71 Comments

1. Distraught:

Another reason could be so that they might be rightly held accountable for their ignorant policies. Not that it’s ever happened, nor would He allow it. But the voters need all the help they can get. However, the more it tacks the more subtle the destruction, which is why I would almost prefer 3200. Alas, 2013… darn. So smart these guys.

Nov 9, 2009 - 1:42 am 2. RAH:

The question do you help your enemy or fight them. The liberals decided after 3004 to fight the government and they won. Rush was correct when he said he hope that Obama fails in enacting his agenda.

However conservatives will support a robust war policy. So there actions depend on Obama’s agenda.

What we do accept is that Obama is the President for good or bad and we have to deal with the consequence. We mitigate the bad policies and help the good ones.

Nov 9, 2009 - 2:28 am 3. RE:

Somehow I just can’t bring myself to get excited about Mr. Moran’s ‘death by a thousand cuts’ political philosophy.

Nov 9, 2009 - 3:17 am 4. Gary Ogletree:

The question is so stupid I didn’t waste my time reading the article. Getting to be a habit, Rick.

Nov 9, 2009 - 3:41 am 5. vivo:

“Otherwise, there will come a day when they will be arguing over the scraps of what is left of a once great nation, brought to its knees because its governing class couldn’t stop acting like brawling children.”

What’s so incomprehensible that people can’t drop their political affiliations and become just AMERICANS?

Why can’t we analyze what the American people needs to better themselves and work out solutions?

It’s been done, but these days selfishness is rampant. Any hope?

What do we have to thank for at Thanksgiving?

Will the Holidays bring the giving spirit or just the commercialism?

Nov 9, 2009 - 4:01 am 6. Zero Tolerance!:

Why is it that it is always a Republican that wants to lay down and roll over onto his/her back like some sort of a half mutated dog with it’s deformed tongue hanging out as a way of dealing with the damn Democrats?

Mr. Moran if you want to cave into the America hating, God bashing liberal trash that is running the Whitehouse and Congress now have at it!

But, don’t expect any person that actually cares about something besides their own greed and self gratification to agree with you!

Nov 9, 2009 - 4:10 am 7. Old Soldier:

Fight on! Fight the good fight for freedom.

Sound off like you have a pair – or you will be replaced. You swore to defend and uphold the Constitution – we know the Democrats are lying when the take the oath, but anyone who earns my vote will be expected to fulfill that oath.

Nov 9, 2009 - 4:37 am 8. beavercleaver:

The short answer is “Hell No”, and that answer is provided by Democrats in 2009. They will not even consider tort reform, selling insurance across state lines, or tax cuts. Obama won’t meet with them, and when he does, he is dismissive (“I won”). Yet, Republicans are supposed to “help” the Democrats “govern”? Democrats mouth the word ” bipartisan”, and consider 1-2 votes from the other side to meet that definition, yet do absolutely nothing towards anything really bipartisan. Sorry, but partisanship is a good thing. It is what keeps each side in check, unless, like now, one side simply ignores the other and steamrolls them. I only hope the Republicans are taking good notes for when the worm turns. Republicans are the ones with the “shared power” idiot schemes (remember Daschle whining?) that blow up and come back to bite them on the ass. No more Mr. Nice Elephant once we are back in the majority.

Nov 9, 2009 - 4:37 am 9. Jack Jolis:

Vivo: “What’s so incomprehensible that people can’t drop their political affiliations and become just AMERICANS?”

Did you say that, publicly or privately, to anyone, even once during the 8 years of the George W. Bush presidency?

SURE you did.

Get outta here, you great waste of space…..

Nov 9, 2009 - 4:43 am 10. Booker T. Gain:

YES HE CAN!

Can Rick Moran write an article which is even more stupid than the last one.

Nov 9, 2009 - 4:44 am 11. Booker T. Gain:

Will the Holidays bring the giving spirit or just the commercialism?

Couldn’t bring yourself to say Christmas Holidays , could you? Can’t we all just get along while we destroy your heritage?

Nov 9, 2009 - 4:56 am 12. CatoRenasci:

Help the Democrats govern? If, indeed, they were governing in accordance with the Constitution, there would be areas where principled agreement was possible, and areas where principle required disagreement.

Now, the only area where principled agreement is possible is in support for our military – and, there, the Democrats have to be dragged kicking and screaming to do the absolute minimum. Indeed, they may well end up not doing the minimum.

On domestic policy, there is really no ground to work with the Democrats.

The Republicans are in the position they are now because they broke faith with the American people on spending.

