Side-Lines

When is the last time a republican reduced the size of government or cut spending? Even Reagan grew government and increased spending, and he is a hero to conservatives. Sadly they now think the John Kerry of the republicans, Mitt Romney is going to change that.

Exactly right. Conservative talk radio was filled with a spin that the decision was an overdue limit on the runaway Commerce Clause. Now, the GOP can finally begin rolling back this monster called Obamacare. But, the GOP actively avoided smothering Obamacare in it's crib before one dollar or one bureaucrat was employed to implement it. They had the power fully in their hands and they stopped a fellow party member from getting a vote passed in their GOP controlled Rules Cmte.

I believe the GOP member was Steve King of Iowa, but I may be wrong on that. However, I heard this GOP member on one or two talk radio shows, one of which was the Hugh Hewitt show about one month after Obamacare was rammed down our throats. King, if that was the member, was being shutdown by John Boehnor and David Drier, Chariman of the Rules Cmte, from adding an amendment to some key piece of legislation that would allow House members to vote up/down on language indicating no money or people shall be used to implement any part of Obamacare.

David Drier, a regular guest on Hugh Hewitt and the very definition of sleazy used car salesman as politician, argued with Hewitt that, get this, the TEA Party was a reaction of voters to the DNC House not allowing fair treatment of amendments to legislation. Drier argued repeatedly on that show, and never again, the TEA Party wasn't so much a public revolt against the bailouts and wild spending but a protest that Pelosi's House often didn't allow "open amendments."

Drier then argued the only way Boehner and Drier could get a "no money or people shall be used to implement Obamacare" amendment on the House schedule would be to have a "closed amendment" and Boehner and Drier were only following the angry demands of the TEA Party by blocking a "closed amendment" process.

The GOP will work exactly as hard as necessary to lose every battle. They will find in the tea leaves or goat entrails whatever they have to find to surrender today, strategically they say, and fight like wildcats tomorrow on better grounds. Except, the careful observer will note they never get around to fighting like wildcats and they usually agree to some preemptive compromise before the fight can happen which advances the commielib agenda.

The one thing you cannot count on, and I say you are a damn fool for entertaining it as a viable possibility, is the GOP will ever provide more than token resistance to the commielib agenda. Until the weak and worthless Boehner and Driers are punished for their massively incompetent leadership we will have few GOP members but the go-along-to-get-along RINO members in majority of the party.

Yes, GOP voters and members are mad now and sound certain to put on their Superman cape and fight Obamacare until it is dead. They have missed chance after chance for 6 decades to make serious reversals to the commielib agenda. There is always an election on the agenda, after which they will do more. There is always a budget battle later, during which they promise to make progress. They don't fight, they don't win, and they are seldom punished by the voters.

The RINO members are barely one bit more feckless than the GOP voters that vote for them. The voters fall for the same excuses and promises time after time and have this wildly delusional hope their RINO member will grow a spine. He would already have grown one if he were capable.

Shorter version of Scott M's comment:

"This is not the hill to die on." Repeat x1000.

Scott M. 2.0 -- The Proggs on the Left have met the Proggs on the Right.

After the disastrous 2006 mid-term elections that saw many GOP members defeated, The Ruling Class GOP rushed to reelect to House Leadership the usual suspects that had lead them to the disastrous defeat. "Times are too serious to try untested leadership" they said. "We have heard the angry voters and we 'get it'" It was this rush to judgement that put Boehner at the helm. The party has failed over and over under Boehner.

Under Boehner's "leadership" the party threw away their advantage when Obama needed a debt limit increase. Boehner and Eric Cantor threw their power away by reaching a compromise that swapped their power to deny Obama more spending for a position that requires them to fight with the Dems about how much weaker the Dept of Defense will become. As somebody said, they had the winning hand at the table and they were able to convert that into being on the wrong end of Russian Roulette. WTF!!

I don't care if this failed leadership is massive incompetence, cowardice, or outright conspiracy. It doesn't matter much right now why the GOP leadership always fails, they must be replaced and the TEA Party members of the House can start a leadership coup today.

This Obamacare fiasco is at least the second time in recent history when our side made excuses for ineffective opposition and took comfort that SCOTUS would save us from our own weakness.

The GOP has what may be a terminal disease. You must watch what they do with that understanding, like you would with a potential drug addict. It's one thing if a person unknown to you disappears on occasion and he can't account for every dollar of the money trusted to him. However, if the person is a current/recovering addict and he disappears and money disappears around him,you cannot and must not trust him again or you are the problem.

