Think for Yourself!

A diversity of thought is a good thing, and we have plenty on the right.  Beware those who say it's a bad thing and we should all shut up and get on board.

Fuzzy Slippers always has some excellent analysis over at her blog, Fuzzy Logic.  Her blog must be ironically named, because her logic is eternally crisp and the writing crystal clear.  She rarely states the obvious and instead of taking the easy road of attacking today's big, fat liberal target, she will often delve into conservative issues, exposing fractures, and taking apart nonsense on our own side, and always with a smile.

Is the GOP "Imploding From Within?"
This past Sunday she fisked a blog post lamenting that the Republican Party was "Imploding from Within."  She entitled her ripost, The Leftists' Conservative Civil War Trap, and it hits the bullseye.  I recommend you give it a read.  It led me to go read the original blog post she took apart.

I won't bore you with the details of the original post that spurred Fuzzy Slippers to craft her excellent antidote, but the original blogger offered a long laundry list of evidence showing that the GOP is fracturing.  It was full of "Bill O' Reilly hates Rush Limbaugh, Ron Paul hates RINOs, Lindsay Graham is a RINO, You can't be a fiscal conservative and a social liberal ..." 

Can't we all just get along?  (and think exactly like I do?)

The blogger's bottom line seems to be that we should all think exactly alike and get behind Sarah Palin and other "pure" politicians he happens to like.  I could not disagree more.  Here's a factoid that drives Purity Uber Alles bloggers crazy:  "RINO" Tim Pawlenty got an A and a #3 ranking among governors in fiscal responsibility from the libertarian CATO Institute.

Intellectual Ferment is a Good Thing

Progressives make the mistake of turning every belief of the week into religious dogma, and I don't want to see us going down the same road.

Groupthink is a killer and leads to intellectual sclerosis and ultimately, failure. There is a diversity of thought on the right, with libertarians joining in. It is a free marketplace of ideas and that's a beautiful thing.

Avoid Personality-Based Politics -- Use Objective Criteria

We'll be picking a GOP candidate before we know it, so here is my advice.  Avoid personalities and stick to objective criteria.  I recommend three...

US Constitution - My first criterion in judging a politician is the US Constitution.  How does she interpret and understand it?  Natural rights?  Does she believe in negative rights of Locke and the Founders, or has she bought into the progressive movement's phony notion of positive rights?

Russell Kirk's Ten Conservative Principles - This classical essay should be read by all people who call themselves conservative.  It is a brilliant distillation of what conservatism is.

Key Concepts of Libertarianism - If you are libertarian, this is a good quick measurement to use.

Using such criteria, while treating Bill O'Reilly and other talkers as entertainment, will guide you in a rational analysis of the candidates and their ideas.

Dump Trump

A bad joke is being played on the Republican party, and his name is Donald Trump

"If Trump is not on Obama’s payroll, he’s working for free, and I don’t think he’s that stupid"

OK, Trump fans, time to cut The Donald loose. I like how he injects some real talk into the political discussion, especially in the realm of international trade and diplomacy.  But he's also a Hollywood blowhard who will say anything to get attention.

So who does he really think is the worst president?  Obama?  Bush?  Carter?  He's claimed all three were at different times, and he's called Bush "evil."  Really...  Hitler was evil, Mao was evil, but George W. Bush?

And while his careening into the Obama citizenship sideshow is gaining him some FReeper fans, it is not presidential.  Savvy pols have attack dogs to do the dirty work.  There's plenty in Obama's past that is questionable or mysterious, and I don't begrudge people investigating it, but that's not what a presumptive presidential candidate should be focusing on.  We need to fire The Donald before his extreme unseriousness sinks the entire party, which is just now finding its feet again.

Donald Trump:  A Ross Perot for the New Millennium

Trump is not Obama’s worst nightmare—He’s the GOP’s guarantee of failure in 2012.   His hinting at a third-party run reveals his "I wanna be president" stunt to be nothing more than an egomaniacal road trip. The man is good at self-promotion, but he's got no chance to get elected president.