Clinton was elected in 1992 because GHW Bush broke faith with the American people on taxes.

And, yet, what the people get when they fire the Republicans because they don’t walk the walk on taxes or spending, is a Democratic party committed to expanding government control over all aspects of the lives of those who reside in the US (I won’t say citizens because the Democrats don’t distinguish between illegal aliens and citizens).

The short answer to you question, then, is NO.

Nov 9, 2009 - 5:01 am 13. Numerian:

I think bi-partisan cooperation is literally impossible in most cases, because to have bi-partisan cooperation you need to have something roughly resembling a consensus on what any given policy should be. Do we have any such consensus? On any major issue? Of course not. On most issues what one side considers a solution, the other side considers a problem. Increasingly I’m starting to wonder if it wouldn’t be better for the country to divide into two parts. Yes, I mean “secession”.

Bear in mind, it needn’t precipitate another civil war. The truth is, liberals utterly loathe and detest conservatives, and there are many parts of the country where one side or the other pretty much dominates. The northeast, for example, is liberal-land, while the south and Rocky Mountain regions are conservative. Wouldn’t both sides be happier if they didn’t have to interact with one another? In more divided, 50/50 parts of the country the populations would, over time, gradually begin to emigrate into the areas in which they’re politically and culturally more comfortable.

Nov 9, 2009 - 5:16 am 14. pelaut:

The Nelson Rockefeller Country Club GOP always stand by the PC, M/C Left apologists because they are their their kids!

The party should be disbanned immediately and all of its officers shunned.

Nov 9, 2009 - 5:19 am 15. Pedrosito:

Rick, think before you write. Never post if you have been drinking.

Nov 9, 2009 - 5:20 am 16. John "birther" Samford:

No.

Nov 9, 2009 - 6:11 am 17. Earl T:

Ahhhh! Rick Moran, a guy who puts the capital “R” in RINO! He just wants to be loved along the Potomac, like his main crush, Peggy Noonan!

Nov 9, 2009 - 6:26 am 18. whyamInotsurprised?:

Hell NO!

Nov 9, 2009 - 6:49 am 19. MarkD:

If a thief comes for Rick’s wallet, he’ll be happy to give the thief half?

The premise is stupid. If you are willing to compromise your principles, you have none.

Nov 9, 2009 - 7:00 am 20. Now and Then:

Thanks anyway, we don’t need your help:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/08/snl-mocks-foxs-election-c_n_349891.html

Nov 9, 2009 - 7:01 am 21. vivo:

9. Jack Jolis:

“Did you say that, publicly or privately, to anyone, even once during the 8 years of the George W. Bush presidency?”

You know well what a bad president Bush was. Cheney was running the gov’t from his dungeon. They wouldn’t listen to anyone and tore down the country. It was hopeless. Now we get their grandiose legacy. President Obama is going on the right direction. The basics of reformed health care has been approved. Now it’s up to the Senate to make some refinements and bring the USA to world-class standards.

Nov 9, 2009 - 7:01 am 22. Filthy Screw:

I see no common ground between GOP and Dems on anything important. We shouldn’t be sniping, we should be shouting and next time our liar-in-chief lies in front of us we should shout loud and long ‘liar’ until he shuts up. Maybe then we’ll find a backbone and take back this country. Maybe people will vote GOP if it does not look like Dem clones.

Nov 9, 2009 - 7:05 am 23. Jettboy:

I second, third, and whatever number it is up to in answering “No.” The best government is the one that governs least.

Nov 9, 2009 - 7:08 am 24. cfbleachers:

Rick, you are right. Absolutely right…without question. Without hesitation and without reservation.

And I will stand beside you and absorb any and all abuse by the extremists who have stolen the self-governance of this land of ours. We are ruled by a mob of screeching, raging bulls, incapable of reason, rationale or principled debate.

Those of us in the middle who watch and listen to the proselytizing in our left ear, then our right…suffer from polemic tinnitus, the permanence of which I fear will never cease.

These denizens of the bulge and spittle corps cannot debate a single worthy issue without the rage and fury of eyes bulging and flecks of spittle rocketing from between their clenched teeth.

HOWEVER…let me return to my “always remember” theme. The leftists are more dangerous. They are more to blame. They are a blight on our society and they deserve have a light shined upon them so that they cannot scurry and hide behind the baseboards and in the attics of history.

For more than 40 years they have stolen the information stream and have attempted to slander the truth, gang rape the facts and eliminate debate by means so vile and despicable, that it should be treated as a criminal offense.

