How the GOP Can Get Its Mojo Back
Republicans have at least two ready-made issues which can unite the party.
And this is not the only opportunity for Republicans to highlight the Democrats’ co-dependent relationship with Big Labor. High on the wish list for the union bosses is the Employee Free Choice Act, which would, in essence, abolish secret ballots in union elections. Even George McGovern has opposed the measure, declaring to Democrats: “To fail to ensure the right to vote free of intimidation and coercion from all sides would be a betrayal of what we have always championed.”
But Big Labor is licking its chops. The New York Times reported:
With union membership sliding to 7.5 percent of the private-sector work force, one-third the rate in 1983, unions see enactment of the bill as the single most important step toward reversing their loss of membership and power. Some labor leaders predict that if the bill is passed, unions, which have 16 million members nationwide, would add at least five million workers to their rolls over the next few years.
That would mean millions more in union dues, and millions more available to the Democratic Party which already enjoyed an estimated one billion dollars in hard and soft union money in the 2008 election cycle. One need only look to the Big Three car companies’ outlandish 52% wage differential with non-union car producers in the U.S. to appreciate the impact on the American economy.
Aside from subjecting thousands of new businesses to coercion by unions, the bill would also require a government mediator to impose wages and terms and conditions of employment if union and management negotiators could not reach a deal. The prospect of Obama-appointed officials instructing thousands of businesses how much to pay their workers and what work rules to apply understandably sends shivers up the spines of America’s business leaders.
The notion that the secret ballots, which are sacred in all political elections and even internal Congressional leadership fights, would be abolished to satisfy Big Labor does not sit well with most Americans.
Polling taken earlier in the year shows voters strongly oppose doing away with secret ballot elections. The margins in a number of key swing states were more than two to one against discarding secret ballots. This is true in union households, where 69% of voters opposed the measure.
Nevertheless, the President-elect has indicated his support for this measure and Big Labor’s allies in Congress are nearly certain to force a vote. Once again the Republicans have the chance to stand up for a basic constitutional principle — the secret ballot — and highlight that the Democrats’ interests are not aligned with workers, but with Big Labor bosses who stuffed their campaign coffers this past election. It is rare where politicians can be right on both principle and politics, and this is one of those few instances.
So Republicans – who have argued and bickered among themselves in the weeks since the election – have two ready-made issues which can unite the party. Whether they favor “traditional” conservative values or urge the party to move forward with “reform” (or both, as most conservatives actually do), the vast majority of Republicans can rally around secret ballots and school choice and oppose union bullying. It is not every day that Republicans can make common cause with inner city parents and blue collar workers, but these two issues offer them just such an opportunity.
If the Republicans want to get their mojo back they have their chance on not just one, but two high profile issues. Let us see if their Congressional leadership is competent enough to seize their opportunities. Chances like this aren’t likely to come along again soon.
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Jennifer Rubin is PJM's Washington, DC, editor. She also blogs at Commentary’s Contentions.
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68 Comments
1. lee:I’m already seeing the GOP ignoring worthy causes that might potentially energize their base. Militant gay activists have blacklisted a few businesses that donated to yes on prop 8 campaign in CA. The mormon church is under attack and we can expect a few more intimidating protests neat their places of worship.
Local talk radio in So. Cal is rallying to their defense, no surprise there, but as for the republicans – nothing. Nada. I don’t recall any prominent republicans actively campaigning for prop 8, nor have they ever seriously pushed for vouchers, although Californian schools are craptacular. I don’t see any conservatives or Republicans speaking out against the bailout either.
Nov 18, 2008 - 2:28 am 2. RE:School reform is going nowhere as long as the corrupt NEA is in the picture.
Besides, I don’t think the Obama administration is all that interested in developing critical thinking skills in children – except perhaps his children, of course, who will be attending private school – like so many other of our hypocritical politician’s children.
The GOP is gonna need a helluva lot more backbone than it has to fight this fight and I don’t believe the wimps have it in them.
Nov 18, 2008 - 3:39 am 3. Valerie:Jennifer,
Good luck with that. When you have people declaring Michael Steele and John McCain RINOs, and lambasting their own candidate for daring to suggest that he should co-operate with the elected president of this country, you have a group of people who are simply unfit to govern.
Nov 18, 2008 - 4:44 am 4. Kirk Petersen:lee, with respect, I think you’ve missed the point. What Jennifer is talking about is not “energizing the base” — it’s EXPANDING the base. In her words, it’s a way for Republicans to “make common cause with inner city parents and blue collar workers,” while espousing conservative values.
Nov 18, 2008 - 5:17 am 5. anton:The NEA has done to the education system what the UAW did to automobile manufacturing in the 60’s; the pay goes up the worK-load goes down and the quality dissappears. tHE the management levels are just as bad as anything seen at the Big 3. The worst part is that the NEA has had a monopoly on education for the past four decades, at least if you didn’t like Big 3 cars you could get a Toyota.
I agree with you RE and lee, the GOP needs to do some serious house-cleaning. Too many frumpy old men that are comfortable in Washington and don’t want to rock the boat, has led to a “let’s all just get along” mindset that leaves Conservatives without a viable agenda or the will to stand up and fight for a cuase.
Nov 18, 2008 - 6:01 am 6. David:Valerie brings the two party system to a screeching end with her declaration that
Valerie is yet another voice for “getting along.” After eight years of blaming Bush for every possible thing, the Obamacrats have got nearly complete government power. Now they own the energy crisis, their global warming story, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan North Korea, relations with Russia, Europe, China, Pakistan, Cuba, Venezuela, redistribution of wealth, the people they stirred up with ACORN and the Saul Alinsky form of agitating, public education, health care, free college, the sub-prime mortgage mess, Wall Street, the collapse of the Big Three, illegal immigration, the Terrorists, the infrastructure, bloated government and all the rest.
OK, Valerie. Let’s say that the Republicans are not fit to govern. But the Obamacrats can not get to first base on “It’s all Bush’s fault” anymore. Even if the Republicans roll over for puppy tummy rubs and switch to Democrat-lite hand licking, the problems are real and growing. The Obamacrats ran on hope and change no solutions.
