Essays – Conservativism
Sarah Palin Endorses Ron Paul’s Libya Policy
It’s getting colder and colder in Hell these days.
Last week, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh endorsed Ron Paul’s plan to slash the federal budget by $1 trillion, eliminate 5 unconstitutional departments, and roll back federal spending to 2006 levels.
This week, GOP Frontrunner Sarah Palin is giving Ron Paul’s non-interventionist foreign policy a thumbs-up.
“You’ve got to give it to Ron Paul. Whether you agree with everything he says or not, at least he is one there in Congress trying to make our President stick to the law and understand that Congress does have a role to play in these foreign policy decisions that are made and Ron Paul, I think hit the nail on the head, when he came out and said Obama had better be careful when he interjects himself and our country in other nations’ business.” — Sarah Palin
I know there are some of you who won’t read this post on principle, because the name of GOP Frontrunner “Ron Paul” is in the headline.
I’d like to submit to you that unless you’ve made up your mind about GOP Frontrunner Ron Paul after reading about all his positions, and comparing them with the output of the current occupant of the White House, you’re just being manipulated by the Cocktail Party GOP and/or the government-controlled media.
Seriously. If you actually have a visceral emotional reaction to the name Ron Paul, ask yourself where that visceral reaction came from. If you’re afraid, it’s probably thanks to the government-controlled media and public school system, which never taught you critical thinking skills.
If you’re angry, you’re probably wearing a blue blazer and khaki pants, sitting next to your cucumber and mayo sandwich, waiting for that call from the Romney campaign to tell you when the next Cocktail Party is scheduled.
Journalists and editors overwhelmingly vote for Democrats. So, when you listen to “news” stories about GOP Frontrunner Ron Paul (or indeed, any other GOP candidate), it’s as though you’re letting the Democrat National Committee pick your candidate for you.
I can’t emphasize this enough.
When the Mainstream Media Democrat National Committee shoves Mittens Romneycare down my throat, and gives just 2% of its news coverage to GOP Frontrunner Ron Paul, I become even more interested in what Ron Paul has to say.
Especially when, despite the ongoing media blackout, Ron Paul is #3 in fundraising among GOP candidates (just $5 million behind Rick “I Heart Illegals” Perry), and has won or placed second in over a dozen straw polls of active grassroots republican voters, including the Big Three: CPAC, the Iowa Straw Poll, and the Values Voters Straw poll.
- Finishes 2nd in the New Hampshire Straw Poll
- Wins the CPAC Straw Poll
- Wins the Phoenix, Arizona Tea Party Straw Polls
- Wins the Republican Liberty Caucus of California Presidential Straw Poll
- Finishes 2nd among currently running candidates in the St. Anselm College Republicans Straw Poll
- Wins the New Orleans, Louisiana Republican Leadership Conference Straw Poll
- Wins the Clay County, Iowa Republican Party Straw Poll
- Finishes 2nd in the Iowa Straw Poll, by less than 1% of the vote
- Wins the New Hampshire Young Republicans Straw Poll
- Finishes 3 votes behind winner Herman Cain in the Georgia State GOP Straw Poll
- Wins the post-debate Cincinnati Tea Party Straw Poll
- Wins the California GOP Straw Poll
- Wins the Values Voter Straw Poll
- Wins the Los Angeles County Straw Poll
Yet the Mainstream Media Democrat National Committee continues to black out this story. Or when they do refer to GOP Frontrunner Ron Paul, they call him “unelectable,” which is an interesting adjective choice for someone who has been elected to his seat in Congress eleven times.
Hmmm. It’s almost as though the Mainstream Media Democrat National Committee doesn’t want people to know about GOP Frontrunner Ron Paul.
Why could that possibly be?
H/T Journalism.org/The Pew Research Center
Ron Paul Pro-Life Ad: Too Graphic?
This is the most profound “pro-life” candidate’s commercial I’ve ever seen, because (to my knowledge) it’s the only one that has ever been made by an OB/GYN.