They have taken over the entrenched media, Hollywood, academia in such a totalitarian stranglehold, that NO issue related to self-governing this land of ours surpasses this one. It makes the game rigged, fixed…by crooked umpires.

NO debate can take place that is worth the oxygen it takes to exhale the words, if the judges are on the take. If the facts and evidence supported by one side is rotted with lies and distortions.

Yes, both sides have fanatics who mistake being loud and obnoxious for being persuasive. But one side has been cheating for four decades. The information stream…and those who have signed on as guardians at its gate…is a quasi-public trust. When those guardians are so morally bankrupt as to pull off an “inside job”…and deprive of us the objectivity we desperately need to self-govern based upon trusting facts and evidence within our national debates…then we MUST first cure the “truth necrosis” that has invaded our body politic.

If that automatically puts me on the opposite side…then that’s where I will stand. And so should every single man or woman of honor.

Again, it is NOT that I side with extremists on any individual issue, it is that I MUST stand against the intentional rape of our information stream.

It is axiomatic that if an act occurs, a statement is made, a position is taken or a word is uttered…and if it was EXACTLY the same…it would be treated entirely differently if the voice was Republican than if it was a liberal Democrat. This unfairness cannot be allowed to stand. There IS NO DEBATE…if the debate is fixed, rigged before it begins.

And there can be no bi-partisanship…if one side of the debate is having its opinion slandered time after time after time…before it even gets out of the gate. Strangle a voice, create an extremist.

Who started it? Who cares? I only know what exists today. Unchecked leftism is every bit as dangerous…and it is the reality that we live with at the moment. Former leftists who have awakened with an epiphany of conscience are the best documentarians of the atrocities against the truth that have taken place and are taking place as we speak.

There is no compromise…if first we must compromise the truth.

Nov 9, 2009 - 7:18 am 25. Chris in Toronto:

In order for the two groups to work together they must have common premises and a shared idea of destination. Working together in such an environment is a matter of quibbling over the means. Once upon a time in America this was possible; it is no longer.

The left has become all-in collectivist, viewing the individual as the property of the State. The right believes in the sovereignty of the individual. The left views rights not as inalienable and “endowed by their Creator” but as revokable and allowed by the State. The right believes, as so well stated in the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights”. The left views capitalism as evil and the profit motive as the root of all evil; the right views capitalism as the means for generating and justly distributing wealth (ie: those who can pay for a good gets to have the good) and the profit motive as an inherent, incentivizing aspect of human nature. These are just some of the premises where left and right fail to achieve common ground.

And what about destinations? Both sides want what is “best” for America; superficially, they share a common destination. Determining what is meant by best, though, requires evaluating how the ends (legislation and resultant regulation) work with respect to what is seen as the “good”. In this (admittedly non-thesis level) argument, the good is synonymous with the premises to which the sides adhere. As the sides hold diametrically opposed ideas of “the good”, what is seen as what’s best for America by the two sides are likewise diametrically opposed.

So, in answer to Mr Moran’s question, “Should the GOP Help the Democrats Govern?”, my answer is a qualified no. The qualification being that the GOP should help when the Democrats propose action or legislation that is in line with GOP premises, while in all other cases they should obstruct as much as possible the Democrats and their statist overreaching.

Nov 9, 2009 - 7:18 am 26. moho:

If, for example, Democrats are hell-bent on massive, “comprehensive” reform of the health care system, should Republicans really work with them to pass it?

No, absolutely not. Nor should the Democrats ask for the help. The country gave Democrats a majority in the houses to begin with. And they did that for a reason–they just don’t trust Republicans. Democrats should use that mandate to brush aside Republicans in any area that there is conflict, since that is simply the will of the people.

Nov 9, 2009 - 7:23 am 27. Cybergeezer:

Sure; The GOP is becoming the dhimmi!

Nov 9, 2009 - 7:26 am 28. vivo:

11. Booker T. Gain:

“Couldn’t bring yourself to say Christmas Holidays, could you?”

Sorry Mr. Gain:

Will the Christmas, Navidad, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, Le Reveillon, Epiphany, Yule Holidays bring the giving spirit or just the commercialism?

Nov 9, 2009 - 7:28 am 29. TexEd:

The distortion in your question warps any answer. The dems aren’t interested in massive reform of the health system, that wouldn’t have taken trillions and two thousand pages, they are focused on the destruction of the middle class in America.
Health care control allows the early deaths of seniors. Then will come the weakening of the military to “save” money. Then will come confiscation of all weapons; then abolition of private housing, all along maintaining reeducation camps in the wilderness.
Republicans help? NO!!!