Obama is The Man. Already the MSM is begging people to give him a chance. Do you suppose they really know that he is totally unknown, unprepared, untested, and full of vague promises, comfort talk and no plan? Is that why we are hearing so many calls to walk with him and talk with him and stumble our way along?
Let’s wait awhile to see who is unfit to govern.
Nov 18, 2008 - 6:15 am 7. MoralsMan:1. lee:
I’m already seeing the GOP ignoring worthy causes that might potentially energize their base. Militant gay activists have blacklisted a few businesses that donated to yes on prop 8 campaign in CA. The mormon church is under attack and we can expect a few more intimidating protests neat their places of worship.
Local talk radio in So. Cal is rallying to their defense, no surprise there, but as for the republicans – nothing. Nada. I don’t recall any prominent republicans actively campaigning for prop 8, nor have they ever seriously pushed for vouchers, although Californian schools are craptacular. I don’t see any conservatives or Republicans speaking out against the bailout either.
Nov 18, 2008 – 2:28 am
Sorry to burst your bubble Lee, but go to Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee website. She is a conservative and she voted against the bailout and SPOKE LOUDLY, so I sugggest before you speak loudly, get your facts straight…
Nov 18, 2008 - 6:52 am 8. Bill in NY:the election is over, the county is facing severe economic problems in addition to the war on terror, with numerous foreign threats. can we put aside the damn “game” of red vs blue state politics and who can win the next election… and instead focus on how to move America (red and blue) forward in a positive direction? Obama won, we lost… and as Ronald Reagan would say, “trust in the judgment of the America people to make the right decision”, that’s why we have elections. The BEST thing conservatives can do is support the new President in every way possible where we have common cause, and stand up for conservative principles when and where they are being ignored… we probably won’t win those battles, but we’ll win the war as long as we never give up. As for the Republican Party, they have turned their backs on grass roots conservatives and that’s the reason they are in the political wilderness now… it’s time for a fresh start. The only way Republicans can regain trust is a Sarah Palin or Bobby Jindal who is coming in with conservative principles and a record of integrity in standing up for them.
Nov 18, 2008 - 6:53 am 9. R a Z o R:………. MITT ROMNEY * BOBBY JINDAL ……….
Nov 18, 2008 - 6:53 am 10. Susan Says:________________________________________________
……………… MERCURIAL ……………….
________________________________________________
If the Republicans allow the union card check act, sublimely titled the “Employee Free Choice Act”, to go through they will even lose my vote. I’m definitely keeping an eye on who is standing up against bailing out the big 3 at this point. Anyone with any semblance of a spine standing up against this bill should and will be seen as a new GOP party standout. Anyone for Inhofe? That man is already taking his set out, dusting them off and putting them to use! Truly, this issue could pave the way for a new GOP beginning if they choose to take it.
Nov 18, 2008 - 6:57 am 11. Red Badger:To get their “mojo” back, all the have to do is adhere to conservative principles and stop being the “ME TOO!” party……..
Nov 18, 2008 - 7:14 am 12. Fred:Rubin thinks a sneak attack on the public schools – with a boon towards religious institutions (in the guise of vouvhers) – will somehow resonate as a big win for the right – but Obama has already come out against the teacher’s Unions in the form of dumping teachers with poor qualifications – a far greater populace pleaser and anthema to the entrenched educators. As to the secret ballot – that’s negotiable as part of that bill – but as we live in a world where managment makes SO MUCH MORE MONEY than the workers who actually produce that income, ans as health care costs are continually shifted from the employerr to the employee, I think that the right will have to lie (like they do about school “choice”) to convince Americans that this is a bad bill…
let the games begin
Nov 18, 2008 - 7:21 am 13. Voice of reason:Valerie: Right, like the Deomcrats have been so bipartisan the last 8 years.
It is the democrats that are unfit to govern and they must be fought at every turn. They seek our ruination. They are not loyal opposition, they are a traitorous fifth column. The people that you upbraid are the ones that are right. not you. You are part of the problem, not they. It is odd why you hold the GOP to a different standard to the Democrats. A telling point of view, I’d say. Cooperate with communists, that’s a good one.
The rank and file of the GOP knows this and they are right. McCain lost because he lost conservatives, not because he did not “reach out to new constituencies”. He lost because he is a RINO.
He spent much of the last few years poking Conservatives and Republicans in the eye. The media tried to foisted McCain on us and, by golly, they got away with it. If not for Palin than it would have been much worse. Why? Because Palin embodied those values. It is she, BTW, that did the “reaching out to the blue collar worker” not he.
The GOP must stand on principle or they will lose their base. They cannot “market” themselves around “democrat-lite” and they can expect nothing from the Democrats except attempts to destroy anything that stands in their way — they are Leninists through and through.
Those here that want to fault conservative are either dishonest astroturfers or misguided Republicans.
In any even it is not the blue collar worker or minorities that are cause the problem . It is (sub) urbanized Boomer “BoBoes” — Yuppies that are not so young at all anymore — that have to have their head put on straight. Fortunately for us, the democrats will have move to seize their wealth soon enough.
We really must get over this notion that these self appointed elites really have anything to them but the lust for power. Riddicule must be heaped on them, not “enagement”. The have to be fought with plain and simple truths, not “crafting a message”. That is just the problem. Return to principles. Stick to them and call the democrats out for what they are each and every day. “Crafting the message” will take care of itself.
If we are to reclaim the nation we must each go out and fight in our own communities. Join the school boards, get involved in every forum, council and public organization that liberals dominate and give them an earful. get involved in a boycott of the MSM and their advertisers. Call things by their real names.
Let us stop imagining that some “better marketing savvy” from the brainiacs of the GOP are going to turn this country around. We have seen where that leads.
Nov 18, 2008 - 7:25 am 14. Just Bob:What about protecting the Second Amendment? I think this was a critically-absent (non)part of McCain’s campaign that could have helped a lot against one of the most anti-gun rights politicians out there.
Nov 18, 2008 - 7:27 am 15. G Alston:David #6 –
Valerie (#3) is correct. The right, especially the far right, is unfit to govern. Demonstrably so. And until such time as the right can begin to define the problems society faces, it will remain unfit to govern.
Of course, the left is also unfit to govern as well. This is a given. Saying that the right is unfit to govern isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of Obama.