Yes, I’m one of those people who is an anti-abortion yet pro-choice voter. As a libertarian, I’m pro-choice on pretty much every social issue–make your choice, and deal with the consequences. That’s all I ask. So though I doubt that I personally could have an abortion, I don’t think it’s my place to tell another woman what to do.
Yes, a human life is created at conception. That is a cold-hard-fact question of biology. I am less clear as to the nascency of the legal personhood. That is a subjective question of philosophy, ethics and (in many cases) religious beliefs.
This commercial from GOP Frontrunner Ron Paul puts this issue into heartbreakingly real-world terms. Some critics have said that it is too graphic. But I agree with Dr. Paul that we should be able to talk about this issue. I also agree with him that it should be dealt with at the state level, not the local federal level.
I like to think that civility is a characteristic that is shared by Republican and Libertarian voters (as opposed to the shriekers on the Left.) I like to believe that we can disagree without insulting each other. Can we have a respectful conversation about abortion in America? Is that even possible?
Democrat Westboro Hate Group Celebrates Steve Jobs’ Cancer Death By Tweeting From Their iPhones
I am not making this up.
The self-described “Westboro Baptist Church,” led by hardcore Democrat Fred Phelps, marked the tragic cancer death of Apple visionary Steve Jobs by tweeting about it from their iPhones. They plan to protest at his funeral.
Steve Jobs co-founded Apple Computer, co-founded Pixar, and led the development of the Mac, the iPhone, the iPod, the iPad, and revolutionized the computer industry, the music industry, the publishing industry, computer retailing, and industrial design. He created the technology that made it possible for the Westboro Hate Group to quickly and easily spew their insanity out to their deranged followers.
H/T WebProNews.com
As Kevin DuJan has reported, Westboro Hate Group leader Fred Phelps is a three-time Democrat candidate for Governor, and his family are major supporters of Al Gore.
The Westboro Hate Group is the same fringe outfit that shows up to protest at the funerals of fallen American servicemen and women.
Disgusting Democrat hypocrites.
Ron Paul, Herman Cain Trounce Mitt Romney and Rick Perry at Values Voters Summit. Media Reaction: Crickets
As a freelance journalist and public relations expert, I’m here to point out media bias so Hillbuzzers everywhere can learn to recognize it, and protect themselves from being made into Eeyores by manipulation by the government-controlled media.
If you are not an educated consumer of media coverage, you’re in danger of mistaking it for the truth, instead of opinion disguised as fact.
Today’s lesson comes courtesy the Values Voters Summit that took place over the weekend. This sixth-annual event, organized by the Family Research Council, includes training sessions for conservative activists; speeches by politicians who are (or are pretending to be) conservatives; and a presidential straw poll.
The Values Voters Summit is recognized by the government-controlled media as a leading indicator of conservative voter opinion, unless, of course, the media-annointed, hand-picked, “it’s their turn” candidates get their butts kicked in the straw poll. If anyone but this year’s media-declared candidates win, the event is “fixed.”
Here are the results:
Ron Paul – 37 percent
Herman Cain – 23 percent
Rick Santorum – 16 percent
Rick Perry – 8 percent
Michele Bachmann – 8 percent
Mitt Romney – 4 percent
Newt Gingrich – 3 percent
Undecided – 1 percent
Jon Huntsman – 0 percent
Yes, Jon “I Look Just Like Mitt” Huntsman lost to “Undecided.”
So, where’s the bias?
This story from ABC News gives us some great material to analyze.
The headline is, “Ron Paul Wins 2011 Values Voter Straw Poll, Herman Cain Takes Second Place.” So you might expect the story to be about Ron Paul and Herman Cain.
Well, you’d be half-right.
Remember, the Washington press corps votes 98% Democrat. They are essentially in the employ of the Obama Regime. They thing they’re “normal” and they think you–the patriotic, tax-paying, gun-owning, church-going, responsible Americans–are a reactionary, right-wing, bigoted raaaaaacist fanatics. You have to evaluate all government-controlled media coverage in that context.