Nov 9, 2009 - 7:47 am 30. Paul:

“Fight on! Fight the good fight for freedom.

Sound off like you have a pair – or you will be replaced. You swore to defend and uphold the Constitution – we know the Democrats are lying when the take the oath, but anyone who earns my vote will be expected to fulfill that oath.”

HEAR, HEAR, OLD SOLDIER!!! Now THAT is true wisdom!!

Nov 9, 2009 - 8:09 am 31. Eddie:

Here’s my problem… whenever I hear the argument for bipartisan support of something it is ALWAYS increasing the size and scope of the federal government. We’ve had a string of non-crisis crises that “need” to be handled by the government, and I, for one, am sick of it.

Are we to believe that this health care reform is a crisis? A bill, that in one form or another, has been submitted every year for 85 years is supposed to be urgently needed?

Without any increase in size at all, the government is too big, too bloated, inefficient, corrupted, taken advantage of in huge ways, rife with a bizarre self-serving cooperation between unions and petty bureaucrats (who ever heard of white-collar unions before?) and yet is there ever any “bipartisan” effort to trim it back to a reasonable size?

It is supremely illogical to think that given two choices: a) pay that guy over there to buy the widget he makes, or b) pay that gigantic institution which answers to a board that answers to an elected committee which has to follow arcane procedures, is by law required to do all sorts of strange record keeping activities, get approvals at various times, whose employees are immune to firing for lack of performance, and who have no stake in whether the customer is ever satisfied to buy the widget for you…
that choice b would ever be the correct choice.

Nov 9, 2009 - 8:31 am 32. DaveT:

On the issues where we can work together with Dems, I think it just happens without much fanfare. Beyond that, I think it is very good that we have clear choices when selecting our elected officials. When the party in power goes on to do stupid and destructive things, there needs to be a clear alternative. So no, on the issues of today where the Dems are little more than termites destroying our country quietly form within, we clearly should not help them. And when the damage gets too bad to ignore, hopefully we will have strong leaders in the opposition to step in and repair the damage.

Nov 9, 2009 - 8:38 am 33. jharp:

It seems obvious that Mr. Moran has seen the light that conservatism is a dismal failure. And yet he isn’t willing to openly admit it.

C’mon, Rick. The truth shall set you free. Call these frauds out for what they are and what they have done to our economy. Join John Cole and Charles Johnson (2 ex wingnuts) who crossed over to the side of the truth.

Nov 9, 2009 - 8:50 am 34. HEPT:

The fact is the democrats are the ones not working with republicans. Commie’s are that way you know! Everyone is wrong or too uneducated to rule so the liberal elites want to run the show with no dissent and no working together.
“What happens if the democrats take over the Sahara desert?”
“Nothing for three years then there will be an acute shortage of sand.”

Nov 9, 2009 - 9:16 am 35. AAR:

When you’re headed over a cliff to ruin and destruction, do you give up, compromise, say “yes we can”, and help the driver find new ways to speed up the process, or do you say “no I won’t” and do all you can to stop it?

AAR

Nov 9, 2009 - 9:20 am 36. Paul -Indiana:

Let the Dems own this one.

Nov 9, 2009 - 9:25 am 37. jharp:

Paul -Indiana:

“Let the Dems own this one.”

Even though the GOP and conservatism has failed in every way imaginable, this I think they can pull off.

Anyone who is unaware that the Dems own this is beyond my comprehension.

Nov 9, 2009 - 10:00 am 38. twoninerkilo:

Fight the corrupt commie scum till the last drop of blood. Don’t give an inch; if you do the Polosis’, and Rieds’ will take us down the road to socialism at warp speed. Unfortunatly over the last fifty years the dhim SOBs already have us half way down the exit ramp. If we can’t get there with votes, there are more leathal means. I have no problem with that alternative either. BTW, ammo is back on the shelves in most places, I,ve been adding to my stockpile.

Nov 9, 2009 - 10:12 am 39. Steve:

If Democrats want to pass health care reform over the objections of the majority, let them. We can vote them out and repeal the legislation.

Nov 9, 2009 - 10:14 am 40. Dean:

The issue is not ‘why can’t we all work together as Americans’, the issue is what you believe to be true. If you believe that central direction is a rational and effective way to run an economy or, more commonly, that you can aquire some advantage for yourself from such intervention, then you may favor ‘big government’. If you believe that free people are able to create their own advantage through competition and mutaul agreement, then you are probably inclined to limit government. intervention.