Jennifer —
I think you are wrong. School vouchers are a knee jerk position that is a reaction to the left who doesn’t like them. Some on the right see this as a club to beat the left with. That’s a joke.
School vouchers don’t address the core issue with education, which is that we push everyone to college and most of us shouldn’t be there. We should be pushing some kids to trade schools to be plumbers. We need those. Not everyone is cut out to be white collar mutual fund managers. Teaching abstract thinking concepts in college doesn’t buy a natural born plumber anything at all.
School vouchers don’t solve this problem. In fact, you could argue that they make it worse: schools will compete to teach a lot of kids things they can’t use. As per my first paragraph, the republican party needs to first demonstrate that it understands what the problems are. Identify and THEN solve. School vouchers is the wrong way around.
Nov 18, 2008 - 7:33 am 16. Pat J:I’m curioius? What’s the definition of “traditional” conservative values. For that matter what’s the Republican’s definition of “reform?”
Nov 18, 2008 - 7:34 am 17. Susan Says:Re Fred….”"but as we live in a world where managment makes SO MUCH MORE MONEY than the workers who actually produce that income, ans as health care costs are continually shifted from the employerr to the employee, I think that the right will have to lie (like they do about school “choice”) to convince Americans that this is a bad bill…”" Seriously Fred? You are giving the unions who have summarily hog tied the auto industry a pass? Me thinks you ought look to what the steel labor unions did to that industry. Any time a collective imparts it’s will on a company to it’s detriment, it becomes a barnacle. A “bad bill” would include union concessions. It’s time to send the labor bosses packing.
Nov 18, 2008 - 7:41 am 18. G Alston:Jennifer — More on school vouchers.
The electorate is confused, and rightly so. School vouchers are an endorsement of the LEFT’s policies — equal outcome. We are not all equal. Some people have an IQ of 90. No matter how hard they try they are not going to be engineers and work for NASA. We all have equal opportunity. We all are treated equally by the law. But we are NOT equals.
School vouchers are nothing more than lefty thinking in the guise of “choice” and cloaked in the the claim of “freedom.” There is nothing free about school vouchers. As I said these are little more than schools competing to teach many kids stuff they can’t use. “We have a JD Power rating of 9.6, which means we’re better at teaching your child stuff he can’t possibly use than the school down the street who only got a 6.7.” What is the difference? Vouchers solve nothing. They’re just leftist veneer.
What needs to be done in education is to recognize which children ought to be headed for college — that is, which ones have the brains and talent to be engineers etc — and give them a college prep education. The rest will be as educated as they can be, with the emphasis of learning trades. We as a society need skilled craftsmen.
Nov 18, 2008 - 7:48 am 19. David:G Alston says the far right is unfit to govern….”demonstrably so.”
Huh? What “demonstrates” the unfitness to govern by the “far right?” The “far right” is a canard. Does G Alston consider Bush, Rove, Cheney to be “far right?” Or is the “far right” the evangelicals who are reputed to have an agenda of forcing Puritan repressive morality down everyone’s throats using the force of the police state?
Conservative principles are not difficult to list and understand.
G Alston: Kindly list the principles upon which “moderates” base their value system and which guide them in their fitness to govern. Take your time and please be specific.
Nov 18, 2008 - 7:54 am 20. Voice of reason:Bill from NY: Defending this country from a Marxist coup is not “a game”. This is not some sport competition between blue and red sports team.
The fact that you think otherwise means you are part of the problem.
The Democrats tried to undermine everything in the last 8 years during a time of war and you have the cheek to say now that we should stand together now? Where was your sentiment for unity back then?
What hypocrisy and childishness. They have nothing but my contempt, and all the more so for fobbing off on this great nation this inept affirmative action fraud off theirs. What utter scum they are. They should never be forgiven, not ever. They should not be anywhere near power or positions of responsibility of any sort whatsoever. They must be held up to ridicule and scorn. There policies must be obstructed at every turn and they must be elected out ASAP.
Stand together with people that want to destroy our very way of life? Never. There is scarcely a problem in this country that does not have the Left and the Democratic party at its root. From education to the decline of manufacturing to energy problems we always come back to their incompetence, mendacity and arrogance. They are self appoineted and self announced elites that have contempt for every good thing this country and this civilization stands for.
Bill, I have news for you, the Democrats Socialist totalitarians. The are out to destroy this nation and replace it with a Socialist hellhole. This has been their one passion since FDR. The nation will not survive much more of this leftist nonsense, not a nation worth living in at least.
The financial crisis this country is facing was caused by the Democrats, and done so willfully. B. Franks and C. Dodd should be in jail, not yukking it up in congress while attempting to seize the power of a soviet style command economy. If we get yet another “New Deal” we may never recover. Generations will be impoverished and diminished.
Work together indeed. What you mean is “submit to our masters”. What, is this your first election or something? The democrats have not succeeded in turning ua into a one part state, not yet at least. They would surely love to do so, like all collectivists everywhere.
Bill, you are living in a dream world. You are not going to have this submission from us that you call “unity”. We are not that stupid.
Nov 18, 2008 - 7:55 am 21. Letters From A Tory:You have got to be joking. The split in the Republican Party, as far as I can see, has nothing whatsoever to do with policy decisions.
It all comes down to where the party wants to position itself. Does it want to fight with the Democrats on the centre-ground and broaden its appeal, or does it want to dig a massive hole for itself and stay on the Right? The former may bring success in future, the latter spells disaster.
http://www.lettersfromatory.com
Nov 18, 2008 - 7:59 am 22. Craig:“I’m curioius? What’s the definition of “traditional” conservative values.”
Well, you might want to pick up a book. That way we wouldn’t have to explain it to you.
Here’s 3 books:
Nov 18, 2008 - 8:01 am 23. David:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot- Russell Kirk
The Closing of the American Mind- Allan Bloom
The Road to Serfdom- F.A.Hayek
Letters From a Tory instructs us thusly:
Bullfeathers! Hey, Tory, the “centre-ground” just shifted way left. You must be a swamp salesman or a paid thinker at the Institute for Thinking to come up with that blather.
The label on the bottle of snake oil you are holding up has appeasement written all over it. Do you still sport a “better red than dead” button?
Nov 18, 2008 - 8:34 am 24. Pat J:“I’m curioius? What’s the definition of “traditional” conservative values.”