The story is 572 words long. The first paragraph of 24 words is about Ron Paul:
The Texas congressman and presidential candidate who remains in the single digits in most national polls emerged as the choice of 37 percent of those who cast ballots at the annual Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. [bias emphasized]
But interestingly, the paragraph also subliminally tells you, the conservative voter, to ignore the results of this straw poll of conservatives, because Ron Paul “remains in the single digits in most national polls.” Which national polls? Of whom? Voters? Likely voters? Adults? Other members of the government-controlled media? Mittens Romney’s campaign staff? The Obama Regime? We’ll never know, because the ABC News reporter thinks we’re too stupid and gullible to ask.
Why is Ron Paul in single digits, when he gets consistently high rankings from Conservative watchdog groups like the National Taxpayers Union? Could it be because of biased coverage like this? Could it be because hand-picked “frontrunner” RINO candidates get hundreds of times more media coverage?
Single-digit poll results don’t stop the government-controlled media from telling you, the conservative voter, that Jon Huntsman is a “frontrunner.”
And single digit poll results don’t stop the government-controlled media from telling you, the conservative voter, in this same story that “Current GOP front-runner Mitt Romney…wound up near the bottom of the pack with 4 percent.”
How can a “journalist” write a sentence like that with a straight face?
How many more straw polls will Mittens Romneycare, Rick “I Heart Illegals” Perry and Jon “RINO” Hunstman have to lose before the government-controlled media stops putting the word “frontrunner” in front of their names? (It’s a trick question–they will never stop.)
In this 572-word story, which is ostensibly about Ron Paul winning the Values Voters Straw Poll, Ron Paul only gets 79 words of coverage, and two of those references are dismissive and negative.
Even though ABC news sent an intrepid reporter into the crowd to “take the temperature of the cultural conservative voters,” and more than one out of every three participants voted for Ron Paul, she apparently couldn’t locate a single Ron Paul voter to interview. Hmmm.
Herman Cain is the big winner in this story. He gets 196 words, all positive. And ABC News managed to hunt down and quote two Cain voters for the article.
With a third-place (16%) finish, you’d expect that the brain trust at ABC News would want to talk to or about Rick Santorum. Nope!
Instead, ABC news chose to boost Rick Perry, who gets 166 words of coverage (more than twice as much coverage as Ron Paul, the winner, and just slightly less than Herman Cain, the second-place finisher) despite earning an embarrassing 8% of the votes. All of Rick Perry’s coverage is positive.
So, conservative voters, here are the messages ABC News wants you to take away from this story:
- You’re stupid if you vote for Ron Paul. You should ignore him like we do!
You’re only slightly less stupid if you vote for Herman Cain.
Mitt Romney is the frontrunner. Because we say so.
Rick Perry is the serious candidate. Because we say so.
Here are a couple more illustrations of media bias around this news story:
First, a Google search engine results screen capture for the search phrase “Ron Paul Values Voters.” This search brings up TWENTY-SIX news stories in the first group of results, most of which don’t include the actual news–he WON! The most prominent story in the second group of results says that the event was “fixed.”
Click to Embiggen
A search on “Herman Cain Values Voters” brings up FOUR HUNDRED FORTY-ONE news stories in the first group of results.
Click to Embiggen
Big loser Mittens Romneycare, who only beat “Undecided” by 3%, scored ONE THOUSAND, NINE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-THREE news stories about this event. That’s seventeen times more news coverage than the winner. I didn’t read them all, but I assume that each contains the word “frontrunner.”
Is it any wonder that you don’t consider Herman Cain or Ron Paul as a “serious” candidate? Do you even know what their positions are? Or have you already let the government-controlled media make your decision for you?