Nov 9, 2009 - 10:36 am 41. Samson:

25. Chris in Toronto:

well stated.

there is no up side to compromising oneself. one is correct or one is not. there really is no middle ground on many of these issues.

it was the conservatives crossing the aisle that brought the USA to this unmitigated disaster. there is no appeasing a socialist.

democrats want unreasonable things and want everyone else to pay. Conservatives do not begrudge the democrats anything but do not think they should be forced to pay for what the dems want.

collectivism is historically a failure. but it always comes back.

Nov 9, 2009 - 10:36 am 42. stuart williamson:

The Republicans trying to get the Democrats to listen to them is like the Democrats trying to get the Ayatollahs to listen t them.

The more rational the Republicans’ efforts for open discourse and debate prior to vote, the more determined Comrade Cool and the running dogs of the MSM to stifle them.

This is not the brightest of postings.

Nov 9, 2009 - 10:42 am 43. Keri:

A gentleman added a post on Saturday that suggested that people go to http://www.Dearpolitician.org to write your politicians. Of course, he made it sound too-good-to-be-true, but I checked it out and found it to be a legit website that is pretty cool. The one thing that caught my attention is that they had a section called “Things Americans Should Know”. The interesting thing about this section is that it has the complete, US Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and Pledge of Allegiance all in audio format. They have the text version, but face it, who reads all of those documents. They actually have all of those documents professionally recorded. I listened to all of them Saturday, after hearing the news of more American soldiers getting killed, I felt I could at least listen to the documents they list their lives to protect. I recommend everyone take the time to visit http://www.dearpolitician.org and listen to the most important documents we are all trying to protect.

Nov 9, 2009 - 1:30 pm 44. whyyeseyec:

The republicans should be stonewalling everything coming form the dems but they are too stupid to think of that themselves. The dems have always been 2 steps ahead of the pubs on every issue. This is why we are in the current mess we`re in.

Only what the dems want is ever considered. The pubs want to be more like the dems. Not the other way around.

We heard for 6 months that the health care bill was dead in the House. So much for that rhetoric. Now we hear the bill is DOA in the Senate. Wanna bet? BHO and Hairy Reid will bribe whomever they need to bribe to get this monstrosity passed.

Time for war……

Nov 9, 2009 - 2:04 pm 45. ajacksonian:

In case it has been missed ‘bipartisanship’ has gotten us: Social Security rapidly going insolvent, Medicare going insolvent, FHA pushing bad lending policy and not having cash to cover that policy, Freddie & Fannie pushing bad loans out the door and re-packaging them as ’safe’ securities when they were anything but safe, Federal Reserve backing a horrific lending policy making an economic downturn worse not better, a post office always running in the red, Amtrack also running in the red perpetually, two-thirds if not more than three-quarters of all federal regulations coming into existence after 1972 to now, a Dept. of Education that hasn’t ‘fixed’ the problem of Poor Johnny not being able to read, a Dept. of Agriculture that now has overseas offices to ‘market’ products, a Dept of Energy that hasn’t been able to help the Nation after TWO energy crises…

Aside from that its all smiles and handshakes and ‘isn’t bipartisanship wonderful?’ articles for decades. Strange how all that ‘help’ and ‘bipartisanship’ is driving the Nation into losing the value of its currency due to the very institutions that were created to stop that.

How about a bit less ‘help’ from the government and getting it to figure out how to pay its bills, run on a lean budget and, since everyone is so happy to hand out trillions of dollars, offer lump sum payments on SSN to junk the system? You can have your hyperinflation now, or you can kill the economy in the long run…and since we have folks more than willing to do both, now would be a real good time to figure out that we can’t have government do all of this.

‘Bipartisanship’ is a road to ruin and political corruption run rampant.

500,000 in a district is a travesty, not representative democracy.

Putting those two together gets you an elite class that does what it feels like and to hell with the people and the Nation. If they actually acted responsibly they wouldn’t have continued these fetid government efforts that are corroding the basis of our economy. Instead they just kicked the can down the road, ensuring long term failure. I do not want more of the same, and that is exactly what we will get with ‘bipartisanship’. Force issues, make them break one way or another and let the people see the outcomes… and if we survive we will get change, just not the change the elites want. Force each and every vote, stall them, debate them ad infinitum, read out the bills in full, have a voice there to say ‘Nay’ during procedural calls… that is how the game is played. Stop up the system until it stalls out and crashes. Americans are good at picking up the pieces, our politicians are great at breaking things: we need more of the latter so we can get more of the former. So what if a government budget doesn’t get passed? Forcing votes just might get a leaner budget, not a bigger giveaway. Too bad that takes principle to stand on… not ‘bipartisanship’ or expediency.