Entertaining a third-party run is an automatic disqualifier
He’s just told us that if he doesn't get the GOP nomination he will not honor the rules of the game and back the winner, so he’s disqualified. Supporting him is a waste of your money and voting for him in a primary is a vote for Barack Obama.   A Trump third-party foray will be a march of fools that reelects Barack Obama.

If Trump is not on Obama’s payroll, he’s working for free, and I don’t think he’s that stupid

Fuzzy Slippers has the best anti-Trump post in Right Blogistan.  She uncovers some convincing disqualifiers, like the traitorous Trump giving money to Harry Reid, when Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle was up in the polls.  She also links to an article describing how The Donald bribed the government to declare imminent domain in order to kick an old lady out of her house so he could build a parking lot.


If you’re looking for a real businessman to vote for, drop the infatuation with self-promoting wheeler dealers and go for a serious man who has the education, background and experience to be president:

Vote for Herman Cain

H/T Maggies Notebook - Dump Trump,  Fuzzy Slippers - Musing about 2012: Donald Trump,  Reaganite Republican - What are People saying about Trump?

Cloward-Piven from the Right

Angry anti-GOP mobs are rampaging across the internet, screaming that this budget deal is the worst betrayal in US history, right up there with Nixon signing the Paris Peace Accords, The Compromise of 1877, and Art Modell's betrayal of the city of Cleveland


We Have Not Yet Begun to Fight

How would these critics of Boehner and the GOP have reacted after the battle of Lexington that began the Revolutionary War?  Would they have gone home in defeat because there were still British left standing?  This is just an early skirmish in a long war to reshape the federal government.  We still have the debt ceiling fight coming up in May.

Republicans wrapped up a deal that takes us through 2011 while cutting $38 billion, and thank God for that.  It folds the tents on this nickle-dime DC circus sideshow (they were arguing over less than 1% in cuts) and clears the field for debate on Paul Ryan's long-term strategy for cutting Trillions from the federal government, and enacting fundamental reforms.

Don't be a Sore Winner
For reasons unfathomable, some on the right are angry with Boehner.  I'd like for someone to explain how a government shutdown would have helped the GOP, who the American people still view with mistrust.  Here is what he and the GOP did, despite Democrat control of the Senate, the White House and the news media:

The history of offers on this bill goes something like this. Democrats first offered no cuts, then $4 billion, then $6.5 billion, then $33 billion, then settled at $38.5 billion.  (Fox News)

The spending cuts amount to $78.5 billion below what Mr. Obama had requested for 2011. (Washington Times)

 "...an estimated $38 billion in reductions — represented the “largest real dollar spending cut in American history.” (NY Times)

With the DC kabuki agitprop out of the way, Paul Ryan can now conduct an adult conversation based upon stark facts.  This is harsh terrain for unserious liberals who rely on the usual freakshow histrionics.  Americans are ready for a serious debate on ending our profigate ways, and the Republicans are the only ones discussing it seriously.

Do you want to reform government spending, or do you just want to burn the damned thing down?

It's a serious question, and if your answer is the latter, you are in the camp of the libertines who turned the French Revolution into a violent rampage that forever knocked that nation off of her powerful and glorious perch.  Such a sentiment also puts you firmly outside the camp of the founding fathers.  They had righteous anger, but they channeled it into constructive projects that built the greatest nation in the history of the world.

By clamoring for a shutdown, we feed into the left's stereotypes that we are a rabble of anarchists with torches and pitchforks clamoring to burn down government.  The broad middle does not respond well to such wild displays.  Ask "Pitchfork Pat" Buchanan, the latest in a long line of failed American populists.

Fiscal conservatives on Capitol Hill need the support of patriotic Americans who follow the example of our original revolutionary patriots.  Screaming libertines and bloody guillotines provide propaganda fodder for the leftwing statists struggling to preserve the status quo, and end up working against government reformers like Paul Ryan and Tom Coburn.

UPDATE:  American Thinker editor and publisher Thomas Lifson declares, The GOP Did Just Fine.  It is a great wrap-up.