Click to Embiggen
Every time you read a newspaper, you’re being manipulated. Every time you watch the TV news, you’re being manipulated. The story I’ve linked above contains several subliminal editorial comments designed to push you toward Obama-Regime-approved candidates Mittens Romneycare and Rick Gardisil Perry, and away from the two candidates who were the overwhelming choice of the conservative activists who paid to get in to the Values Voters Summit.
Your job is to research the candidates yourself, without the media filters. Learn to recognize that words like “frontrunner” are meant to brainwash you.
Get up off the sofa.
Put down the Pepsi.
Turn off the TV.
And do the legwork required to be an informed voter.
Steve Jobs, Rest In Peace – Anti-Capitalists, Bite My Ass
Steve Jobs, Rest in Peace
I’m crying as I note the passing of visionary Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Computer, co-founder of Pixar Studios, innovator of iTunes, the iPod, the iPad, and the co-inventor and inventor of over 200 U.S. patents.
He died an incredibly wealthy man, whose ideas…IDEAS!…created jobs for literally millions of people around the world. He changed the music industry. He changed the publishing industry. He changed the software industry. He changed the consumer electronics industry.
He made massively powerful technology available to normal people everywhere in the world. He made it easy to use. He made it fun. He made it beautiful.
Steve Jobs’ vision, passion, and burning desire to make Mac users happy made the entire world a better place.
In other words, Steve Jobs embodied everything these worthless Marxist losers gathered on Wall Street hate.
How many anti-Capitalist troglodites are tweeting “Down With Capitalism” from their iPhones tonight? How many of them are listening to Che Guevarra speeches on their iPods?
Tools.
http://youtu.be/OYecfV3ubP8
UPDATE: Here’s a transcript of the commercial:
Autocratic “Big Brother” figure on screen:
“Today we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives.
[Apple's hammer-thrower runs toward screen, pursued by storm troopers.]
Big Brother:
We have created for the first time in all history a garden of pure ideology, where each worker may bloom, secure from the pests of any contradictory true thoughts.
Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth.
We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause.
Our enemies shall talk themselves to death and we will bury them with their own confusion.
[Beautiful blonde athletic woman hurls hammer at the screen]
Big Brother:
We shall prevail!
[The screen explodes as the hammer hits it.]
Announcer:
On January 24th Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ’1984.’”
Don’t Surrender Your Freedom
“From the get-go” is a cute euphemism for “from the beginning,” but betrays a subtle brainwashing.
But what does “get-go” mean in regular life?
“Get-go” implies that the user of the phrase acknowledges, at least subconsciously, that they must secure permission from an authority figure over them before proceeding with what ever it is they want to do.
The liberal lexicon is built to double-speak us into an altered mental state where we are open to suggestion, persuasion, that we should conform to their mindset.
Political Correctness is contrary to our Constitutional Right to Free Speech, but being Politically Incorrect is a sin akin to racism. The left is adept at using words, and words have real and spiritual power, to constrain and conflict their opponents.
We are all born (or naturalized) free citizens of the United States of America, the greatest country on earth. Our President Monroe put forward in December 2, 1823, the Monroe Doctrine, which stated that further efforts by European countries to colonize land or interfere with states in the Americas would be viewed as acts of aggression requiring U.S. intervention. Besides our own Declaration of Independence, it is the most concrete expression and defense of free will and self-determinacy.
In a “Newt-shell,” The Monroe Doctrine said that all countries in Latin America were free to choose their own destiny and map their own future, without European meddling, or the Americans would spend blood and treasure to protect those rights. “Self determinacy” is at the heart of American Freedom. “Go where you want to go, do what you want to do, with whoever you want to do it with” is the version that The Mamas and Papas sang in the hippiest of times. Don’t let anyone put chains on you!
So why am I concerned with the silly saying “from the get go?” It is symptomatic of a larger problem.
The enemies of freedom are not so stupid to try and take our freedom(s) in a big, bold action. It is more effective to cook the American voter like the slowly boiled frog. Unexamined sayings like “from the get-go” are a symptom of the slow creep of authoritarianism, socialism and Marxism into our daily American lives.