You can't trust the GOP to do the smart thing. You can't trust the GOP to be tactical or strategic. You must interpret any delay in fighting and any excuse for picking another fight as a sellout. If your GOP member has a reputation for winning fights, then give him the benefit of the doubt. If your member doesn't have that reputation you must view them as a sellout until proven otherwise. You can't allow the awful truth of this bad situation keep you from understanding how bloody awful things are becoming. False optimism is killing us as much as irrational belief in hope and change. What are the facts before your eyes? The GOP won't fight, won't communicate, and now we see again they won't change. Anyone telling you to wait until after the election is telling you they think you are stupid enough to fall for the usual tactic. The GOP has had the advantage for 2 years and what have they forced on Obama? They will not fight harder after the election, they will have 2 years free from voter pressure after the election.

Bravo, Scott.

That last paragraph is historic.

If it tastes like a shit sandwich, it's a shit sandwich. Don't pretend it's not shit that's being eaten. We don't want the shit sandwich and in fact, we don't even want it on the menu. Act accordingly.

In the last paragraph of Scott M's second comment, shouldn't it be "any excuse for not picking another fight"?

In any event, bravo.

Yep. My Rino Senatrix was that fellow who changed his sex to Democrat - Arlen Sphincter.

RickL, yes. Every day they must fight on every issue or they show they won't fight. I should have made it clear if the GOP says "it's OK to compromise on this current fight because we plan to win on some future fight", that's an excuse for surrender. I've mentioned the marathon training analogy. You don't train for a marathon by sitting on the couch saving up your energy for race day. You need routine and hard training. The GOP, having the reputation of diehard couch potatoes must doubly resist the excuse "I'm saving my energy." Staying with the analogy, either get out there and make some miles or stop calling yourself a runner.

The GOP wants us to look forward to a July something vote to repeal Obamacare. They've been doing precisely what since Obamacare passage? They've been waiting for SCOTUS to save their sorry rear end.

Keep in mind Boehner and David Drier worked behind the scenes to block an amendment to legislation that would have enforced "not one penny and not one employee" prohibition on Obamacare implementation. Saving the issue until now, even if it helps Romney win, is an inexcusable delay. They spent lots of time telling us this is poison and will fundamentally change the country forever, they blocked a repeal the first time they had a chance. Nobody can look at Boehner and seriously think even he thinks he's smart enough to pull off some political judo.

Your "not the hill to die on" X1000 is exactly the point. They have infinite capacity to avoid today's fight and they think we have infinite capacity to buy their story no matter how many times they've tricked us before. The upcoming repeal vote will just become a lifetime of haggling over which details of Obamacare stay and which go. If nothing else Boehner and the Ruling Class will not hear the people. That alone is reason to exile them. Until they are scared of us they will always chose to compromise with the commielibs.

OK. Why does everybody think this is, hmmmm? Same tricks expecting a different outcome, again and again, over and over. Clue: it's not the politicians. It's not even Jefferson's sappers and miners of civilization, in academia and journalism.

It is universal suffrage. You cannot keep the fleas off that dog. Can't be done.

One stinker of an excuse for a citizen will nuetralize two honest ones, and we are nearing one for one territory. It is amazing that the old ways have been honored so long, even when seen only in some distorted reflection.

Exactly, james. Democracy is simply not a stable form of government, and the Founders knew it. They went to great lengths to avoid it. Slowly but surely, we have devolved from a republic to a nearly pure democracy.

Universal suffrage will destroy us as surely as the sun rises in the east. You cannot allow parasites to have an equal voice with productive citizens. Voting should be a privilege, not a right.

Alternatives exist, if you truly have an open mind. May we suggest...?

B Lewis - Sure. I agree. Come back home, kiddies, all is forgiven. Come back home and swear allegiance to your rightful monarch, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. :)

Or whomever. Her Majesty QEII was never Queen of Texas. The land that became the Lone Star State was last ruled by the late Habsburg emperor, His Imperial Majesty Maximilian of the second Mexican Empire, may God rest his soul. A claim could also be made that Agustín, the Iturbide emperor of Mexico, is the rightful ruler of Texas. (Both the Iturbides and Habsburgs are still around.) Then again, Mexico itself was stolen from the Spanish Empire in 1821, which means that HM Juan Carlos of Spain is our rightful monarch. And then there were the three years of the French colony...

In any case, monarchism is far from being a historical relic. It is, in my opinion, the most vital and future-oriented political movement today. As the West's 500-year experiment in ideological republicanism nears its inevitable end, more and more thinking people are realizing what Aristotle knew: that monarchism is the onee form of government that proceeds organically from actual human relations. It is, one might say, the natural form of human government.