Tea Party Activists Give Boehner Nod of Approval
Lefty Ezra Klein is all Pouty
Fox News - Who Won the Shutdown?
Salon - Boehner Won
WaPo - Boehner Gets $39 Billion, Reid Gets Nothing

Palin - Bachmann! GOP 2012 Field

They're already talking GOP presidential field for 2012.  Here's my take...

Since any giddy follower can sing the praises of even the most failed politician (Look at how many still defend Obama), I thought I'd focus more on the negatives.  I'll start with unfinished business from the 2008 debacle...

FAILED CLASS OF 2008 - Don't go away mad, just go away

This failed class of 2008 has less than 5 minutes foreign policy experience between them, and their records are either thin or spotty.  What I wrote about this trio back in November 2008 still stands.

Palin entering the primaries will rend the party, because her loyalists cannot bear any criticism of her whatsoever.  And Huckabee and Romney are like matches and gunpowder.  The constant sniping, bitching and smearing their two camps engaged in produced John McCain and poisoned the waters.
  
Sarah Palin - She did great things in a sparsely populated state, but she needs to be a senator or cabinet member first.  The comparisons to Reagan are ill-informed.  Reagan was Screen Actor's Guild president for over 10 years, served two full terms as governor of America's largest state (and the world's 10th largest economy).  He had been studying, writing and speaking about serious issues from a conservative perspective for a full 20 years before he became president.

Mitt Romney - Romneycare.  If that's not enough, he's a political shape shifter (even more than most)

Mike Huckabee - Like Romney, a big government type.  He released a rapist-murderer who used this misplaced mercy to go rape and murder some more.  Huck needs to read Adam Smith, "Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent."


The Short List - My Favorites
Here is a list of my favorites, each followed by a negative or knock against him.

Tim Pawlenty - Conservative governor from a blue state.  I like his style, but many hardcore types will call him a RINO because he made compromises

Mitch Daniels - He's short and balding.  He's also put Indiana on sound fiscal footing, has cabinet-level experience, and is a common sense conservative who lives his values.  Can substance overcome style?

Mike Pence - Mike Who?  A serious man for a serious time.  I think he's ready, but most of America doesn't know who he is.

Jim DeMint - He's a senator.  A conservative superstar, he has a lot of chips he could cash in on the way to winning the nomination.

Herman Cain - Herman who?  We've never had a president named Herman, but this man needs to be the first.  Former CEO of Godfather's Pizza and tea party hero, this is a no-nonsense, call it like it is conservative.

NOT YET
Marco Rubio - Our first Hispanic president*, but not in 2012.  If he runs now, he's just an Obama on the right.  He needs to get some foreign policy cred and show us what he's made of on the national scene.

Bobby Jindal - Our first Indian-American president*, but not in 2012.  He's brilliant, extremely accomplished, but he's too young and he need some foreign policy cred. 

Paul Ryan - Like Jindal, he's young, brilliant and knows how to break it down for us common folk

Chris Christie - He's only been governor two years, and the situation on the ground in New Jersey is still fluid.  He's a wonderful guy, doing great things, but we need to see if his efforts bear fruit.

David Petraeus - He's said he's not running and he'd have to leave the battlefield to do it.  I don't see it happening.

Jeb Bush - His name is Bush

* - Please excuse my very un-conservative descent into liberal identity politics!

NO WAY
Judd Gregg - Judd Who?  This is the Republican that almost joined Obama's cabinet.  Someone needs to tell Senator Gregg that East Coast country club republicanism is dead.  The Bushes drove the final nails in the coffin.

Gary Johnson - He smokes pot

Ron Paul - Too old.

Newt Gingrich - Poor old Newtie shows a little leg every four years, but nobody's buyin'.  He's yesterday's  news.  He flirted with the Clintons, he flirts with big government ideas, he adulterously flirted while his ex-wife was on her deathbed.  The left has permanently demonized him.  What has he done besides being Speaker of the House and doing a whole lotta talking?  I could go on, but you get the picture.   

John Bolton - He's intelligent, he's experienced, but he's too blunt and polarizing.  The left has demonized him.  Being a heroic UN-attacking rottweiler requires a different skill set than being president.