Emboldened by the 2008 (D) sweep led by the as-yet-unrevealed Obama (who is not a Muslim), the (D) party rammed Obamacare down America’s throat in the dead of night with very few witnesses on the floor of Congress, and then signed it into law in a tiny White House ceremony. That bold but covert move sparked the TEA Party and the voter revolt that led to a (D) rout in 2010.
The (D) Party learns from its mistakes, and won’t likely repeat their over-step that is Obamacare. Therefore, we are back to the chess game of pawn warfare, where major victories are set up by strategic deployment of pawns taking very little steps.
For example, why do we let pundits tell us how to think? I’m willing to listen (or read) their opinion, but only I decide if I will take their suggested course of action.
For decades, the Liberals accused conservatives of being mind-numbed robots controlled by Rush Limbaugh. I’m happy to report that it is the listeners to NPR, PBS, MSLSD, et cetera that behave with mind-numbed precision, parroting their non-factual talking points to which fact-checkers award high Pinocchio scores.
When someone tries to control our behavior with an accusation of raaaacism, we must immediately call them on it and tell them to prove their accusation. If they refuse, then we need to tell them that in America, we are innocent until proven guilty. Without proof, their accusation is a baseless lie, and we should, a la Alinsky, ridicule them into oblivion, right there on the spot.
If someone tries a Politically Correct constraint on our free speech, we need to call them on it, and denounce their anti-American ways. Sure, we need rhino (not RINO) hide to deal with the blistering attacks of the left, but we can no longer afford to give ground in the battle for America’s destiny.
Already, 47% of America is on the government handout program, while only 53% are working and paying taxes. With the latest Obama and (D) debacle, many of those working people are now unemployed. I certainly hope that the recently unemployed do not give up and surrender to governmental control.
Let us heed the warning of Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor. His observation about the fall of the Athenian Republic is just as apt today, when applied to the American Republic–whom many insist on calling a democracy:
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.”
We cannot allow America, the world’s last best hope for freedom, to vanish in the chaos of voters pushing (D) politicians to empty and gut America. Freedom is very precious. We dare not surrender even a molecule of it.
We must be ever vigilant that every time we are asked to surrender even one iota of our freedom, we must strenuously reject it. Even when it comes to figures of speech.
Cocktail Party Moderation Equals Death
In this election, MODERATION EQUALS DEATH.
The GOP nominee will be the next president of the United States.
Period.
This means that the GOP nominee has to care less about re-election than he or she cares about killing Obamacare.
The GOP nominee has to care less about pleasing the Lamestream Media than they care about gutting the tax code.
The GOP nominee has to care less about “reaching across the aisle” than they care about killing unconstitutional federal departments and programs and sending them to the the States, to local government, or the People (or oblivion).
The GOP nominee has to care less about being called a RAAAAACIST by race pimps like Al Sharpton than they care about killing in-state tuition, free healthcare, free housing, welfare, and other taxpayer handouts to illegal aliens.
The GOP nominee has to care less about pleasing the shrieking socialists in the government employee unions than they care about killing the Department of Education.
The GOP nominee has to care less about pandering to the AARP than they care about ending the National Debt.
Nominating anyone who isn’t serious about doing anything and everything it takes to save this Republic, will mean the end of America as we know it.
Anyone who cares more about being re-elected, being liked by the LSM, sucking up to the NEA, pandering to La Raza, throwing sops to seniors, and being the perfect cucumber-and-mayo-on-white-bread, inoffensive, go-along-to-get-along, moderate, kumbaya, Cocktail Party Establishment GOP candidate, doesn’t deserve to be president.
As Michelle Bachmann said, conservatives and libertarians are sick of hearing that we have to settle for a moderate.
Settling for an “electable” moderate got us Bob Dole.
Settling got us John McCain.
