just wanted a little tail. Other issues today have also unfolded to me in ways that a younger version of myself would of never accepted. As a seventeen year old artist who was being constantly busted for drawing nudes of people in school I felt that freedom of expression and speech were absolute. I learned even the first amendment has it's limitations years later when I came across such hate filled websites that were hiding behind the same laws that I wanted to hide behind because I drew nude pictures of the rabbi in my Hebrew school. Sometimes you get older... and the answers just aren't clear cut. Most older people felt tremendous sympathy with McCain when he was barraged by Paul with an economics test. People know McCain isn't an idiot though. He has one of the longest reputations in politics. Getting interrogated by Paul on stage didn't convince anyone that John was stupid. It actually reflected more on Paul and highlighted the antisocial demeanor in his own personality. Yes Paul doesn't go red in the face and look like Vietnam war vet that looks like he is going to crack like John does. Paul looked like a self righteous gremlin who cared more about being right then being wise.