Bob McDonnell - Name recognition.  He's a conservative hero who contributed to rescuing Virginia from the blue column, but he just hasn't had the national exposure and I don't know what his foreign policy credentials are.

John Thune - He's a Senator.  What else has he done?

Rick Santorum - Great guy and conservative hero, but he couldn't even get reelected in his own state. 

Haley Barbour - He's a loquacious southerner.  They'll dig up some racist stuff on him and it'll be all over

Rick Perry - He's said he's not running, and he's also said he's hell-bent on riding with the governors in the states rights gunfight.

Jonah Goldberg is much better at this than I.  Go read his analysis, Sorting out the 2012 GOP Pack

Also check out Howard Kurtz's The GOP's 2012 Fantasies

Will the GOP Cover Freddie's Fannie?

Today the GOP Takes control of the House of Representatives, and Harry returns a shriveled man with a shrunken majority.  

Some conservatives have already begun attacking the GOP before they even get started.  Blogger buddy Andrew 33 over at Allied Liberty News, is preparing a boiling cauldron of tar and collecting burlap bags of feathers. 

I'm keeping my powder dry and I encourage others to give them some room.  Still, there are some disturbing rumblings...

Republicans are already backing off of earlier threats to dismantle Fannie and Freddie. These pie-in-the-sky programs that encourage irresponsible financial dealings have cost us $134 billion in the last two years alone.

Republicans cheered on Jeb Hensarling, Representative from Texas, as he crafted legislation last year to kill the ghastly twins:

"Of all the dumb regulation that caused our economic crisis, none was dumber than that which created the (Fannie and Freddie) monopolies," Mr. Hensarling said in March. (WSJ - GOP Shifts on Fannie, Freddie)

Alas, government largesse dies hard, and for some GOP statists, parting is such sweet sorrow…

A hasty end to the government's support of Fannie and Freddie would mean fewer Americans could get home loans, causing home sales and prices to drop even further and pushing taxpayers' cost for rescuing the mortgage giants even higher, said Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R., Texas), a former banker and housing developer who serves on the House Financial Services Committee.

"You'd cause Freddie and Fannie to have even larger losses than they'd already have," Mr. Neugebauer said.  (WSJ - GOP Shifts on Fannie, Freddie)

A Banker and a housing developer, eh? 
Don’t suppose that would have anything to do with how Rep. Neugebauer comes down on this, do you? He concedes that home prices are still too high, but he supports keeping them artificially propped up.  Spoken like a true crony crapitalist that is afraid of the free market.

He also reveals the truth that “fewer Americans would get home loans” as a result of ending this homebuyer-corporate welfare program. How is that bad? Too many people getting home loans is what got us into this mess. Stop Digging! Representative Neugebauer, Republican from Texas, is now officially part of the problem.

Next come the homebuilders, realtors, and mortgage lenders, hat in hand, begging a bankrupt government for special treatment...

"We don't believe that the private market — right now — is willing or able to provide the liquidity that's necessary to get us out of this," said Joe Stanton, chief lobbyist for the National Association of Home Builders. "To erode that support right now would be a disaster," said Vince Malta, a real estate agent in San Francisco and a vice president of the National Association of Realtors. (WSJ - GOP Shifts on Fannie, Freddie)

... So let’s keep the bubble inflated.

They are all wrong. 
If houses were being traded at market prices right now, and if only those who could establish financial credibility could buy them, the market would be on solid footing. It would be smaller and less active, but it would be financially sound. And that’s the problem for these crony crapitalists. The bankers, builders and realtors want turnover. Who cares if people can afford it or not? These industries that suckle at mama government’s ample teats won’t get stuck when irresponsible people get forclosed. Uncle Sam will pick up the tab! And they continue making their millions in transaction fees. This crap needs to stop now.

Like anything, Fannie and Freddie can be sold in the marketplace, maybe for a loss. At this point I don’t care. We stepped in dog doo and it’s time to scrape it off our shoe. Nothing will inject sanity back into the housing market like removing taxpayer-funded subsidies.