Well, you might want to pick up a book. That way we wouldn’t have to explain it to you.
Here’s 3 books:
Nov 18, 2008 - 9:00 am 25. Asher:The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot- Russell Kirk
The Closing of the American Mind- Allan Bloom
The Road to Serfdom- F.A.Hayek
——————————
Intersting choices. It sort of explains why a lot of people on this website post the way they do.
School choice is an electoral disaster, whatever its technical merits might be, and I’m pretty suspicious of those. Look what happened to Michael Steele in Maryland, he promised white affluent, white suburbanites that he would take inner city kids out of inner city districts and place them in suburban districts. He called this “school choice”.
And he got slaughtered in the suburbs. The lesson is that if the GOP wants to lose the white vote, on top of losing blacks and hispanics, then it had better tell suburban whites that the GOP wants to flood their good school districts with high-crime, low-IQ demographics. Maybe if the GOP can’t compete electorally anyways, then it can have fun trying to lose every electoral demographic available. That might be fun.
Nov 18, 2008 - 9:15 am 26. David:Pat J, you forgot to list your short list of books that lay out “traditional” conservative values. And while you are at it, how about listing the short list of books that lay out your own political values?! Or do you rely on a few web sites for talking points?
Nov 18, 2008 - 9:32 am 27. Bill in NY:Voice of Reason? I commend your desire to uphold traditional conservative ideals in the face of a growing socialist movement in America. However, if you read my post, I said we should support the new President where we have common cause, and stand for conservative principles where we are being ignored. The American people have spoken, Obama won the election, and he deserves a fair chance to govern without attacking him before he is even in office. Your attitude seems to be “all those who disagree with me are the enemy” and that is only a recipe for self-defeat. What kind of world is it where all those who disagree with you are the enemy? I feel sorry for you my friend, it must be lonely up there on your pedestal. Listen, the Republicans just nationalized over 50% of the mortgages in the U.S., the largest insurance company in the world, now it appears they are going to throw good money after bad in the auto industry… all of which are unconstitutional. There’s plenty of blame for Republicans and Democrats, and politically connected big corporations with mega buck lobbies and crooked pol’s in Washington. One thing McCain had right was the veto of earmarks, if he can have influence with the current administration toward this goal, god-speed John McCain, help us all. We need Americans, red and blue, to pull together… not civil war.
Nov 18, 2008 - 9:33 am 28. Asher:We need Americans, red and blue, to pull together… not civil war.
The left is systematically conducting civil war against you whether you like it or not. The only question is whether you’re going to fight or just lay down and die.
Nov 18, 2008 - 9:54 am 29. AD Air Force:NO SCHOOL VOUCHERS!!! It will lead to federal control in private and parochial schools. Now, on the other hand a property tax credit (full or partial)for those that choose not to allow their children to be socialisticaly indoctrinated in STATE schools ina better option. The teachers unions must be broken, first and foremost. These organizations dedicated to featherbedding the careers of mediocre college graduates are a social cancer.
Nov 18, 2008 - 9:56 am 30. Dave D:Finally, Lee I agree, but I pity the swisher that breaks up my sunday service…I am armed.
For school reform to pass, you’d need the democratic congress to be willing to buck the teachers unions, when it has no real need to. Republicans could try, but voucher programs have been perenially put forth by republicans already, and there really isn’t anything else they can do, schools are essentially a local issue.
As for the secret ballots, I don’t think its as resonant a real value, simply because most people aren’t part of a union anymore. Those that are tend to be heavily left by nature already.
It would be better for republicans to widen the base by focusing on intelligent, fiscal responsibility, and common sense rulings. They just need to be internally consistent with their own party and its beliefs.
Nov 18, 2008 - 10:50 am 31. Wearyman:What is with you guys against Vouchers? Vouchers are GREAT! They let us Americans actually have a say in how our tax dollars are spent, and it allows people to send their kids to good schools, and forces schools to compete. Vouchers have worked fantastically every place they have been tried (properly).
As a parent of two Autistic children I would LOVE to have vouchers in my area. That way we could send our children to a Special Needs school where they could intensive Therapy for their disorder which simply isn’t available in regular public schools and that we cannot afford to pay for on our own.
As it is we have to fight the school for every little bit of attention our kids receive, and that’s in supposedly “special needs friendly” New York State. I can’t imagine how it must be for parents in areas that have NO programs for special needs kids!
So YES, please fight for vouchers GOP! This is a fight we can get behind!
Nov 18, 2008 - 11:02 am 32. Pat J:“Pat J, you forgot to list your short list of books that lay out “traditional” conservative values.”
—————————-
Why would I?
“And while you are at it, how about listing the short list of books that lay out your own political values?! Or do you rely on a few web sites for talking points?
Nov 18, 2008 - 11:05 am 33. Bill in NY:—————————
Why? So you and your ilk can call me a leftie pinko Obamabot?
Asher: the “fight” is in the battle of ideas, for the hearts and minds of Americans. Yes, red and blue, especially blue (since they apparently fail to see the long range consequences of socialism). If by “fight” you mean to demonize all who disagree with you and call them your enemy and hate them, then you are no friend of conservatism… that would make you a fascist. My definition of conservatism? That would be along the line of maximum freedom AND maximum responsibility, with limited government as defined in the constitution (hence the word “conservative” as it applies to the conservative). If and when President-elect Obama does something you disagree with, I trust you will stand up and let your voice be heard. And, I hope that when he attempts to do what is right, you will give him a chance… since he was elected by the people of America, even if you or I did not vote for him (I did not). If you cannot abide by the results of the election by the people of America, perhaps you should consider relocation to some other place? Perhaps one that does not allow the people to elect their President would make you happier.
Nov 18, 2008 - 11:05 am 34. Bill in NY:sorry, I meant to say “conservative as it applies to the constitution”.
Nov 18, 2008 - 11:06 am 35. momof3:I too am watching who fights the bailout, in any form. Few republicans, unfortunately, and no others. I wish the repubs would grow a pair. I may have to vote Lib next time around. Maybe we can get Palin to run Lib? That’d be great.