Nov 9, 2009 - 2:09 pm 46. arthur:

the GOP would be smart to try to help govern and influence the conversation in a positive way. currently the GOP seems to only care about obstructing things that the public wants, health care, unemployment insurance, jobs. the GOP needs an idea, the only ides, of not helping people, of having the government do nothing is directly against what the majority of the public are looking for right now. the only idea we see of the GOP is anti-obama anti-democrat and pro-loony right wing wackos. the GOP has a shrinking base and it wont expand it by marketing, it must reconsider its ideas and bring them up to the 21st century, there needs to be a place in the GOP for diversity of ideas and reality.

Nov 9, 2009 - 2:17 pm 47. whyyeseyec:

Hugo Chavez is on Line 1 and Casto is on Line 2 for you Vivo….

Nov 9, 2009 - 2:29 pm 48. Graham:

21 Vivo

Was that response to Jacks question a joke? Sure looked like one.

Nov 9, 2009 - 2:39 pm 49. venividivici:

I’d rather slit my own throat than lift a finger to help the Left, since both amount to the same thing.

13. Numerian:

I’m with you. When I’m even around a Leftist, I react like Agent Smith did to humans in “The Matrix”. Can’t even stand the smell of them. As much as they hate me, I hate them about 10 times more.

Nov 9, 2009 - 3:19 pm 50. Dwight:

The “no-no-no, over my dead body” base which has chimed in here is not and never will be a majority in this country, but they are the base of the Republican Party. However, GWB has to run as a compassionate conservative to get elected.

It must be odd to have such strong feelings…and nowhere to go, but at least you can say that nothing that happens is ever your fault, because you can’t really make anything happen. It always take the center, a group of people many of you despise. So it goes.

Nov 9, 2009 - 3:30 pm 51. ic:

Should the GOP help the Dems take away from the American people the right to choose how to take care of their own health? Should the GOP help the Democrats to suppress dissent? Should the GOP help the Democrats to bankrupt the country in the name of unity? Should the GOP help the Democrats to pile debts on the future generations?

Ronald Reagan did not accept the premise that half of the world should be governed by tyrants. Neither should we accept the premise that the Democrats’ attack on American freedom is governance.

Nov 9, 2009 - 3:36 pm 52. Peter Buxton:

I tagged this on delicious.com with “stupidity.” Mr Moran, you are not allowed to exploit the so-called knowledge gap on Pajamas Media.

Mainstream media insists on talking down to the American people every day. They pass on “talking points” about politicians they dislike collated and distributed by the opposition. This includes mildly tricky knowledge about the inner workings of Congress, that Hill with 535 rocks, each with a pol under it.

Of course the Republicans tried to attach an anti-ACORN amendment to an unemployment bill. That’s how any minority party in Congress works, and has since the founding of the Republic. The methods have changed a bit since the New Deal and the ’60s “reforms” that broke party power and solidarity, but that’s how it’s done.

Your ignorance of these basic facts does not excuse your awful reporting. You are required to learn them, then report on them. That’s the inside knowledge Americans are truly starving for, dying of thirst in a the mainstream media’s lush, irrigated and above all *gated* garden.

yours, peter

Nov 9, 2009 - 3:49 pm 53. Mike, CO:

Rick,

I believe that the founders, through the constitution, required that public institutions and entitlements are only formed when only the government is capable of providing a service (e.g. national defense). When there is legislation that conflicts with this principle, such as Obamacare, it should be opposed.

Therefore opposition is not only a partisan issue, it is a constitutional issue. It may be easy to characterize conservative opposition using the constitution as a basis, but it is often the case that liberals cannot be convinced that there is an objective interpretation of the constitution. The contention then becomes an issue of liberal or conservative ideology…

I believe the the liberals must seek a constitutional amendment to enact the legislation they have proposed, so there is a more fundamental reason to oppose the legislation that liberals are proposing.

Nov 9, 2009 - 4:25 pm 54. Matt O:

Only the citizens of a nation are capable of determining and providing what that nation needs.

ajacksonian is exactly correct; look what we get with our 500,000 member districts. Writing 2000 page bills with price tags in the trillion dollar range in under a week and then passing them in days completely unread?