This year, moderation is the difference between careening off the cliff at 60 miles an hour versus 80 miles an hour.
A moderate will not keep us from going over the cliff.
A moderate–no matter how slick he is on TV, or how “electable” the LSM says he is, how perfect his hair is, or how “presidential” he looks–is fundamentally incapable of making the piss-everyone-off decisions that are necessary to save this country.
How I Will Always Remember George W. Bush
I’m a libertarian, so I’ve always had plenty of policy differences with George W. Bush. But no matter his big-spending failings, I have never for a moment doubted that George W. Bush and his luminous wife Laura love the United States of America with their whole hearts and souls.
This news story encapsulates everything that was right about President George W. Bush, and everything that is wrong with the current Narcissist-In-Chief.
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. This is that picture:
George W. Bush hugs Ashley Faulkner. (Photo by Lynn Faulkner via the Cincinnati Enquirer)
As reported in the Cincinnati Enquirer on May 6, 2004,
“In a moment largely unnoticed by the throngs of people in Lebanon waiting for autographs from the president of the United States, George W. Bush stopped to hold a teenager’s head close to his heart.
Lynn Faulkner, his daughter, Ashley, and their neighbor, Linda Prince, eagerly waited to shake the president’s hand Tuesday at the Golden Lamb Inn. He worked the line at a steady campaign pace, smiling, nodding and signing autographs until Prince spoke: “This girl lost her mom in the World Trade Center on 9-11.”
Bush stopped and turned back. “He changed from being the leader of the free world to being a father, a husband and a man,” Faulkner said. “He looked right at her and said, ‘How are you doing?’ He reached out with his hand and pulled her into his chest.”
Faulkner snapped one frame with his camera. [...]
“The way he was holding me, with my head against his chest, it felt like he was trying to protect me,” Ashley said. “I thought, ‘Here is the most powerful guy in the world, and he wants to make sure I’m safe.’ I definitely had a couple of tears in my eyes, which is pretty unusual for me.”
“I’m a pretty cynical and jaded guy at this point in my life,” Faulkner said of the moment with the president. “But this was the real deal. I was really impressed. It was genuine and from the heart.”"
Thank you, Mr. President, for your concern, compassion and human decency.
The Phase Change Toward Ron Paul and Tea Party Principles: Why An Establishment Republican Can’t Win In 2012
One of the things I enjoy most about writing for Hillbuzz is watching the uptick in hate mail that my Ron-Paul-oriented posts generate. Here at Buzzquarters, we consider that a sign that we’re doing something right, since such a huge percentage of the manufactured outrage we receive is sent in by paid operatives and concern trolls.
From Ron Paul: The Founding Father in Esquire Magazine, April 2011
I enjoy knowing that we’re helping to deplete a secret “dirty tricks” campaign slush fund in the basement of the White House or the Romney Campaign Headquarters. And even more fun is knowing that most Hillbuzzers are sophisticated enough (by now) to be able to spot concern trolls and paid operatives from a mile away, so those slush fund dollars are going right down the toilet.
This post should generate a lot of billings to those slush funds.
I don’t enjoy linking to HuffPo, but an opinion piece there today is so outstanding and insightful that I couldn’t resist. It was written by a UK native, Robin Koerner, who is in a unique position to comment on U.S. politics–he runs a website called WatchingAmerica.com, which gathers and translates into English foreign news stories about America.
Side note, my favorite piece on WatchingAmerica.com today is an article from Austria’s Der Standard, About Weak Leadership, which includes a gem you will never see in America’s “mainstream” media:
Two-and-a-half years after his election, Barack Obama, the first African-American president in the history of the United States, is in danger of becoming a one-term president, a failure who has largely lost the support of the urban liberals, workers, black and Hispanic Americans, environmentalists and youth of the 2008 election through his hesitation and wavering. The 50-year-old Obama is no longer the shining light for the start of a new age, but rather a politician, who, through his zigzag course and sellouts in economic, finance and social policy, has deeply disappointed the (admittedly inflated) expectations of his supporters.