I have 2 kids. I send them to private school because we live in a sh*tty poor district. I’d LOVE a voucher to pay a little tiny part of that cost for me. And while I agree that yes, not all kids are made for college nor should be, you need to be careful basing that on IQ. I’d say drive has at least as much to do with it. I know some very smart slackers who just don’t give a rat’s a** about trying, and some less bright kids that study their butts off and do well. And I know plenty of very well off plumbers and electricians! And the kids with drive will be good workers, the slackers will not. In any job.
The teachers union-and quite frankly I believe all unions-need to go. If you can’t keep your job or get a raise on your merits, you don’t deserve it. A friend’s DH is a firefighter. If he didn’t have to pay his union dues, she wouldn’t have to work. What does the union do for him? He sure doesn’t know.
A man who’s kids go private has no business running school reform. Just one more reason the man makes me ill.
Nov 18, 2008 - 11:32 am 36. momof3:Oops, should be I have 2 kids In School.
Nov 18, 2008 - 11:32 am 37. myth buster:And what do you mean by, “teaching kids things they can’t use?” I had a suburban public school education and I learned enough to test out of a year of college.
Nov 18, 2008 - 11:33 am 38. myth buster:In nuclear engineering, I might add.
Nov 18, 2008 - 11:34 am 39. David:Pat J
There, there, don’t be so glum. Just lay out the principles upon which you base your political views. Conservatives have no difficulty doing it.
If you are moved by socialism and redistribution of wealth, government controlled speech, education, health care, climate control, consumer choices, etc. just say so. There is no need to be snarky. Just stand up for your beliefs.
You went after Rush Lardbutt. Why would you think I would call you a pinko Obamabot? Frankly, I don’t get into that kind of school yard hocker spitting contests.
Nov 18, 2008 - 11:43 am 40. Susan Says:momof3…Loved your post! We are in agreement that all unions should go. When did it become anti-labor to get paid according to your work ethic? I’ve never understood the mindset of paying your mob boss,er, I mean labor boss to represent you at work when the union has no power to do anything but strike. I guess it’s the uninformed workers who always fall for this. It always amazes me how companies that shun the unions like Wal-Mart are always so profitable and those that welcome them like the auto industry and the steel industry are sucking some major air.
Nov 18, 2008 - 12:13 pm 41. John the Libertarian:I like the first one: school choice. Very galvanizing. Second point… meh.
I wish the know-nothings would stop talking about seismic shifts to the left, right or center. Good G-d, how boring. Nothing’s changed. The liberals will overreach with a gun ban or requiring everyone to be gay, and they’ll get drummed out of power again.
Nov 18, 2008 - 12:21 pm 42. Pat J:I think the way for the GOP to get its mojo back is to divorce itself from the Staussian neo-cons from the far right.
Nov 18, 2008 - 12:48 pm 43. cedarford:AD Air Force:
AD – NO SCHOOL VOUCHERS!!! It will lead to federal control in private and parochial schools.
The idea that local tax dollars spent on vouchers will lead to Fed control for their modest contribution to kid’s education will lead to Federal control is like saying that any Fed ag subsidies led to Fed control of farmers. The intent of vouchers is to make it Local Control of where kids are educated – with ample “firewalls” to keep Feds and national unions out of parental choice.
AD – Now, on the other hand a property tax credit (full or partial)for those that choose not to allow their children to be socialisticaly indoctrinated in STATE schools ina better option.
Movement conservatives attempt to fit any square anything peg into the round hole by “more tax cuts for the well-off”! A big reason why they lose elections.
In case the poster has forgotten, we collectively contribute to schooling with local and state taxes. All of us. Now I’m fine with having that funding be allowed to go to other educational choices than failing schools – but not to only reward a wealthy subset of people who would benefit from substantial tax cuts on their local properties. Them being the only people with an option of subsidized “choice” to send kids off to boarding school and such while renters, low-income, people without kids get no fat kickback check in the mail.
AD – The teachers unions must be broken, first and foremost. These organizations dedicated to featherbedding the careers of mediocre college graduates are a social cancer.
Good luck to you “broadening the base” if you think it a wise strategy not offer a consumer alternative to a “union product” but wish to put a declining Republican Party in service of union-busting against Joe Sixpack, Joe the Plumber, Manolo the SEIU waiter now allowed to see a doctor and get a savings plan, Reagan Democrats, cops and firefighters. A full frontal attack on “breaking their unions” or calling affiliates “social cancers”.
AD – Finally, Lee I agree, but I pity the swisher that breaks up my sunday service…I am armed.
Yep, that is about as smart as the rest of your Cro-Magnon conservatism (actually, I apologize..Cro-Magnons were quite intelligent.) So swishers come in screaming “gay marriage, more altar boys!” or whatever.
Nov 18, 2008 - 1:05 pm 44. lee:And mighty you…being armed and ever so potent..doesn’t stand for it and shoots said loud-mouthed but otherwise harmless “swishers”. On being led away, proudly shouts how Republican you are, how much you hate homos, and how you love the 2nd Amendment.
Well, then you would enter a certain phase of your life where you could not be a proud Republican voter or a 2nd Amendment gun owner – such activities being precluded in the clink. But not from interacting with all other “swishers!” Not even willingly…as men go to prison singly, well, nature seems to take it’s course at each convict pen. You would have “swishers” all around you, and as a fresh fish convict, you would get to decide which gang to join and be a “kneepad bitch” to service the senior swishers in a variety of ways.
Kirk
The GOP’s not making an effort expand or energize its base IMO. Remember – prop 8 passed with overwhelming minority support, and some of them are now under attack for supporting or donating to that measure. Many liberals are thunderstruck that WE would vote for Obama AND vote traditional marriage. They think non whites should vote for the dems on principle. They fail to discern that a huge chunk of the minorities are religious or conservative. Minorities are really closet republicans, especially the older generation. (The left only secures their vote by pushing immigration rights and affirmative action type measures) But outside of some obligatory spanish ads, I don’t see republicans seriously reaching out to minorities during any campaign. There was no loud celebration from republicans after prop 8 passed, or solidarity expressed towards minorities who rallied for what should have been THE GOP cause.
Morals man
Maybe I should have said that I don’t see the GOP speaking against the bailout as a whole. Mccain certainly didn’t, and he was the republican presidential candidate.