Should the GOP help the Democrats? If one party can do this much damage, imagine how much damage two parties could do.

Nov 9, 2009 - 5:22 pm 55. venividivici:

50

It must be odd to have such strong feelings…and nowhere to go, but at least you can say that nothing that happens is ever your fault, because you can’t really make anything happen. It always take the center, a group of people many of you despise. So it goes.

I put my energies into business and making money. I don’t even really care about politics and if it weren’t for the fact that the Left wants to tax me into oblivion to fund schemes that I think are retarded, I wouldn’t even bother reading the news. All I care about are the financial markets.

As for the center, I don’t despise them at all. Take one step left of center and all I have to say is “screw ‘em”.

Nov 9, 2009 - 5:35 pm 56. Now and Then:

The GOP has never had any interest in governing. Why start now?

Nov 9, 2009 - 6:02 pm 57. kochevnik:

The capitalists of this world seek to create a perfect ingrate: intelligent enough to produce or sell goods, or kill efficiently in foreign wars, yet stupid enough to consume stuff he doesn’t need, be satisfied with programs on TV, and be god-fearing and patriotic and very afraid to lose his job.

Well, such a creature’s IQ must be lowered sufficiently. This requires changing the political agenda in Washington. For example, public schools need to be sufficiently neglected and under-financed. This requires help of politicians. One true and tried method is alienation.

That’s why Americans are segmented and separated into groups and sub-groups, ethnic neighborhoods, economic class neighborhoods, so-called “mainstream” and “minorities, white males, black males, women, post-menopausal women, the elderly, the teens, the Latinos, the Asians, and on and on and on, onto neat little demographic bundles. This, BTW, helps erase individual identity, while at the same time individualism is promoted as a Great American Value.

No natural communities are allowed to form. Constant zombification by TV’s commercial messages, intellectual chewing gum from Hollywood, and the so-called “news”, courtesy of corporations who own it, all greatly help in elimination of any trace of group solidarity in the US. Egocentrism is re-christened as Individualism. Class solidarity – a Leninist term – is alive and well in the US…among the wealthiest.

So, divide and conquer at the microeconomic and micro-social scale is the Roman Empire lesson the capitalists and their agents, the Republican Party have learned and applied very well. No movement large enough to challenge the existing order is allowed to form, only those that support it (Christian Right, NRA, Rush Limbaugh listeners, Reagan Democrats, etc.). Why do you think the Dubya’s administration was so adamant about the extension of the eavesdropping bill? What a chance to gather compromising materials on the perceived enemies of the American Capitalism!

This has been happening since the mid-1960s when the capitalists thought that capitalism was under a mortal threat.

That’s why the Democrats will never sufficiently control the political and economic agenda in the US again – they’re not fascists at the core. They seek to collectivize the commons and build a national community with shared benefits and responsibilities.

But that would be completely antithetical to American Capitalism because one thing this would require is raising everyone’s IQ.

And if, by some magic, an average American’s IQ can be raised by, say, 10-25 points – this economy will simply collapse because much of it is based on artificially manufactured needs and wants supported by massive marketing and advertising budgets of corporations. And THAT cannot be permitted to happen!

Nov 10, 2009 - 3:45 am 58. vivo:

48. Graham:

“21 Vivo, Was that response to Jacks question a joke? Sure looked like one.”

Your conservative sense of humor is really odd . . .

Nov 10, 2009 - 4:55 am 59. venividivici:

56. Now and Then:

The GOP has never had any interest in governing. Why start now?

That’s because it believes in a self-governing citizenry. You know, that whole “civil society” thing that took millenia to develop because, if you knew anything about history, you’d know that “In the beginning, there was government” and it sucked, which is exactly why there was a need for civil, as opposed to political, society to develop. Otherwise, people were continually at people’s throats. Gee, kinda sounds like what’s going on now, as the Left continues to shrink the sphere of civil society.

Well, you know who wins that game? The people most willing to kill. Look it up.

Nov 10, 2009 - 5:21 am 60. Now and Then:

59. venividivici:

“That’s because (the GOP) believes in a self-governing citizenry.”

Then why ARE their Republicans?

Nov 10, 2009 - 7:56 am 61. Jettboy:

“Then why ARE their Republicans?”

Conservatives have been asking that question of themselves since George W. Bush’s second term. It was supposed to be as an opposition party, but its not even that anymore.

Nov 10, 2009 - 8:05 am 62. venividivici:

60

Then why ARE their Republicans?