So, apparently the Hopeychange has worn off in Europe, too.
Anyway, Mr. Koerner writes in the Huffington Post four words that strike terror into the hearts of both the Cocktail Party GOP and Obama Regime: Ron Paul Can Win.
And better than anyone else so far (including me) Koener has, I believe, correctly identified the political, historic and cultural forces that are coming together to make this presidential campaign unlike anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes. It explains the rise of the Tea Party movement (fueled originally by Ron Paul supporters). It also explains the shrinking ranks of both “major” parties. Koener writes,
One has to reach back a good way in American history for a time of such rapidly rising sentiment that not only are our leaders unable even to think of real solutions to the problems of greatest concern (rather than just making expedient changes at the margin), but also that the prevailing political and economic system is structurally incapable of delivering any long-term solutions in its current form.
The sheer range and interconnectedness of the problems that the nation faces are such that any permanent solution to any one of them will require profound systemic change that will necessarily upset many economic, political and cultural equilibria. And that is nothing more than a definition of a national phase change.
The average American may not know what is to be done, but she can sense when the system has exhausted all its possibilities. At that point, not only does the phase change become reasonable; it becomes desirable — even if what lies on the other side cannot be known.
Koerner also correctly identifies the spine-cracking contortions the mainstream media must put itself through to ignore Ron Paul’s ascendancy in this campaign cycle, brilliantly encapsulated in this John Stewart bit on The Daily Show: Ron Paul and the “Top Tier”.
“If it is true that the studied neglect of data to hold tight to a paradigm is the best evidence that the paradigm is about to collapse,” says Koerner, “then the massive and highly subjective neglect of all things Paulian is specific evidence that the country is moving in Paul’s direction.”
And the LSM has had plenty of practice ignoring this impending paradigm shift–though it wasn’t just Ron Paul. They had the Tea Party movement on “ignore” for most of 2008. Finally, when the Tea Party movement became “worthy” of media attention in about 2009, it was only so the homeschoolers, Constitutionalists, religious people, veterans, entrepreneurs, retirees, patriots and other “undesirables” who make up the Tea Party movement could be labeled “extremists” and “RAAAAACISTS.”
Herman Cain political cartoon by Don Surber, The Daily Mail
And yet, Koerner continues,
…on all the metrics that a year ago everyone accepted as useful indicators of political standing, Ron Paul is not just a front-runner but a strong one.
First, and most directly, he does extremely well in polls. The organization of his grassroots support is not just excellent; it is remarkable, by historic and global measures. His ability to raise money from actual voters is second to none. His appeal to independents and swing voters is an order of magnitude greater than that of his competitors. Secondarily, he has more support from military personnel than all other candidates put together, if measured by donations; he has the most consistent voting record; he has the magical quality of not coming off as a politician; he oozes integrity and authenticity, and, as far as we know, he has a personal life and marriage that reflects deep stability and commitment.
Two years later, the economy is far, far worse than anyone in Washington, DC will admit. A new CNN poll reveals that only 34% of Americans surveyed approve of how Obama is handling the economy. (I suspect they all work for the government.) Not surprisingly, most Democrats (68%) approve, and most Republicans (91%) disapprove–but a striking 71% of Independents think Obama is a loser on economic issues.
And yet, our Messiah in Chief and his wife Michelle Antoinette felt comfortable taking separate taxpayer-funded jets to a lavish $5 MILLION vacation to the playground of the rich and famous.
The disconnect between the “reality” of Washington, DC, where yesterday’s biggest story was the president’s attempt to upstage the long-scheduled GOP debate with his latest retread big-government “jobs plan,” and what the rest of the country is going through, couldn’t be more obvious, or less reported in the LSM.