Again, traditional marriage, school vouchers (more importantly, the parents right to send their kids to a school of their choice), bailout, eliminating secret election for unions – these are issues the GOP should be making noise on to make their party relevant again. But they’re not. They’re in such disarray that they can’t even recognize or capitolize on what few victories they were able to achieve during the election. Prop 8 passed in the most bluest state of the union. Minorities voted Obama for that vague sense of change (as did most of the youth), but they’ll end up rejecting a number of his most liberal social agendas.
As soon as the GOP realizes that increasing Latino votes to Bush era level (35-40%), they’ll be on the comeback trail again.
Nov 18, 2008 - 1:11 pm 45. Jude:Keep the government the hell out of personal lives with the gay and abortion. Can you believe that Congress was into baseball and the naming of stadiums and post offices? GIVE ME A BREAK!!! The great USA is something like twenty something on infant mortality in the world. Singapore is the safest place to give birth? Check it out you people who think we are the greatest. We’re not! However, we are giving it all we’ve got. We have a Congress that find it next to impossible to behave themselves, and we elect these people year after year. WHY ???
Nov 18, 2008 - 1:12 pm 46. John:Our schools are a disgrace. We attempt to change it by throwing money at the education establishment promising to correct the problem. Why do we have a summer off? History tells us it’s to put in the crops. (when we were an agriculture society) It’s time for a change to the modern world and have a few weeks off a couple of times a year and get on with it. We’re way down on the list as far as education goes. Check it out you nonbelievers!!
Both these are marginal issues as far as the vast majority of the electorate. Did anyone see either of them on ANY of those poll lists of most important issues? At the moment voters have many other things on their minds and the sign are that on some of the most important the GOP is going to attempt to throw roadblocks in the way of the Democrats. Meanwhile the Greek chorus on right wing talk radio, publishing, tv and even lowly blogs like PJ are going to be keeping the true believers riled up on all the hot button issues like immigration, beating up on teachers, healthcare, choice in health matters, global warming, stem cell research, gay rights etc etc as the moderate part of the Republican party in the senate and house (who are worried about 2010) come to terms with the new order where you have a new Democratic president with 70% approval ratings and comfortable Dem majorities in both houses. A brief surf of the comments here, not to mention Ms Rubin’s shaky prescriptions demonstrate how much anger and irrationality is out there. Believe me this is all going to be music to the ears of Obama and co who is going to pose as the moderate, centrist competent manager up against a lot of nuts. We’ll have this conversation again in a year and see if I’m right.
Nov 18, 2008 - 1:47 pm 47. G Alston:#45 Jude — “The great USA is something like twenty something on infant mortality in the world.”
Incorrect. This is an artifact of statistical manipulation; e.g. in most Euro countries a stillbirth isn’t even counted as a dead infant. It’s something that never was alive. In the US meanwhile doctors and nurses perform outright heroics doing everything possible (and more!) to revive, and if revival isn’t possible, count it as a dead infant. Numbers like this reflect the attitude of the medical communities, not the abilities. Don’t believe me? Look at a picture of ANY medical facility (especially operating theatres) in the world and look closely at the equipment. It’s mostly US made or invented. It’s not as if these people are using high tech stuff we’ve never heard of, etc.
#35 momof3, #37 myth buster
It’s not necessary to twist what I wrote; the fact that you are reaching to show the exception proves the rule. IQ may not be the only determinant (the world has plenty of useless “smart” people) but you have to start somewhere, and although brain power alone doesn’t tell the whole story, you can’t get world class physicists from the left side of the bell curve, either. This much ought to be obvious. Vouchers do not solve the real problem, which is the teaching of methods to those who don’t need them. The right side of the bell curve benefits from learning abstract symbol manipulation, from learning how to learn. The left side learns by rote, which bores the pants off the bright kids. Vouchers do little more than find a “conservative approved” way to continue to bore the pants off the bright kids and baffle the rest. Vouchers are a leftist approach — touchy feely sounds good and all that until you give them more than 5 seconds of thought.
#19 David — “Or is the “far right” the evangelicals who are reputed to have an agenda of forcing Puritan repressive morality down everyone’s throats using the force of the police state?”
Ummm… wow. Tell you what — when you think you can contribute something useful, I’ll pretend to listen.
Nov 18, 2008 - 2:13 pm 48. David:G Alston:
You said: “The right, especially the far right, is unfit to govern. Demonstrably so.”
Aw, shucks. I asked your to clarify your pronouncement. (What “demonstrates” the unfitness to govern by the “far right?”)
And you just blow me off with: Tell you what — when you think you can contribute something useful, I’ll pretend to listen.
Don’t pretend to listen. Just concentrate on making sense and backing your dogma with facts.
Nov 18, 2008 - 3:18 pm 49. josil:I don’t think the GOP has much of a chance of winning elections based on a strategy that apes the Democrats…or even the Center Left. I don’t recall Reagan pandering to the trial lawyers and teachers union. Nor do i think the GOP has to be ethnic sensitive so much as common sensical (e.g., the immigration issue). I notice that a number of east coast intellectual RINOs have tried to push the party leftward, or divorce it from its religious base. But RINOs only have a following in their own very restrictive circle. What conservatives know (and liberals do not) is that the market even at its worst is better than planned economies at their best…which is why so many quasi-socialist governments in europe have been moving toward market solutions…and why communist governments have moved to capitalism (if not democracy). It is only liberal intellectuals who are so obtuse that they cannot detect real world experience. Of course, when you spend your life in a university hothouse, maybe that’s all that can be expected.
Nov 18, 2008 - 3:59 pm 50. G Alston:#49 Josil — “I notice that a number of east coast intellectual RINOs have tried to push the party leftward, or divorce it from its religious base.”
Not necessarily just you but… WTF is with this assumption that the core of the republican party is a religious base? That’s where the thinking at this place goes completely upside down; that assumption is not only incorrect, but astoundingly so.
In fact, statements like these tell me that the media owns most of you. In an effort to make republicans look like semi-retarded drooling NASCAR loving trailer dwelling hicks, the “typical” republican as portrayed by the media news is never an average or even reasonable person. Heck no. It’s always some left of the bell curve slack jawed bible thumper that can’t even display an understanding of the issue du jour or ranting about abortion or some sort of “family values” rubbish (right after the 1 minute piece showing that some republican congressman or governor is a pedophile or secretly gay or something, usually.) Har har har. Ain’t them republicans cute?