Because there are some “public goods” that only government can provide. Doing those things efficiently and without corruption SHOULD be the goal of Republicans. For everything else, civil, rather than political, society should be the preferred method of achieving it. If everything becomes political (including “guilt”, “innocence” and “crime”), then society becomes indistinguishable from the “law of the jungle”.

Nov 10, 2009 - 1:14 pm 63. whatitsworth:

Moran lives to show “jumping the shark” isn’t a one-time deal with blogs. This is so utterly divorced from reality it doesn’t merit much response, but all together now, let’s do “bipartisan” entitlement reform:

D (and Morans): “We need the R leadership to help us with entitlement reform.”

R: “OK.”

D (without the RINO chorus): “You Republicans want old folks to eat dog food!”

It wouldn’t be that subtle, though.

After all of us watched the Dems undermine and demagogue the war effort, including Mr. Anti-Surge President Himself and his fellow left-wing liars and hypocrites, to answer the asinine headline question to this blog: it isn’t even possible. All Republicans can and should do is undermine this president and Congress at each and every turn and work overtime to see them washed to sea. It can and will be done.

Nov 10, 2009 - 1:31 pm 64. mannning:

Why are there Republicans? Donno.
Why are there Conservatives?

To oppose all of those politicos who would ruin the nation by raiding the common treasury, seemingly in the name of humanity, but actually to fill their own pockets and increase their own power over the public.

Nov 10, 2009 - 2:21 pm 65. Distraught:

I often wonder if it is possible to make a ’simple’ argument as to why government spending is not only less stimulating than private, but not financially productive at all. It seems that the programs are inherently designed to break even, thus can never, nor will they improve or generate any wealth, and also the government doesn’t pay income tax, or something like that (or does it and that’s the problem), i.e. its commerce is not ‘part’ of the economy. Probably not correct, yet my feeling is somehow that it is silliness and we should be able to put the idea behind us.

Also, even if one had an aversion to refusing to ‘help’ ‘govern’, I think we can all agree that opposing these disasters will be popular next election, while supporting them will not.

Nov 10, 2009 - 5:43 pm 66. Distraught:

The article is of course right on. Thanks Mr. Moran. We should not forget though that there is one issue we must pay utmost attention to. Often in weighing decisions I consider what I might regret most, and:

I wonder how many else would feel sick at night knowing we left that place overseas in a condition similar to that which led to an unspeakable atrocity here, and at such a cost, let alone find him whose name should not be renowned. I also wonder if anyone else finds it somewhat disgraceful to our fellow patriot citizens, our last line of defense who did not falter, that we have not built upon WTC nor the hallowed ground. That being said, I find voices like mine, without rifles, spurious. Maybe we should ask them?

Nov 11, 2009 - 12:04 am 67. Distraught:

You, out there. Do you not know we all fall short? If there is anything good in what I say it is surely by His grace alone. I ask you to now hear and judge messages, not the messenger, for ever more. The Way is great because of the message not the messenger.

Give the people something worthy of their sacrifice.

Nov 11, 2009 - 4:30 am 68. Jim Baker:

The problem with this idea is that once Boobily and his gang get what they want, there won’t be any fixing the mess and there won’t be any more elections anyway.

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:44 am 69. Distraught:

Sounds great but… every R vote moves it that much further left so not clear how that works; unless you are of my first post’s persuasion.

Nov 11, 2009 - 9:17 am 70. Distraught:

One of the problems is just the left flank, if you’ll forgive me. They start with something so far left that even if you get ‘compromises’, I mean… it’s the same thing he’s doing with the country. It’s a big sell job, that’s why it took so long. We have been jerked so far sideways he can meander back any old way he wants for 2012. Heck, maybe even make himself look like Reagan. One day people will wake up somewhere else, like me.

But look, the whole things a grab as you say, so ‘playing’ has to have the appropriate definition.

Nov 11, 2009 - 12:41 pm 71. Distraught:

This one is admittedly way out there and not practical – should not be seriously considered – but neither is much else: Every 4 years we spend upwards of 100 million dollars on an election, less in off years, and usually get screwed regardless. What if instead we printed somewhat mutable platforms on a ‘tree’, had plenty `o debates, and gave the rest to charity, or the ER’s. This industry produces no wealth, only ends up eating it (govt – and no, outcome is bad, see screwing, above).

One should scoff at the thought of no advertising… but, maybe if it’s worth saying at all, it can be said face 2 face. I for one am tired of seeing just how well a message can be prepped. I largely want to see if they have heart or not. Silly I know.

Nov 11, 2009 - 5:44 pm