Tea Party sign: H/T OregonCatalyst.com
Since January of 2009, the Obama Regime has partied its way through the Treasury, buying itself lavish gifts, luxury vehicles, vacations in elite locales, gourmet meals; creating countless kickback programs for political buddies; subsidizing a permanent unemployed class and pissing away our childrens’ and grandchildrens’ futures.
Real people are suffering, every single day, in this country. Millions of people can’t even read this post today because they haven’t had electricity since Saturday, thanks to Hurricane Irene. By now, all the perishable food they owned is garbage. Their homes are gone; their clothes, their cars, their family photos, their keepsakes; and in some cases, their pets or loved ones. Their jobs may be gone, along with their life savings, if they didn’t have flood insurance.
And because the Federal government has borrowed and spent like drunken, dissipated, self-hating, irresponsible sailors since Obama was elected, there is no money to help these people. None.
When Americans need help here in America, there’s no one left to help us.
Because we have troops deployed in 140 foreign countries, our own borders are wide open to illegal aliens, drug gangs and Islamic terrorists.
Our infrastructure is crumbling…but we’re borrowing money from China to build bridges in Afghanistan.
The citizens of Vermont who have been cut off by flood waters are desperate for food, but have to wait for help from Illinois National Guard units because the Vermont National Guard’s entire helicopter fleet is deployed on a mission in Iraq.
We are $14 TRILLION in debt and what do we have to show for it?
Literally hundreds of thousands of brave Americans have given their lives over the past two and a half centuries to secure our freedom, and what do we have to show for it?
It is facts like these that are fueling the deep angst among the people who built America and make it work. It’s fueling nostalgia for a time in our lives when there were more jobs than people looking for work. When the United States was an unapologetic superpower that had just broken the Soviet Union, then the greatest threat to the security of the world. When we had presidents one could disagree with on policy–but whose patriotism and belief in the American Dream was unquestioned. When parents truly believed that their children would be more successful, healthier, and lead better lives than they did.
And whether the LSM and establishment politicians want to acknowledge it or not, it is this gap between today’s reality and the America so many of us remember that is going to determine who wins in November, and whether or not this country survives. Says Koerner,
To believe that Ron Paul’s victory is a long shot in spite of all standard indicators that directly contradict this claim is to throw out all norms with which we follow our nation’s politics — and that is a huge thing to do. The only way it can be done honestly is to present another set of contradictory reasons or metrics that are collectively more powerful than all those that you are rejecting. I am yet to find them….Of course, none of this means that Paul will definitely win. But it does mean that a bet against him by a politician is foolhardy and by a journalist is dishonest.
An ordinary, inoffensive, cucumber and mayo Republican has no chance. Because in their hearts, no one believes an ordinary Republican will have the guts to ruthlessly excise the cancerous tumor that is the Obama Regime, and then go after over 75 years of unconstitutional big-government malignancy that have metastasized into every facet of our lives.
This is not a year in which an ordinary politician can win. It’s not a year in which we can afford four more years of politics as usual.
My Love/Hate Relationship with The Glee Project: I Love Them, They Hate Me (and You)
Are you a conservative? Have a Slushee! (H/T LA Weekly)
I spent high school escaping from my reality as a pimply, socially awkward, genius IQ teacher’s pet by hanging out on the Island of Misfit Toys (a.k.a. Drama Club.) We didn’t have a Glee Club, so the talented nerds at my small high school in semi-rural Ohio were distributed between Drama Club and Marching Band. (I think I remember hearing rumors about a “Show Choir,” but they must have spent all their time on the road, because I don’t remember ever hearing them.)
Anyway. The point is that I completely “get” Glee, and its farm team, The Glee Project. Like the band kids and drama geeks, Gleeks feel a soul-level connection with other people who biologically need create art as much as they need to breathe. Glee also “gets” the plight of any high school student who was not one of the cool jocks, not one of the cheerleaders who dated the cool jocks, or a member of the Homecoming Court (redundancy alert!) “Glee,” and the feeling of camaraderie you get when you create art as part of a group, is the feeling we all wanted to escape to.