The religious right gets a lot of media play because they are vocal and this plays right into the image the media wishes to portray. Portrayals like these started getting prevalent around 10 years ago. This was purposeful. Fast forward a few years and here I am listening to an earnest group of republicans who assume — almost entirely due to media portrayals — that the party base is in fact composed almost entirely of the deeply religious.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Sociodemographic data says that the evangelicals (deeply religious) account for a whopping 15% to 17% of the republican party. The party does not need them (what, do you really think this crowd is going to up and vote democrat? Hah!) at the point of kowtowing to this “base” that doesn’t even exist.
By regurgitating the lefty media fed assertions, the only thing you are doing is playing their game for them. No flipping wonder the left is killing the right in most demographic groups.
#48 David —
“I asked your to clarify your pronouncement.”
Ummm….
“Or is the “far right” the evangelicals who are reputed to have an agenda of forcing Puritan repressive morality down everyone’s throats using the force of the police state?”
Not really. You were making a cheap attack, presuming to put words in my mouth. Not exactly conducive to discussion.
Nov 18, 2008 - 5:11 pm 51. Dave R:Wow, Voice of Reason thanks for the laugh. Take a deep breath, calm down and take your meds before you hurt yourself, or someone else
Nov 18, 2008 - 5:51 pm 52. David:G Alston:
So, you are hiding behind being a victim of what you call a cheap attack on my part.
Have you no honor, sir? You said: “The right, especially the far right, is unfit to govern. Demonstrably so.”
Obviously, you can not defend what is quite probably a …. er ….. uh ….. a cheap shot on your part. So, you play the part of an eel and try to slip away from what is “demonstrably so” when it comes to, especially the far right, being unfit to govern.
As fair warning, you have every right to tuck tail in run, because the next obvious question is how you define “far right.”
Nov 18, 2008 - 6:50 pm 53. njcommuter:Vouchers let you choose. They let you find the school that’s right for your kid. If your kid needs rote and drill, you can find that kind of school. If your kid needs to advance to abstract work, you can find that kind of school.
Getting kids out from under control of the NEA is vital to our nation’s future. Public schools can’t do that. Vouchers can. Oh, they’ll fight it. They’ll demand that the schools are “certified.” But we can fight back, so long as we don’t give up the battle before we get there.
Today’s public schools don’t even want to multi-track kids. I was in schools that multi-tracked, and I’m very, very glad. Without it I would have been bored stiff and I probably would have given up trying to learn.
Nov 18, 2008 - 7:18 pm 54. Pat J:I define “far right” as being as out of touch with mainstream America.
I also see the “far right” as being wrong on just about everything.
I see the “far right” of jumping on issues such as abortion, gay marriage and immigration, yet ignoring more important issues such as fixing the economy, dealing with climate change and ending a war that never should have taken place.
It’s like the “far right” has to have its “enemies.” Its “isms.” Or else it’s got nothing.
The GOP can get its mojo back by getting its priorities straight.
Nov 18, 2008 - 7:29 pm 55. G Alston:#53 njcommuter — “Vouchers let you choose.”
Circular logic, From the movie “idiocracy” –
Attorney General: “Brawndo’s got what plants crave.”
Nov 18, 2008 - 9:02 pm 56. Pajamas Media » How the GOP Can Get Its Mojo Back:Secretary of Energy: “Yeah, it’s got electrolytes.”
Joe: “What are electrolytes? Do you even know?”
Secretary of State: “It’s what they use to make Brawndo.”
Joe: “Yeah, but why do they use them to make Brawndo?”
Secretary of Defense: “‘Cause Brawndo’s got electrolytes.”
[...] Pajamas Media » How the GOP Can Get Its Mojo Back As for the Republican Party, they have turned their backs on grass roots conservatives and that’s the reason they are in the political wilderness now… it’s time for a fresh start. The only way Republicans can regain trust is a Sarah … [...]
Nov 18, 2008 - 9:28 pm 57. PJM’s Jennifer Rubin: School choice and card check good issues for GOP « The Conservative Wilderness:[...] 19, 2008 by Steve Good post the other day from Jennifer Rubin of PJM. As we start looking for issues around which we can win back some of the middle, Rubin picks two [...]
Nov 19, 2008 - 6:11 am 58. David:In my community, which voted 80% for Obama, the public schools are having trouble passing the state tests. They have become quite small and are shrinking. We have undergone a huge growth in private schools. These private schools have excellent records and have not only drawn students away from the community, but from surrounding school districts. The parents are finding a way to pay the tuition while still being pasted with high property taxes. Home schooling is so prevalent that there is a remarkable infrastructure of talented parents to help with the math, science, language, etc.
Many of these students come from liberal families who really just want to get their kids away from nonsense education and an environment where kids who act out control the agenda. We have one private high school that is as “progressive” as any loony university experimental school has ever been. Another private high school is Christian based and Bible is taught as a requirement in the Junior year. One private high school is Catholic. One private high school is a traditional prep school. One private high school is totally residential and takes only boys who need to be focused in meeting and succeeding in academics.
Our community is slightly less than 50,000 in population. The one public high school was built to house 2,000 and it has a population of about 950. While the public high school has a group of remarkable students who fare well, it is mired down with casual attendees who bring neighborhood beefs with them and who require enormous energy.
The NEA has lied for years about being equipped to deal with the kind of kids who have brought Washington DC schools to their knees. The NEA has fought vouchers tooth and nail, because they do not want to face the mess society and the public schools have made.
I own quality health insurance so that I do not have to wait on a folding chair in a public clinic. Parents are paying to get their kids educated without all the mess of many public schools. When I choose a motel, I stay away from the ones where the drug dealers, hookers and bus loads of kids stay. Careful parents stay on top of their kid’s learning and put them in a private school if that is what is needed. Choices.
Vouchers are not only fair, they permit parents to act responsibly. I have a friend who insists she wants her child to be educated in “a cross section” of society. But she is planning for him to go to a selective university. And when I go to her parties, I never encounter the “cross section” of society she so values.
The ‘invisible hand” is at work in our liberal community. Many liberals just won’t be honest about it. The public schools superintendents come and go, the principals are constantly being shifted around and sent off for “paradigm” reeducation and magic methods training.
I know of no university with an education school that specializes in taking the broken children of society and mending them. You would think there would be model schools for such problems somewhere for all the hot air that the NEA, the universities and the liberals in general blow.
Inner city schools are a major challenge all across the land. But our egalitarian concept of public education not only fails those kids it sucks the strength away from the middle and the top. If the whole hospital operated like the ER it would be an impossibly expensive zoo where the bulk of patients would just sit and wait and try to get by on their own.
Nov 19, 2008 - 7:26 am 59. Asher:Asher: the “fight” is in the battle of ideas, for the hearts and minds of Americans. Yes, red and blue, especially blue (since they apparently fail to see the long range consequences of socialism).
Silly boy, there is no “America” any longer, other than the historical accident of lines on a map. The left is out to conquer you, and to the victor go the spoils. There is a cagefight underway between right and left and only one of us is coming out alive, and, hopefully, you will comprehend this before your conquest and enslavement.
If by “fight” you mean to demonize all who disagree with you and call them your enemy and hate them, then you are no friend of conservatism… that would make you a fascist.
Demonize? No, silly boy, conquer. Conquer them, or they will conquer you. BTW, about two years ago I began openly calling myself a fascist, of the a-racial sort, ala Mussolini. Conservatism is an ideology, and one that has little value for the survival of the type of life in America that considers itself “right of center”.
Nov 19, 2008 - 10:03 am 60. Pinkytoo:David:
http://www.unr.edu/features/08-09/dfs/
Nov 19, 2008 - 10:26 am 61. Asher:@Pinkytoo
All those stories you hear of the Ortiz’s rescuing inner city kids? Yeah, there is a percentage of inner city kids who have decent IQ’s, so what Ortiz does is find kids who have a 95+ IQ and, voila, magic. No, he’s not working miracles, he’s just selecting kids with some decent degree of innate ability.
Ortiz probably was gifted with a well-above average IQ, but what’s interesting is that when you visually assess all of those “superstar” Hispanic educators in barrios they all look very white. Ortiz is clearly well over 50 percent European ancestry, and the average IQs of different “hispanic” groups is directly correlated to their average percentage of European ancestry/DNA. Cubans are at almost 100, they’re around 85 percent European, while Amerindian Guatemalans are around 85, often more than 75 percent non-Euro.
Nov 19, 2008 - 11:12 am 62. David:Pinkytoo:
I have been involved in one of these programs for nearly 20 years.
Perhaps you misread my comments or you decided not to deal with the content.
There are countless inner city schools full of kids of the people who couldn’t comprehend the warnings in New Orleans before Katrina hit and then went “shopping” through store windows afterwards.
The schools that are populated with their kids are facing an enormous task. However, the NEA, the politically correct schools of education, the MSM, the government egalitarians and citizens in general are willfully blind to attacking the problems head on.
Head Start, school breakfasts and lunches, tutoring services, mentoring and a raft of welfare programs have not made a measurable dent. Washington DC has an enormous per pupil income, but physically decaying schools and not much to show from their educational programs.
Perhaps you would send your child to a building full of teachers trying catch up kids who attend irregularly or teachers trying to calm kids down or teachers who put the cooperative student in charge of working with struggling students, etc. Most parents send their kids to school to learn, not to become social workers or sit back and watch the teacher play games with a student throwing fits.
You have to divide to conquer this problem.
Nov 19, 2008 - 12:19 pm 63. Right Wing Nut House » OOGEDY-BOOGEDY AND BIBBIDI, BOBBIDI, BOO:[...] Now what? If Parker’s “oogedy boogedy” is an elitist’s exaggeration of what the religious right truly represents but if Goldberg is too dismissive of the public face of this movement – the Dobsons, the Ralph Reeds, even the Sarah Palins whose dogmatic approach to the political permutations of social issues turns off many urban, heartland, and in between voters – where can the GOP go to get its mojo back? (Apologies to Mother Jones and Jennifer Rubin.) [...]
Nov 20, 2008 - 6:43 am 64. Pinkytoo:David: I was only addressing your statement that you didn’t know of any university that specializes in attempting to fix at least part of the problem.
Asher: WTF are YOU talking about? Did you read and/or comprehend the article? Take your genetic racism on down the road.
Nov 20, 2008 - 10:59 am 65. Asher:@Pinkytoo
Asher: WTF are YOU talking about? Did you read and/or comprehend the article? Take your genetic racism on down the road.
I read the article, but unlike the person who wrote it I actually know what’s going on when I see stories of superstar educators rescuing inner city kids. As I said before, this is just smart people recognizing the sliver of talented kids in inner city schools and helping them utilize their innate potential. The faulty inference is that this sort of program is generalizable to large numbers of “at risk” youth. It isn’t.
There is a vast array of inherited traits in the human species and it is not distributed evenly among different populations; i.e. different races are genetically different. That’s not racism, it’s reality.
Nov 20, 2008 - 6:27 pm 66. melissa k:Anyone with a 3 digit IQ can see that public schools have failed democracy’s crucial requirement…an informed and rational electorate. Obama played the public school non thinkers aka. useful idiots like a drum. They won’t know they’ve been had for years.
Nov 20, 2008 - 10:24 pm 67. Pinkytoo:“There is a vast array of inherited traits in the human species and it is not distributed evenly among different populations; i.e. different races are genetically different. That’s not racism, it’s reality.”
Dude, I’d say you are a prime example of the US school system. In case you haven’t heard, the Human Genome Project has proven that there is no biological basis for the concept of race. The human cell has about 100,000 genes, only six out of the 100,000 control skin colour. And everyone has the same six, including the genes for black skin. Let me put it simply for you, Mr. James Watson Wannabe: the color of one’s skin has NOTHING to do with one’s IQ.
Oh and by the way? In a county of 125,000 total population – the one referred to in the article -I’d hardly consider any of the public schools “inner city.”
Nov 21, 2008 - 1:02 pm 68. Jeff:By the time Obama and his leftist illuminati cabinet run this country into the ground by 2012, the GOP’s job of getting its mojo back will be made much easier. There has to be a unification, though, and a clear candidate who has charisma and a backbone.
Nov 21, 2008 - 8:44 pm